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Mosaicx Executive Interview

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Rebecca Jones, President of Mosaicx, discusses their product strategy with Sheri Greenhaus, Managing Partner at CrmXchange. Jones highlights Mosaicx's focus on human-centric customer interactions, revealing insights from their recent workshop on AI's impact on contact centers. They explore the need for mental wellness support for agents and the evolving role of professionals in contact centers. Both emphasize the importance of destigmatizing contact center work and adapting to the changing landscape of customer conversations.

Sheri Greenhaus: Let’s talk about what is new to Mosaicx since our last discussion. 

Rebecca Jones: We were incredibly honored to be named runner-up among some truly innovative companies nominated for the CCW Excellence Awards.

This year, we launched Mosaicx360, a fully integrated ecosystem of products across our portfolio. This includes Mosaicx Engage, our IVA product; Mosaicx Outreach, an AI-driven campaign and messaging tool; Insights360, an end-to-end analytics tool; and Advisor, which provides professional service expertise and tools to evolve CX operations.

This ecosystem of products works together to offer our contact centers unparalleled issue resolution and customer satisfaction. We’re thrilled to have moved from individual products to a fully functional, integrated brand approach. This integration stems from our 30 years of experience in the space and the exceptional talent within our organization, who truly understand the contact center landscape and its challenges. We've designed our products to address the specific problems these businesses face.

About seven years ago, West acquired a company with patents on a product that monitored both sides of a call – the consumer side and the IVA side. Initially, it was an underutilized standalone product. Over the past year, we’ve fully integrated it as Insights360 and positioned it as a powerful cost-saving tool. For instance, we implemented it with a large financial company, achieving a full ROI in eight weeks and finding $700,000 in savings within two weeks. They made the necessary changes and fully funded their initial spend in eight weeks. Now, they’re expanding our product to other parts of their business.

Sheri: How did they save money?  

Rebecca: They had a custom-built internal IVA and lacked the ability to understand the full customer experience. They aimed to improve customer experience, CSAT, NPS scores, and identify cost-saving opportunities. We provided them with a comprehensive view of the experience, including the consumer's perspective. We offer intent analysis on the caller, identifying moments of frustration or satisfaction, and highlight areas in their IVA that may need evaluation. This has been very eye-opening for this customer.

This past year, we also launched our Expert product, which leverages generative AI. We will continue to integrate it into our full ecosystem. We see Mosaicx360 as an opportunity to leverage AI and generative AI across all our products, enhancing customer experiences through various channels and modes our customers prefer, such as chat, SMS, and voice.

Sheri: How do you compare to other companies? 

Rebecca: Our differentiation lies in our extensive experience. Many of our team members have worked in contact centers or closely with them, which gives us a unique perspective. Our company originated from a contact center solution within West Technologies Group, so we have people with firsthand experience in that environment. When West pivoted away from the actual contact center operations but kept the IVA/IVR technology component, it set the stage for our future. Two years ago, we moved everything from old legacy data centers to the cloud, which allowed us to scale the business and transition to a true AI-driven SaaS model. Just before completing this migration, I joined the team and saw the need for strategic changes.

We’ve also established our Customer Advisory Board, holding kickoff meetings and investing in listening to our customers. This helps us shape our products to better suit their needs. We’ve intentionally ensured diverse attendance on our advisory board, making our discussions well-rounded and insightful.

We’ve hosted smaller exchange meetings and workshops, focusing on topics like generative AI and conversational AI. These sessions have been great learning opportunities, providing insights into the market and helping our salespeople understand how our products fit into different business contexts.

Our strategy focuses on further integrating AI into our products and staying responsive to market changes. A key challenge is distinguishing between what is a temporary trend and what will contribute meaningfully to the future of the contact center space. Initially, there was a rush to plug AI everywhere, with promises of replacing call center agents and saving costs. Many vendors built chatbots, calling them AI solutions. We took a different approach. We believe that a chatbot platform alone isn't the answer. Consumers may not accept it universally, although there are specific use cases where it fits. We saw competitors fully investing in chatbots as their primary product, but we decided to focus on integrating technology into contact centers to enhance rather than replace human interaction.

We had a critical conversation with our CEO and board about our identity as a company. Are we a contact center killer aiming to replace contact centers, or are we a partner? I believe there will always be a need for human interaction at some level. Our goal is to optimize both the employee and customer experience across the ecosystem. We aim to build technology solutions that integrate smoothly and humanely, enhancing the conversational component to feel more lifelike and natural. We're also focused on reducing AI hallucination and maintaining a balance between technology and the human touch.

Sheri: While there is a lot of discussion around bots, sometimes you just need to talk to a human. 

Rebecca: Exactly. Sometimes, speaking to a human can make you feel better and more effective in achieving your goals. It's not just about flipping a switch to talk to a person; it's about the emotional connection and the ability to influence decisions through conversation. Text can feel cold, whereas a conversation is more dynamic and personal. Interestingly, at our last workshop in St. Louis, attendees discussed how generative AI is changing contact centers. The goal is often to eliminate easy calls, but this leaves agents handling only complex, stressful conversations. For instance, two companies—one in healthcare and one in banking—have hired Chief Wellness Officers to focus on the health and well-being of their contact center agents. These agents are 85% more stressed than before implementing AI because every call they handle is difficult.

Studies suggest that handling simpler tasks, like password resets, provides mental breaks for agents, helping them reset between more challenging calls. Without these easier tasks, agents move from one stressful situation to another, leading to burnout. Traditional breaks are insufficient for managing this stress, so these companies are implementing wellness programs. For example, in the healthcare sector, agents receive funny emojis every 15 minutes, creating brief, lighthearted breaks.

Although this may seem like lost productivity in a traditional call center model, modern AI-driven solutions reduce call volume, allowing agents to spend more time on each call.

Sheri: It's a different kind of agent too. Maybe you need people with specific skills or backgrounds. 

Rebecca: Absolutely. One company found they needed to hire analyst-level employees for their contact center. However, attracting college graduates to work in a call center is challenging. It's a cultural and psychological issue; how do you encourage professionals to see the value in these roles?

The nature of conversations with customers is evolving, requiring a more thoughtful approach. This evolution is happening across the industry, with some companies adapting quickly while others take a more gradual approach. The spectrum of adoption is broad, and we need to destigmatize contact center work.

It will be interesting to see how these changes unfold over the next year.