Why You Should Invest in Call Center Software
Customers are the most important resource for any business, so the inherent importance of good customer service is obvious. It’s important to remember that your customer service goes beyond how you treat customers in your store, however. It applies to all customer interactions. This includes the situations where customers contact your call center for customer support. In fact, you really need to think about how you equip your contact center, since many customers view it as a “last resort” of sorts after looking for help online, and they’re already frustrated coming in.
The last thing you need to do is add to that frustration with an inefficient process. Unfortunately, that’s exactly how call centers are stereotyped. When people envision the traditional call center, they don’t see a place with a smooth workflow that encourages efficiency. They see an office crammed with cubicles and unhappy agents fielding incoming calls from angry customers. There are still some call centers that rely on legacy phone systems that still exist in that form, but the modern contact center is much different, thanks to advancements in technology. Here are just some of the main reasons why you need to invest in call center software.
Omnichannel Cloud Capabilities
These days, call center is arguably a bit of a misnomer. Contact centers still take phone calls, of course, but most contact center software also lets customers make contact with chatbots and support agents through digital communication channels. These may include text, SMS, email, live chat, a mobile app, and more. Automation powered by artificial intelligence (AI) can allow bots to assist callers who have relatively simple questions, so your support agents are freed up to handle more demanding calls, so you can ensure the customer experience is always as good as possible.
What separates the best contact center software from the rest, however, is true omnichannel capabilities in the cloud. Omnichannel routing not only supports whatever digital communication channels customers use, but it allows for seamless switching between channels, all while maintaining contact with the same support agent. This saves everyone’s time while also creating a personalized and memorable customer journey. Built-in AI can even monitor and evaluate each call based on preset business rules, so supervisors can be flagged if there’s an interaction that doesn’t meet the usual quality standards.
CRM Integrations
The best call center software can also integrate seamlessly with your CRM system, which gives you even more customer support options. With the ability to pull customer data directly from customer relationship management, your agents will be able to use previous customer data to help guide interactions. If a customer calls back with a similar issue to one they’ve had before, your agents will be able to get to the bottom of the problem faster than ever.
Even better, customer data makes it easy to see who your best customers are. You can share this information with the sales team to help them pursue leads better during outbound calls. You can also make special offers to your repeat customers to further encourage customer loyalty.
Agent Performance
It’s an unfortunate fact that contact centers are plagued with extremely high turnover rates, which cost a great deal of time and money each time a new agent has to be trained. With the best contact center solution, however, you’ll be able to reduce these rates in your center. A top agent complaint is working with out-of-date technology, but with omnichannel routing and a unified agent desktop, you won’t be hearing this complaint.
One desktop with a single sign-in can allow each agent to keep track of all conversations on all channels, so if they need to get on a call, they can do so with the full context of the situation. This makes agents better at their jobs, and it makes customers feel like they’re really being listened to, thus boosting customer satisfaction even further.
