Style Over Function? Amazon Connect Lets You Have Both

The Right Way to Layer Amazon Connect & Salesforce

With winter upon us, layering becomes increasingly important. That stylish new cable-knit sweater isn’t just to solidify your metropolitan aesthetic. Sure, it has a fresh gloss that imparts the panache that comes with something new. But it has a function. It holds in heat (and maybe hides a bit of that holiday weight).

Amazon Connect is similar. It is sleek. It layers over existing Salesforce functions. And, although it doesn’t hold in heat, it provides insulation to losing clients by ensuring the best customer experience. The basic functions are the same as that new staple of your wardrobe.

Amazon Connect: Not the Old Motte and Bailey

Switching to Amazon Connect can seem arduous. Maybe your marketing and customer support phone systems already have good integration with Salesforce. If this is the case, it may not seem like a priority — if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.

Moving over to Amazon Connect might seem more like an actual move in this regard. Nobody enjoys moving: fumbling with packing tape, finding the box for your espresso maker, labeling that collection of chotskies your mother gave you, schlepping books up stairs.

You endeavor to do it because you see a clear benefit. Well, while it may seem unnecessary, transitioning to Amazon Connect is like upgrading from a one-bedroom apartment to a house, one with more closet space, a garage and that Spanish tile floor you’ve always wanted. In other words, the integration with Salesforce is quite robust compared to other software.

Familiar Features: The Usual Suspects

Amazon Connect augments many of Salesforce’s already well-known features, bolstering those features and creating a union greater than the sum of their parts. Whether on the sales front or for Computer Telephony Integration (CTI) flows, just a few minor tweaks can have a large impact on business.

On the sales side, Amazon Connect’s flexible logic enhances automated power dialing. Instead of simply making bulk connections with leads, the software acts as a bridge between the new lead and the salesperson, eliminating some task management for reps, making their jobs easier. Amazon Connect will contact the lead automatically and connect them with an agent, controlling the cadence of calls and making the sales rep’s job more manageable.

Amazon Connect is also compatible with Salesforce’s High Velocity Sales (currently known as Sales Engagement), amplifying communication with a multi-pronged approach.

In addition to augmenting well-known Salesforce features, Amazon Connect also works in tandem with some more esoteric elements, making them more of a boon to users.

Advanced Tools: New Kids on the Block

It is no secret that phone calls are the most time-consuming activity in which an agent or a rep would be involved. Amazon Connect’s interactive voice response (IVR) is able to cut down on agent time with its sophistication. For instance, a customer can call in with their order details, giving the IVR its order number. Then, the IVR will be able to check the status of the order and communicate the details to the customer.

Further, Amazon Connect is advanced enough to monitor the tenor of a conversation between the bot and customer. If a customer is frustrated or angry, using profanity for instance, the IVR will pick up on those cues and prompt a person to intervene into the conversation, all without leaving the Service Cloud. Taking it another layer deep, managers also have access to analytics with Amazon Connect, monitoring calls with agents in real-time, ready to intervene at the drop of a hat. In addition to the convenience, this feature instills confidence in customers, leaving them feeling they are not caught in a rat’s nest of automation prevalent in other services, hopping back and forth between phone trees unable to make contact with a person.

CTI flows are another area that benefits from Amazon Connect synergy with Salesforce. Whether a service or sales call, with CTI flows, you have the ability to determine how a conversation plays out. For instance, perhaps the first thing you want to happen when a customer calls for service is for the rep to see the customer’s information on the screen, then you want to create and open a case and finally you want to follow up with the customer. All this can be automated with CTI flows.
Similarly, given that people are more likely to answer a call from an unknown number if that number is local, you can customize the number that appears on customers’ caller ID based on where they are located.  That way the customer doesn’t perceive calls from your business like Homer Simpson’s Happy Dude.  

Unlock Business Potential with Good Communication

Configuring your business’s environment so that Amazon Connect and Salesforce speak to each other in the way you envision — allowing you to make the most of all the space-age features the two offer —  is not an easy task. There are roughly 20 to 30 steps involved, and trudging through them alone can be a slog.

Getting into customizing, for instance your AI center to make it more advanced, there are very different ways to go about it. Knowledge of Lambda — Amazon’s service that runs code dependent on a series of events and manages the resources required by that code — is essential. Without intimate knowledge of AWS services, such sophisticated setup can leave inexperienced businesses floundering when dealing with customization or complex workflow.

Salesforce is a blank canvas, and what that blank canvas becomes depends on your business needs. Similarly, Amazon Connect is a blank canvas. The level of scalability proves important. Since Amazon Connect is pay-as-you-go and there are no contracts, our team can build a quick demo for a proof of concept.

Having someone who understands Amazon call flows will help tailor your specifications to your business. It is like having a personal shopper curate each new piece of clothing in your wardrobe with your input. That way, you can make sure every layer is on point for winter.