Trends in Contact Center Transformation: A Conversation with Nirali Amin from LivePerson

Hi, Nirali. Thanks for actually coming out here and having a quick chat with me. It's always nice to have you. Thank you so much. Such a pleasure to connect with you and be here.

I have a take on contact center transformation. I've always said this, even when we talked earlier: there are two elements to it. When I think about contact center transformation, the first is of course the agents themselves—how are you empowering agents to deliver the right outcome, be it revenue, retention, customer experience from a care perspective, and overall satisfaction? For me, it's all about ensuring we're building the right frameworks and giving them the right tools, like generative AI or other integrations that may come into play, to drive the right outcome. That leads into the second element: if you don't drive the right agent experience, you will not achieve the right customer experience you're looking for. So for me, contact center transformation starts with technology, but it has to be an equal balance between the front-end customer experience and the agent experience.

Absolutely. I think it's time we moved away from just looking at it as an efficiency play or turning a contact center into only a revenue-generating center, because industries have rotated one or the other. It needs to be both. The way I look at it is those efficiency gains have to be invested back into driving innovation. Where I find those innovations: it's not about if you found 20% efficiencies you have to cut your labor force by 20%. It's almost saying how do you use that 20% you found to build meaningful connections with the customers? Find different ways to connect with them so then you're improving customer experience, driving top-line revenue, and more importantly driving retention and loyalty as well.

I think simply put, you have to look at technologies and start splitting it out: systems of record versus systems of action. Many times systems of record like the CRMs have become the central point of driving a capability or a connection, but they're not built for that. They're meant for record keeping. We have to look at systems of action—which are messaging platforms, different application layers, communication channels—and find ways to make them more integrated into a system of record and build the right orchestration and integration layers to drive that personalized customer experience. There is either one lens to say well we have spent X in the system of record and just because that system of record provider may have some capabilities, let's just use them. But over time what you start looking at is diminishing returns because they were never built as an engagement or an experience platform.

Yeah, I think simply put, we have moved away from being just a messaging and AI provider, which we've been known for. I talked about systems of record and systems of action; we are more of a system of action. So when you think about us, we want to be the command center, the application layer that helps brands orchestrate the right outcomes. Whether you have a third-party bot or a third-party LLM that you want to empower into the platform, that will help you drive the right outcomes. We're more than open; we're looking at bringing in other channels like voice and email very shortly. When you think about that customer experience, the journey is no longer linear. Customers want to connect at their time, in their channel of choice, based on their situation. If they're commuting, they're most likely going to use SMS or some third-party application. If they're working at home, they're most likely going to use their desktop. And if they have time at home, they may switch to a call based on the situation. Being a system of action, you have that ability to bolt on all capabilities. Let's talk about communication channels: we're providing one agent desktop for agents to work from, powered by AI, and at the backend we're providing analytics that provide deep insights and recommendations. So what we're doing is driving a customer experience platform that is delivering the right outcomes.

I think if you put it in a simpler way: innovation without disruption. By bringing voice into a digital channel, what you're doing is creating a baseline that you as a brand or as an end user can look at and say, 'How is voice performing against messaging, email, and AI?' So you're not creating a level playing field—it was never an apples-to-apples comparison before. By doing that, you are then helping the brand create the right engagement strategy by defining which is the right intent that can be served in the right channel with the highest outcome. As brands start thinking more about their digital-first strategy and want to provide more convenient ways for customers to engage with them, it's very important to bring voice and email into a channel that supports those capabilities—whether it's an agent experience platform designed to be intent-based, with the data unifying it and providing the right insights and recommendations against the same intents.

Absolutely. Voice has a part to play. I think LivePerson previously may have been quite aggressive in the market to say 'voice is dead' about five plus years ago, but we've learned that as I mentioned, the hype at that point was that digital would solve it all, and customer journeys would be linear. And I think we've seen as time, market, and customer expectations have evolved, they want to channel-hop, they want to choose the channel of their choice. With voice coming in, giving it that same respect and significance allows not just the front-end experiences to be the same, but also, like I said, agent empowerment: voice agents should have the same digital tools, frameworks, and capabilities as a messaging agent would have, so they can provide that right experience.

I think it's taking a step back and truly understanding what the customer is trying to solve for—which I think you all do a really good job of—but then saying, 'If you're going to bring in a partner like LivePerson that is able to stitch all of the channels with unified analytics, what other partners like CDPs, CRMs, or systems of action are missing to help drive that personalization or elevate that engagement?' So I think when you're looking at the outcome, it's very much about looking at the holistic picture—what is the end game? Simply put, even for us, the customer journey is no longer linear. The path to transformation is no longer linear. Now every system has a part to play. It's no longer one system or one capability that will drive the right outcome; it's the right marriage of tools and frameworks to bring to the table.

Pleasure talking to you as always. Likewise, thank you for having me. Thank you.