The Challenge
The legacy contact centre infrastructure was struggling to meet modern customer expectations. Key challenges included:
- Scalability issues during peak periods like holidays and irregular operations
- Siloed systems requiring agents to toggle between multiple applications
- Limited AI capabilities for automated customer service
- High operational costs with aging on-premises infrastructure
The Solution
We designed and implemented a cloud-native contact centre platform built on Amazon Connect, with AI capabilities powered by Amazon Lex and a serverless backend architecture.
Key Architectural Components
Intelligent IVR: Natural language understanding enables customers to describe their needs in their own words, routing to the right resource without frustrating menu trees.
Agent Desktop Integration: A unified interface pulling data from booking, loyalty, and customer history systems—reducing average handle time and improving agent satisfaction.
Real-time Analytics: Streaming data to a data lake enables operational dashboards and feeds machine learning models for continuous improvement.
Automated Rebooking: During irregular operations, customers can complete rebooking through automated channels, reducing queue times for those who need human assistance.
Results
- 30% reduction in cost per contact
- 25% improvement in first-call resolution
- 40% of routine inquiries handled through automation
- Scalable infrastructure that handled 3x normal volume during major disruptions
Technical Decisions
The project involved numerous architectural decisions documented in ADRs. Key choices included:
- Serverless compute (Lambda) for business logic to eliminate scaling concerns
- Event-driven architecture using EventBridge for system integration
- Infrastructure as Code with AWS CDK for reproducible environments
- Multi-region deployment for disaster recovery and latency optimization
Lessons Learned
- Start with a narrow scope and expand incrementally
- Invest heavily in data quality and integration
- Agent adoption is as important as technical architecture
- Build observability in from day one