In a recent industry analyst perspective, Metrigy President and Principal Analyst Irwin Lazar predicted that by 2030, more than 75% of companies will use Unified Communications as a Service (UCaaS) for their calling, meeting, and messaging needs. Lazar notes that one of the drivers for increased UCaaS adoption is the ability to integrate UCaaS with Contact Center-as-aService (CCaaS) and purchase both from a single provider.

“Like UCaaS, CCaaS also provides the ability for companies to purchase cloud-based services they need on a subscription license basis, with minimal up-front cost. Metrigy research notes that 22% of companies who are changing their communications providers are doing so to obtain an integrated UC and CC platform,” says Lazar.

But costs aren’t the only thing optimized when committing to a platform approach. Perhaps one of the most important aspects of a business that’s optimized is customer experience (CX).

Here are eight ways an integrated UC and CC platform optimizes CX:

1. Reduces app switching. By integrating cloud-native contact center, voice, team chat, meetings, and even Communications Platform as a Service (CPaaS) capabilities (such as with 8x8's eXperience Communications Platform), organizations significantly reduce app switching, which is a huge source of employee and agent frustration, according to workplace efficiency studies. In a recent LinkedIn poll, 49% of respondents said they use two to four different UC/CC applications, while 21% say they use five or more.

2. Increases productivity. Successful organizations experience a 23% efficiency gain when adopting an integrated UC and CC platform, according to Metrigy research, as agents can more effectively communicate internally and serve customers, reducing frustration, and increasing overall job satisfaction.

3. Supports remote and hybrid work. While this may note seem like a natural fit for customer experience optimization, the ability for employees and agents to use the same tool and have the same experience for communications, collaboration, and contact center whether they’re in the office, at home, on a trip, or on their mobile device, supports faster and more consistent customer engagement. Not only that, it creates happy agents, which equals happier customers.

4. Boosts collaboration. When employees and agents can easily engage and communicate with other employees and agents and supervisors in the environment they’re most comfortable with (for example, some people prefer video meetings, while others prefer messaging), collaboration both within and outside departments is fostered.

5. Speeds resolution. By providing contact center agents with the same communications tools used by the rest of the office, agents can quickly and easily reach out to organizational subject matter experts to help answer customers’ questions and solve issues—a huge EX and CX win. Organizations typically see a 27% improvement in customer satisfaction ratings, according to Metrigy research, when organizations have an integrated platform.

6. Maximizes insights. Shared analytics across the organization not only show how customer service is doing, but what customers are talking about. This gives companies the ability to make adjustments to improve, or even be proactive in addressing customer experience in real time or over time. The additional benefit of a platform approach is that the organization is receiving analytics and insights from a single source of truth, versus having to pull and analyze data from several different sources.

7. Enables shared CX responsibility. Shared responsibility for customer experience is on the rise. A platform approach gives the entire organization shared tools and capabilities which can be of incredible benefit to sales, for example, in understanding and speaking current customer pain points and sentiment, as well as what customers are interested in for cross-sell, up-sell opportunities.

8. Optimizes integrations. Industry analyst Zeus Kerravala shares related benefits in this guest post.

Want to learn more about the benefits of an integrated UC and CC platform? Check out the Metrigy eBook, UC and Contact Center Platform Integration Drives Business Success.