Customers are clear. They demand instant access to customer support, and fast time-to-resolution for their issues no matter the time of day or location. Business communications are mission critical for delivering a competitive, differentiated customer experience, and so companies require instant access to customer support, and fast time-to-resolution when communications issues arise no matter the time of day or location.

Businesses are now selecting 8x8 over our competitors because of our superior support offerings. Throughout 2017, we continued to improve our seamless customer experience across the globe for our growing mid-market and enterprise customer base, regardless of what time of the day the customer decides to contact 8x8 Support.

Below are some of the ways 8x8 Support delivers a differentiated, world-class customer support experience that other vendors in the market are unable to match for their customers:

8x8 – Global Expansion

  • With the opening of our latest 8x8 Support Center in Singapore, this brings the total number of 8x8 support centers around the world to seven; the other six are located in San Jose, California; Reno, Nevada; Aylesbury, United Kingdom; London, United, Kingdom; Cluj, Romania; and Manila, Philippines.
  • All of these centers support our entire communications, collaboration and contact center portfolio, and operate on a 24/7 follow-the-sun strategy to serve all of our customers when they require it.
  • 8x8 owns and operates its support centers, allowing us to provide better assistance, measurement and monitoring of all cases from start to resolution.

The Competition

  • Some providers outsource support and/or hire contractors, which can result in an inconsistent support experience as agents might not have the most up-to-date information or appropriate training.
  • Some vendors claim to have multiple in-country support centers by providing local numbers which are just a direct inbound dial (DID) number that actually re-directs calls to another country or back to the home country.
  • Sometimes, these multinational phone numbers are only available during business hours and do not provide 24/7 support.

8x8 – True Omni-channel, Follow-the-Sun Support and Self-Service Portal

  • 8x8 Support is never closed. 24 hours a day, seven days a week and on holidays too. Someone at 8x8 is always ready to provide an exceptional customer experience. Our true follow-the-sun support increases the confidence of our customers as they know that somebody will be able to help them at any time and on any channel with unlimited 8x8 phone support until the case is resolved.
  • For customers looking for best practices on how to troubleshoot and resolve basic problems or that don’t need to contact our support team, we offer access to the 8x8 Self-Service Portal and Knowledge base where customers can open support cases and get a full view of all their case history and status.
  • 8x8 understands that in certain months customers will not require any assistance, but we are always ready to help no matter how many calls are needed for resolution (1, 2 or 20) or how long the calls are (10 minutes or 1 hour). 8x8 does not restrict or limit customer care based on time or number of cases, because our primary goal is resolving customer issues quickly so they can focus on running their business.

The Competition

  • Other vendors with smaller operations and fewer centers cannot offer a real follow-the-sun support. For example, a support case opened in the afternoon, US Central Time, that is not solved when the agent leaves the office might remain unsolved until the agent returns to the office the next business day.
  • Some providers claim 24/7 support, but they mainly offer chat and online support with limited locations and limited phone support hours. These vendors restrict the number of support cases and phone calls a customer can make per month. 

8x8 – Drinking Our Own Champagne in the Cloud

  • How does 8x8 achieve true 24/7, follow-the-sun global support capabilities? We drink our own Champagne, and use the same truly unified cloud communications that 8x8 customers use. A prime example is our Support is now on a single, unified 8x8 Virtual Contact Center tenant to handle the global support case flow and route cases to any of our 250 customer support agents around the world.
  • A single, unified contact center tenant is something that other vendors can’t provide. 8x8 Support seamlessly routes omni-channel cases to whichever support center is open, and all contact center managers can transparently see and track all reports and cases originated from any support center. For instance, as part of our follow-the-sun process, a case opened in US might be transferred to an agent in Singapore for continued troubleshooting. The manager in that region can administer any changes, close the case if resolved or route to another agent in London for final resolution. This helps us to solve issues for customers no matter what time the case was submitted or which in region they are located.
  • Only 8x8 Expert Connect enables customer-facing employees to access the right expert and critical data across all systems of record to provide customers with an exceptional experience over any channel the customer desires.
  • Since we own all of our technology, interactions, even those with experts outside the contact center, and regardless of channel, are tracked within our system.

The Competition

  • Vendors with limited support capabilities often operate in small and siloed regional contact centers that do not have visibility on what is happening on a global basis and in other locations. This makes it difficult to maintain consistency and stay updated on support cases that need to be handled by agents outside the original contact center. This only increases customers’ dissatisfaction and frustration.
  • Other vendors claim to offer connectivity between an agent and a non-contact center agent, however once contact is initiated, all tracking is usually lost for the interaction. This makes analysis and the ability to reference recurring issues nearly impossible.

8x8 – Global Reach Network

  • 8x8 Support is fully integrated with our 24/7 Global Reach Network Operations Center (NOC). This enable us to not only maximize uptime but also include network monitoring and diagnostic tools as part of our services.
  • We offer tools to help customers with their support issues, such as VoIP testing, network diagnostics, call quality reports, crash logs, etc. without incurring in any extra charges.

The Competition

  • Other vendors can nickel-and-dime customers and charge separate fees for these services on a monthly basis and depending on the number of locations.

When you are ready to choose a cloud service provider, always ask these questions and verify that your business needs are covered

  • Does the provider offer true 24/7 support or is it only a self-service tool to open cases anytime?
  • If my business has an emergency at 2am, when and who will be able to assist me?
  • If my support case requires more time past the business hours in my country, will someone else follow up with my ticket until it’s resolved?
  • Does the provider have the correct tools to assist my business promptly, faster and with the correct answers no matter who in the organization needs to get engaged?
  • Is a network monitoring service included in my contract or do I have to pay extra?

We’re convinced that, for our business and yours to succeed in today’s hyper-competitive, digital-first marketplace, we must be obsessed with providing exceptional customer experiences (CX) at every touchpoint.

That’s why we’re committed to empowering our support staff and experts who serve you with the tools they need to communicate, collaborate and leverage communications data to arrive at solutions to your challenges in faster and smarter ways. 24/7/365, around the globe.