Thriving businesses outdo the competition because they know how to please their customers. A central part of that equation is having strong contact center solutions.
The adoption of new contact center technologies surges as more companies compete on customer service. For example, the global has a projected growth rate of 18% over the next seven years.
If you haven’t installed a contact center or updated yours in a while, you might not realize what you’re missing out on, which could harm your customers’ experience. Learn what contact centers can do and how to get the latest features and benefits.
Key Takeaways:
- Contact center solutions allow your company to build and strengthen client relationships by providing a stronger customer experience.
- Contact center solutions vary by where the provider installs the infrastructure and whether digital channels integrate seamlessly.
- Cloud-based contact center software is the best choice, especially for small and mid-sized businesses.
- Look for a provider with essential productivity features, world-class support, and impenetrable security.
What Do Contact Center Solutions Do?
Contact center solutions are software and features that simplify the process of managing a high number of calls for your organization. Beyond merely allowing agents to accept and receive calls, these applications now make routing, transfers, data collection, and quality control easier to execute than ever.
Additionally, modern contact centers do a lot more than traditional call centers, which only handle voice calls. A fully integrated contact center solution allows your agents to connect with customers through all popular digital channels, such as video, online chat, fax, and text messages.
What Are Different Types of Contact Center Solutions?
Contact center solutions fit into a few different categories, depending on their design and function.
By Location
Traditional call centers and even some contact centers are still on-premise solutions. In this setup, everything that operates the center would be on-site at your location.
While an on-premise arrangement gives you absolute control over your operations, it’s expensive to install, and you have to hire someone for repairs, maintenance, and upgrades. This means you’ll also deal with long downtimes and a costly loss of continuity.
Cloud-based contact center solutions with are location-agnostic. In other words, you can use them anywhere you have an internet connection, even with remote and hybrid team members in multiple locations.
You can do this because your calls and communications all take place using online software. The necessary equipment to run your system sits in secure data centers that your provider physically and digitally guards.
By Service Capabilities
You also need to decide if your contact center solutions will be inbound, outbound, or capable of both. With on-premise call centers, you have to make the choice because you must decide what hardware to install.
Cloud-based contact centers can automatically give you access to a hybrid option with inbound and outbound capabilities at no extra cost. It’s only up to you to assign and train your team for each service.
By Channel Integration
Contemporary contact centers give you access to all communication channels. However, how well do those channels interface with each other?
Mere multichannel contact centers force you to have separate agents for each method (i.e., teams for email, teams for chat, and teams for calls.) Customer conversations over each channel stay in separate files and dashboards for each team.
On the other hand, omnichannel contact center solutions blend these media seamlessly. A customer can talk to your team through any preferred channel, and the details stay in one convenient file that the appropriate agents can access.
For example, if a client discusses an issue over text messaging and has to follow up on the issue over the phone at a later date, that new agent will have the information from the text conversation readily available. This enhances the speed with which you resolve customer issues and improves their experience.
What Are Essential Features?
How can you determine which features you need in your contact center solutions? You should discuss your needs with a trusted provider, but at a minimum, most contact centers require the following characteristics.
Artificial Intelligence
AI is more than a fad, as it looks to overhaul how we learn, communicate, and provide services. From your auto attendant to your automated reports, be sure your company has AI-enhanced capabilities.
Interactive Voice Response
This software automatically picks up phone calls at any time of day and provides an automated system for callers to input who they would like to talk to. IVR also allows callers to handle simple transactions in the automated system, saving everyone time.
Power Dialer
Increase your outbound call team’s efficiency with a predictive dialer service that helps agents get through lists quickly. Agents will spend more time talking to people and less time clicking or punching in numbers.
User-Friendly Dashboard
Look for a provider with an easy-to-use interface that makes knowing who you’re talking to and why easy. For example, Intermedia’s WhatsApp queues help agents understand the history and context of interactions for quicker call resolutions.
Agent Reports and Analytics
Understand how well your team is performing with reporting and analytics. In addition to integrating business productivity software into your contact center solutions, top providers include built-in features for maximum convenience.
Security
You need your data and your customers’ information to stay safe. Check that your provider offers comprehensive protection through encryption and data backup.
Support
Award-winning technical and customer support from your CCaaS provider is a sign that you’ll have reliable help when troubleshooting. For example, Intermedia has an astounding seven-year record of providing an outstanding customer service experience.
Are You Ready To Set Up Your Contact Center Solutions?
Contact center solutions are a vital part of maintaining your customer relationships as your business grows. Fortunately, cloud-based software makes it easy for you to quickly set up your system and get to work. Talk to an Intermedia team member to find out which plan is right for your team.
Mark Greer
Mark is the Senior Product Marketing Manager for Intermedia's Contact Center solution.
January 8, 2024
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