Importance of Contact Center Solutions For Businesses

One out of three customers said that great customer service comes from the ability to follow up with the same person, something a call center alone may not be able to deliver since there is a wall in between its contact channels. (Source: Econsultancy)

People often interchangeably refer to call centers and contact centers as the same thing. Although both terms have the same agenda – to provide customer service- you must know the significant difference between them. This article will look into how contact center solutions can deliver advantages to any business that is looking into implementing their own contact center operations. 

Before the popularity of the internet, customers rely on reaching customer service through the telephone or visiting the physical store downtown. Third-party call centers were established to manage inbound and outbound calls for other companies.  Inbound calls are when a customer calls a company directly while outbound calls are when a representative, usually from the sales team, reaches out to prospects to sell their products or service.

Meanwhile, contact centers take advantage of omnichannel communication to provide all-around customer service. Contact centers also use calls along with other communication channels like SMS, email, or chat. This way, contact center agents are way more efficient in delivering customer service. Businesses with contact center solutions find it easier to pitch their sales better than call centers. 

During the COVID-19 pandemic, many businesses have realized that it is not enough to rely alone on the office-based premises for their call centers or contact centers. They needed something reliable, flexible, and secure to work remotely. This problem has increased the demand for cloud-based contact center solutions and virtual call centers. 

There are many factors for companies to consider when choosing a solution that is best suited to their needs. By choosing the right contact center solution, companies will be able to make their customer service operations scalable, reduce their operating costs, and provide an exceptional customer experience.

What is a Contact Center Solution?

A contact center solution is an all-in-one solution for organizations to manage every customer interaction coming from different communication channels. The main goal of a contact center solution is to offer a technology that can deliver efficient and effective customer service, technical support, and sales assistance. 

In simple terms, call centers are third-party providers of back and front office services for companies that deal with a high volume of customers, while contact center solutions are software as a service (SaaS) that provides the technology needed to accomplish the latter. 

Contact center solutions mainly offer voice call software solutions that can be distributed to various call centers. The software can include other types of channels like SMS messaging, emails, web chats, and social media interactions. Finally, contact center solution software can be integrated with customer relationship management (CRM) tools. 

Advantages of Using Contact Center Solutions

A contact center solution can provide a multitude of advantages for businesses. These advantages include: reducing customer churn, enhancing productivity, reducing operating costs, improving scalability, increasing sales deals, and integrating with CRM software. 

Reduce Customer Churn

PwC reported from their survey of 15,000 consumers that 1 in 3 customers will leave a brand they love after only one bad experience. Additionally, 92% of consumers will abandon a brand after 2 to 3 negative experiences. This means that customer experience can negatively affect customer service and can eventually lead to high customer churn. 

There are many factors that cause customer churn, one of which is the poor customer experience during a call, chat, or email reply. Customers are irritated to repeat their concerns from one channel to another. Your contact center solution should have an omnichannel feature to provide better customer interaction.

Enhance CSR’s Productivity

Customer service representatives (CSR) are trained to multitask. Contact center solutions are equipped with an IVR that provides self-service options. This will allow your agent to focus more on complex customer concerns by receiving calls that essentially need attention. 

Customer service requires a great deal of time and dedication. Ideally, your business should be available 24/7 to meet customer inquiries and assistance. Contact center solutions give your business a wide array of options for customers to contact you. You can resolve concerns via calls during the day and assist them via text messaging at night. 

Reduce Operating Costs

Unlike traditional phone systems in the office, cloud-based contact center solutions offer a cost-effective solution for businesses. It reduces the need for hardware updates, additional space requirements, and energy. A cloud-based contact center solution’s minimum requirements are a computer, internet connection, and a headset. 

Not only does it reduce the operating costs, but also reduces the carbon footprint in the environment. Since there are fewer people driving to work and staying in the office, your business can save expenses for other utilities like electricity, water, and paper. Together, you can have a smart work-from-home setup and be an environmentally friendly company. 

Improve Scalability Over Time

Cloud-based contact center data is hosted in data centers. These data centers are flexible and ready to meet the growing demand in information processing. As your company grows, you can add new seats for your customer support team. Even on short-term demand spikes, you can outsource manpower and provide a remote-ready operation. 

You may hire talent anywhere in the world with a cloud-based contact center solution. Geographical location would not be a problem with you as long as you are connected to the internet. You can now seek great talent to fill up vacant seats for your sales and support team. Your business will never have to worry about your employee’s health during this pandemic. 

Increase Sales Deals

There are only a few contact center solutions that offer an auto-dialer feature in the market. Most contact center solutions available are built for inbound customer support. Auto-dialers aid sales representatives to be productive. There is no need to manually dial numbers and they can get in touch with high-value leads more efficiently.

There are three benefits to a contact center solution with an auto-dialer feature: First, it can boost productivity; second, it reduces manual tasks; and third, it complies with telemarketing laws. For instance, an auto-dialer can automatically connect a sales representative to the next available prospect and skip cold calls that end up in voicemail. Your sales representative would never have to be stressed out in figuring out how to use the tool properly and can focus more on closing sales. 

Integrates with CRM Software

There is a lot of time wasted when a customer service representative asks about the account number of a customer. It may be a couple of seconds but when stacked together, you can see how much time could have been saved in their average handling time (AHT). By having a phone system integrated into the CRM, a customer’s account information automatically pops up whenever they call in

This is why native software integration is becoming popular with contact center solutions. It makes different customer tools work harmoniously in the CRM. Your customer service representatives can easily review relevant information about the customer. They can provide timely resolution and improve the business’ first call resolution (FCR) metric. 

Thinking of Getting a Contact Center Solution?

Delivering a great customer service experience takes more than just a single line of communication. This may be the best time for call center establishments to adapt contact center solutions with omnichannel communication. Your customers won’t be frustrated anymore if you can provide them with a better line of communication, something only a contact center solution can deliver.  

Aloware is a great contact center solution for businesses. It empowers sales and support teams by giving them access to information in a single platform. It improves efficiency and productivity and slowly eliminates customer frustration caused by the fragmented communication systems. It’s an omnichannel contact center solution with unlimited calling and texting capabilities as well as automated workflows that can streamline your company’s sales processes. If you need to learn more about contact center solutions for your business? Schedule a demo today and get the best offers available from their sales representatives.