Work from anywhere and still deliver great customer service
Cloud Contact Centres and Remote Worker
Martin Bacon, Consultant’s Team Leader at Chess, reviews the rise of cloud contact centres' popularity since remote working became the norm. He covers:
I speak to a lot of customers as part of my role and all of them have had to adapt to remote and flexible working during the last year and react to the changes they are experiencing with their customer interactions.
Customer service in a remote working environment
The 3 key challenges customers tell me they are facing are:
- Reduced workforces due to the pandemic but more customer enquiries to deal with growing.
- Getting enquiries get to the right person where they are, rather than getting the people to where the enquiries are.
- Customers using multiple channels of communication (calls email, social media) and having to respond efficiently in return
“Many of our customers have implemented work arounds and temporary fixes to these challenges which have got them by through the pandemic. As the realisation that it is very unlikely that we will return to 100% office working sinks in I think that now would be a good time to review replace them with a proper solution.”
Source: Business Leader
Employee well-being is important too
Providing improved customer experience is important but so is the wellbeing of our people. As our workforce has adopted and adapted to working from anywhere there have been many benefits as remote working enhances productivity and improves work-life balance. However, as work levels have increased, the pressure on our people has increased also. This is especially true for people trying to make the most of inefficient systems. Accessing multiple systems at one time can be challenging unless multiple screens are in place, which is difficult in for remote or home workers due to space limitations. This extra pressure can really impact on morale and mental health.
We all need a cloud contact Centre
It doesn't matter what size your business is, but in my experience deploying a cloud contact centre in your business can improve your customer experience and boost employee wellbeing. this can usually be done more effectively by deploying some kind of contact centre.
“Cutting edge cloud technology, rapidly implemented, untroubled by users’ physical locations, and boasting intelligent automation of the drudge work, has enabled contact centres to cope with unprecedented volumes of demand.”
The SME guide to contact centres
Simplicity: Contact centres need to be easy to use and a "single pane of glass and handle all the ways your customers want to contact you. It needs to handle calls but also Email, Web Chat, SMS, and Social Media.
Work from Anywhere: Agents must be able to connect from anywhere and manage all of their interactions from one web-based portal (with built-in softphone capability, so no need to install additional software).
Support: Supervisors can be on hand to assist, listen in and coach, monitor statistics and KPI's as well as manage their teams from anywhere in the world, at the click of a button.
Compliance: Compliance Teams are happy with the ability to put consent for recording into the customers' hands removing the need for manual intervention.
Performance: Senior management can automatically receive reporting with all the stats and info they need on how their Customer Service team is performing.
Reduce your costs: Let's not forget the finance team, they are really happy as everything to deliver this slick and simple solution is a fixed cost per user per month without the traditional large upfront outlays required for Contact Centre solutions.
CRM integration for better customer experience
Agents are happy as they only have to touch one system. With the Open API capabilities built into the platform, their CRM is integrated, and they can immediately see who is calling and pop their customer record automatically. Click to dial through the CRM is saving them hours a month and happens instantly.
Customers are happy as they can get in touch with their key supplier in several different ways, knowing that these enquiries are going to the same team and getting quicker responses. The system is scalable and can increase to cope with demand when required should there be busy times. For example, Christmas isn't far away, and you might need to employ a few more people to help, and they can work from home with some online training.
We have made the change now and don't want to sit back again and get caught out. Being cloud-based means the system is a lot easier to deploy and features updates that happen automatically. Open API's mean that you can take things to the next level with VIP routing based on CRM record and field lookup, or indeed if their account status is set to needing attention for payment, route them straight through to the finance team!
Get in touch, and one of our consultants can demonstrate the system live for you, discover and understand your unique challenges, show you the art of the possible and put you on the first steps toward the future of Customer Satisfaction.
Embracing a modern cloud contact centre solution
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About the author
Martin Bacon
Martin Bacon, Consultants Team Leader in Chess, has over 20 years of experience in IT industry. Utilising a consultative approach and understanding the clients' business ensures solutions fit with the right budget and functions required. He empowers organisation to work smarter with technology, giving them the edge over their competitors.