When customers reach out to your business, they have one clear expectation from you: a response. However, as basic as that premise seems on the surface, it can be surprisingly complex to fulfill.
How do you prioritize and organize customer inquiries and outreach? How do you determine which agent answers which question? How do you ensure you have adequate staffing to get those questions in a reasonable amount of time? How do you keep things from slipping through the cracks?
It’s all the responsibility of a modern contact center — and it highlights the importance of contact center technology for helping support teams meet customer expectations without spinning their wheels.
Whether you’ve already tested the waters of different contact center technologies or are looking around for the first time, this guide covers what you need to know:
A contact center is a centralized team, department, or function within a company that manages all inbound and outbound communications with the company’s customers, clients, and other stakeholders. This happens using various communication channels like phone calls, emails, web chats, social media, and SMS.
Customer support is usually the first and only function people think of when they imagine a contact center (and that’s a big and important use case). However, contact centers play diverse roles in organizations and can optimize and handle a variety of important tasks, including:
Put simply, while customer calls and support are a core focus of most contact center agents, it’s only the tip of the iceberg on what a contact center can handle.
A painter needs a paintbrush, a woodworker needs a hammer, and a contact center needs the right technology. Contact center technology is the broad term for any tools and platforms a company uses to manage, streamline, and optimize interactions across various communication channels.
You might also hear contact center technology called contact center software or call center software. They all mean the same thing: the technology tools a contact center team relies on to do their jobs well.
Much like any other type of technology, contact center solutions have changed a lot over the past decade or more. For example, modern call center technology has experienced major changes to:
What used to be managed with a clunky phone system and a jumbled spreadsheet can now be handled by modern solutions that not only handle call distribution but also more complex tasks like forecasting and sentiment analysis.
Additionally, contact centers no longer rely on on-premises systems but on cloud-based solutions that offer more opportunities to use artificial intelligence (AI), automation, advanced analytics, and other features that weren’t available on legacy systems.
Previously, contact centers placed a heavy focus on voice interactions. But today, phone calls are just a slice of the pie.
53% of customers say they prefer to exchange text messages with a business. And 68% of customers use social media to get information about new products and services (with 30% of users expecting an immediate response from agents).
Contact centers have had to move away from a one-channel approach and transition to an omnichannel contact center model, where people can engage using whatever communication method they choose (voice, email, chat, social media, and more) and still have a consistent and seamlessly connected experience.
Why do these advancements matter? Two words: customer experience. When 85% of executives say improving the customer experience is a top or significant business priority, the right contact center technology can help teams improve the customer journey and perception with:
And while call center technology is good news for customers, it’s good news for your team of human agents too. The right solutions offer streamlined workflows, adequate staffing, and information at their fingertips, all of which help reduce agent burnout and frustration.
Contact center technology is the term used for any type of solution or platform a contact center uses, but several distinct categories of technology fall under that umbrella. These include:
That’s not a comprehensive list. Contact center technology can also include a customer relationship management (CRM) platform for storing customer information, a knowledge base to provide customers with self-service options, and any other tools the team uses to efficiently and effectively handle communication.
In this day and age, most people understand the role of technology in improving speed, simplicity, and accuracy.
But it’s not enough to just have contact center technology. When 86% of companies admit that outdated technology and inflexible systems hinder their ability to respond to customer needs, you need to have the right technology in place.
When you do, your team (and entire company) can benefit from:
Modern contact centers have come a long way from switchboards or rotary phones. Here are three major call center technology trends that are shaping the future of contact centers.
You probably suspected that AI would appear at the top of the list. As McKinsey explains, “The contact center emerged as an early use case for generative AI” and Gartner predicts that, by 2025, a whopping 80% of customer service and support organizations will apply generative AI technology in some way.
Here are just a few of the ways that contact centers are using AI to boost productivity and performance:
These advancements are impacting the internal operations of the contact center as well as customer support roles in general. While many contact center agents understandably feel hesitant about how AI will impact their jobs, there seems to be good news ahead. AI solutions can provide contact center reps with more time to focus on complex problem-solving and better career development opportunities.
Chatbots are a specific application of artificial intelligence in the contact center, using natural language processing to simulate human conversation through voice (using interactive voice response or IVR) or text. Chatbots have seen an impressive uptick in recent years, with an estimated 76% of contact centers currently using chatbots.
Chatbots can be surprisingly intelligent but, in most cases, are still best suited for basic and routine customer FAQs — like updating payment information or tracking a shipment. Even so, we’ll likely see the capabilities (and adoption) of chatbots increase as AI continues to expand.
Think customers will complain when their inbound call or text is answered by an AI-powered chatbot instead of a real, human agent? You might be surprised. Customers are largely satisfied with their interactions with chatbots, with 80% of customers saying they’ve had positive experiences with the technology.
And even more surprising, in one recent study, customers indicated that there are certain times when they prefer a chatbot over a real representative, such as when they’re buying potentially embarrassing products.
An omnichannel experience — which delivers a seamless customer experience across multiple communication channels — is no longer a competitive differentiator. According to recent research, it’s now a baseline customer expectation. A whopping 86% of consumers say they expect conversations with agents to move seamlessly between channels.
Customers not only expect the opportunity to reach your support team via any platform, but also for their customer information to stick with them across channels. For example, the details they provided in previous support phone calls should be available to the agent helping them via live chat.
Modern contact center solutions need to deliver on this expectation by providing agents a holistic view of all support channels, rather than keeping channels siloed.
As you start evaluating which call center technology is right for you, you’ll quickly realize you have plenty of options. A search on G2 for “call center” yields more than 1,200 results.
While choices can be encouraging, they can also be overwhelming when trying to figure out which solutions and tools are the right match for your business. Here are some criteria to consider to make your most informed choice:
A successful contact center needs the right technology — and it also needs the right people. Assembled helps you check the box on both.
With Assembled’s workforce management software, you have visibility into your staffing and agent performance to improve productivity, boost operational efficiency, and deliver an exceptional customer experience across all your communication channels. Assembled offers:
Remember, customers have a clear expectation when they reach out to your brand or business: a prompt and helpful response. With Assembled, you’ll put the right people in the right place to meet (and even exceed) your customers’ expectations.
Ready to transform your contact center? Get started today.
