Remaining competitive in the modern marketplace means more than having a great service or product. With an abundance of choices, buyers now value a pleasant customer experience more than ever.
Of course, strong customer relationships result from good communication. One way to ensure that is with reliable contact center phone software that enables your sales and support teams to attend to clients effectively.
The challenge you face is that you have an endless number of options to choose from. Simplify your decision with this handy guide that explains which particular contact center software is right for you.
Key Takeaways:
- Find cloud-based contact center phone software with omnichannel functionality and a user-friendly interface.
- Your contact center should have easy-to-manage interactive voice response, skill-based routing, comprehensive analytics, and custom reports.
- State-of-the-art security and artificial intelligence are other indispensable contact center features.
Contact Center Phone Software: What It Does for You
Contact center phone software brings the old-school call center into the 21st century. The platform complements your business phone service to allow you to handle heavy call volumes with a team of agents, whether for inbound or outbound communications. With a single low-cost subscription, you’re able to automate and manage these services easier than ever.
How To Pick Contact Center Phone Software: 10 Important Features
You should only seriously consider a contact center phone software provider that can deliver the following features.
1. Cloud-Based VoIP
Establishing a productive contact center doesn’t require you to lease an office and hire a team of agents in one location to work in a cubicle farm. Cloud-based Voice over Internet Protocol technology gives you access to your business’s phone service worldwide as long as you have internet access.
As a result, you don’t have to install or maintain any local hardware. You get optimal mobility, flexibility, and cost savings everywhere.
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2. Omnichannel Functionality
You have to be able to connect with customers through more than the phone. Nowadays, you often need text, email, or video to resolve issues.
Fortunately, modern contact center phone software handles more than voice calls. You have all digital channels working together in one platform for better customer service. Also, your dashboard keeps all of your communications with a client in a single file for easy reference, no matter the communication channels a person uses.
3. Easy IVR
You don’t need to hire a receptionist to receive and route calls. Contact center phone software with interactive voice response accepts a dial tone or voice input so callers can select a menu option.
As a result, customers can quickly reach the right person or department. They can also handle self-service, such as payments or getting account information.
However, you shouldn’t need an advanced degree to install or adjust your IVR. A customer-focused communications provider makes sure it’s easy for you to change your menus and recordings whenever you want.
4. Intuitive Dashboard
No longer do you have to call a technician or support staff to assign permissions to your employees or make service adjustments. Your administrative dashboard does it all, so verify that your contact center interface is pleasant to use.
Also, check that frontline agents can navigate the dashboard easily. Call routing, transferring, and power dialing should be straightforward from the console.
5. Automatic Call Recording
Your contact center phone software helps you stay compliant with regulations as well as monitor agent activity with automatic call-recording capabilities. You don’t even need any extra software or devices.
Call recording also allows you to review calls for quality assurance and training. This feature also facilitates voicemail-to-text and voicemail-to-email features for greater efficiency.
6. Skill-Based Routing
Take your customer service up a notch by enhancing your IVR with skill-based call routing. You could have callers go to the first available agent, but that individual might not have the experience or qualifications to handle a particular issue.
With intelligent routing, callers select the reason they’re reaching out, and your system only forwards them to agents with the expertise to handle their issues. This tool is one more way to cut wait times, boost efficiency, and improve first-call resolution rates.
7. AI Enhancements
Artificial intelligence can’t fully replace your agents, but it can enhance their work. If your contact center phone software provider doesn’t use AI, it’s time for a new solution.
For example, Natural Language Processing and Large Language Models make for a more conversational web chat experience for customers. AI technology can also improve the quality of agent reports and employee assessments with more accurate analysis.
8. Analytics and Reporting
Understand and improve your team’s performance with full visibility into your operations with robust analytics and reporting. With Intermedia Contact Center, you can access the following ready-to-use reports:
- Detailed serviced, abandoned, and missed call reports
- Inbound and outbound billing reports
- Classification and tracking reports
- Daily and weekly agent and queue performance
You can also create custom reports for call tracking, talk time intervals, and first-call resolution. Even when your team members are in locations all around the world, you still have total insight into their performance with contemporary contact center phone software.
9. Worry-Free Security
World-class communications providers take a lot of the weight of data protection off of your shoulders. Look for a company that validates its security claims with in-house testing and independent verification, such as SOC 1 and 2 audits and ISO 27001 Certification. You’ll be able to keep your and your customers’ information private, no matter your field.
10. Software Integrations
Your contact center phone software should collaborate seamlessly with your everyday business applications, such as Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace. Furthermore, you can access pre-built integrations for customer experience and electronic health records software or design a custom solution with an API platform.
Intermedia Contact Center: The Only Contact Center Phone Software You’ll Ever Need
If you’re looking for contact center phone software with all of the above features and more, turn to Intermedia Contact Center. Talk to one of our team members to determine which plan and add-ons fit your company’s needs.
Rob Oscanyan
Robert Oscanyan is a Senior Director of Product Marketing at Intermedia, where he focuses on helping businesses improve their customer experience using Intermedia's award-winning cloud communications solutions. Rob has over a decade of experience spanning market research, messaging, and elevating the voice of the customer. In his free time, he constantly creating new adventures with his wife, seven kids, and a small army of pets.
January 18, 2024
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