CCaaS Platform on WhatsApp: Contact Center of the Future.
Chaitanya Chokkareddy
Sep 1, 2023
If you have been following our progress at Ozonetel you might have seen some new items about how we have launched the world’s first-of-its-kind CCaaS Platform on WhatsApp. It might seem like just another feature announcement, but in reality, this is the first step in the ultimate digitization of contact centers.
Voice is the premier communication channel between businesses and their customers. That’s been slowly changing over the years with customers choosing to reach out to businesses with whatever channel they are comfortable with. In the US, it is SMS (text) and in India, it is WhatsApp.
So, it makes perfect sense for us to be future-ready by providing WhatsApp as a channel to contact centers. We were one of the first platforms which integrated with the WhatsApp Business API when it first launched back in 2018 (http://blog.kookoo.in/2018/08/kookoo-contact-center-integration-with.html). So WhatsApp as a channel has been available to Ozonetel customers for the last few years. But this is a much bigger release where we went back to the drawing board and did a complete rehaul of the onboarding model as well as the feature set.
CCaaS Platform on WhatsApp: Key Benefits
Onboarding
This was one area where we put most of the effort. Earlier, since we did not have a direct relationship with Meta, we were dependent on partners to provision the numbers, and getting a WA business account setup could take anywhere between 1 day to 1 week and we had no visibility into the timelines.
But now, with our direct relationship with Meta, we have direct access to their cloud API. We now work with their embed flow and have integrated it directly into our CCaaS product. Using this approach businesses can use our one-click embed flow and get started with their WhatsApp contact center in 5 minutes. They can even bring their own phone number if needed.
Also, earlier, businesses need to sign up for a voice service with us before they could use the WhatsApp channel. We are doing away with that requirement now. If businesses want to just enable WhatsApp digital-only contact center without signing up for voice, they can do that now. We think a lot of smaller businesses will just sign up for the digital-only contact center license without the need for voice service.
One Business. One Number
This is another big innovation that we have come up with. Customers are facing number fatigue (how many numbers do you need to store). With our OBON (One business one number) solution, businesses can bring their existing phone number onto the WhatsApp channel. Does your business have a toll-free number? No problem, use the same toll-free number as your business WhatsApp number. Customers get the advantage of being able to call you or WhatsApp you on the same number. Businesses get the advantage of keeping the same number and utilizing all the marketing they have done on that number.
Graphical Bot Designer
Ozonetel CCaaS has a very flexible IVR designer. Our customers have been able to build complicated IVR flows using the designer. We have worked on improving the designer to include WhatsApp chat flows. This is powered by our local patented intent engine. To start with, this designer will be deployed for select customers. The rest of the customers can use regular KooKoo CPaaS programming to build the chatbot flows as WhatsApp is now included in our CPaaS offering. In a couple of months, this bot designer will be GA for all our customers. The bot designer will include support for all WhatsApp message types including text, media, location, contact, and interactive messages.
Seamless Bot to Agent Handoff
The power of the Ozonetel CCaaS comes from the seamless integration with bots and agents. We already have a nice integration between voice bots and contact center agents. The same integration is now extended to WhatsApp bots and human agents. All WhatsApp conversations are just one click away from connecting to a human agent so that your customers are never left stranded.
Digital Agent Toolbar
The agent toolbar is the jewel in the Ozonetel CCaaS crown. The simplicity of the agent toolbar has won accolades from all our customers who have used it. Now, this toolbar is supercharged with digital channels, primarily WhatsApp. All the simplicity of the agent toolbar exists with the added power of being able to respond to WhatsApp chats. The digital medium will have a lot more features, thanks to the native integration with AI. Some upcoming features in the agent toolbar include AI-backed agent assist, auto-generated content for agents, and auto disposition powered by AI.
AI-enabled Skill Routing
The bot handoff can be manual or automatic powered by AI. We can configure what intents to look out for and automatically transfer the chats to the right agents. This is an upcoming feature in our next release.
Stay tuned for lots more developments in the WhatsApp contact center. We believe this will change the way support is handled by businesses in the coming few years.
