Migrating or changing any platform to a new type of software comes with its own set of unique challenges and contact centers are no different. Having worked with a number of clients to successfully implement or migrate to Amazon Connect’s cloud-based, pay-as-you-go technology contact center technology, we’re faced with a lot of questions. Here are the top ten most common things clients who want to move over ask us:
1. As a contact center agent, can I work remotely?
Yes. One of the benefits of running a cloud-based contact center is that you can login from anywhere. As long as you have a stable internet connection (and your company allows it), you should have no problems working remotely.
2. Can I use my existing VoIP headset in Amazon Connect?
Yes, you should be able to use your existing headset with Amazon Connect.
3. Does Amazon Connect have chat bots?
It’s definitely possible to integrate a chat bot experience into your contact center. Using Amazon Lex, you can build automatic, natural conversations into your call flows and provide a personalized experience to your caller. You can build a bot that will recognize caller intent, ask follow-up questions, provide answers to standard questions, and more. Amazon Lex is built using the same technology that powers Alexa.
4. Is there a limitation on how many agents or phone calls are allowed in Amazon Connect?
The idea for Amazon Connect actually stemmed from internal issues that the Amazon customer service associates were experiencing in their own contact centers. After they fixed the internal issues, they recognized there was a wider need for the solution they’d crafted. So they built Amazon Connect, basing the technology on the same platform they themselves used to power through millions of customer support conversations.
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There really aren’t any limits with Amazon Connect. You can onboard five or five thousand agents and take multiple calls. And because Amazon Connect runs on AWS, it’s much more reliable than a contact center solution that runs from a single data center.
5. How does pricing work?
Amazon Connect is a pay-as-you-go service. You basically pay for your usage by the minute, with no long-term or minimum monthly fees. There also aren’t any costs associated with agent seats, licensing agreements or on-premise equipment to worry about. For more about pricing, please visit this page.
6. When using Amazon Connect, are you restricted by your geographical location?
Amazon Connect offers phone numbers in more than 20 countries worldwide, including direct and toll-free options in the United States. For a full list of supported regions you can visit the official Amazon page here. By default, the list of countries to which you can place outbound calls is limited. To make outbound calls to other countries you must submit a service increase form.
7. Can you explain how the callback feature works?
To explain how a callback works, lets look at a common scenario: A customer phones your contact center to speak with an agent about an upcoming delivery they want to change. But it’s a busy time of day and they’ll be on hold for 20 minutes. Rather than make them waste time on the phone waiting, it’s possible to build a callback option into the Amazon Connect contact flow. In this case, the customer would be alerted that the wait time is 20 minutes. The system would then ask them to press a number if they wanted to be called back when an agent is free. The great thing about the callback feature is you can set everything up once and then let it run. Plus, it provides a much better customer experience for your callers.
You can read more about setting up your own callback here.
8. What if I don’t want to use the number provisioned by Amazon Connect for customers to call in? Can I use my existing contact center number?
Yes, you can. What you would need to do is forward the call through your carrier to the number you provisioned in Amazon Connect. We’d recommend doing that in the pilot or test phase of an Amazon Connect project implementation. If you wanted to move the number over into Amazon Connect, you can port numbers over. It takes a bit of time but it’s possible.
9. Is there a way to handle holiday closures and hours in Amazon Connect?
There is. We have an entire tutorial set up on how to handle holiday closures. You can read more about it here.
10. Can agents transfer directly to another agent?
Absolutely. This is known as a Quick Connect. Quick Connects act as a sort of speed dial option and are a way for you to make a list of common destinations you want to transfer a call to. You can set up your Quick Connect list anytime and change it whenever you wish. There’s no need to memorize numbers either – you simply select the person or queue you wish to transfer the call to and off it goes.
For information on how Perficient can help you migrate or implement Amazon Connect within your contact center, please contact us.
