Today people want to be able to reach companies quickly and have their problems solved right away, on whichever channel they most prefer – whether that is chat, voice or email.
Contact centres allow this and play a vital role in how businesses handle inbound and outbound comms.
So what makes a successful contact centre? Here are 5 suggestions from our team.
Contact Centre as a Service (CCaaS)
In the past contact centres have been thought of as expensive to run, and complex which can have a negative impact on customer experience. Enter Contact Centre as a Service. CCaaS solutions give businesses the ability to run a virtual contact centre where everything is completely cloud-based – it doesn’t matter where your customer’s teams are working.
All the tools your customer’s agents might need are in one piece of software. This includes call monitoring and recording, video meetings, instant messaging and more. These platforms also have built in automation features to take care of repetitive tasks like updating databases, this means more time can be spent looking after their clients.
CCaaS solutions are also scalable – your customers only pay for the features they need and can easily add more agents to the system as their contact centre grows. Plus, as consumers continue to embrace new channels for communication, the CCaaS space will ensure they can keep up with client demands.
Cloud contact centres are up to 27% cheaper than traditional ones.
Omnichannel is the way to go
Cloud-based contact centre solutions support omnichannel experiences, this means that your customers can meet clients wherever they are most comfortable – phone, email, video chat, WhatsApp or Facebook messaging.
Agents can pick up and respond to questions or requests coming from various channels, their clients will get faster responses and in a way that’s most convenient for them. This not only saves time and resources but provides valuable insight into customer data to improve their overall customer experience.
Today most people are connected on some kind of social media – and this is the place where customers want to engage in conversation. Through an omnichannel service, you can provide a quicker and better experience – clients aren’t always able to wait in a queue to speak to an agent and want an instant response.
Intelligent reporting
Your customer’s contact centre doesn’t only need to support an omnichannel environment, but also should be intelligent, providing the necessary information and reporting features.
Intelligent routing for both voice and email connects their customer interactions to the agent they last spoke to, or the best one based on skills – not only solving issues more quickly, but also matching your customer’s agent to the client they can help the most.
To have all the information for your customer’s contact centre to be successful, it should easily integrate with their CRM and provide advanced reporting features. Especially for SMEs, reporting is always a key concern.
Artificial Intelligence
While many businesses are moving to cloud-based contact centres, many are not yet taking advantage of AI. AI can go a long way in creating lasting customer relationships. It allows your customers to provide personalised support, better understand client needs and resolve issues quicker.
AI can analyse usage data – keeping their contact centre running smoothly. It can give them real-time insight into each client’s preferences, so they can understand client needs before they pick up the phone.
Access customer feedback, engagement history, and demographic data so your customers know the best way to respond. On top of this, AI can undertake sentiment analysis – looking at the way your customers clients are typing (fast or slow), the type of language they’re using (aggressive/agreeable) and more.
Customers prefer self-service
Gartner has found that 70% of clients are using self-service channels at some point during their journey to find a solution to their problem. This suggests that most clients who look for help from a business would prefer to solve it on their own if possible.
Customer contact centres should aim to enhance self-service capabilities – such as advanced chatbots, IVRs (Interactive Voice Response) and virtual assistants capable of responding to a host of questions. Self-service options need to be as intuitive as possible. Providing more options for people to easily find answers to their questions can cultivate happier, more loyal customers.
If you're not offering Contact Centre as a Service (CCaaS), your customers could be looking for a provider who does. Partnering with Onecom Partners to sell Five9 solutions not only enhances your product offering but also solidifies your customer relationships and minimises the risk of your customers engaging with competitors, helping to protect your existing revenues.
For more information, please don’t hesitate to contact your Partner Business Manager or email our team at Five9@onecompartners.co.uk.
