August 6, 2024 
5 mins read
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Subscribe Now!Today, customers are impatient, and making them wait in queues to connect with a service agent could cost the customer experience. You need a dedicated contact center to ensure that each customer inquiry is handled promptly and efficiently.
In this post, we introduce the contact center, its types, use cases and more.
A contact center is a business department that handles customer communications for customer service, technical support, and sales assistance. It could be through multiple channels like calls, emails, live chats, and social media.
Its core components include:
» Service agents – They’re trained professionals who communicate with the end users
» Infrastructure – The building or space that offers a professional environment for the agents to work
» Technology – Hardware & software that helps agents communicate with the users through different channels
» Customers – They’re the end users of the service/product that connect to the contact center for support or sales assistance
Customer contact centers integrate people, processes, and technology that drive customer satisfaction and business growth.
Interestingly, contact centers manage internal communications as well. For example, an IT cell of a large organization that offers technical support and service to employees.
Every organization has specific need when it comes to connecting with customers. Therefore, there are different types of contact center solutions.
They can be categorized as below:
» Direction of communication – Inbound and outbound contact centers
» Channel of communication – Multi-channel and omnichannel contact centers
» Deployment – On-premise and cloud contact centers
Based on the direction of contact initiation, a contact center could be either inbound or outbound or both.
The inbound contact centers deal with incoming customer service and support requests. They’re used for answering customer queries, order processing, appointment booking, etc. On the other hand, agents initiate connection with the customers in an outbound call center. It’s mainly used for collecting after-sales feedback, upselling, cross-selling, and lead generation activities.
Depending on the communication channels, the contact center can be either multi-channel or omnichannel.
In a multi-channel contact center, various communication channels are used to connect with the customers. These channels could include calls, messaging, online chat, email, etc. The customers can interact with the contact center through any of these channels. However, they’re work in silos — meaning an interaction can not transit between one channel and another.
On the other hand, omnichannel contact centers offers seamless interactions across channels. The agents can access and handle all the interactions of the customer through a single interface. Further, the customers can also seamlessly switch between the channels.
Contact centers can be either on-premise or cloud-based on the software deployment.
In on-premise contact centers, the software is hosted on the servers within the physical infrastructure of the business. Therefore, it requires the businesses to have a dedicated space, server, and an IT team for regular maintenance.
In cloud contact centers, the software is installed on a remote server offered by the software vendor. It can be access from anywhere through a portal from any web browser. Therefore, it does not require any up-front investments, physical space, and an IT staff for maintenance. It’s also known as virtual contact center.
The on-premise contact centers offer more control over the data and its security. Therefore, they are useful for organizations dealing with sensitivie customer information, such as banks. However, they require significant up-front investment. On the other hand, cloud contact centers are easy to set up, budget-friendly, scalable, and offers more flexibility to agents to work from anywhere.
Popularly, contact centers are used for offering support services to the existing customers. But that’s not the only use case. Businesses can implement contact centers for other purposes as well.
Here are the key use cases of contact centers:
This is the most common use case — businesses can set up a contact center to handle customer queries and complaints.
A dedicated contact center for customer service helps businesses offer better experiences to their customers. The service agents can have complete information about the customer through CRM and, therefore, can assist better by offering a personalized service.
Furthermore, they can leverage technologies like IVR systems and automatic call routing for efficient and timely handling of customer inquiries.
Many organizations use contact centers to make outbound calls to market their products or services to potential customers. Businesses can also reach out to existing customers to upsell and cross-sell products through a contact center.
Modern contact center tools support automating lead generation processes, like sending or responding to emails and making calls to inbound leads.
These days, generative AI is trending for customer support and service. Modern contact centers also offer self-service options to the customers using AI. Here, the customers are assisted by artificial intelligence to help them with their request or find a solution.
An example includes an interactive chatbot that deals with basic inquiries using a knowledge base. It can help the customer get answers to general questions without connecting with the customer support team.
Large organizations can employ an IT helpdesk contact center to help employees deal with technical issues and difficulties. The internal support helpdesk can help the team stay productive by efficiently handling and troubleshooting the issues.
Your contact center should have the following key features to efficiently manage interactions:
Also known as ACD system, it helps route inbound calls to a suitable agent and save customers time waiting in queues. It ensures that the inquiries are handled by the right agents, which enhances the resolution rates.
To offer immediate and 24×7 customer support, the contact center should offer a live chat option. It helps customers get common queries solved immediately and also submit a support request during the non-working hours.
This is a must-have feature for a contact center — it should integrate with a customer relationship management (CRM) tool to help agents get access to customer information. This will enable them to offer better and more personalized service to customers based on their previous interactions.
On the other hand, customer service management (CSM) brings together customers and office staff to resolve complex issues. It does so by breaking down the silos by consolidating customer data into a single platform.
Customer experience analytics help you analyze customer interactions and also agent performance to improve your service. It uses sentiment analysis, speech recognition, trend analysis, and customer effort score to offer insights into how satisfied customers are.
Customers may interact with brand’s on any channel they want for support. For example, through email, chat, social media comments, phone, live chat and email. Therefore, the contact center software should integrate well with omnichannel to direct those interactions to the relevant departments.
Organizations can use contact centers to streamline communications with customers. This can bring business benefits in multiple ways. Here are the main benefits of contact centers:
Contact centers help offer prompt and satisfactory customer service through multiple channels. Further, the agents can use CRM data to offer a more personalized service to the customers. All these leads to a better service experience and a positive brand image.
Contact centers offer a 360-degree view of the customer journey to the agents. This opens up a good sales opportunity — the agents can upsell and cross-sell products to the customers by looking at their past purchases and inquiries.
Further, businesses can plan outbound campaigns like cold calling to generate new leads and increase sales.
Through contact centers, you can get to know how customers perceive your business. You can gain insights into customers’ expectations and behavior. You can also set up an interactive feedback system across channels to gather data for making strategic business decisions.
Contact center platforms centralize customer interactions, which enables effective collaboration between agents. By consolidating inquiries and solutions in one hub, agents can access a unified system for efficient issue resolution. It leads to better team building, enhanced service quality, and consistent and accurate customer support across channels.
For many businesses, a contact center is the only customer touchpoint. Therefore, it’s vital to fully optimize it to deliver the best experience. It’s equally important to choose the right type of contact center with the required features according to your business.
One good option you can think of is a cloud-based contact center with omni-channel capabilities. For example, Ameyo by Exotel is an all-in-one customer communication solution that streamlines interactions across channels. It also integrates with CRMs, messaging apps, etc. to deliver an omni-channel experience. Schedule a demo today to learn more.
Shambhavi Sinha is an SEO expert at Exotel with a passion for writing about technology. With a keen interest in the latest trends in contact centers and artificial intelligence, Shambhavi aims to empower users by sharing insightful and up-to-date knowledge. Her expertise in SEO and her dedication to educating her audience make her a valuable resource for anyone looking to stay informed about the evolving landscape of tech in customer service and beyond.
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