In November, the TelXL team attended one of the most important events of the year for contact centre managers and resellers.
The Call and Contact Centre Expo is the cornerstone event for companies working in the contact centre industry, giving businesses large and small the chance to showcase their technologies with thought leadership sessions and plenty of networking.
The TelXL team joined industry players at the influential event and share their insights…
• The big rumour of the event was that RingCentral are making a bid for 8×8, the VoIP company. This is something to watch, but our man on the inside said these are just rumours (he hopes). Take a look here for more details.
• Zoom, the video industry giant, had the smallest stand at the event. Read what you will into it, but this could be deciphered as a ninja move.
• The hot topic of nearly all vendors was the fact that stock prices of their competitors are at a record low. This is something to watch, especially for smaller businesses looking to make gains in the industry.
• Many of the presentations featured CSATs, CX and ‘back to the job of delivering customer service’.
And now for some personal thoughts…
• TelXl’s CEO Aaron Fox said that there was a feeling of collaboration amongst the vendors. The uncertain economic picture could be leading to businesses being more open to working together.
• TelXL CRO Andy Jones – AJ found customer experience to be a heightened central theme in product demonstrations and presentations. Agent wellbeing was also in focus.
• Tatum Bisley – TelXL CPO looked under the hood at the different user experiences on show, but it wasn’t always pretty! Tatum also noted the impact of the stock market decline. It seems that, in the same way the markets are ‘self-correcting’ after the 2021 boom, so too the contact centre market. The industry is getting back to what matters: delivering great customer service.
The Key Takeaways
In the uncertainty of the economic period, we’re in, many businesses are finding opportunity. Stock prices are hitting record lows (Avaya’s market price is down 94.63% YoY), companies in the call and contact centre industry have been re-evaluating their operations and how they can utilise other businesses in the field.
The willingness to work together with businesses who may have once been considered competitors was a key takeaway compared to previous years at the Call and Contact Centre Expo. There was a clear refocus for many on Collaboration towards enhancing the customer experience. The ultimate focus of companies in this industry is to impact the quality of interaction and there was a real feeling that this was being revived but with a fresh perspective.
TelXL, thanks to our operational and financial stability, are in an excellent position to take advantage of these shifts in the industry, so overall, we found this to be a very positive event. Here’s to 2023 and helping the channel do more with less and for less!
