“You have to know your business before you engage the provider,” said Bourseau. “The provider will know the technology and best practices, but you also need to know what you must provide for your customers and define the level of experience you want to provide the callers. Enterprise leaders should also take a direct approach by calling their own support numbers and directly observing the customer experience. This can really open your eyes!” Understanding the customer experience and related objectives is, therefore the crucial first step. You’ll want to conduct that process with mindfulness. While your technology selection is not as “final” in the cloud as it would be with on-premises systems, you will sign a service contract for a specified you understand what you want to provide your customers, and then ensure the solution you choose meets those needs. “While you will want your system to accommodate all the popular modes of communication, voice is still king” - Andy Dignan (Five9) “While you will want your system to accommodate all the popular modes of communication, voice is still king,” said Five9’s Dignan. “You need a strong voice platform with high quality of service, first and foremost. Then you need to look at all the other communications channels with which you want to interact with your customer, and you need to make sure that the back end integrates to your reporting platform and to your CRM platform in order to maximize the contact center agent’s visibility into the needs of the customer journey. Once this aspect is resolved, consider additional augmentations such purchasers must analyze the specific functionalities that are most critical to their needs, verticals, and business models.” In addition, ascertain a solution that can quickly and easily scale up or scale down, commensurate with the changing needs of your business. Approach this capability for both the number of participating contact center agents and any additional features, tools, and service platforms you may add later. If your company has an international presence, also consider data sovereignty requirements, long haul voice quality, and multi-lingual capabilities. Your Trusted Advisor is a crucial enabler to help you select and implement the solution that is most appropriate for your business today (and in the future). Copyright © 2021 AVANT Communications, Inc. AVANT | CCaaS 6-12 Report | 21