Picking the right third-party contact center provider can boost customer satisfaction and retention while reducing costs. Amazon Connect is a top contender and is worth comparing quickly with other communication tools in this space.
When a customer struggles to solve a problem with a software solution, the speed and reliability of response can make or break customer satisfaction and retention.
Organizations need to set up touchpoints with customers at every point in that journey, and solutions like Amazon Connect offer many features to achieve this objective. It’s no secret that Amazon Connect can significantly boost both sales and retention when adequately integrated into the customer experience.
However, due diligence demands a comprehensive comparison with the competition to make sure Amazon Connect is the best fit. Amazon Connect vs Other Tools – Let’s take a look.
Amazon Connect: Overview and key features
Amazon Connect is a feature-rich and highly robust one-stop shop for all things related to the customer journey. While the list of features is extensive, it’s most beneficial to consider Amazon Connect’s capabilities alongside the business problems they solve.
The three following categories outline all available features in the context of how they help organizations with their customer journey:
- Where in the customer journey are there key touchpoints with the organization?
- Amazon Connect’s omnichannel self-service provides phone lines, chatbots, and other communication tools
- Are your service agents getting the support they need?
- Connect has a variety of internally-facing tools to help boost agent efficiency and make their lives easier
- Can you collect data towards optimizing the customer support processes?
- Connect internal analysts, strategists, and executive decision-makers with a user-friendly series of dashboards to turn data into improved operations
The competition is close on Amazon’s heels regarding communication tools, agent support, and business analytics. Let’s outline some of the top players in the industry.
Comparing Amazon Connect to other communication tools
Amazon Connect main target is businesses needing contact center services hosted in the cloud. Core competitors to Amazon Connect include Talkdesk, Genesys, Webex, and Five9. These service providers all offer the following key features:
- Interactive Voice Response (IVR) and automation of all incoming traffic
- Chatbots, messaging infrastructure, and SMS
- Omnichannel routing/engagement to unify all call center functions under a single user interface
- Analytics capabilities to maximize efficiency and organize large streams of data
In terms of service offerings, all five organizations align closely on general functionality. The fundamental differentiating factors are Amazon’s unique market position, specifically the huge integration potential brought by AWS.
Pros and Cons of Amazon Connect
Amazon Connect has a distinct advantage due to the horizontal integrations made possible by the industry-leading AWS cloud infrastructure. This massive pool of cloud computing resources provides a potential edge in reliability and scalability to Amazon Connect compared to the competition. The primary advantage here will be ease of integration and deployment, alongside a broader integration of related services.
On the other hand, AWS’s size and scale can result in a more automated (and potentially less personal) client experience. As AWS serves such a vast market, the overall ability to focus on single (notably smaller) enterprises is a potential weakness competitors can exploit through more focused attention on individual clients.
In short, while Amazon Connect is highly reliable and scalable, competitors may be willing to provide additional flexibility to their solutions for individual clients to maintain a competitive edge.
Considerations when choosing a communications tool
Prospective clients of a cloud-based call center service may want to list out the following key considerations:
-Business objectives and the corresponding technical requirements
Larger organizations that need the absolute maximum in reliability and scalability will likely prefer the more conservative bet of Amazon Connect, while smaller enterprises with more nuanced or niche needs may benefit from shopping around a bit first.
-The customer experiences
From an effortless user experience perspective, this is more subjective and requires a careful examination of customer behavior on a client-by-client basis. A good tactic here is to request a demo and involve user test groups to identify the optimal experience.
-Integrations with other tools
Here is where Amazon Connect truly shines. If an organization already uses different AWS cloud services, integrating Amazon Connect will be easier and cheaper in most cases. There will also be opportunities to build synergy across the broader cloud computing platform.
-Financial constraints
Amazon Connect operates on modular pricing per transaction, charging small amounts per interaction. Competitors often offer fixed tiered pricing per seat after a consultation with the sales team. It’s well worth the time to get a competitor quote and compare it to Connect based on the expected interaction volume.
It’s worth noting Microsoft 365 Business Voice and Zoom’s Enterprise Plan briefly in closing, as both offer a simplified version of Amazon Connect’s core services. These selections may be better for smaller organizations primarily investing in software to improve internal communications of complex customer call center capabilities.
Making the final call
In summary, deciding on which cloud call center provider to select can be distilled down to the following steps:
- Identify existing internal AWS services which may benefit from integration
- Estimate the total amount of interactions expected
- Compare different offers provided by close competitors
- Weigh the pros and cons of your choices
Most organizations with a high volume of customers and significant overlap with AWS cloud computing services will likely lean toward Amazon Connect. Smaller organizations with more customizable needs may benefit more from shopping around. Managed service providers like CloudHesive can ask the right questions, procure cost estimates, and set expectations as they decide.
As an Amazon Managed Services partner and Amazon Premier Partner, CloudHesive helps any organization take full advantage of all the AWS features, including workload migration.
Contact us anytime for more information, and we’ll see you in the cloud.
