Different organizations use different methods to deliver customer service. Some use conventional and tried-and-tested methods, while some leverage new and sophisticated technologies to provide their customers with the best support and service they can.
When it comes to using revolutionary technologies, tools such as VoIP-based phone systems and contact center software are proving to be extremely effective.
The best thing about advanced contact center software is that it’s loaded with several cutting-edge features that not only deliver exceptional service and experience to customers but also enhance agents’ productivity manifold.
If you own a customer-facing business, then the right contact center software can give you a massive edge over your competitors. This blog discusses some features in high-quality contact center software that not only help in delivering remarkable customer service but set you a class apart from the competition.
Contact Center Software Features
1. Automatic Call Distribution
In peak hours, contact centers get inundated with a lot of incoming calls. When the calls aren’t managed properly, callers are kept on waiting for a long time and it results in more frustration and dissatisfaction. Just imagine a caller is already frustrated because of a defective product and decides to contact the company. Upon calling a contact center, they are kept waiting for some minutes. The frustration and annoyance are going to increase more due to the waiting time.
But an automatic call distribution feature can manage heavy call volumes and enable contact center agents to automatically sort through incoming calls. By enabling call centers to evenly distribute among their available agents, the feature eliminates the time customers spend waiting for their calls to get connected with agents and reduces the transfer time.
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2. Answering Machine Detection
Sophisticated contact center software uses answering machine detection technology to detect if a human or an answering machine has answered the call. The feature analyzes several factors such as audio patterns, tones, and frequencies, and compares them with human voice to accurately determine the recipient of the call.
The feature is integrated with advanced dialers such as auto-dialers, predictive dialers, progressive dialers, and more. Businesses use this feature to filter out answering machines and optimize their outbound calling campaigns. By bypassing answering machines, the feature enhances agent efficiency, and customer satisfaction, as well as saves time and costs.
3. Skill-Based Routing
When customers call a contact center, they intend to speak to someone from a particular department who can resolve all their queries and problems. When that happens, customers are satisfied with the contact center’s service and it increases the first-call resolution (FCR) rate. But when that doesn’t happen, then a majority of customers are dissatisfied with the contact center’s service. A study conducted by San Francisco-based software company Zendesk found that over 70 percent of customers are unhappy when their call is routed from one agent to the other.
Equipped with skill-based routing, sophisticated contact center software connects customers with the right agents after taking various factors into account. Some of the factors are customer information, transaction history, past interactions (if any), preferred language, etc. It also considers various other things such as agents’ skill sets, expertise, and experience to handle the calls.
4. WebRTC Phone
Just imagine how easy and efficient your calling process will be if you can handle both incoming and outgoing calls using your browser. You don’t have to install any specialized software or hardware for that but just click on a dial button on your browser and you are connected with callers. Well, that’s the WebRTC phone for you!
WebRTC, short for Web Real-Time Communication, is extremely easily embeddable and it enables agents to connect with callers just by using browsers without any dedicated phone device or complex plug-ins and integrations. This feature not only enables agents to make and handle outgoing and incoming calls from their browsers but also allows them to contact any company or website owner from a webpage.
5. Single-Tenant and Multi-Tenant
Single-tenant and multi-tenant are two deployment models in contact center software. In the former, each customer has a separate instance of the software, which provides greater customization but increases the costs. The latter, on the other hand, allows multiple customers to share a single instance, which offers cost savings but limits customization.
The two different tenancy options are suitable for different users’ needs. The single-tenant system is suitable for banks, insurers, and call centers. It helps in enhancing customer satisfaction and streamline customer experience. The multi-tenant system is suitable for telecom service providers.
6. Inbuilt Ticketing System
Advanced contact center software comes with an inbuilt ticketing system and tracking system, which enables organizations to create, monitor, manage, and record various types of tickets. It serves as a centralized system that organizations can use to collect, organize, and respond to all customer support requests.
An inbuilt ticketing system automatically generates a ticket when a customer connects for help and captures all relevant information. It then provides agents with planned workflows, which equip them to handle all customer queries easily. An inbuilt ticketing system enhances collaboration, personalization, prioritization, analytics, and reporting. Also, it increases agents’ efficiency and significantly reduces turnaround time.
7. Omnichannel Support
The major difference between call centers and contact centers is that the former relies solely on calls to provide customer support or service, while the latter relies on multiple channels to provide customer service. Contact center software is perfect for organizations that aim to cater to their customer’s preferences. According to new data, more than 80 percent of customers prefer omnichannel strategies due to the seamless experience they receive.
By using contact center software, you can manage all customer communication (across multiple channels) in one place. Be it audio calls, emails, text messages, social media, web chats, and more, you can access relevant customer information, transaction history, and details, and manage all interactions from a single place.
8. Voice Transcription
This feature quickly and accurately transcribes all calls and converts spoken words into written text. It enables agents to focus on the call completely and save them the effort and time they would have spent to manually transcribe important conversations or take note during live calls. Sophisticated contact center software comes with highly-precise speech recognition and transcription systems that can provide quality assurance and training.
In contact centers, agents deal with a considerable volume of customer interactions daily. When they have the transcription of each call, they can look for and retrieve specific previous calls without much hassle. They also can refer to the specific parts of the conversation just by looking at the transcription.
9. Multi-level IVR and Multi-Lingual Option
Previously, nascent Interactive Voice Response (IVR) systems were regarded as gatekeepers in the contact center industry. But the introduction of multi-level IVR in sophisticated contact center software not only made them a great facilitator but also a storehouse of various self-service resources.
At a time when over 67 percent of customers prefer self-service options to speak with customers, multi-level IVR provides them with a wide range of self-service options. Multi-level IVR also provides multi-lingual options to allow customers to communicate in their preferred language. The feature is valuable for contact centers that operate across a wide geographical area.
When All is Said and Done,
By partnering with the right contact center software provider and leveraging the features, you can deliver exceptional customer experiences and gain a competitive advantage in today’s highly-competitive and fast-paced marketplace.