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The COVID-19 pandemic has had an unprecedented impact on enterprises around the globe . With entire populations going into lockdown , adapting day-to-day operations to address the realities of the ‘ new normal ’ became a mission-critical priority . This was especially true of the contact centre , which saw enormous changes both in its customers ’ behaviour and the demands governments were placing on operations and employees . The way we all work and communicate has changed completely and , in many cases , permanently .
As we begin to emerge from the stricter lockdown periods into our ‘ next normal ’, it is important for organisations , either directly managing or outsourcing contact centres , to think about how they are going to move their operations beyond COVID-19 . At its core , the questions that need to be answered are : how can we ensure all levels of the contact centre continue to work together effectively from anywhere and on any device and what does implementing the necessary Unified Communications ( UC ) technology actually look like ?
Keeping the plates spinning , smoothly
There is an abundance of collaboration tools on offer , but with so much choice , spinning the multiple plates of various customer conversations across different platforms and channels can be incredibly challenging . Even the smallest crack in communication will affect a contact centre ’ s efficiency and degrade the customer experience .
Investing in a cloud-based contact centre approach , married with UC tools , is one viable option for contact centre owners to approach this challenge . These solutions will fully integrate channels and applications into a single , easy-access user interface . Truly effective UC solutions leverage multiple services , such as instant messaging ( IM ), voice calling ( fixed , mobile and softphone support ), video conferencing , presence sharing , voicemail , screen sharing , file sharing and more .
Efficient communication
There are multiple benefits to a UC solution . The first – and possibly most important under the current circumstances – is efficiency . Delivering a quick and connected
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experience that meets customer demand and expectation is now more important than ever . By improving the information flow between front and back office operations , a customer service department can more easily provide a quick service and present a united front to customers , even when agents may be physically dispersed .
Providing call agents with a single , unified interface makes accessing channels and collaboration tools effortless . They are able to obtain necessary information more easily and solve customer problems faster as a result , ultimately delivering an excellent customer experience .
Resilient scalability
Another benefit of incorporating UC into a cloud-based solution is resilience . As proven by the COVID-19 pandemic and the turmoil that many companies across industries have endured , external and internal communication is key during a crisis . Customers need immediate attention when alerting organisations to issues they ’ re experiencing . If a front office call agent cannot provide an answer without connecting with their back office colleagues , they must do this as quickly as possible . It may even be that they need to transfer a customer to a back office colleague for quick access to their expertise .
On top of this , during a crisis , more often than not contact centres will experience spiked levels of demand , which can be difficult to handle if all agents are occupied . This challenge can be augmented if key www . intelligentcio . com INTELLIGENTCIO
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