When choosing a contact center solution, there are a number of features that are critical to the success of your agents and your business. It isn’t a lack of caring from your agents working with customers, nor is it your hold times. The biggest differentiating factors are the tools that empower your agents to deliver a great customer experience. Remember it is your choice on how you are featured on the smash Customer Experience Hit “The Good, Bad & the Ugly”.
In fact, 92% of consumers say that they will stop purchasing from a company after three poor customer service interactions. As a result, customer service is critical to the success of your business, which is why it’s important to be selective when it comes to your contact center solution.
In this article, we’ll outline eight fundamental features you should look for when selecting a contact center solution.
Interactive Voice Response In The Contact Center
We have all used IVRs if you have had to make a call to some of the businesses you work with on the personal or business side. Interactive voice response, or IVR, is an automated phone system feature that automatically interacts with your customers by giving them choices via a menu.
When IVR is integrated with your CRM and implemented properly this can be a very efficient tool within your Contact Center. Customizing this based on the customer calling in can deepen the customer experience as well.
Increasing Contact Center Efficiency With Automatic Call Distribution
ACD describes the capability of call center software to receive customer interactions and distribute them to available agents. It improves the customer experience by making sure customers are connected to an agent in the quickest time possible.
When combined with our next feature, Skills-Based Routing you can create a customer experience that lasts. Reducing the time that your clients are on the phone punching 0 to get to a live person, those days can be a thing of the past when you have your contact center optimized for customer experience.
You Need Skills-Based Routing In Your Contact Center
Being proactive with customer service can make an impact on your customer experience. Anticipating the needs of the caller and being able to assign the right reps to the right calls with skills-based routing is no longer a luxury, it is an expectation of today’s caller.
Instead of automatically assigning an agent to a call, the system chooses the rep that’s best for the call when skills-based routing is employed. For example, if you have a Spanish-speaking customer, your system can automatically route that call to a Spanish-speaking agent.
Improving Customer Experience With Agent Management
Agent management provides supervisors with the ability to monitor agent calls. Robust features include listen, whisper and barge-in for coaches to engage with agents during a live call. Through such features and live coaching, your agents will improve rapidly, improving customer service ratings and engagement.
Real-Time Insights Are Pivotal In The Contact Center
What once took days or weeks to realize we can now capture live as the patterns develop. Discover patterns and trends in your customer base and your workforce through real-time analytics. You should get up-to-the-minute information and key performance indicators (KPIs) on a customizable dashboard and data platform in order to spot any deficiencies or trends.
Omnichannel Flexibility Is No Longer An Option In Your Contact Center
Meet your customer where they are, making it easy for your agents to communicate with your most important asset, your clients! Your contact center solution should allow your agents to connect with customers on the communication channel of their choice.
This supports a customer-centric approach, which is shown to improve customer ratings and reduce attrition. If done correctly, it also can reduce company costs for supporting customers.
CRM Integration No Matter The CRM
Remember the time you had to explain the same situation five times to one company and you were super happy about it? We totally get it, and that is why it is necessary to equip your agents with CRM information, like contact history, to help them quickly identify the right solution. This results in improved customer satisfaction as your customer doesn’t need to repeat their prior or current issues all over again to a new agent. The agent on the phone can review call history to quickly identify how to best assist them.
Making Better Workforce Management Decisions In The Contact Center
The number one cost in a call center is the employees, so having tools to manage that effectively is critical. Call center workforce management technology helps managers ensure proper staffing levels so you have the right number of agents at the right time throughout the workweek. Essentially, it finds the best fit between the amount of work required and the number of agents scheduled. Workforce management also should include demand forecasting, employee scheduling, and assigning agents.
Having The Right Strategy & Executing On It In The Contact Center
Wondering how to be the maestro of your Contact Center and make this all work in perfect harmony? This is what we do, after all, we work with a lot of organizations that have the tools, just getting them to all work together can be a daunting task. You are not alone! Connect with us so we can help bring this all together and get the most out of your Contact Center solution!