When you buy a product and find some issues with it what’s the first thing that comes to mind? Of course, you connect with the customer support team of the brand using your preferred medium and get your problem solved.
But, have you ever thought about how they solve your problems in just a few minutes? What acts as a backbone for them while assisting customers? It’s the contact center software.
From customers’ details to a comprehensive knowledge base, this software contains everything you need to improve your customer experience. Let’s delve deeper into learning more about contact center software.
What is contact center software?
Contact center software is an all-in-one solution that allows companies to handle and manage all inbound and outbound activities. This software provides multi-channel support – calling, messaging, reporting, analyzing, emailing, chatting, social media interactions, etc. This software consists of multiple applications that simplify contact center processes. With noteworthy functionalities, this software also helps contact centers improve agents’ productivity, enhance customers’ experience, reduce operational costs, and more.
This software can be hosted both on-premises or on-site and on-cloud in a SaaS arrangement. Based on the requirements and needs businesses can select any of the set-ups.
Contact Center Stats 2024: You Must Know For Overall Growth
Boost Your Business With Top 5 Features of Contact Center Software
When investing in contact center software, looking for the best features is crucial. If the features are advanced the investment is proven to be rewarding. It helps offer positive experiences to customers which paves the way for the company’s success and growth.
AI-powered Post Call Actions
In today’s fast-paced world, consumers need instant answers to their queries. That’s one reason agents need to be super productive. Thanks to the involvement of AI in the contact center industry. It made customer interaction quick and simple, increasing customer satisfaction and agents’ performance.
AI has now become a helping hand for agents by automating the after-call process. It automatically generates transcripts, keeps a record of customer interactions and information, offers a quick summary of the call, and much more. Furthermore, it also assists supervisors in monitoring agents’ performance.
Reporting and Analytics
A contact center can be incapable of outperforming when it lacks clear reports and in-depth analytics. There must be advanced software in place that analyzes interactions, and agents’ performance, and provides detailed reports and real-time data. One such contact center software is iVision Call Center Wallboard. It keeps agents engaged, productive, and motivated with 360-degree monitoring capabilities.
Real-time data produced by contact center software allows teams to take quick actions and historical data helps them analyze gaps, identify trends, and make improvement strategies. Software with reporting and analytics features gives a clear view of team performance in an interactive and appealing graphical representation. This information acts as a base for improving engagement and encouraging the team to be more productive.
Omnichannel Assistance
Nowadays, customers have the leverage to connect with brands through different channels, such as – calls, emails, social media, chat, and more. To serve the customers better, brands need to be active and responsive on all platforms and this can be feasible with omnichannel contact center software. No matter which platform customers use to reach out to agents, omnichannel software gives a unified view to the customer service expert so that he or she can manage interactions coming from multiple channels.
Omni channel contact center software reduces repetition in interactions. For example – Customers don’t need to repeat the same information like name, order ID, issue, etc., again and again to agents. They have to mention everything in the first interactions, agents will have that stored and can offer assistance without asking for the same details again. Multichannel capabilities provide a more customer-centric experience, improve brand loyalty, and build strong customer relationships.
Advanced Call Controls
Contact center software solution comes with some exceptional call control features that make agents’ tasks simple, offer seamless customer experience, and allow supervisors to manage the team effectively. Some of these features are – call transfer, barging, monitoring, routing, click-to-dial, call logs, wrap-up codes, and more. All these capabilities promote seamless workflow and allow agents to offer quick responses to customers.
Here is a brief description of these call control features.
Call transfer – Agents can transfer the call to another agent who holds a specialty in that specific domain.
Call barging – This supervisory feature allows managers and supervisors to intervene in the live call, listen to the conversation, and assist agents in resolving the query.
Call monitoring – Supervisors are responsible for checking the call quality and assessing agents’ performance. For that, they can monitor the call, listen to the conversation, analyze it, and suggest areas of improvement to agents.
Call Routing – Based on the queue, wait time, and agents’ expertise, supervisors can route the call to another agent. With advanced contact center software, businesses can avail of an AI-powered call routing feature in which after understanding the customer’s query, the chatbot can route the call to the expert agent.
Click-to-dial – With the click-to-dial feature, agents can dial the call to the customer in just one click. They don’t need to manually dial the number which saves time, reduces manual work, and eliminates the chances of error.
Call logs and wrap-up codes – Advanced customer contact center software comes with call logs and wrap-up code features. Agents can check all the previous interaction details of a customer through the call details logged in the system automatically.
| 💡Also Read | Modern Contact Center Solutions for Evolving Customer Needs |
Furthermore, agents can add the wrap codes based on the interactions. They can mention the issue, next step, or specific details that can help other customer support experts in assisting the call better.
Unification & Integration
Best contact center software focuses on offering seamless integration and unification. Software like Smart CTI connector by NovelVox comes with 75+ integrations and offers a unified agent desktop that gives a clear view of multiple tools used to assist customers on a single screen. It enhances agents’ productivity, saves time, automates workflow, supports multiple channels, and improves customer satisfaction by offering personalized and quick resolution.
| 💡Get the Whitepaper | 16 Things to Consider when Selecting the Right Contact Center Software |
Types of contact centers
A few years back the contact center scenario was different from what it looks like today. Multiple phones and equal representatives to offer assistance after toggling various screens, long waiting times, call holds, and whatnot. However, with technical advancements, contact centers have changed drastically and are divided into different types discussed below.
Inbound Contact Center
The inbound contact center manages incoming customer interactions, such as incoming calls or messages. Customers reach out to inbound contact centers to know their order status, product details, business hours, payment status, and more. Agents offer support to callers by using advanced inbound contact center software. Companies that sell products and services in which there are chances of customer queries rely on the inbound contact center.
Outbound Contact Center
As the name suggests, outbound contact centers handle outgoing interactions. It focuses on selling products and services by directly reaching out to customers and prospects. This type of contact center uses outbound contact center software and performs multiple functions, such as – lead generation, telemarketing, advertising, market research, customer onboarding, customer surveys, and more. Businesses creating brand awareness and building brand image use outbound contact centers.
Virtual Contact Center
Virtual contact center also known as online or cloud-based contact centers is the digital version of on-site contact centers. According to Call Miner, “Cloud contact centers are 27% cheaper and experience 35% less downtime than on-premise contact centers” This type of contact center uses cloud-based technology that allows teams to work remotely. Virtual Contact Center Software uses – Computer Telephony Integration (CTI), Session Initiation Protocol (SIP), and Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) technologies for calling and other advanced contact center functionalities.
Omnichannel Contact Center
Omnichannel contact centers can be both inbound and outbound. This type of contact center handles customer interactions coming from multiple channels, like – phone, SMS, social media, emails, and chats. Omnichannel contact center software unites everything on a single platform and allows agents to interact with customers seamlessly and follow up with them on past conversations.
| 💡Also Read | Take Your Customer Engagement to the Next Level With An Omnichannel Platform |
Call Center vs Contact Center
We have heard the team call center and contact center endless times. Many of us use it interchangeably, but both are different. A few years back, the contact center was an unknown team in the industry. However, with technological evolution and the use of multiple channels for business and customer interaction “contact center” came into the picture. Let’s understand these terms in brief.
Call Center – A branch in the organization that offers customer service over calls. In call centers, employees make both inbound and outbound calls to assist customers and to make them aware of the products or services. It also consists of an outbound sales team and customer support experts.
Contact center – Just like call centers, contact centers also provide customer support but, not only over calls. It supports multi-channel interactions with customers. In a call center, there is only one medium of interaction, i.e., phone calls. However, in a contact center, customers can communicate through multiple channels, like – SMS, messages, emails, chats, and social media.
Do You Need a Call Center or Contact Center for Elevating Your Business?
Whether it be a call center or a contact center both are used for offering better customer service. But, which is appropriate for your business depends upon multiple factors, like size, type, budget, and ways to connect with customers. Below are some pointers you can consider before deciding what to use for your business.
A call center is for – businesses that have just started with customer service. It is said that 76% of customers still prefer to communicate with the brand via phone calls, so brands can always start with telephony assistance.
A contact center is for – businesses that want to interact with their customers through multiple platforms such as – websites and social media channels. Businesses with huge customer bases prefer contact centers more.
Wrap Up
Contact centers use multiple innovative tools and solutions to improve customer experience and contact center software is one of them. Incorporating contact center software backed by advanced features and technologies in the business is the prime choice for brand owners these days.
They trust leading contact center solution providers like NovelVox which offers AI-powered contact center software solutions and multiple features that improve brand and customer experience. Some of the widely used tools by our clients globally include – Smart CTI connector, InfiBot, Agent Accelerator, and more. Explore our website to learn more about our contact center offerings.
