How to pick the right CCaaS vendor

Contact Center as a Service (CCaaS) platforms deliver new customer service capabilities, improving both efficiency and the customer experience. In a fast-moving market, you don’t want to become locked into a provider that falls short of your expectations. To reap the full benefits, you therefore need to choose the best CCaaS vendor to capitalize on the advantages offered.

How can you achieve this? Whilst every company is different, ensure that your chosen vendor delivers in these six key areas:

1. Provides a full range of capabilities

Look for a partner that provides a fully featured contact center solution via CCaaS. As well as core functionality, ensure they offer the additional modules you need such as call & screen recording and quality management. Verify that they are innovating and harnessing the latest technologies, to create new solutions, such as AI-enhanced agent evaluation. While these may not be on your immediate roadmap, knowing they are available adds to peace of mind. It means you won’t need to look for other vendors further down the line.

2. Has relevant experience working with similar organizations

As with any technology, work with a partner that knows what they are doing. Your CCaaS provider should be able to demonstrate successful implementations at similar businesses to yours. Ask to speak to existing customers and get their feedback. Even better, visit other contact centers that have worked with the vendor and see the technology in action.

3. Enables you to grow at your pace

Companies often contemplate switching to CCaaS at some point, such as when existing software contracts expire. Be wary of vendors that expect you to shift everything to the cloud, all at once. Instead, work with companies that give you choice over your CCaaS roadmap. Their system should work well whether it’s all in the cloud or a hybrid blend with on-premise solutions. Also, there are multiple ways of hosting CCaaS, including private or hybrid clouds. Again, ensure your provider supports these.

4. Integrates with existing business systems

To deliver full value, your CCaaS platform must integrate with your complete technology and telecoms stack. Often these integrations and processes are bespoke and have developed over time. This can make the thought of migrating to the cloud daunting. Therefore, pick a vendor that has the right experience to help you integrate your solutions seamlessly. Look for companies that offer pre-built connectors to common solutions, backed up with well-documented APIs that enable rapid integration with other systems.

5. Has close partnerships with key vendors

Your CCaaS platform has to get the best from all your technology infrastructure. Your chosen vendor should therefore be able to show they have close partnerships and official accreditation from other software companies and telecoms solution providers. This maximizes the benefits of integrations and ensures that they will work seamlessly together, now and in the future. On the infrastructure side, check who is providing the cloud capabilities that underpin the vendor’s CCaaS. Look for a provider that you trust. They need to demonstrate the highest standards of security, disaster recovery, data protection and regulatory compliance.

6. Delivers on your future needs

In today’s evolving landscape, contact center requirements can change quickly. For example, few people predicted the rapid impact that AI would have on customer service. That means your CCaaS provider should focus on innovation and be able to demonstrate that they understand and are working with the latest technology. They should be able to provide a clear roadmap of up-and-coming releases and take on board your requirements to include in their future strategy going forward.

Your CCaaS platform is central to your customer service success. If it fails to deliver, your company’s reputation and revenues will suffer. That means you need to pick a partner that has the right technology, skills, experience, and understanding. Only then will your CCaaS investment bear fruit, and help you delight your customers, now and in the future.