Contact Center: the tool for creating interactions your customers will remember (in a good way)
Contact center and call center: same battle?
Well, no, not really. While the call center is limited to telephone calls (as its name so aptly suggests), the contact center has established itself as a true hub for customer interactions, whatever the communication channel used.
It has to be said that customer habits and expectations have changed dramatically in recent years. Instant messaging applications and video calls are among their preferred contact channels. It's time to modernize customer relations!
So, to enter the era of customer service 4.0, find out what a customer contact center is, why use it, and how it differs from a call center (your customers will love it).
What is a customer contact center?
A contact center is a platform for managing all customer interactions from different channels (on line and off line) in a single, simultaneous location. A conversation can start on chat, and continue via a phone call with an agent.
The aim is to unify the customer experience and treat all requests (whatever the channel) with the same importance, via omnichannel routing. It creates a common queue for all requests, and assigns them to the most qualified person for automatic response.
This decompartmentalization between the different points of contact is a strength for the company, as the information resulting from these interactions is also centralized, giving customer relations agents a 360° view of the individual.
Offer a unique experience, a unified customer journey, and change channels according to your needs and desires in complete fluidity.
Here are the different channels that can be handled by the contact center:
- telephone,
- email,
- chat,
- sms,
- videoconferencing,
- social networks, etc.
ℹ️ Did you know? Nearly half of all contact centers have invested in artificial intelligence for their chatbots, thereby improving the self-service (or self-care) aspect of customer relations, and freeing up agents' time.
Differences between call centers and contact centers
A call center defines a group of people responsible for receiving incoming calls, but also for making calls. It may be a department within the company, or a specialized external service provider who carries out the mission for several customers.
The main differences between a call center and a contact center are :
|
|
|
| Handles calls only | Manages all contact channels |
| Telephone or telephony solution | Omnichannel platform (social networks, calls, emails, chat, etc.) |
| Reactive customer service | Proactive customer service with the ability to anticipate needs |
| Limited view of each customer | 360° view of each customer |
| Interactive voice response (IVR) for self-service | Self-service via IVR or chatbot |
Why use a contact center?
To improve customer service performance
The contact center enables us to offer quality service to our customers on a number of different levels.
First of all, intelligent routing automatically directs each incoming request to the agent best qualified to answer it, according to each person's specialty. Putting the customer directly in touch with the right contact not only results in a faster, more relevant response, but also a more positive experience (your customers don't like to be wandered from agent to agent, until they stumble across the one who has the answer to their questions).
Secondly, a global view of a customer (history, preferences, typical profile, etc.) gives agents a real advantage in offering the best possible service. In-depth customer knowledge helps them to quickly identify the problems encountered by their contacts, and even to anticipate them so as to come to their rescue in advance. For example, if usage statistics show that a customer has tried a feature, but doesn't use it regularly, it is possible to send them a communication with a specific tutorial.
Last but not least, the automation of a number of tasks and the improvement of self-service are transforming the agent's status over the long term. On average, they spend 25% of their time looking for information that already exists somewhere. Freed from time-consuming tasks with no real added value and simple customer requests that can be resolved by a bot, they can now act as true experts on more complex problems. He's in a better position to project a positive image of the company with a quality service.
👉 In this way, improving customer service performance increases customer satisfaction.
Personalizing the customer experience
According to a study by Infosys, 86% of users admit that personalization influences their purchasing decision, and that a personalized message increases the likelihood of purchase by 125%.
When you see these figures, you realize that old-fashioned customer relations are no longer an option, and that it's essential that the customer experience makes them feel valued. The contact center enables us to create a tailor-made relationship, generating a genuine bond of attachment over time. And we can't stress this enough, but a satisfied customer is a loyal customer, and a loyal customer will earn you more than convincing a new one.
👉 You'll be able to send personalized, relevant messages, on the best channel and when the customer needs them most.
To unify the customer journey
Do you know what irritates your customers? Yes, there's no doubt about it, but they also hate having to repeat the same information over and over again to different people. This contributes to friction and frustration in the customer journey (and that's not good for you).
The contact center gives you all the keys you need to avoid negative experiences with your company. Thanks to the decompartmentalization between the different means of communication, the continuity and fluidity of the experience are assured.
👉 All the information gathered through the various interactions enables you to refine your customer knowledge as you go along, and thus offer them increasingly relevant interactions over the long term to foster engagement. A virtuous circle!
Software for setting up a contact center
Setting up a contact center can't be improvised, and you need to make sure you choose high-performance, customizable and scalable software to meet all your needs.
Twilio Flex offers a set of intelligent solutions for creating a tailor-made omnichannel contact center in just a few days. Integrate all the channels you want to manage into its intuitive interface, automate some of the interactions via IVR or chatbot, and distribute requests directly to the people qualified to answer them. You'll be able to offer a unique experience that will delight your customers!
The contact center in a nutshell
- The contact center is a platform for handling all customer requests, whatever the channel used, in a unified way. Thanks to AI and automation, it offers efficient self-service and distributes requests to the most relevant contacts.
- It differs from a call center, which only handles telephone calls.
- Integrating a contact center into your business is good for business, because it improves customer service performance, offers a smooth customer journey, and a positive personalized experience.
So, are you convinced by the contact center?
Article translated from French