Introduction to Contact centre solutions

The overall success of any kind of business is dependent on the level of service that they offer to their customers. There are numerous benefits that are associated with the provision of good customer service. 

These include ensuring that the customers are satisfied, improving the level of loyalty of the customers, ensuring that the business gets repeat business, and also ensuring that the business enjoys a good brand reputation. 

There are more benefits, which are associated with good customer service like ensuring that the customers are retained by the businesses, reduced negative feedback, an increase in the revenues that the businesses make, and an increase in the level of satisfaction of the employees. 

All these play a key role in ensuring that the business gains an edge over its competitors. Therefore, businesses need to have in place various measures aimed at ensuring that they improve the level of customer service they offer. The first thing they can do is to have in place a good contact centre solution.

What is a contact centre?

In some cases, a contact centre is also called a customer interaction centre or call centre. It is mainly a centralised facility or in some cases a department in an organisation, which is aimed at not only managing but also handling a very high volume of customer communications across
different channels. 

The main role of contact centres is facilitating highly efficient and effective communication between a given organisation and its clients.

What to look for in a contact centre solution

When reviewing a contact centre solution, there are various factors, which ought to be taken into consideration. The factors are mainly aimed at ensuring that the given solution is aligned with the needs, as well as the goals of the business. Some of the main factors, which should be taken into consideration have been listed below:

Can the contact centre solution support Multichannel Communication?

The first element that ought to be factored in, include making sure that the given solution is supporting a number of communication channels like voice calls, live chat, email, social media, as well as interactive SMS with the aim of accommodating various customer preferences.

Is the contact centre solution scalable?

The second element, which ought to be taken into consideration, includes checking how scalable the given solution is. It is paramount to check if the given solution is scalable for the organisations as this communicates if it can be adapted to the growing business requirements. 

For instance, if a solution is not scalable and the business wants to increase the number of call volumes, it might be challenging for the business. At the same time, if the organisation is keen on adding more channels, it will also be hard for a solution that is not scalable.

Is the contact centre solution Flexible and Customizable?

When looking for a contact centre solution, businesses should ensure that they factor in the flexibility of the given solution and also the ease with which the given solution can be customised to meet the exact business requirements. 

Organisations ought to look out for platforms, which enables them to customise their workflows, scripts, as well as their processes, with the aim of aligning with their unique business requirements and also to align with the industry regulations.

How easy is it to integrate with other systems?

Organisations ought to make sure that the contact centre solution can seamlessly integrate with the other systems that the given business is using, like customer relationship management system (CRM). 

This can come in handy in giving the agents a highly comprehensive view of customer information as well as their history. This needs to be checkers for the businesses to fully harness the power of the systems they are using within their organisations.

Does the contact centre solution offer real-time analytics and reporting?

In the current business set up, data driven decision making is crucial. Even in contact centres, there is the need to factor in the element of analytics. 

It is always advisable to go for a solution that offers robust analytics as well as reporting tools, which the organisations can use for them to benchmark against certain performance metrics. 

Through the analytics and reporting feature, they are also in a position to track key indicators. This makes it easy for them to make data-driven decisions, which is crucial for the growth of the businesses.

Will the contact centre solution come with other agent productivity tools?

Before picking a contact centre solution, it is great to evaluate features, which improve the levels of productivity of the agents. These could include knowledge bases, scripting tools, as well as other kinds of automation capabilities, which can help the agents to streamline various tasks besides improving their efficiency.

What Quality Assurance and Monitoring features does the contact centre system come with?

Quality assurance is a great element that a contact centre solution should have. This also applies to the monitoring features. 

It is always great to look for contact centre solutions, which enable real-time monitoring, call recording, as well as quality assurance functionalities. This will be beneficial in ensuring that there’s consistent service quality, as well as agent performance.

Does the contact centre solution enable Omnichannel Support?

When choosing the contact centre solution, it would be beneficial to ensure that the solution offers seamless omnichannel experience, enabling the clients to transition between different channels without losing context and offering a unified interface for the agents.

How easy is it to use the solution?

Just like any other system, it should be very easy for the agents to use the solution. As a result, there is a need to take into consideration the user-friendliness of the given solution. This will play a role in reducing the training time for agents. 

The contact centre solution would have an intuitive interface, which can enhance the speed with which onboarding of the agents takes place. It will also improve the overall efficiency of the agents.

How secure and compliant is the solution?

Before you select a contact centre solution, ensure that the given solution is adhering to the industry security standards, as well as to the compliance regulations. This is mainly important if your contact centre deals with sensitive customer information.

What Disaster Recovery and Redundancy measures does the contact centre solution have in place?

Disaster recovery is a very important factor, which also needs to be taken into consideration when selecting a contact centre solution.

Therefore, it is crucial to assess the contact centre solution’s disaster recovery abilities and redundancy options, with the aim of ensuring business continuity should there be system disruptions or failures.

What is the Cost Structure?

Budget is another important factor, which needs to be considered when selecting a contact centre solution. It is prudent to understand the pricing model with the aim of ensuring that it aligns with the allocated project budget.

How good is Customer Support?

Customer support is a very important factor to take into consideration when selecting a contact centre solution. You do not want a provider who won’t be there when you have concerns addressed or an inquiry to make. 

Therefore, there’s the need to assess the level of customer support that’s offered by the contact centre solution provider. This should include the training resources, as well as continuous assistance to ensure that the issues that might be faced are addressed effectively.

Conclusion

The benefits of good customer service are numerous, and as such, businesses should ensure that they have in place proper systems and structures to ensure that the businesses deliver exceptional
services to their clients. 

Having in place a good contact centre solution goes a long way in
ensuring that the businesses improve on how they engage with their customers, thus improving the overall experience. 

When organisations carefully assess these factors, they are in a position to make highly informed decisions when they are selecting a contact centre solution.