Vodafone NZ to roll out Amazon Connect in contact centres

Vodafone New Zealand has announced it will team up with Amazon Web Services (AWS) to implement Amazon Connect, an omnichannel cloud contact centre, to provide a personalised and enhanced customer experience.

The moves makes Vodafone New Zealand the first telecommunications provider in New Zealand to implement the solution.

Currently, Vodafone NZ's contact centre receives approximately 1.7 million customer service calls per month. Implementing Amazon Connect will simplify its contact centre operations and analyse information to unlock insights to provide new and innovative ways to engage with customers, the telco says.

Amazon Connect will enable Vodafone NZ to use AWS artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) services to automate interactions and improve customer service on the platform. It will also encompass voice and chat-based services to offer customers a personalised, intuitive experience, reduce wait times, and help solve customer issues faster.

"We selected AWS to help us transform the customer experience in our contact centre. Amazon Connect offers best-in-class technology and will enhance our digital customer service across all interaction channels," says Antony Welton, customer operations director at Vodafone New Zealand.

"Customers can expect to see the technology progressively rolled out over the next 10 months and we're confident they will benefit from a superior customer experience," he says.

"This will complement our people-focused initiatives, such as the success of our X Squad and ongoing efforts to better equip our agents with the tools they need to further improve our customer experience.

 "We've already seen a 35 per cent improvement in our 'first time fix' metric, meaning a customer's problem is solved the first time they call us, as well as vastly improved customer satisfaction metrics, and we are confident this new technology platform will help us to lift our game even further," Welton explains.

 The announcement follows Vodafone NZ's implementation of the Amazon Connect Chat functionality in May, which enables a single unified contact centre service for voice and chat.

Nick Walton, managing director for commercial sector at Amazon Web Services in New Zealand, says Vodafone NZ was a "great example of how the cloud and machine learning technologies are transforming the way Kiwi organisations are improving their customer experience".

"Amazon Connect will provide Vodafone NZ with a scalable contact centre solution that can adjust to the changing needs of its customers in real-time and will enable Vodafone NZ to engage with their customers easily and naturally," he says.