The Customer Journey Is the Destination

Many lead singers of classic rock bands can no longer hit the notes of their youth. Enter the cottage industry of sound-alikes. Lou Gramm of Foreigner has given way to Kelly Hanson. Jason Scheff replaced Peter Certera of Chicago. Perhaps the best example is Arnel Pineda, who replaced Steve Perry in Journey. Check out Pineda’s cover of Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believing” with the other original members of the band.

Cisco Customer Care Solutions has been on a journey of its own. In the last six years, we’ve become the leading contact center company by market share in North America. In 2017, we led in global agent deployments for cloud contact center.

Our many new customers tell us they chose Cisco for five main reasons.

On time and on budget. Time-to-value matters in a digital world. Cisco’s reputation for delivering as promised is important to them.

Strongest partner ecosystem. Our customers value our 175 Advanced Technology Partners (ATPs) and 1400 value-added resellers.

Solution partners. We’ve doubled the size of our solution partner program in the last 18 months, allowing new customers to purchase a single-source solution on a Cisco contract.

Industry’s best agent desktop. The Cisco Finesse agent framework is the industry’s leading thin-client framework for customer care, which provides a significant value-add for our partners.

Trusted partner. With an industry in flux, you want to work with a company that has the commitment and financial stability to invest into and through the cloud transition.

What’s new

On April 19th at Cisco Collaboration Summit in Phoenix, Vasili Triant — vice president and general manager of the Contact Center business unit — unveiled our new branding. The Broadsoft CC-One product is now “Cisco Customer Journey Platform,” and our product portfolio is now “Customer Journey Solutions.”

Our rebranding is based on today’s capabilities and is aspirational in nature. A customer’s experience with a company occurs up to a lifetime. A customer’s experience with a brand should be a fulfilling journey that anticipates their needs.

Cloud is a core part of this strategy, as we can introduce innovations much faster from the cloud than in on-premises software. On-prem solutions typically have new feature releases every 12 to 18 months, and customers may need an extra 6 to 18 months before implementing a new release. As a result, it may take 2 to 3 years for a new capability to reach full market adoption.

Contrast this with “cloud-speed” innovation, where new features can go from initial concept to full availability to all customers in a few months – and sometimes even weeks. Look for the cloud to be the way we bring many new innovations to market.

We know that our installed base of on-premises customers needs to continue to take advantage of their Cisco investments. We’re not leaving them behind. We will bring the benefits of cloud-speed innovation to these customers via hybrid solutions, where cloud features seamlessly overlay on-premises technologies.

We’ve already begun down this path. For example, Context Service, which provides agents with insight on each interaction of the customer’s journey. It’s hosted from the cloud and integrated into our Contact Center Express and Contact Center Enterprise solutions. Hybrid will be core to our innovation strategy.

See how we plan to help companies deliver exceptional service in the age of the digital consumer. Explore our customer care product portfolio.