Share your experience using Avaya Workforce Engagement

We are using it as the IVR system for our reservation and information center for all of our outlets in the United States and Canada. We use it to take reservations. We use a platform that they installed for us called SecurePay where guests can provide credit card information through the phone system to alleviate any PCI compliance issues that we may have had because we were taking credit cards ourselves.

I have had an amazing time with Five9. I have been with the company for almost 25 years, so I have cycled through multiple solutions. Five9 may have been our fourth provider since I have been here. The part that I liked about them is the ease of development. They have this amazing developer and engineer on their side by the name of Ramzi. He was amazing from the moment he began working with us. The ease of development for them for the IVR system itself was amazing, and then the follow-up, the calls, the check-ins, and everything else during the development process were amazing for me. After we went live, we have had very few issues. We have had a couple of issues where we had some downtime, but they were rectified quickly. We are satisfied with what we have seen. With our last provider, we did have some issues where we had more downtime than expected. It might not be long, but 15 to 20 minutes of any downtime could cause issues with us. The IVR has been very easy to use.

In terms of its time to value, everything is a learning curve. We were fast, but because of COVID, we had to shut down our cell center. By the time we were starting to go live again with Five9, we were ramping up our center again. It was probably something that we started to enjoy more and more as we began to get more staffed up.

Five9 has probably helped increase agent productivity. I do not have true numbers that I could tie to that, but overall, agent ratings, from the observations that we have done, have gone up. That is because of the fact that we have the ability to let agents listen to their phone calls, view what they are doing, and hear what guests are saying. We can definitely give them feedback on things that could make the process quicker for them, speak better with the guests, or get to the point more.

Five9 has not helped to reduce dropped calls in our call center.

Five9 has not helped our contact center improve its relevance to our organization. We just built the program to what we had prior. The enhancements have definitely helped, but I am not sure if it has improved the relevance. The relevance has always been there and stayed there. I have not seen any increase.

Five9 has slightly improved our customer satisfaction score (CSAT). It could be because, with our last platform, it was a bit more challenging to go through the process. They might have seen some improvement in that. There is also improvement in the way we take credit card information. They feel there is more security in that without having to give us their information. That has definitely been an improvement for us from a guest standpoint.

I like the capability of call and screen recording. It has helped us to hold our agents accountable to the expectations for the role. It creates a clearer picture than giving feedback that is just based on calls that we may have listened to, but we do not have anything to show the agents themselves.

The knowledge base of their support is not as strong as the IVR build. 

We went live with the system in January of 2023, but we have been working with them since August of 2022 in terms of developing what we were going to roll out.

We had issues at one point, but it had to do with an update that they were doing. I do not know what happened, but we were down for about a day and a half. It was due to some update they did where they transferred us to another server host or something like that. Other than that, we have not had any issues. I would still rate them very high.

I have been happy with it. We have not had any issues. It has been easy, but IT can give more feedback on that one.

There have been some situations where we have had to ask for help from their help desk. At times, I feel that their knowledge base is not the same that we received during the development process with the engineer where he knew from front to back how to deal with things. I had requested something as simple as bulk recording updates for all of our locations, and their support was telling me that they have to do that one by one. Imagine having 500 stores and updating two recordings for each store. It would be a thousand recordings. They were saying that they could not be bulk updated, which I found very hard to believe with this company because they have such a great history of being on the cutting edge of everything. Frustration was definitely there for me, and after pushing back on several different people, I finally got somebody who said, "Let me look into it. I think that we can do this." In the end, they were able to, but it was crazy to me that I was explaining to a support person what I was looking to do and how. Even going further, how do I currently load recordings into the platform? That was a very frustrating part to me, but it has gotten much better.

Pros and cons are definitely there for every platform. I also want to give props to support because they have been amazing during the click-to-chat platform integration with us. We did not have time to do the training with Five9. We just ran out of time through the contracted time limit. When we went live with it, it was just me saying try this or try that, and the support was amazing. They took so much time with me to help me walk through processes. They helped to make sure that what I was going live with was something that not only our guests could use. It was also something our agents could execute properly in conversation with the guest. That was amazing.

Overall, I would rate their support an 8 out of 10.

Positive

We did not necessarily have problems with our last provider. They just did not have as much technology in their system as Five9 has. We were interested in the IVR platform. We were interested in click-to-chat and the platform for workforce management, recording calls, and screen recording with those calls. All these were technologies that we were interested in getting, but we did not have the availability with our last provider.

We have completely switched to Five9. I am not sure if we have saved any money by switching to Five9. I do not deal with the accounting part of it. It is for our IT department.

It is deployed in the cloud. Its initial deployment was extremely easy.

Its maintenance is minimal. It is required if we want to update recordings, change hours of operations, or need to shut down during inclement weather days.

We had a platform engineer who worked with us when we were deploying it. After the deployment, we have been utilizing their support more.

We had about 4 people involved in its deployment, which included myself and some IT roles.

I had an advantage when I went to a new platform because I had done this transition prior. I kept good notes, and I was able to provide a clear and concise picture of what I was expecting to get at the time of launch. In any call center, when you transition from one phone system to the other, you have to do that in a seamless way with no issues. Working with them, being prepared, and knowing what I wanted, what I currently had, and what they needed to be able to provide me on day one helped to deploy the product with zero issues. We had no issues at all. I would advise having all of your ducks in a row.

We did not use the Agent Assist feature, which is an AI-powered software offered by Five9. We have used some of the Five9 WorkForce Optimization features but not at a scale where we use it on a daily basis.

We are planning on looking into integrating it with CRM, but it is not something that we have done right now. We have recently launched the click-to-chat pro platform with Five9 and integrated that into our website. That is the most recent integration that we have had.

I would rate Five9 a strong 9 out of 10.

We use Genesys Cloud CX to facilitate customer interactions and gather feedback. Agents request feedback from customers through evaluation forms, which include ratings and comments on the interaction. Supervisors monitor conversations and provide coaching based on the feedback received. This helps improve agent performance and overall customer satisfaction.

The main benefits of Genesys Cloud for our company are its advanced features, ease of use, and comprehensive functionality. It simplifies customer engagement compared to on-premise solutions, offering everything in a single application. Integration is straightforward, covering various channels like chat, SMS, and email, along with robust routing options and extensive reporting capabilities. Additionally, features for supervisors, like gamification, enhance management capabilities.

There are several valuable features in Genesys Cloud. Firstly, its comprehensive single application includes everything from reporting to IVR and workflows. Secondly, the default workflows provided, like callback and survey flows, are handy. Thirdly, the reporting and quality management features help in monitoring and improving agent performance. Lastly, the easy integration process, including with third-party applications through Genesys AppFoundry, is a big plus.

One area for improvement in Genesys Cloud is providing users with more autonomy in troubleshooting and accessing logs. Currently, users are dependent on Genesys support for detailed analysis and root cause identification, which can be limiting. Allowing users more administrative access to logs and troubleshooting tools would enable them to diagnose issues independently and provide faster resolution to clients. This would enhance user experience and reduce dependency on Genesys support for every troubleshooting instance.

I have been working with Genesys Cloud CX for three years.

Genesys Cloud's stability is generally reliable, especially with its redundant network setup. In case of primary server issues, backup servers can quickly take over, ensuring minimal downtime. Additionally, if both primary and backup servers are down, a disaster recovery option is available, typically located in a different geographical region.

Genesys Cloud offers excellent scalability and is user-friendly, making it easy for new users to join and learn. I would rate it at a perfect ten out of ten for ease of scalability.

Genesys support is reliable and responsive. I would rate them as a ten out of ten.

Positive

Before Genesys Cloud, I worked with Genesys Engage, the on-premise product that was the predecessor to the cloud version. Many companies, including telecom, banking, and insurance, relied on Genesys Engage for their business needs. However, with the market shift towards cloud-based solutions, Genesys is phasing out the on-premise product, making cloud-based solutions like Genesys Cloud the new standard.

In my experience, the deployment of Genesys Cloud was relatively easy compared to on-premise solutions. However, it depends on the project's complexity and budget. Typically, a team of specialists is involved, including IVR, reporting, support, and business development experts. The team size varies based on project requirements and can range from one person to multiple specialists.

Genesys is fully deployed in the cloud. With the cloud product, everything is integrated into one single application, making deployment and integration much simpler. Unlike the on-premise product, which requires separate applications for different functions like IVR, reporting, routing, and databases, the cloud version consolidates everything into one platform.

Genesys Cloud requires ongoing maintenance, especially if there are change requests from the client side. For example, if the client wants to expand their business to include social media or multimedia channels, or if they request additional features like outbound calling or web messaging, maintenance personnel are needed to implement these changes.

Genesys offers three types of licensing: CX One, CX Two, and CX Three. The pricing varies based on the number of agents in my contact center, with lower costs for fewer agents and higher costs for larger teams. This flexible pricing structure allows me to scale my expenses according to my needs. Compared to the previous on-premise product, which required purchasing a single license regardless of agent count, Genesys Cloud's licensing model offers me more cost flexibility.

The benefits of Genesys Cloud became evident right after we started using it, especially with its flexible licensing options tailored to our needs. For instance, with options like CX One, CX Two, and CX Three licenses, we can scale features based on our agent capacity and contact center requirements. This flexibility ensures we only pay for what we need, whether it is basic inbound capabilities or advanced features like quality management and workforce management.

My advice for new users of Genesys is to familiarize themselves with the basic tasks and troubleshooting procedures. Sharing documentation and providing training can help them get up to speed quickly. As for recommending Genesys to others, absolutely—I believe it is one of the fastest-growing technologies globally.

Overall, I would rate Genesys Cloud CX as a ten out of ten.