Delivering next level customer and employee satisfaction with unified customer experience platforms

Companies seeking to improve customer service are moving toward cloud communication systems that combine unified communications as a service (UCaaS) and contact center as a service (CCaaS). The objective of these solutions is to promote seamless collaboration among employees and efficient customer interactions across an organization. 

UCaaS is focused on employees, delivering telephony, messaging, and meeting services to staffers. CCaaS delivers customer interactions through voice, chat, email, and social media channels. Superior unified customer experience solutions can deliver messaging across as many as 20 digital channels.

By combining these two services, unified customer experience aims to eliminate the silos between contact center agents and other staff and to enhance communication and collaboration experience for both internal and external stakeholders. But it’s not a replacement for UCaaS or CCaaS, it's an extension and integration of both platforms. 

UCaaS and CCaaS will continue to exist as standalone solutions for different use cases and customer segments. However, unified customer experience (UCX) offers a unique value proposition for organizations that need to connect to their internal and external communication channels and enable collaboration and information sharing among agents and back-office employees. Some analysts are signaling that UCX is shaping the future of contact centers and that it can enhance your organization’s return on Investment (ROI) in communications.

The best examples of these UCX platforms also harness the power of AI. These solutions can generate call summaries and deliver best-in-class customer experiences with AI-powered quality management, automated scorecards, interaction analytics, and other unique features.

Reasons to believe in unified customer experience

Unified customer experience (UCX) solutions can lower the costs and complexity of managing multiple communication platforms while increasing the workflow flexibility and scalability of the cloud-based solution. These solutions also allow organizations to reduce the number of technology partners they work with and enhance customer engagement.

Proponents of UCX say that by employing the technology they have increased efficiency, improved customer experience, and reduced operational expenses. Forrester reports that managed services can help reduce IT costs by 30% and increase operational efficiency by 50%. And organizations who opt for managed services will not be receiving the arrows in the back that those on the bleeding edge often suffer, as Gartner predicted that 70% of businesses used some sort of managed services in 2025.

UCX offers some tangible benefits, as it is designed and built from its foundation as a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) cloud solution. With less end-user training necessary and vastly reduced internal IT oversight, operational efficiency can significantly increase. By streamlining workflows and communication between the front and back office, better customer and employee experience can be achieved. And there are cost savings found in the inherent benefits in using a single vendor platform.

With UCX, a cloud-based solution managed by external service providers, organizations do not need to invest and support on-premises hardware and software. The services are best accessed through the internet or by a dedicated connection, which allows the scalability and flexibility to grow as a given businesses needs evolve. And in today’s environment of increasingly disparate and distributed workforces, users can access their communication tools from anywhere, whether at the office, on the road, or working remotely.

Unified CX with RingCentral

Having one platform for all your communications helps provide a consistent experience for internal teams and customer-facing agents. Agents can reach a subject matter expert without leaving the customer call. This functionality is critical when teams are more widely dispersed and working on a remote or hybrid schedule.

Recently, 72% of business leaders said they wish their business had better communication tools. They noted that when communication is effective, employee confidence, customer satisfaction and productivity increase. Business efficiency relies on the ability of staff to communicate anytime, anywhere with clients and colleagues. Customer service teams need to seamlessly tap into real-time call queue monitoring or call center analytics from distributed locations. Keeping employees connected over the cloud, across platforms and devices, regardless of location, is a vital element of business success.

UCX can reduce costs associated with outdated legacy infrastructures, hardware and maintenance. Unlike legacy UCaaS or CCaaS providers that require multiple platforms or heavy customization, Unified CX with RingCentral provides a single, fully managed, cloud native solution that integrates UCaaS, CCaaS and AI. When paired with Spectrum Business Internet, it delivers enhanced performance, reliability, and end-to-end support.

Your agents can save time by getting real-time access to customer information. Since there is no on-site equipment to buy, costs for a cloud-based unified communications solution can be far less than traditional on-site phone systems.

How Spectrum Business can help

The success of any UCX depends on the reliability of the network and the network service provider delivering it. Working directly with an experienced network service partner who owns and manages the network, their solutions are delivered over guarantees a higher level of reliability. Find out how Spectrum Business can help you implement a UCX solution.