Adam Wilson, Director of strategic partnerships (EMEA & APAC) at cloud communications provider Vonage gives UC Advanced his views on enhancing the customer experience.
Integrating unified communications (UC) and contact center (CC) solutions into a single platform can enhance customer experience (CX) by providing agents with access to comprehensive customer data and enabling seamless communication across various channels. This integrated approach not only improves operational efficiency and agent productivity but also leverages AI tools to personalise services, ultimately leading to increased customer satisfaction and retention.
Remotely disjointed
Remote work models have transformed the contact centre landscape. Not only do the majority of agents now work remotely, call and message volumes are on the rise. Whilst some studies have found that remote work benefits agents and boosts staff retention rates, it can also result in disjointed communications that hinder productivity and disengage customers who are used to near-instant customer service.
Outdated telephony systems can be the kiss of death for enterprises: they cause higher operational costs and create unnecessary roadblocks for agents which waste both the customer’s time and yours. Businesses that are looking to enhance their CX offerings should begin by taking a look at the way their teams communicate with customers and with each other.
Evolving customer service
The first step to delivering effective customer service is to unify your business communications into one simple platform: combining disparate unified communications (UC) and contact centre (CC) solutions into one platform will provide your agents with a comprehensive view of all customer and agent interactions, giving them the tools they need to provide quick and detail-driven services that win the trust of your customers.
Customers understand the value of good CX. Despite the global cost-of-living crisis, research has shown as much as one third of UK customers are prepared to pay more for excellent service. But in order to provide differentiating CX, businesses must be able to meet customers on their own terms.
Customer communication preferences vary significantly between individuals, but the most important factor, arguably, is age. For example, customers under 40 prefer to chat with businesses via social media platforms, such as Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp, whereas those over 40 prefer phone calls. When businesses invest in omnichannel they can communicate on the customers’ preferred platform, providing a mutually beneficial service which shortens call times and collects granular customer data for agents to leverage when handling tickets. More data also means more insight for your business, which can be used to streamline your customers’ online journeys and your agents’ workloads.
However, to take full advantage of omnichannel, services offered must be fully personalised. That means 24/7 self-service for those who prefer automated services, bespoke recommendations and reminders for customers, and agents who have access to all relevant customer information from the moment a ticket is opened. Omnichannel personalisation has been seen to increase revenue by up to 15%¹ – and, crucially, prevents customers from turning to a competitor, which the majority of customers are likely to do following multiple instances of bad service.
Integrated AI tools are a must-have in this area in providing time-saving summaries of prior interactions that agents can use to surmise the full context of customer issues on live chats or calls, shortening the average handling time (AHT) and tailoring every service session to consider individual customer needs.
A combined UC/CC solution allows agents to easily provide customers with direct channels to subject matter experts and empowers agents to access any relevant information from across their enterprise and consequently provide richer outcomes for customer queries or complaints. This is especially helpful for complex queries that require more than one session with an agent.
Empowering agents
Contact centre agents have a stressful job which can be exacerbated by remote work. Employees are isolated from immediate support systems and likely to be exposed to too much screen time when working from home, which increases the risk of burnout. By prioritising convenient UC solutions, enterprises give agents a faster and more productive system that alleviates their workload while promoting quick and constructive customer service.
A unified platform empowers agents to retrieve crucial information in real-time when customers have been engaging across multiple conversations on multiple platforms. Hybrid platforms enable agents to see the full picture without missing out on context from conversations they weren’t privy to. This also means that agents can seamlessly pick up where others have left off, allowing individuals to take breaks from high-stress interactions and encouraging teams to evenly share workloads.
A combined UC/CC solution also enables AI tools to cover both customers’ and agents’ needs from end to end – for example, businesses can analyse the sentiment of their customers across active calls and chats via speech analysis, which can be used to automatically flag to the wider team if a call is in need of escalation.
Unlocking insights
UC and CC solutions are often composed of several disparate software systems, such as CRMs, chat and email. When not properly integrated, businesses risk creating data silos which can hinder data analytics and prevent valuable insights from being uncovered.
An integrated UC and CC solution keeps all business data in one place so it can be properly utilised. By providing a comprehensive overview of customers’ needs and the resources available to meet them, the analytic features of both UC and CC systems can deliver holistic reports on the state of business down to the last detail. UC analytics illustrate how effectively teams communicate and collaborate, whereas contact centre analytics provide valuable insights such as average call time, customer retention and customer satisfaction scores (CSAT). When wielding the data of both customers and agents, you gain a richer understanding of your business’ internal and external needs.
Connecting resources faster through UC and CC integration can increase operational efficiency by 37% and improve CX ratings by 56.6%². Additionally, with a single platform approach, organisations can receive analytics from a single source rather than having to pull data from multiple systems, resulting in insights that are as up-to-date and accurate as possible. An integrated UC/CC approach empowers businesses to make more informed decisions while optimising resources in order to provide evolving, innovative services that go the extra mile for customers.