Google Cloud hopes to improve CX and adds UJET capabilities

In recent years, consumer preferences have changed fundamentally.

As evidenced by numerous surveys and reports, today’s consumers would typically prefer to work with a company that has a decent product and offers strong, personalized customer service than a company that offers a great product and less-than-stellar customer service .

COVID in particular has revealed gaps in customer service, and businesses and brands have had to adapt quickly to ever-changing landscapes — in whatever channel or format their customers prefer.

This has led to massive growth and interest in Contact Center-as-a-Service (CCaaS) and Smart Contact Centers.

“Customer service is becoming the spearhead,” said Vasili Triant, COO of UJET., a CCaaS provider that has partnered with Google Cloud to power its contact center platform and services.

According to Market Research Future, the cloud-based contact center market will reach $45.5 billion by 2030, at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of nearly 25%. And the CCaaS market, valued at $2.23 billion in 2020, will grow at a CAGR of nearly 18% through 2030.

Companies like ChaseData, Alvaria, Avaya, Genesys, Aircall, RingCentral, and Five9 are all vying for a piece of this growing pie. Cisco offers its Webex Contact Center, while Amazon Connect is used by Intuit, UK grocery chain Morrisons and the Rhode Island Department of Employment and Training. Google recently unveiled its Contact Center AI (CCAI) suite and is now using UJET to power it.

For its part, Microsoft presented its new CCaaS tool Dynamics 365 Customer Service in November 2021. The data-driven, AI-supported tool uses Microsoft Azure and is embedded in Microsoft Teams. Power Virtual Agents are used in interactive voice overs and as chatbots for SMS, live chat and social messaging channels, and the platform offers AI-based routing, real-time transcription, live sentiment analysis, recommendations and transcript translation.

With traditional contact centers, “it’s difficult to ensure a consistent, personalized experience across all channels,” Jeff Comstock, vice president for Dynamics 365 Customer Service, said in a press release. “Multiple tools and separate data silos prevent agents from having a complete view of the customer journey.”

A clear statement from Google Cloud

In the case of Google Cloud, new UJET capabilities allow customers to consolidate their tech stack with a tool managed, deployed and supported by Google Cloud and running on its platform, Triant explained.

The out-of-the-box platform integrates with CRM (customer relationship management) tools and leverages AI, cloud scalability, and multi-experience capabilities. It is embedded in Mobile/Web Software Developer Kits (SDKs) that are iOS and Android compatible, as well as automated scheduling, on-time monitoring, and employee scheduling via Workforce Optimization integration. Visual Interactive Voice Response (IVR) offers customers self-service via web or mobile interfaces.

Google Cloud touts the platform’s ability to manage multiple channels without having to switch between voice, SMS, and chat, as well as the ability to predict customer needs and appropriately route calls via AI based on historical CRM data and real-time interactions. Agents receive views of customers in individual workspaces with real-time AI intelligence, agent call controls, and transcription.

UJET SDK features include channel blending, photo and video sharing, and biometric authentication. Triant explained that these tools can “grab” geolocation data and other identifiers to authenticate customers. Tickets are brought to agents so they understand who the customer is and where they’ve been, and auto-dispatch tickets are created and distributed when interactions are complete.

According to Yariv Adan, Director of Product Management for Cloud Conversational AI at Google Cloud, the platform brings together support, sales, and marketing data with the goal of delivering a more engaging, personalized, and flexible experience. The goal is to eliminate “pain points” caused by data fragmentation and “rigid” customer experience flows.

“Customer expectations are rising at levels that are surpassing legacy contact center infrastructure solutions,” said Adan. “The value of using AI to improve the customer experience and scale a contact center’s interactions is very clear at this point.”

An evolutionary call

The ultimate goal for any business should not just be identifying customer needs and solving customer problems, but better engaging customers, Triant said. “Because it’s not like that When You have problems, it is When They have problems,” he said.

As consumer demand for self-service and digital engagement continues to rise, companies that invest in a consolidated infrastructure for AI and customer experiences will only benefit, he noted.

Integrating AI into customer interactions and unifying sales, marketing, and customer service data enables more personalized and consistent customer experiences, whether through virtual agents, human agents, or a combination of both.

Google Cloud CCaaS customers have seen cost savings, reduced call volume, and increased agent efficiency, according to Adan. For example, Marks & Spencer reduced in-store call volume by 50% and The Home Depot improved call control by 185%.

“This allowed them to focus on providing the best possible experience for their customers,” Adan said. In return, “we remain focused on enabling our customers to deliver compelling experiences to their customers in a new post-pandemic world.”

Triant also emphasized the developing landscape. The contact center typically consisted of “many third-party components that were brought together,” he said. But that is increasingly shifting to more integrated, streamlined solutions.

The partnership between UJET and Google Cloud “shows the intention of big brands to offer more complete solutions compared to toolkits,” he said. “That’s where the industry goes”