CloudLinx founders look back on 10 years in the contact center space
When he looks back at the last few years in the contact center space and how his firm has helped it, Kevin Sheehan immediately thinks in cinematic turns.
“Our story for much of the last 10 years was like a Scorcese movie,” the co-founder of CloudLinx explains. “Then 2020 came and it was as though Tarantino took over filming for a couple of weeks.”
As a consultant to contact center leaders that assists with everything from software purchases to researching outsourcing providers, CloudLinx has a unique view of how service and support strategies pivoted amid the COVID-19 pandemic. And by now means were many of those strategies successful.
“We saw a lot of mistakes being made, from integrations that shouldn’t have been attempted to putting in technology where technology is not the problem,” he said. “That has fast-forwarded our business to the next level for sure.”
Where hybrid work for agents is headed
Originally spun out of out of a telecommunications provider, CloudLinx is not only celebrating a decade in business but preparing to double-down on offering services to help contact centers embrace new modes of working. This not only includes continuing to help firms move their contact centers into cloud computing environments but implementing other technologies to enhance customer experiences (CX).
Hybrid work is a good case in point. While providing customer service has been traditionally required agents to be on site at all times, Sheehan is among those who believe remote options are here to stay.
“It’s one of the toughest jobs in the country – it can be worse than working in a fast food restaurant in many instances but it also requires a ton of skills,” he said. “(Employers) are going to make it as comfortable as possible. It’s an employee’s marketplace for those kinds of jobs. But the good news is that the technology that everyone was sort of forced to adopt enables agents at a level where they can work extremely effectively from home.”
Frank Wassenbergh, CloudLinx partner and CCaaS Practice Leader, agreed, noting that hybrid work has led to creative solutions within traditional environments.
“We were out at a client site the other day, and they had a cubicle with three names on it,” he said. “Agents will have a floating schedule, and people can still work at home to their heart’s content. But when the client wants them in there, they can do so. It’s kind of like the old school hoteling thing – that’s where we’re probably headed.”
The reality of contact center AI adoption
If anything may be making those agents uncomfortable, of course, it’s probably artificial intelligence (AI) and the extent to which it is automating much of the experience they’re helping deliver. Wassenbergh said it’s important to look at AI across the entire spectrum of the contact center journey, including pre-call, call and post-call. AI plays a role in all three, but analyzing transcripts is among the top use cases.
“We don’t have a single client who has eliminated a position because of artificial intelligence,” Sheehan said.
That said, both Sheehan and Wassenbergh suggested AI and other technologies could put more pressure on business process outsourcing (BPO) providers to improve their services. CloudLinx is also investing time and talent in looking at other innovations that could reshape experiences. Virtual reality, for instance, could be transformative from a service perspective as headsets are used for purposes other than gaming.
The other certainty for CloudLinx is its intention to remain independent. Unlike other consultants in the space, the company has not sold to private equity firms and has no plans to do so.
“It’s impossible for us to be agnostic and have financial overlords hanging over us who are saying, ‘Okay, we paid you guys a couple million dollars. We want our ROI,’” he said. Once you start chasing dollars on a quarterly reporting basis, you’re not agnostic. You’re gonna start pushing whatever they tell you to push.”
