Ozonetel offers reliable, full-featured cloud contact center solutions, specifically designed to boost sales and customer service agent performance, while providing feasible control and visibility to managers
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“We have built in several new monitoring, self-service, and AI features that make it easy to monitor the remote workforce and manage spikes in call and chat volumes.”
Chaitanya Chokkareddy,
Chief Innovation Officer,
Ozonetel
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The Cloud technology has been gaining momentum over the last several years. But the Pandemic gave it a much needed shot in the arm. It ushered in a colossal shift to online operations and massive adoption of work-from-home-culture and online learning. As the India market remains in the eye of a major digital transformation buoyed by a tech-centred Union Budget, SME Channels embarks upon recording the voices of the who’s who of the Cloud scape.
As part of our effort to make the voices of major cloud players heard by the channel community, we have brought in this for you as first of a series of Cloud Predictions by major vendors and stakeholders of the cloud industry.
In a special interaction with SME Channels, Chaitanya Chokkareddy, Chief Innovation Officer, Ozonetel, reveals his organization’s strategy for growing the cloud industry, his predictions for the industry in 2022 and his vision and plans for the channel community. Edited excerpts…
The pandemic has forced businesses to take a giant leap to go online. As a leading cloud player, how do you plan to leverage the immense market opportunity created by the pandemic?
We all observed that when the pandemic hit, digital transformation accelerated overnight. Consequently, customer expectations and behaviours changed as well. For instance, as per McKinsey 93% of Indian consumers tried a new shopping behaviour during the pandemic. In the meanwhile, hundreds of contact centers required access to cloud-based contact center solutions. We saw call volumes and average call handle times spike and fluctuate throughout the past two years.
Companies needed to add digital channels and increase their customer support overnight, while simultaneously managing a new hybrid or work-from-home workforce. We helped thousands of agents across multiple call centers go remote almost overnight.
The market demand for cloud contact center solutions that work from anywhere, offer omnichannel call and chat routing, and advanced self-service has skyrocketed. Ozonetel’s contact center solution offers the robust omnichannel, cloud telephony platform, deep CRM integrations, and advanced functionality that these companies need to quickly level up their contact centers. We have built in several new monitoring, self-service, and AI features that make it easy to monitor the remote workforce and manage spikes in call and chat volumes.
As a major cloud player, what market trends do you foresee in 2022?
The first trend we are seeing is that large enterprises that were earlier reluctant to change from legacy systems are moving to the cloud. For instance, our recent customer acquisitions include a marquee bank that has made the shift from legacy to cloud this year. The second shift is an acceleration of omnichannel solutions. This includes integrating chat, messaging apps, and even social media into your call center strategy. Thirdly, the rise in self-service across voice and chat to keep chat and call volumes in check and enable faster, more convenient customer experiences. This includes AI-based solutions that take advantage of the recent growth and success of Natural Language Processing (NLP). Finally, there are substantial changes in workforce monitoring and management. Agent experience will be important, as will the need for discreet monitoring across remote teams. Advanced screen and call monitoring tools, and the use of AI-based sentiment and speech analysis will be on the rise to meet these demands.
Please shed some light on your cloud offerings.
Ozonetel offers a reliable, full-featured cloud contact center solution that is specifically designed to boost sales and customer service agent performance while giving control and visibility to managers. We offer robust outbound dialers that accelerate outbound sales and enable proactive customer support. These dialers integrate with almost any CRM to automate outbound calling across various stages in the buyer journey. Our omnichannel routing encompasses calls, live chat, SMS texts, and WhatsApp. We offer advanced IVR functionality that has been used to provide robust self-service solutions for multiple companies. We also offer industry-leading features such as conversational AI and advanced sentiment analysis.
What is the USP of your offerings?
Today, Ozonetel is recognized for offering a full-featured, robust and reliable platform with unmatched customer support. We are known for developing and launching the first cloud-based contact center platform in the Indian marketplace. Since then, unparalleled personalized customer support and continuous AI innovation continue to set us apart as we’ve grown to create a global impact.
Unlike other cloud telephony providers, we own the full stack with zero dependence on any third party for implementation. This leads to unmatched reliability. Our robust solution is used by 2500 businesses and over 100,000 agents worldwide. Our open API platform integrates easily with other business tools making it easy for managers to automate workflow and boost productivity.
What major channel trends for the cloud would you forecast for the year 2022?
Digital channels that integrate with our contact center are on the rise. This includes live chat on apps and websites, SMS marketing solutions at various stages of the customer journey, and WhatsApp customer support.
What all a channel partner needs to have to adopt cloud business and what are the steps to start cloud practice?
The channel partner must have an understanding of how contact centers function. They need to understand what the key metrics are tracked, what kind of analytics are required etc. Knowledge of SaaS-based delivery models will be an added advantage.
Would you please brief us on the kind of service support you extend to your channel partners? What sort of pre as well as post-sales support do you offer to your partners?
We provide end-to-end support to our partners. Our sales executives and pre-sales executives get involved in the early stage of the opportunity itself.
Our teams are completely involved in the requirement gathering, demo, POC, liaison with telecom companies if required, and commercials and SLA documentation. Once the opportunity is closed, our team handles the on-boarding, training and subsequent customer support. For us, a channel partner is an extension of our direct team, and the support we provide them and their customers are identical to what we do for our direct teams.
Since cloud is a tech-intensive product, it requires proper skilling. Please detail us on the training programs offered by you to upskill your partners.
The partners and their sales representatives undergo the same training which our direct salespeople undergo. This training is conducted by our sales team, and they are given all the necessary inputs that would enable them to make a pitch. Our salespeople also accompany our partner representatives for customer meetings, they learn on the job too.
We also involve them in our internal programs where new features, version changes are updated. Our partners also have access to case studies, white papers, and reports which we publish from time to time.
