Cyara CEO: ‘Cloud and Digitization a Perfect Opportunity to Update Call Center Security’

One of the biggest pitfalls contact centers make when successfully migrating to a cloud platform is growing complacent and assuming that everything will continue to work seamlessly. That is simply not the case. In the same way that a manufacturer can’t expect a machine – even a brand new one – to never malfunction, call centers cannot expect their cloud-hosted solutions to be impervious to error. 

As we set sights on 2021, one thing is clear — customer experience (CX) is ripe for digital transformation. On the back of the pandemic, companies significantly accelerated digital transformation (DX) initiatives. In the CX industry, that meant expanding digital channels to enhance the customer experience — a top priority for businesses in a ‘virtual everything’ world. 

The shifting consumer trends put more pressure on organizations in areas such as retail, e-commerce, telehealth, on-demand delivery to ramp up investments in cloud and mobile technologies to meet their customers where they are — the web, in an app, or via chat and self-help knowledge bases.  

Additionally, contact centers divested themselves of legacy technologies and leaned into the cloud and SaaS to drive operational efficiencies and achieve cost gains. The pandemic expedited the migration to the cloud for many contact centers and enabled remote management to keep the lights on throughout COVID-19. 

But to break new ground and fully utilize the next-gen technologies that inhabit the CX space, contact center leaders need platforms that help companies break down silos, unify experiences and data to help create cutting edge experiences that today’s digital-savvy consumers demand.

Toolbox interviewed Alok KulkarniOpens a new window , the CEO and co-founder of CyaraOpens a new window , the maker of an easy-to-use CX Assurance platform that helps companies uncover potential issues that hamstring customer experiences. Kulkarni, a leading CX veteran, shares his thoughts about bringing a distinctly more consumer-focused element to contact centers and furthering the use of artificial intelligence techniques and data analytics to generate individualized responses and resolve customer issues efficiently. 

He also spotlights how contact centers, strained by a pandemic surge, face a tough test and need to address a number of challenges, such as bettering the security posture to maintain user trust. As we head into 2021, many contact centers will continue to operate on a hybrid workforce — this means that contact centers will need to migrate to a cloud-hosted CX platform permanently.    

Key takeaways from this interview:

• Top considerations for migrating to cloud-hosted CX platform 
• New technology waves that will reshape CX in 2021 
• Security protocols to fight off growing cyber threats  in contact centers 
• Role of automated testing in contact centers 

Learn More: Want to Own CX? Start With Customer Intelligence Data 

Here’s the edited transcript of the interview with Alok Kulkarni:

 

1. Can you tell us how Cyara evolved into a CX assurance platform?

In 2006, I was a solutions architect at Genesys working on a state-of-the-art speech recognition system for a major government agency in Australia. While I was building the system, I recognized that it needed to be tested to make sure it could hold up under the pressure of a massive number of incoming calls. Unfortunately, there was no solution that could reliably and accurately replicate high volumes of customer interactions in a virtual test environment. 

That’s when the idea for Cyara was born. Since then, my team and I at Cyara have been working to build the world’s leading CX Assurance platform – a platform that enables the continuous and automated testing, documentation, and reporting that contact centers and customer experience managers desperately need to inform their operations. As new technology waves continue to re-shape CX, we strive to lead CX assurance innovation, test voice biometrics, digital channels, artificial intelligence and any future capabilities.

2. Do you believe the global outbreak will accelerate the implementation of AI-enabled technologies in contact centers?

Absolutely. COVID-19 has already fueled the new digital experience economy. In fact, Twilio’s recent report found that 92% Opens a new window of companies claim that transforming digital communications is extremely or very critical to address current business challenges caused by the pandemic. With consumers across the world socially distancing or isolating themselves for months now, the typical consumer has experienced a substantial increase in free time during the pandemic. 

Because of this increase in free time, there’s even more consumer demand for immediately resolving customer service requests. In addition, travel-focused industries such as short-term-rentals and airlines were absolutely inundated with frustrated customer requests for cancellations and refunds for trips that were no longer viable. By incorporating AI-supported technology solutions into their operations, call centers will enable themselves to meet this increased demand for immediate resolution while avoiding the pressure to expand their workforce during a global pandemic.

Learn More: Will COVID-19 Bring About the Mass Adoption of AI in the Private Sector? 

3. Contact centers are also prone to all forms of cyber vulnerabilities, including social engineering threats. How can contact centers defend against data breaches?

Enabling call center agents to work from home often requires a shift to cloud-hosted systems. Fortunately, cloud-based technology offers several effective means of combating cyber-threats — the safe routing of sensitive data, enabling safe work-from-home conditions, and multi-factor authentication. 

Cloud-based telephony and customer service systems enable contact centers to safely process and route cardholder and other sensitive data through a Payment Service Provider’s secure private cloud – eliminating the need for any sensitive data to enter the contact center’s own cloud-hosted systems. In addition, multi-factor authentication (MFA), in which call centers leverage one-time-use passwords, near field communications (NFC), and even biometrics such as voice prints to authenticate users and ensure roles-based access to the appropriate systems can greatly improve not only the security of the contact center, but the customer’s experience and trust in their customer service team.

IT teams and call center leaders must work together to develop new, easily understandable and attainable standards for at-home security. Fortunately, the shift to cloud and digitization is the perfect opportunity to update call center security protocols with modern cloud-based security solutions. In fact, 61%Opens a new window of companies reported that data privacy was actually the #1 factor influencing a move to the cloud.

4. Should contact centers work closely with IT and cybersecurity teams?

In today’s digital world, contact centers don’t simply deal with customer service requests via phone — customers can typically contact a business through any number of ways: email, web chat, social media, etc. So, having a strong internal relationship with IT and cybersecurity team leaders is crucial to the enablement of a fully functional contact center. Inevitably, bad actors will attempt to cyber-sabotage or ransom a company’s work and/or resources in some form. By working with IT and security teams to establish and implement necessary security protocols in the event of a contact center cyber-attack, contact centers can ensure that they are not only protecting themselves and their employees but also the customers they serve.

5. Can continuous testing and automation reduce operating costs in contact centers?

We believe in a shift-left and shift-right approach when it comes to application testing. Continuous, automated testing of contact center technological capabilities and infrastructure from conceptual design to implementation is critical to minimizing the cost of operations on a long-term scale. By automating testing and deploying a solution that continuously deploys automated tests to every aspect of the contact center infrastructure along the customer journey, contact centers can reduce resources spent on reactive maintenance and bug fixes. Instead, thanks to the continuous automated nature of the testing solution, contact centers will be able to recognize any errors in their systems and operations before they cause issues for customers or agents and rectify those issues before they arise again in the future.

Learn More: Has COVID-19 Hastened the Emergence of AI-Powered Contact Centers? 

6. Will remote management of CX end with the pandemic?

Remote management of CX, enabled by cloud migration, had already kicked off and was a part of most companies’ growth plan, which is why I believe it will never go away. We’re already seeing an increase in demand from consumers when it comes to the speedy resolution of any customer service issues alongside the need for contact center agents to work remotely to comply with social distancing mandates. These demands accelerated contact centers’ needs to migrate faster. Once consumer expectations for rapid resolution, and worker expectations to work remotely, have been set and proven practicable there is no reason for those parties not to hold those same expectations in the future.

7. With contact centers well down the road toward a cloud-based platform, what should be the next priorities for leaders in 2021?

One of the biggest pitfalls contact centers make when successfully migrating to a cloud platform is growing complacent and assuming that everything will continue to work seamlessly. That is simply not the case. In the same way that a manufacturer can’t expect a machine – even a brand new one – to never malfunction, call centers cannot expect their cloud-hosted solutions to be impervious to error. This means that operations must be continuously tested and monitored for any errors, especially as those systemic errors can snowball in a cloud environment to affect solutions and departments outside of customer service. In addition, continuous testing will help contact centers understand where they need to innovate and improve processes.

About Alok KulkarniOpens a new window : Kulkarni is the CEO and Co-founder of CyaraOpens a new window , a company that provides automated testing to identify potential issues in customer service transfer flows that could cause bad customer experiences. Alok founded Cyara with the vision that an easy-to-use CX Assurance platform could help enterprises deliver great customer experiences every time, even with an ever increasingly complex technology ecosystem. Since the COVID-19 pandemic has caused huge disruptions for several industries, Cyara has worked quickly (in a matter of days!) to enable several companies to transition thousands of agents to remote work as well as rapidly update the customer journey to adhere to the changing environment. 

About CyaraOpens a new window : Cyara is the world’s leading Automated CX Assurance Platform provider, helping leading brands deliver better CX with less effort, cost, time, and risk. Cyara supports the entire CX software development lifecycle, from design to functional and regression testing, load testing, and production monitoring – ensuring enterprises can build flawless customer journeys across voice and digital channels while reducing the risk of customer-facing defects.

About Tech TalkOpens a new window : Tech Talk is a Toolbox Interview Series with notable CTOs and senior executives from around the world. Join us to share your insights and research on where technology and data are heading in the future. This interview series focuses on integrated solutions, research and best practices in the day-to-day work of the tech world.

What should be the top contact center priorities in 2021? Comment below or let us know on LinkedInOpens a new window , TwitterOpens a new window , or FacebookOpens a new window . We’d love to hear from you!