The smart business move: 8 reasons why companies are moving to an integrated UC + CC platform

There’s no doubt about it: AI is still a hot topic in the CX industry and across the business world. CX analysts and the CX media predict that AI will continue to be a priority for businesses, which makes sense as we’re really in the early days of the AI evolution. But, what does this mean in practice?

Businesses need to understand where AI can add value in their organization, and they must get their AI implementation strategy locked down in order to be successful, now and in the future. But that’s not the only piece of the pie. As CX analyst firm Metrigy identified in their recent CX Metricast 2024 market study, combining your unified communications (UC) and contact center (CC) on one platform also has the potential to transform customer experiences for the better.

An approach that combines UC + CC, along with AI at the foundation, is where the greatest opportunity for successful CX lies. It’s an all-encompassing approach that we at Zoom call the Total Experience—the ability to craft differentiated brand experiences for employees and customers on one connected platform.   

In this post we’ll dive into the details of Metrigy’s recent research, showcased in the infographic: Why move to the cloud with a UC + CC vendor in 2025, and share some practical examples of UC + CC + AI, or Total Experience, in action.

A UC + CC approach means bringing together your company-wide unified communications (UC) solution and your contact center (CC) solution into one seamless communications experience for both employees and customers. Agents can reach subject matter experts more easily and customers don’t have to wait on hold for extended periods being passed from pillar to post.

For example, customers may start out on a journey talking to an employee using Zoom Phone, but then get passed to an agent using Zoom Contact Center. Because these systems are connected, handoffs are seamless and include important context. Contact center leaders reap the benefits of having an in-depth customer history without having to jump between systems. Plus there’s the benefit of having one bill for all communications from one vendor. 

Ultimately, combining UC and CC on one platform creates a seamless communication experience for both employees and customers. And now with AI, there’s the opportunity to streamline further and empower your agents to deliver the Total Experience your customers crave — service that’s fast, friendly, and accurate.

Metrigy found in their research that companies that have switched to UC + CC with one vendor are benefiting significantly from improved processes and are even showing revenue growth because of the change. They suggest that businesses that don’t take steps to make the switch could be missing out. 

By the end of 2024, 72% of companies planned to implement an integrated, cloud-based UC + CC platform from the same provider. A further 18% of companies are planning to implement or evaluate UC + CC providers in 2025. 

Plus, 69% of companies can see the value of integrating their UC + CC platforms, demonstrating that it would be wise to explore vendors that offer a combined unified communications and contact center offering. 

The obvious benefits of it being easy for agents to connect with experts in real time or having one bill for your communication solutions are not the only advantages of a unified platform. Companies identified the following values, which, when combined, have the power to transform a business into a streamlined powerhouse.

1. Enable agents and supervisors to provide customer feedback for sales and marketing programs

With all of your teams working on one platform inside and outside of the contact center, getting direct customer insights to your sales and marketing teams can be a much more turnkey process. Many UC + CC providers include CRM integration, which can enable a more complete customer view.

Germany-based consulting firm Living Haus experienced the benefits of shared customer data firsthand after successfully integrating Zoom Contact Center into their CRM process. This has enabled them to track leads and address customer needs more accurately. The result is a personalized experience that grows and builds loyalty and confidence in the Living Haus brand. 

2. Allow conversations between frontline and back-office personnel over the same app

Traditionally, contact centers have operated separately from the rest of the organization, leading to a fragmented customer experience. By combining UC + CC along with the power of AI to provide a Total Experience for customers, agents can connect with experts outside the contact center to resolve customer queries as a team. 

Take one of our customers, Topaz Services, for example. Topaz is an outsourced “Hotel Contact Center” and needs easy access to the hotels they represent to resolve customer queries and issues quickly. Previously, Topaz relied on email as a primary communication tool, which made it virtually impossible to get any kind of response while live on a call. With Zoom Team Chat, Topaz agents can connect instantaneously with hotel staff to answer questions like "Is the hotel pool still under construction?". Agents can respond accurately to a guest’s questions on the spot, significantly reducing handle times.

3. Facilitate agents and supervisors to share product development feedback

On one shared platform, contact center employees can easily provide customer insights to the product development team to help improve their solutions, which increases the odds of customers remaining loyal and satisfied. A good AI-powered Quality Management tool can be used to gather these insights faster than before. Distribution of information can be made easier with custom or out-of-the-box APIs that can be integrated with your UC + CC platform and made accessible to the right teams.

Insurance service provider Amynta Group's* use of Zoom Quality Management shows how deeper insights can be pulled across interactions by filtering specific keywords and phrases. For example, if they search for a particular term, such as “transmission,” they can see how often it appears in conversations during a selected time frame. They can then isolate just those engagements and get valuable AI-generated insight into the recurring issues with the interactions that include that keyword. 

*Amynta joined us at Zoomtopia 2024, where Tim Beamer, director of automotive warranty claims, shared his experience with Zoom.

4. Bring collaboration tools to the contact center

When the entire organization uses one platform for employee and customer communications, collaboration and efficiency simply become second nature. 

InflectionCX, a contact center BPO, has seen jaw-dropping improvements in efficiencies in customer service and internal processes using Zoom Contact Center and Zoom Workplace together. Not only have they dramatically reduced their call time by 3 minutes and after-call work by 3.5 minutes, but they’ve also seen drastic changes in how they train and collaborate as a team. 

Chris Crosby, founder and CEO, has migrated all of InflectionCX’s contact center training materials to Zoom Docs, centralizing knowledge management and sharing. This makes it easier to onboard new agents and significantly reduces their ramp-up time. The same training materials are fed into Zoom Virtual Agent, providing consistency in customer and agent experience. Plus, all agents are connected via Zoom Team Chat and Zoom Mail. Because they are all on one platform, they can solve problems and get questions answered quickly without having to toggle between multiple applications and screens.

5. Consolidate analytics with common interfaces and cross-platform metrics

Deep analytics are great for contact centers, but what if they could help the rest of your organization? Better still, what if you could pull data from other parts of the organization with ease? A key piece of sales data from the customer’s first purchase could provide that missing link to an exceptional customer experience. Plus, getting a full picture of the entire customer journey across technologies can reveal valuable insights into the contact center and other parts of your business for the management and executive team. 

For Topaz Services, having Zoom Contact Center right in the Zoom Workplace app makes it easy to get visibility into all office, toll-free, and shared lines. This enables the management team to monitor all customer communications regardless of who is handling the call.

6. Support the use of video or screen-sharing during customer calls

Sometimes it can be difficult to explain a complex issue over the phone. Perhaps a customer has a busted pipe they are trying to fix with guidance from a tech support agent. Or maybe it’s a personal health issue that a doctor needs to be able to see to diagnose. 

Having the ability to move easily from phone or chat to a video call can make all the difference in a customer’s experience. As shown above, the data in Metrigy’s research clearly shows that it’s a key value-add for a combined UC+CC approach, with 39% appreciating the value of video and screen-sharing during customer calls.

Businesses can see tangible results too when they add video calls as an option in customer interactions. AVI-SPL, a global digital enablement solutions provider for cloud communications and audiovisual technology, found that moving to video-enabled calls with Zoom Contact Center reduced diagnosis resolution time by 10%.

7. Pull experts into customer interactions

Effective service is all about speed. If your customers are waiting to be served, or worse, having to repeat themselves over and over to multiple agents, your customer service is failing. A unified communications and contact center platform can make it easy for agents to get customers to the right subject matter expert who can effectively respond to their queries  — the first time. Add AI to the mix and the repetitive ‘Doom Loop’ can be a thing of the past thanks to AI-driven call summaries and context that can be passed to each employee the customer touches. 

One of Zoom’s customers, Vensure, discovered that the faster they can route calls to the right people, the higher the likelihood of single-call resolution. Now that every Vensure employee uses Zoom Phone, anyone can easily be added to a client call that comes in via Zoom Contact Center. This means clients can get quick access to subject matter experts across the company, who can answer their questions and resolve their issues first-hand. The result: shorter calls and fewer return callers.

8. Reduce costs with bundled pricing 

Dealing with multiple vendor bills can be complex and expensive. Consolidating all of your communications with one vendor can result in easier account management and significant savings. 

Sydney Film Festival experienced this when it moved to Zoom Phone, Zoom Contact Center, and Zoom Meetings. They could scale Zoom Phone and Zoom Contact Center up and down to respond to seasonal demand. During the festival’s core period, they saved 81% on phone bills alone. 

For more Zoom CX use cases, check out our new guide: From Meh to Memorable: 7 Unforgettable Ways to Create Memorable Customer Experiences

Looking at all of the ways UC+CC is working for businesses and helping them deliver a Total Experience to customers, it’s no wonder they’re seeing some significant impacts.

The top benefits of UC + CC integration reflect what all CX leaders are striving for:

1. Higher revenues
2. Better employee productivity
3. Improved CSAT
4. Reduced costs

Access the full infographic and speak to your internal decision-makers about why a combined UC and CC approach could be right for your business: Why move to the cloud with a UC + CC vendor in 2025.

Zoom offers unified communications and a contact center solution on one AI-first platform. By bringing your business together with Zoom, you can offer a Total Experience that has the power to transform your agents and customers into brand advocates and drive long-term growth for your business. 

Reach out today to speak with one of our experts who would be happy to talk through what Zoom CX can do for your business. 

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