What is a Contact Center?

Great expectations

In today’s marketplace, customers have come to expect enhanced and highly personalized service. The quality of your customer service sets your business apart from your competitors, and the key to great service is your contact center. A contact center is the hub of all the different communication channels and tools that customers use to interact with your service teams. The goal of a contact center is to create an agile and frictionless customer experience.

Let’s look at some of the main components of an effective contact center solution.

Components of a Contact Center:

  • Interactive Voice Response (IVR): The automated phone menu system that routes in-bound customer calls to an appropriate department or service agent. The goal of the IVR is to reduce hold time and transfers, and connect customers to an agent as quickly and efficiently as possible.
  • DM/Chat: When customers connect online or via mobile app, they typically communicate with a service agent by text or chat tools. Many businesses now utilize automated “chat-bots” to solve basic problems or answer simple questions. As technology improves, chat-bots will provide more sophisticated assistance to both customers and service agents.
  • Web Conference/Video Call: Service efficiency improves when customers and agents are able to see each other and screen share. Video calls drive first call resolution metrics and reduce the average handle times.
  • Mobile Apps: Specialized mobile apps help customers search for information, make purchases, schedule appointments and solve a variety of problems without the need of a service agent. Serving customer needs through an app can greatly enhance customer satisfaction and repeat business.
  • Artificial Intelligence (AI): AI technology is utilized to collect and curate information on each customer and each transaction to better assist agents in future encounters. AI tools are able to analyze the data to identify trends that may help predict and prepare for future customer behavior. However, the key to AI is data. The more data a system collects over time, the better it gets at predicting future behavior.
  • Customer Relationship Management (CRM): A CRM solution is technology for collecting and managing all your business interactions with your customers. The goal is to help improve sales management, agent efficiency, productivity and ultimately, the customer experience (CX).

The CCaaS Solution

Two major technology providers that offer a robust portfolio of contact center solutions are Amazon Connect (ConnectIV CX™). These companies have developed a wide range of tools to help your business build a high-quality, omni-channel interactive contact center. But managing all of these tools can be a daunting and time-consuming task for your IT team.

Third-party companies like InterVision can bundle these solutions into a single, customized suite of tools called Contact Center as a Service (CCaaS). There are many benefits to utilizing a CCaaS solution.

Benefits of Contact Center as a Service

Customer Experience

CCaaS can improve your customer experience by reducing hold times and providing a wider range of channels through which they can resolve problems. It also enhances service agent productivity and efficiency. Faster, more efficient service is a major contributor to customer satisfaction and loyalty.

Lowered Costs

CCaaS will also save you money by hosting, managing and maintaining the technology infrastructure on a cloud-based platform, freeing your IT staff to concentrate on more important projects. And it can simplify your monthly IT expenses by consolidating your technology bills into a single monthly payment.

Flexibility and Scalability

A CCaaS solution is also very flexible and scalable to grow as your business grows and adapt to changing market conditions and needs. Utilizing the power of the cloud can give your business the competitive edge you need to compete in today’s customer-driven economy.

Looking Ahead

InterVision has been helping IT leaders solve problems for more than 30 years. If you have been considering migrating your current contact center to a cloud-based CCaaS solution, InterVision representatives are happy to answer any questions you may have. Visit our website or call us today at 844-622-5710 for a free consultation.