How Vonage Is Rebuilding Agent Experience for a Multi-CRM, AI-Driven Era

Rob Wilkinson speaks with Rodney Hassard, Head of Product, Applications Group at Vonage, about how intelligent workspaces are reshaping the agent experience. Rodney explains why customer relationship management (CRM) fragmentation is becoming a major barrier for service teams, especially as organizations adopt more AI tools across the contact center.

He explores how agents often become “human middleware,” switching between multiple CRMs, copying and pasting data, and trying to piece together customer context in real time. That friction affects confidence, consistency, handle time, first contact resolution, and customer trust.

Rodney also discusses how the Vonage Intelligent Workspace creates a browser-based layer between engagement channels and CRM environments, connecting natively to 13 CRM platforms and giving agents a single pane of glass. He shares why real-time context is essential for AI to deliver accurate, useful recommendations, and why leaders should start with a workflow audit before investing in more technology.

Watch the full interview to learn how CX leaders can reduce agent friction, improve AI outcomes, and create a more connected service experience.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:07

Hello and welcome. I'm Rob Wilkinson, and today we're taking a closer look at how the intelligent workspace is reshaping the agent experience in the contact center. If you're challenged with fragmented tools, rising CRM complexity, or exploring AI as an opportunity to innovate, then stay with us because you'll get a practical takeaway that you can use this quarter in your business. Because I'm joined today by Rodney Hazard, Head of Product Applications Group at Vonage. He's an expert in this space. He's got a very clear view of the decisions, the risks, and the opportunities that CX leaders are facing today. Welcome, Rodney. Thank you so much for joining me. Thank you, Rob. It's great to be here and looking forward to the conversation. So, Rodney, before we kind of get into the product side of things, um, I'd just like to set the scene a little bit for the audience. You've got a really good vantage point um in your role. So, what are you seeing in contact centres right now that makes this idea of an intelligent workspace more relevant than it might have been just a couple of years ago?

SPEAKER_00 1:12

Yeah, I mean, it's it's very interesting, though. I think there's there's a few things that are converging really at the same time. And and that's you know, that convergence is is really what is making a conversation feel more urgent than than I would say aspirational. First thing is that CRM proliferation has really changed the landscape. You know, organizations are now running two, three, sometimes even four different CRMs across teams, regions, and business lines. And and the contact centre is expected to work across all of them without a thing showing the goodness to know. Um I think the second one is that AI ambition is really outpacing AI results right now. Every leader has an AI initiative, but when outcomes fall short, uh it almost always comes back to the data in the context. With you know, with AI working in a in a fragmented environment where it can't really see the full customer journey. And I think the third one is that you know headcount pressure means that you can't solve problems by adding agents. You know, budget is a constraint. So teams are being asked to do more uh with the same people. Uh and so environment, you know, the environment that agents work in has to really get smarter. So I would say together those three forces are are really driving interest in the workspace layer uh specifically. You know, it's it's no longer just about the channel stack or or the CRM, but it's more about whether these actually work together in in in real time and in the moment of a hive interaction.

SPEAKER_01 2:45

No, I uh yes, I I I mean I agree. The I've heard the fl uh the phrase uh Franken stack thrown around a lot at the moment, and I think when you think about multiple CRMs, it kind of aligns with that that vision of of just so much going on. It's it's a legacy thing, and then in our in our industry, we're terrible for it, and we've always kind of bolted stuff on. So it's time for CRM to have that issue, like you say. Um but your your you know Vonage talks to organisations who are working across lots of different CRM environments and not just one. So um, in practical terms, I guess, where does that lead uh from a complexity perspective? And what does that complexity do in terms of friction for agents um and for you know service teams on that front line on a day-to-day basis?

SPEAKER_00 3:34

Yeah, I mean I would say that you know humans are very adaptable creatures. So sometimes the friction is is usually invisible until you go look for it. Uh, and it shows up in the small things that you know agents have learned to work around. Uh you know, a typical example is an agent uh on a call, uh handling a call with a you know a sales record in one CRM uh and support history in another one. They have to navigate between two systems in real time and they have to manually carry that context uh you know while the customer is still on the line. And and that leads to things like you know, customers repeating themselves, handle times going up, uh agents finishing calls, demotivated, you know, feeling like they haven't done their best work because the really the system didn't support them. Um you know, in practice, if you take, for example, you know, Kings maybe using HubSpot alongside Microsoft Dynamics, they're supposed to deliver a joint of experience, but you know, agents really end up doing the reconciliation work by hand, whether it's screen switching, copy pasting, and and working around the grab, uh the gap, sorry. Um and I I think the the difficulty is that you know from uh from the outside it looks like a training or process problem. Uh and by the time leadership realize it's actually a workspace problem, it's already been affecting productivity and and experience uh you know for uh probably a very long time. So so I think you know those are some of the um you know some of the uh areas and friction points that that we're seeing.

SPEAKER_01 5:16

I think um I think I think you could be being generous when you say two systems at one time. I think uh we've I think there's a lot more going on, and I think but but but I I I get the point that I think uh if anything it's like that's best case scenario. Um and I've heard in uh in lots of conversations recently um basically this this concept of human middleware, which is what we're talking about here, isn't it? And it's kind of it's such a uh it's kind of a a bond that's waiting to go off if we don't do something about it. So I think you're absolutely right, and I think yeah, it's something that the workspace could do an awful lot to to kind of support if if used properly. Um so so on that side, things, when when we find that where workspace isn't doing its job properly, what what is the kind of thing that suffers first? Are we talking about speed and consistency? Is it confidence? Um, is it the customer experience that that purely gets impact, or or is there something else maybe that you know we're not aware of at the moment, but that you're seeing happen and that's getting overlooked?

SPEAKER_00 6:20

Yeah, I think you had the nail on the head there, and I think it was your second one. I think that agent confidence is really the first one that suffers. And it tends tends to get overlooked because it's very hard to show that up in dashboards. Um you know, in the metrics, you typically see handle time creeping up, first contact resolution declining. But the underlying cause is is agents starting each conversation without the context that they need, um, and navigating multiple screens just to really get their bearings about them. Um and when you talk about agents in that environment, you know, they describe it as being set up to feel, you know, even before the call comes in. They want to help the customer, but the the tool is really fighting against them, the tooling. Um so so that's that's the first one I'd say. Another one is that you know, consistency is really uh an early casualty as well. You know, when agents are improvising their way through the workflow, uh you know, one experienced agent may handle an interaction differently than perhaps a newer agent. And it's because that experienced agent knows the uh gaps in the system and how to work around them. Um I think then speed and confidence really are the foundation that everything else is built on. So when the when the workspace doesn't deliver those, the downstream metrics have to follow.

SPEAKER_01 7:45

Yeah, because it only makes sense that if an agent isn't ready or prepared or doesn't have that context, that how can they how can they deliver a great experience for the customer? They're given an uphill struggle from the very beginning, it's um yeah, and and these conversations that they're having are only getting more and more complex. They're not getting any easier because of AI is automating a lot of the easy stuff. So it's um yeah.

SPEAKER_00 8:09

Yeah, it's almost like you know, you need you need that human agent at your time of need, you know. Um and I think there's this confusion in the in the industry where you know the technology has evolved so much over the last. I mean, as I was saying earlier, it's it's the most disruptive time over my 22 years in the CX uh with AI and the tech the technology has evolved so much, but we're getting basics wrong, we're getting the underlying principles wrong. Um and and so you know that's that's hugely important to drive better experiences.

SPEAKER_01 8:47

Yeah, heaven forbid we don't prepare our teams for a new launch of technology. We'd never do that in our in our world, would we? I think you're right that it's something we have to call out because you know training and and and adapting and and considering the way the roles are evolving is so important when taking advantage of all the different technology that's available, that without doing that, you end up just like you said, you was it set that set them up for failure? Why would anybody want to do that? So let's let's look at this from a kind of um a leader's perspective. You speak to uh like multiple leaders all the time who are considering the these options and and and experiencing these uh issues every single day. So at what point do they realize that it's not just a tooling thing? Um, but actually there's something is you know impacting the productivity, that the you know the quality of the service is is is actually um suffering in a more serious way?

SPEAKER_00 9:47

Yeah, I mean it's it's a great question. Actually, uh I I would say usually it takes a trigger. Um and and that trigger is almost always an external one. So it could be a customer satisfaction score falling below a threshold, could be an attrition spike on the agent team, or or could even be a competitor move that that really prompts a proper look at operational performance. And you know, when leaders do start looking, they they usually find the evidence was always there. Uh you know, handle time data was telling them something, quality scores and multi-channel interactions were maybe weaker than in voice-only, uh, and and top performing agents were the ones who had figured out really personal workarounds, as I mentioned earlier. Um so I guess the shift from we have a tooling problem to this is a strategic issue tends to happen when you know when someone calculates uh what the fragmented environment is actually costing. Um you know, handle time improvements alone at scale uh really represent significant operational savings. Um, you know, when you frame the workspace conversation in in those terms, it stops being an IT project and really becomes uh probably a business priority.

SPEAKER_01 11:09

Yeah, it's an interesting point. And I I like that um you talk about the kind of more experienced agents having that kind of a little bit of res not resilience but um ability to cope better be purely because of the experience they've got of having to find their own workarounds before. I everyone who's been in a contact center knows that there are those people that have been there for ages and they're the kind of go-to people for questions. They're the people that should be being introduced to drive this context to help at the beginning build that context uh so that their knowledge is shared across all the other teams, right?

SPEAKER_00 11:47

Yeah, so they're they become the kind of change leaders, if you like. Um, you know, this is about taking their experience uh and their learnings and their you know, and and really using those to shape the future of kind of what good looks like and in fact what greatness looks like, not just good, um, both from uh an Asian perspective, but but also from an end customer perspective, even before they reach the agent. So I think these guys have you know huge amounts of of experience and knowledge that that can really be leveraged to um to drive the next generation of of you know customer experience and and and and these guys need to be rewarded for doing that.

SPEAKER_01 12:28

And and it it backs up your point around prep preparing properly, doesn't it? It's all about you know that resource, that knowledge exists in the business. But if you don't engage them before you roll the uh a platform out or a program out, you're missing a massive trick. And um, yeah, I well it's easy when for us to say, and and you know, it's easy on paper, but you know, there's there's obviously you know there's reasons why that happens. Now, what what what I'd like to dig into a little bit around and is because um von IG's intelligent workspace uh sits at quite an interesting position here because it's it's a standalone product, but one designed to work across multiple CRM environments. So there's got to be what's the thinking behind that approach? Because it's quite different, and and and why do you think that kind of flexibility right now especially so is important?

SPEAKER_00 13:18

Yeah, I mean we talked uh earlier about fragmented systems and data. Um, and really the honest answer and the reason why we we built intelligent workspace was was really in response to what customers were telling us about the real environments. So, you know, we we we we listened to our customers and we let them drive the solution. Um it's interesting because for a long time contact center solutions were were built around the assumption of a single CRM. You choose it, you build your contact center around it, and the integration uh is a one-to-one relationship. And that worked well for a certain era, but you know, what customers have told us is that that word really no longer exists. You know, there's there's kind of a best of breed mindset here where a company might run Salesforce for Sales and ServiceNow for IT and Zendesk for customer support. And we have lots of customers that that do that. And you might ask the question, well, why not have one? And and and it comes back to my best of breed point earlier, where one uh is not going to you know meet the requirements of of all of the needs across those different domains. And um and they need a contact center that works across all three without forcing them to standardizing one. So so we built intelligent workspace really as a standalone browser-based layer that sits between the engagement channels and whatever CRM environments are in play. You know, it connects to 13 different CRM platforms natively, including Salesforce ServiceNow, Dynamics, HubSpods, End Desk, etc. And really it's a single unified workspace. Think of it as a single pane of glass for your agents, irrespective of where that data or CRM comes from. Um and I think the that flexibility matters now because again, we are at a uh a moment of significant market disruption, um, and organizations are really reassessing their CRM strategy. I mean, I was reading uh only yesterday that actually a customer had a very well-known CRM and and and they took it out and they vide-coded their own. Um and so this is the type of disruption we're seeing in the industry. Uh and if you know, if if we can give those customers a single pane of glass uh and decouple that from the data layer or the CRM layer, then I think it protects uh the investment that they make in their data in CRM and also their you know their agent experience.

SPEAKER_01 15:57

Which is which is yeah, equally important. Um and we know that the agent experience drives customer experience, so they all go hand in hand and and and uh looking after each other. So yeah, and it goes back to that that prepared piece again, not to labour that point, but you know, we have an opportunity to get these things right, so let's let's do what we can, everything we can to make sure we get these things right. Um you you mentioned there that it's very disruptive at the moment, and you know, we've all we've we've we've also got uh CRM tools becoming you know telephony platforms and all sorts of things, but that's a another conversation for another day, probably. But that you there's so much noise in the market around AI now, it's easy to get distracted and it's easily not to kind of focus. And I think you're right, it's it's really important that we do now because otherwise we're kind of gonna try and do too many things at the same time. So, from your point of view, what does AI actually need from the workspace, the workflow, the surrounding context that we talked about? Um, you know, so if it's going to be genuinely useful, you know, not just another layer on the screen, but but actually useful, and you know, you said that is what its intentions to be. So let's get focused for our audience. What what what should people what how how does that look? What does that need to be?

SPEAKER_00 17:13

Yeah, I think AI needs really three things that contact you know, contact centres often don't have in place yet. Uh uh and without them, you know, the best AI and the best models will will underdeliver. Um so the first is real-time context and data. And it's not just about historical data from from two days ago, but it's a live view of who the customer is, what they have already done, and even in this interaction and what their their their what the state of their account is right now. So it's about that real-time context because you know what I call partial picture AI uh produces suggestions that agents can't trust and and and will stop using. So I think real-time it has to start with data and it has to be real-time. Um they also need workflow integration. You know, AI that surfaces a suggestion in the panel uh that the agent has to manually act on while simultaneously managing the conversation and navigating the CRM is really adding cognitive load rather than reducing it. And that that cognitive load should be spent on empathy, it should be spent on solving the customer's problem as opposed to navigating tools. And and I would say it's it's about consistency across channels and systems. So, you know, one of the ways AI feels in fragmented environments is that it has been set up for one channel or one CRM. And the moment that the interaction moves, the AI loses the thread. So, you know, I think the honest m message here is that the quality of your AI outputs is really a function of the quality of your workspace, your data, and your workflow architecture. And um you know, investing in in models without fixing the environment they sit on uh isn't really going to get you to where you want to be let's uh let's cut to the crux of things then.

SPEAKER_01 19:09

So if a contact center leader is trying to assess right now whether they're moving towards a better workspace model, what are the early signs that if if it was you that you'd be looking for? Um and what's a kind of practical piece of advice or next step that you'd give them to kind of put into practice?

SPEAKER_00 19:29

Yeah, so I'll look at it both ways. I mean, the the early signs that things are moving in the right direction are agents are starting interactions with customer context already visible, and supervisors are able to see what is happening across interactions in real time and and AI features are actually being used, so it's about adoption and not just availability. You know, there's lots of vendors out there today that will provide AI features and and say they're they're kind of AI companies, but they're not actually being used. So one of the things we do is really track adoption of AI features. Um then on the flip side, I guess the early warning signs that things aren't moving in the uh uh in that direction. Uh handle times aren't improving despite tooling investment, quality scores are varying significantly across agents and channels. And probably you know AI features again are being switched on, but not really making a measurable difference. Uh so I'd say my tactical advice for for this quarter in particular is uh look start with a workflow audit before buying anything new, walk through the interaction journey from the moment a call or chat arrives to the moment it closes, and map every point where an agent has to switch context, where they have to search manually, or where they have to carry information from one system to another by hand. And you know, that map will really tell you exactly where the friction is, uh, and it'll show you how much of your current trillion investment is being undermined by really the gaps in between. So once you know where the gaps are, the conversation really becomes about the the workspace layer uh uh and makes it much more concrete and much easier justified in the business. Um, you know, s one of our uh customers I was talking to the other day, and they were using intelligent workspace, and they they mentioned to me that their postcall wrap-up time is reduced by 43% because of the intelligent workspace and on some of the AI features that we have inside of that workspace, and that has a significant impact, you know. Um not just from uh uh an ancient morale and confidence point of view, but also from an efficiency and savings point of view, a productivity point of view. So um yeah, I I think that would be my tactical advice for kind of what's working well, what's not, and what the next steps are.

SPEAKER_01 22:02

That's amazing. 43%'s uh uh a huge figure. Um, but I can see the art of the possible there when you consider you know where this technology is today and how much more reliable it is now. Um and like you say, it's it's not uh it's not slowing down, it's only getting better. Um I literally could talk about this all day. Uh Rodley, thank you so much for your clarity, your perspective that you're giving it. I'm sure our audience will take a lot away from this. If they want to learn kind of any more about this topic or or about Vonage, where should they go?

SPEAKER_00 22:36

Um reach out, vonics.com or look, reach out to me directly on LinkedIn if if you're interested. Um happy to have the conversation. And uh to your point, Rob, we could talk about this all day long. Um I think it's a fascinating uh CX uh as we know it you know today is it's is much different, I think, than than than years ago when we talk about the technology. Uh but I think the same business problems exist. Um and those same problems need to be solved in maybe in slightly different ways. But uh, we could talk all day with CX and AI and uh I'd be happy to. So reach out on LinkedIn or contact us through Vontage.com Thank you so much.

SPEAKER_01 23:20

Uh and do do that. Um I think for me um a few lessons stand out from this conversation. I think first, the the workspace itself, yeah, you know, it's becoming actually a point of competition, a competitive competitive difference, even um, especially in contact center world. Um I secondly, CRM complexity, uh it's not an edge case anymore, it's reality. Many teams are dealing with it today. That you've just pointed out loads of examples of where that kicks in. Um and also um AI only becomes useful if the surrounding workflow and context are actually properly joined up. So getting that those is kind of foundations right as to your point again, uh Rodney, is yeah, so so important. Um we are gonna give people uh an opportunity to deep dive on this a little bit more because uh we're gonna be uh publishing a couple of additional articles uh very soon uh in this series where we'll be looking at ones around why so many contact centers are still paying for these integrations that they're kind of not really using or don't work properly anymore. And we're also gonna look at um what AI actually needs in order to be useful in a live contact center environment. We're gonna dig deeper on those and we'll be sharing some links on those uh on the website. So that's all coming. Watch this space. But for now, and that that's all we've got time for for today. So I'm Rob Wilkinson, and thank you so much for watching.