Call and Contact Centers are constantly using the phone call in their day-to-day, making calls left and right.
There will always be a need for phone calls in this industry, but isn’t there a better way to improve calling strategies and customer experiences?
The evolution of center technology has come far since the ye-olde traditional cubicle and headset industry. Now we have a myriad of automation capabilities, self-service options, and even AI at work.
And when call and contact centers implement newer technologies into their agents’ strategies, they often see a modernized improvement in their overall calls.
Here are some of the latest advances your center should use to refine and improve upon the customer experience:
Customer Relationship Management
CRM for short, Customer Relationship Management combines techniques and technologies that companies use to manage their customer analytics. Essentially, it’s a company-wide strategy, used to cut costs while gaining an overwhelming profit. With a CRM strategy, you and your business determine customer needs and use that information to further build their connection.
The main component of a CRM? Automation. For contact centers specifically, CRM automation works to supply pre-recorded audio to aid customers in
Here are some examples of CRM strategies:
- Collaborative CRM: data centralized for multiple departments to access
- Operational CRM: automates clerical, repetitive tasks to give other departments their focus back
- Analytical CRM: Tracks patterns and identifies trends that may slip past workers
If you’re struggling to connect with your customers, CRMs work to build that rapport, streamline your sales procedures, and target campaigns correctly.
For more info on CRM – Hand in Hand: How Branded Calling Fits into Your CRM Strategy
Artificial intelligence
AI is everywhere, and it looks like it’s here to stay. The rapid rise of public AI technologies like OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google’s Bard AI has made it more accessible than ever. With it, brings a new, forward-thinking way of using technology to stay relevant in the CX game.
By providing both autonomous and semi-autonomous functions to call centers, processes are basically streamlined straight from agent to call log.
Not to mention, with AI services, your agents gain predictive responses to aid in their problem-solving sessions and omnichannel support to analyze and collect customer data.
For more on AI: Is This the Year AI Dominates the Call Center?
Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP)
Are unstable calls preventing your agents from getting their numbers up? VoIP can help! Allowing your agents to make phone calls via an internet connection, Voice over Internet Protocol works to enhance your center’s call quality.
VoIP is possible as long as you have a computer and a stable internet connection. While that will do the trick, there are other options if you choose this connection.
What’s so good about it?
Well for starters, having A+ quality calls trumps all static-y and hard-to-comprehend calls from a landline. And let’s not forget the option to integrate your business’s app, giving your customers the ultimate customer experience.
For more on VoIP: Voice over Internet Protocol
Callback Queues
As a call or contact center, sometimes there are too many calls to answer or filter through. Agents may need to constantly put customers on hold, and they can sometimes forget to give them a callback. This is where callback queues come in handy.
Callback queues cut out the “let me put you on hold” treatment most agents flock to. There’s a better way! To give your clients a better calling experience, placing them in a callback queue is just the thing you need.
Callback queues let clients schedule their callback with an agent, end the call, and go on about their day until it’s their time to pick up the phone.
For more info on callback queues: Get a Queue: How Callback Queues Enhance Call Centers
Branded Calling is the Key to Better Customer Experience
These are great and all – but there’s no guarantee people will still answer the phone. Sure, you can add a queue to call clients back or automate calls, or even use a computer for an enhanced calling experience. But that doesn’t mean your calls will get noticed by customers.
At the heart of it all, using a string of numbers just doesn’t do the trick. Unknown numbers give too many people the “ick” and those calls often go unanswered. In fact,
With Branded Communication, your outbound calls are now personalized to your business – using your name, department, and reason for the call – straight to your client’s phone. And when people know who’s calling, they’re more likely to answer.
For more info on Branded Communication: Future-Proof Your Customer Experience
