Recently, Amazon Connect expanded its offering to Europe, in the Frankfurt AWS Region.  Previously, Amazon Connect was only available in the in the US East and Asia Pacific regions.  When we think of AWS, many of us technologists begin to think of instances hosting our applications in the cloud.  The fact of the matter is AWS is a lot more than just a hosting platform.

What is Amazon Connect?

Amazon Connect is a service offering of AWS’ aimed at customers service centers.  Amazon has taken the technology it uses at its own customer service centers, and made it into a product.  It isn’t just for large organizations such as Amazon, any size organization can take advantage of Amazon’s expertise and deploy Amazon Connect.  As a bonus, Amazon Connect also recently became PCI compliant.

AWS boasts its ease of use as a core feature of Amazon Connect.  Amazon Connect uses a pay as you go model, and can easily be launched from the AWS Management Console.  To truly show prospective customers that Amazon Connect is the best solution for them, AWS provides access to a number of features for free during the first 12 months of use.  For example, this includes the use of a local number for use with the service, and free usage.  Amazon Connect is billed by the time callers are connected to the system, you can find more information about Amazon Connect pricing here.

After launching Amazon Connect through the AWS Management console, users simply need to set up a phone number, and create queues.  They can also create prompts to be used when a customer calls their center.  Because it is hosted on the AWS platform, it can easily be scaled as necessary, for example, during holiday seasons and promotional events.  The system has the ability to scale up and down as needed, and natively uses multiple Availability Zones across supported AWS regions.

Amazon Connect can also ensue your customer is easily able to connect to the customer service agent best suited to their request.  Within the system, each agent is assigned a profile, which includes the areas they are equipped to service.  Queues may be assigned to multiple agents based on their profiles, ensuring calls are answered in a timely fashion.  Metrics are also available within the system to ensure customer satisfaction, and optimal agent utilization.  Calls may also be recorded to ensure quality and for training purposes.

Meet Amazon Lex

Amazon Connect also features integration with Amazon Lex.  Think of Amazon Lex as Alexa’s older sibling.  Amazon Lex is the next generation of chatbots, and leverages deep learning technologies to respond to customer queries, and automate processes.  Amazon Lex is used by a number of customers from phone companies, to credit card companies, to NASA.

Amazon Lex integrates into the core workflows of Amazon Connect, and can easily be implemented in the Amazon Connect Management Console.  It is important to note Amazon Lex is only available in the Northern Virginia AWS region at this time.

Full Service for the Modern Customer

By combining technologies like Amazon Connect and Amazon Lex, organizations can provide full service for their customers and leverage cutting edge technologies to do so.  This ability can be make or break for small organizations.  Something which used to take months and months of careful planning can now be deployed on AWS within minutes.  Customer service agents can access Amazon Connect from anywhere with an internet connection.  Services such as these allow organizations to focus on innovation within their core business areas, rather than wasting more time and energy than needed on keeping their lights on.