Businesses that thrive make it a point to ensure that their product surpasses their competitors’ product. And in modern business, customer service is not considered in isolation. It has, in effect, become part and parcel of the product being sold. That is why a customer’s journey does not end with the purchase; it only transitions to another phase: after-sales service. Providing top-notch customer service is key to creating and retaining a raving customer base. Enter AWS Connect!
This article explains AWS Connect, its omnichannel business strategy, and how AWS Connect works. It also highlights the salient features of AWS Connect, which make it a much sought-after contact servicing platform.
Let’s start!
What is AWS Connect?
AWS Connect is Amazon’s omnichannel cloud contact servicing platform. It is an easy-to-use cloud-based customer service solution that aims to provide personalized customer experiences. It began as a simple add-on for Amazon’s customer service machine. However, the tool is now available for whoever wants to use it.
So, what is omnichannel, and how does AWS Connect work?
What is Omnichannel?
Omnichannel is a multichannel business strategy that aims to offer consistent and seamless customer experiences. It is a comprehensive approach to providing customers with similar experiences across multiple platforms or channels.
A company that offers you customer support via live chat, social media, email, and the phone uses an omnichannel customer service model. It is tapping into its customer’s journey through multiple touchpoints. Omnichannel approaches are usually employed by the marketing and sales departments.
But please note that omnichannel is similar to multichannel but there are significant differences. People often confuse the two. A multichannel marketing approach uses many different channels to connect with the end user. However, these contact centers are not integrated with each other, unlike omnichannel.
This is the major difference between the two approaches.
How does AWS Connect Work?
AWS Connect operates through a single User Interface (UI) to create chat or voice interactions. This UI can handle analytical tasks, queueing, and contact routing activities across multiple channels. Moreover, you can use all the features of Amazon Connect using one Contact Control Panel (CCP). Your agents can receive and transfer their service calls here.
In addition, managers can use the interface to prioritize and assign tasks and automate jobs. Also, users can access real-time data, historical analysis, and customer profiles on the control panel. AWS Connect combines data from multiple applications to create unified profiles in one place, thus allowing you to offer customized experiences.
So, what makes AWS Connect the ultimate omnichannel customer service solution? Its top-notch features!
Let’s look at some of these.
Features of AWS Connect
1. Telephony
With Amazon Connect, you do not need to manage multiple telephony vendors. Amazon does this for you by offering a worldwide network of telephony vendors for your use! Telephony services include toll-free numbers in over twenty countries worldwide and direct inward dial (DID).
Moreover, it is a telephony-as-a-service model that allows for scalable monitoring from telephony experts. And most importantly, you only pay for what you use! No monthly fees or charges. Isn’t that what everyone wants?
2. Omnichannel Outbound Campaigns
With Amazon Connect, you can run outbound campaigns at scale and reach out to millions of customers every day. Whether for marketing promotions, billing reminders, or delivering services, the AWS Connect admin console makes it a walkover for your team. You don’t even need any third-party integrations to reach the scale you want to operate at.
3. Web & Mobile Chat
Amazon Connect comes natively integrated with Amazon Lex, another AWS product. It is used for building conversational interfaces using text and voice. Therefore, you don’t need to code to create chatbots possessing Natural Language Processing (NLP) capability. Moreover, all the chats on AWS Connect are encrypted and secure.
It is vital for modern companies to use secure tech platforms, as cybersecurity threats are evolving and increasing.
4. Contact Center Automation
One of the best features of AWS Connect is the automation of contact center processes. It offers intelligent automation and self-service tools like automated customer voice authentication and interactive voice response (IVR). And as mentioned earlier, it also offers natural language chatbots.
Most importantly, AWS Connect prioritizes providing a seamless experience to all stakeholders – agents, managers, and customers. It uses skills-based routing to connect your customer with an agent most likely to resolve the customer’s issue. Before such routing, AWS Connect identifies the customer’s problem and needs and then accordingly assigns the customer to a suitable agent.
5. Agent Application
This Connect’s Agent Application combines all the AWS Connect features into a single, easy-to-use application that helps your agents become more efficient. It reduces agent time performing similar, repetitive tasks.
Moreover, it brings together the Contact Control Panel (CCP) and Connects agent capabilities like customer information, task management, and knowledge assistance into a single UI.
In other words, AWS Connect’s Agent applications empower your agents with efficient workflows and greater productivity.
6. Unified Customer Profiles
The Customer Profiles feature of this combines information from various applications into a single customer profile. This helps the agents enhance customer experience by automating interactions. Customer Profiles also comes with built-in connectors for third-party applications like Salesforce and Marketo, which allow you to aggregate customer data.
7. Agent Assistance with Machine Learning
AWS Connect Wisdom employs machine learning to help agents find relevant information to solve customer problems in real time. Knowledge repositories are linked with built-in connectors for third-party applications like ServiceNow to aid the agents. Moreover, Wisdom uses ML-powered speech analytics in Contact Lens to automatically identify customer issues during calls and make appropriate recommendations to the agents.
Conclusion
We have only scratched the surface of AWS Connect’s features in this article. It offers so much more! If yours is a company that wants to double down on enhancing customer service, you need not look beyond AWS Connect. It’s your one-stop solution to saving and making more money via better customer support!
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If you want any help using AWS Connect, contact us at [email protected].