The difference between a call center and a contact center comes down to one word: technology. Contact center software uses internet-based communication and servers to create more flexible, affordable, innovative ideas for technical support and customer service. Now, companies can connect with consumers not just through calls, but chat, email, and even text messaging.
But this kind of communication technology isn’t just a luxury anymore; today, it’s the standard. Many people prefer communicating through other ways than the telephone—and that goes double for customer service. Not only that, but consumers expect quicker, more convenient ways to handle their problems, which means waiting on hold is rarely an option. Organizations, then, need multiple ways for consumers to reach them quickly and get their problems solved. This means that today, the tech in call centers of old just won’t cut it anymore. No matter what industry you’re in, a convenient, omnichannel experience is critical for keeping touch with customers.
Contact centers are the future of call centers—and that “future” is already here. Thankfully, the latest call center technology is both easy and affordable for any organization to adopt. Read on to learn about the innovative call center technology of today and how you can upgrade your customer experience with just a few clicks.
What Is Contact Center Technology?
In short, contact center technology improves how organizations connect with their customers. The top contact center software does this by focusing on three things: analytics, workplace efficiency, and omnichannel communication.
- Analytics: In a world with more customers (and competition) than ever before, organizations have to keep tabs on what their engagement efforts and how they could be improved. Having data to look back on empowers this feedback process, which is why analytics is one of the most important contact center technology trends.
- Workplace Efficiency: Ironically, improving a customer experience isn’t always about focusing on the customer; the agent experience is just as important to success. Contact center agents need proper tools and support to do their jobs well—but more than that, they need these things to feel empowered and motivated in their role, which in turn helps focus on the customers.
- Omnichannel Communication: Put simply, you can’t have a contact center without “contact.” And for the first call centers, telephones were all that was needed to reach their customers. But for contact centers, it’s the telephone, email, text messaging, instant chat—even social media matters. What makes a good contact center, above all else, is that consumers can reach them anywhere, anytime, from any device. Contact center software makes that more than possible.
As you’re looking for the right software solution, make sure it addresses each of these focus areas. Platforms like Amazon Connect are a great example of what you should expect from contact center technology. If you’re ever unsure what to look for, managed service providers (MSPs) like InterVision can help you figure out what your organization needs and what solutions work best for you.
What Are Some Contact Center Technologies?
There are many ways to leverage technology in contact centers. Here are just a few to keep in mind:
- Call Recording: By tracking customer experiences, it’s much easier to see what’s working and what isn’t with your audiences. This lets you make decisions with more than broad market data, but real-time experiences—using real-time data that your agents collect with every interaction.
- Self-Service Automation: While AI is not a replacement for human interaction, AI can be great for solving small issues that don’t require an agent. And oftentimes, customers are happy to “help themselves” if you give them a convenient, easy way to do it. AI-powered self-service options make this a reality, saving time and effort for both your agents and customers. If your contact center leverages AI for the little things, your agents can focus on the big picture.
- Outbound Campaigns: A lot of contact center work is administrative, and much of that work is both repetitive and time-consuming to handle. Thankfully, this is yet another situation where AI can help. By automating things like promotions, billing, and even appointment reminders, you free up agents to focus more on the parts of customer experience that require a personal touch.
- Data Collection: Recording your customers’ experiences doesn’t have to be limited to phone calls. With more advanced analytics tools, a contact center can track wait times, customer satisfaction, and many other variables related to successful engagement. And thanks to cloud-based technology, it’s much easier to share that data with everyone in the contact center.
- Voice Biometrics: With the advent of new technologies comes new security concerns—and that’s what voice-based identification aims to solve. Using a customer’s voice in real-time to confirm their identity is one of the best ways to ensure the person is who they say they are. Having this level of security is not only great for protecting private information, but also for making the customer feel personally cared for.
- Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Compatibility: CRM software is a mainstay for operations these days, so it’s critical to have software that works well with your CRM platform of choice. Contact center technology brings a new level of flexibility in terms of pairing software, which is especially helpful when your contact center is collecting customer data.
While the above features are great examples, perhaps the best “feature” of contact center software is its flexibility. For every organizational need, there are features and add-ins to serve that purpose. And because contact centers are cloud-based, it’s easy to add (or remove) from the features depending on what your contact center needs or doesn’t need as time goes on.
What Is the Main Equipment Used in Contact Center Services?
Contact centers today are primarily cloud-based. Contact Center as a Service (CCaaS) software lets organizations set up a virtual contact center, then modify it with the features they need to operate. This method lets contact centers be more flexible and scalable, making it easier to change operations alongside the needs of the organization. It also lets organizations decide what contact center services are most important to them, so they can focus on those and forgo the rest.
What Are Some Examples of Contact Center Services That Technology Enables?
Most of us know the improvements technology has made to how we communicate, but what are the advantages of technology in customer service specifically? This technology has opened the door for many more possibilities in how organizations serve and connect with their customers. For example:
- Using software helps organizations create customer profiles to better understand their customers.
- Interactive bots can field frequently-asked questions, leaving more time for specific requests.
- CCaaS enables communication through any channel, from email to SMS and even video chat.
- Real-time voice identification adds security that both agents and customers will appreciate.
Communication software today provides more flexibility, security, efficiency, and analytics to make a contact center better—for both customers and the agents fielding calls.
What Are the Benefits of Contact Center Technology?
The best contact center technology makes it easier, more efficient, and more affordable to provide a high-quality customer experience. With the right software, a contact center can cut costs, save time, and give its agents the freedom and flexibility to better serve customers. And while this technology has become the standard of operations, it’s important to note that it’s not just about updating tech to “keep up with the times.” Instead, using contact center solutions truly does bring something new and improved to the customer experience overall. Let’s examine those improvements a little more closely.
Better Operations
Many contact centers know the importance of an omnichannel experience, but don’t have a single software for omnichannel communication. As a result, they end up piecemealing a solution together—one provider for phones, another for instant messaging, and so on—which slowly bogs down how well a contact center runs. CCaaS software (or “Contact Center as a Service” software) combines all the needs of a contact center into one platform. With a single provider, a contact center can have everything it needs, both lowering costs and raising efficiency of operations.
Lower Costs
Having multiple softwares doesn’t just slow down operations; it also raises the price of keeping things running. By the time you add up subscription fees, upkeep time, and training costs for staff, relying on multiple solutions for doing the same job quickly becomes cumbersome. Thankfully, modern CCaaS solutions do a great job at bringing communications technologies together. Platforms like Amazon Connect consolidate everything into one platform—and by extension, one price—that makes it both cheaper and easier to keep your contact center running.
Stronger Analytics
Any organization that’s successful values feedback. But more importantly, their success depends on the how and where of that feedback—that is, how they collect it, and where it comes from. Virtual contact centers build your data collection process right into operations; rather than waiting for the next marketwide industry report, you can collect your own consumer data straight from the source, with every connection your agents make.
Happier Agents
Empowering your agents empowers your contact center; truly, it’s that simple. You don’t need a ton of data to understand the importance of happiness for job performance and retention—and even if you did, there is plenty of data that shows it. To quote Forbes, “when job satisfaction is higher, it predicts employee retention, customer loyalty and financial outcomes for companies.”
Job satisfaction has a lot to do with support and independence; for contact center agents, technology is critical for both of these. For example, AI-powered services support agents by handling smaller customer requests and letting them focus on more specialized tasks. Additionally, having a unified agent experience for training makes it easier and simpler for staff to learn their jobs.
What Is Your Contact Center Experience?
If you’re looking to set up or even improve your contact center, look to InterVision. As a managed services provider (MSP), we pair organizations with the best solutions for their problems—from communications to cybersecurity—and that includes contact center technology. We can help you find a communications solution that fits both your needs and your budget, and help you through each step of the setup process.
Improving your customer experience doesn’t have to be complex or expensive. In fact, it probably will take less work (and money) than you may think. Let InterVision show you the way; schedule a call with us today.
