Improve eCommerce Operations with VoIP

eCommerce businesses have unique needs when it comes to serving their customer base. Creating better experiences is one of the best ways to delight and retain customers. It’s hard to execute this well with legacy phone systems. You can improve eCommerce operations with VoIP (Voice over IP). Find out what the benefits are and why it’s time to modernize your communications.

What Is VoIP?

First, let’s start by defining VoIP for business. It’s the next-generation business phone system. It doesn’t use traditional phone lines; instead, the internet is what powers the connections. In simplest terms, it’s a phone call between parties connected to the internet.

One crucial element of VoIP is that you can make and receive calls from anywhere if you’re online. You can use VoIP in several environments:

• Desktop computers: Users log into the system and put on their headsets.
• Mobile app: Employees can download the app and use their smartphones for calls.
• Desktop phones: You can still use desktop phones and have the option of many styles. They are plug-and-play, so setting up VoIP is easy.

With the considerable boost in eCommerce activity because of the pandemic, you likely experienced an expanded customer base. That, in turn, means more customers to service. Traditional phone systems can’t keep up. Here’s how you can improve eCommerce operations with VoIP.

How VoIP Supports eCommerce Businesses

Ensure Customers Always Have an Agent

When deploying VoIP, your customer service reps can work from wherever. That’s important considering eCommerce is a 24-hour business. A traditional contact center has less flexibility. You can now property staff for all hours of the day with people from different time zones. You’ll have full coverage, and customers can get in touch at their convenience.

Learn from Recorded Calls

With VoIP, you can record customer calls, which is useful in two ways. First, you can use them for training other agents, illustrating how to handle tough situations. These real-world scenarios offer your team exceptional insights you can’t get from other types of training.

Second, you can analyze the calls to identify themes. For example, suppose customers continue to call about a defective component of a product. That’s intelligence your organization should know about so they can investigate the problem and mitigate it.

Provide an Exceptional Customer Experience

If you aren’t using VoIP, your phone system has severe limitations. It likely won’t have the features to route calls effectively. Using IVR (Interactive Voice Response), callers provide initial information so that when they reach an agent, it’s the one best suited to assist them.

In such a situation, callers aren’t on hold for hours or sent to a general mailbox to leave a message. Such practices frustrate customers. That’s not the feeling you want them to have.

With VoIP, you can design call flows and intelligent routing. These features can instantly change the customer experience.

Save Money Without Losing Quality

You may think switching to VoIP will be expensive. However, that’s a misconception. In fact, it’s much less costly than on-premises phones. VoIP requires no servers at your site because it’s in the cloud. That immediately saves you capital funds, and your phone system becomes an operating expense—one that’s consistent and easy to budget for.

Costing less doesn’t equate to inferior quality, either. VoIP call quality is typically much better than landlines. The audio is crisp and clear. If this is a concern, ask potential VoIP providers about their uptime, which will provide context around quality.

Stay Agile with VoIP

Agility is vital to any eCommerce organization. COVID-19 accelerated the adoption of digital channels for buyers. It also forced workforces to be remote. Combined, these changes had a significant impact on businesses, but VoIP helped companies like these stay agile.

Employees can work from any location to take calls. All they need is an internet connection, a login to your phone system, and a headset. Having VoIP futureproofs your customer support and helps you realign priorities and budget. Location is no longer a limitation.

Ensure Business Continuity

Emergencies can hit at any time, from power outages to severe weather to rolling blackouts. A traditional phone system isn’t accessible during these incidents. VoIP is accessible because you can forward calls to a mobile device or other locations.

Preserving communications is critical for you to continue operating. If you go down, you could lose orders and customer confidence.

Integrate with Other Business Platforms

VoIP can be one piece of your communications puzzle. It seamlessly integrates with platforms like your CRM (customer relationship management) solution. With this, your team can access the customer’s information and past orders. With context, your agents can more efficiently serve the customer, and they’ll appreciate this.

VoIP can also be a component of a unified communications (UC) platform. You can have voice, chat, video conferencing, email, and file sharing in one central hub. Having this setup boosts worker productivity and a better customer experience.

For example, a customer may have a question that agents don’t know. An agent could send a chat message to a product expert to get a quick answer. They’ll know which ones to ask and who will reply the fastest based on presence indicators.

Ready to Improve Your eCommerce Operations with VoIP?

VoIP can propel your eCommerce business forward, ensuring you have a reliable system to support your customers. With this technology, the customer experience gets an upgrade, which is good for business. If you’re ready to make the switch, check out this post on VoIP options.

The Intermedia Team

Intermedia helps businesses of all sizes connect better – through voice, video conferencing, chat, contact center, business email and productivity, file sharing and backup, security, archiving, and more – from wherever, whenever. And, as a partner-first company, Intermedia goes to work for our channel partners to help them grow their revenue and maximize their success.