Key Factors to Consider When Choosing Call Center Software
Why is The Selection of The Right Call Center Software Essential?
Every day customers reach out to a business to resolve their issues related to products and services. Each interaction is an opportunity to grow your business. Competing in the market is not enough for a company; it is more than required because a poor customer service experience can even push your loyal clients to competitors. Enter Call Center Software as a suitable solution to achieve your customer service goals. However, investing in this technology is a big decision that requires time, effort and money. You should evaluate your business requirements and consider the following factors to find the best software for efficient call management.
Factor 1: Call Center Software Type
Call centre systems can vary in terms of cost, type, ease of use, security, reliability and deployment. This is why you should particularly consider the kind of call centre system you will invest in. For instance, they are available as on-site, hosted, cloud and browser-based systems. Companies can select the best software for their business by evaluating their needs and goals. This way they can provide the top-notch customer service your customers expect.
Factor 2: Call Centre Software Features
After deciding the type of call centre system, you should start listing the features your team needs to ensure a superior customer service experience. For instance, automatic call distributor (ACD), interactive voice response (IVR), skill-based routing, call queuing, call monitoring, and call recording are important features that streamline the incoming call processes. Likewise, call barging, whisper coaching and auto-dialling modes help efficiently manage outbound campaigns. Call centres can also access real-time and historical analytics to make informed decisions on improvement. Your chosen system should have these features to get the desired outcomes.
Factor 3: Business Apps/Tools Integration
Another important aspect to consider while investing in a call centre solution is its integration capabilities. Your software should allow integration with CRM, social networking sites, chat, helpdesk, and other business tools. This will transform your team’s productivity and efficiency by automating various routine, repetitive tasks. For instance, in case of a missed call, the system automatically generates a new ticket containing call data and voicemail transcription. Moreover, the software also updates the chat transcript after a new chat.
Factor 4: Flexibility & Scalability
Technological advancements have made call centre solutions more flexible and scalable than ever. Browser-based call centre technology enables users to access the system on any internet-connected device regardless of location. Thus, with just the internet, headset and laptop, your sales and customer service agents can initiate and receive calls, benefit from conference calls and collaborate on business matters. You can do this with hosted and cloud solutions. Meanwhile, the latest solution also allows users to be added and removed quickly. Similarly, you can scale up and down considering your business needs.
Factor 5: Security & Data Protection
Keeping important business and customer data secure is critical today as cyberattacks have become common. Companies store different information in contact centres, a major target of data breaches. You should select a call centre solution and service provider that fulfils privacy and security requirements and uses the latest measures to keep data secure from breaches. For instance, many companies consider on-premises systems more secure than cloud solutions. However, cloud service providers also use advanced measures to ensure data security.
Factor 6: Facilitate Omnichannel Communication
Today, customer expectations are higher than ever so companies should offer them to communicate in their preferred digital channel. You should choose the call centre system that facilitates communication through email, phone calls, chats, instant messaging apps, social media, SMS etc. This will allow your agents to manage all communication channels through one unified system increasing efficiency. Omnichannel platforms save your agent time spent on switching apps and contribute to better customer service. Still, most customers prefer phone calls over other communication channels to contact a business.
Factor 7: User-Friendly Interface
Once you have chosen scalable and flexible call centre solutions with the right type and features, evaluate them considering ease of use. A user-friendly interface streamlines your routine operations, allowing agents to manage incoming and outgoing calls faster and provide more effective support. When your agents can easily navigate the software, it saves their time, makes them more productive, and increases customer satisfaction.
Factor 8: Customer & Technical Support
Managing on-premises solutions is complex and employees require training on using the system. However, a cloud-based system is easy to handle as you can use it on mobile apps. When selecting the call centre solution, choose the service provider that offers the customer service and technical support you need. Likewise, you can add more features according to your inbound and outbound calling needs to make things easier for your teams. For instance, the IVR feature in the software enables companies to provide round-the-clock support. It allows customers to self-service to avoid wait time or connect with live agents for issue resolution.
Factor 9: Use Free Trial
Companies can also use the free version of the call centre system for an extended time to understand the system and evaluate different use cases. Most service providers already offer a free version so you can ask your teams to invest their time and energy to understand the system by making and receiving calls and using different features. This will also help you choose the best call centre solutions that align with your business goals. Moreover, companies may not continue the business operations during disasters, emergencies or system malfunctioning with on-premises systems. Cloud call centre solutions allow business continuity during every situation and offer advanced data recovery plans.
Final Thoughts
Are you deciding to modernise your call centre operations to increase customer satisfaction and improve productivity? Invest in robust Call Center Software to streamline your calling processes and provide the service quality they expect from your business. However, the aforementioned factors should be considered before investing in the technology to get the best solution. Contact CherryBerry UCM for further assistance in choosing a reliable system for your business.
What is an Online Call Center Software? Types & Benefits
How an Online Call Center Software is Helpful for Your Business?
Today, every business knows the value of providing superior customer support. It not only improves customer satisfaction but also brings revenue to your business. Moreover, today’s tech-savvy generation expects more from your support team than they did a few years ago. They want to get responses as soon as possible and also self-service options to save their time. This is why most businesses prefer to leverage Online Call Center Software to automate their call processes to meet their customer expectations with minimal effort. However, the selection of the right call center software can prove to be an overwhelming process. Business owners should go for the system that best suits their unique business needs and for the features that can empower their agents to offer the highest-quality possible support to their customers. Let’s explore the information that can help you in choosing the right software for your team.
Which Type of Software is Best to Choose?
Investing in call center software is a big decision therefore you should choose it wisely by considering which type of software best suits your business needs either on-premises or cloud-based.
1. On-Site Software for Call Center
It is also called traditional, on-premises or legacy systems that are operated through in-house servers. Companies keep these servers in physical locations like a call center office or data room. In on-premises systems, an in-house IT team is responsible for the maintenance or updates that give businesses full control over software. This software depends on local phone lines to manage inbound and outbound calls. Landline phones offer better voice quality than cloud-based systems and do not need a stable internet connection to work. In short, on-premises software is an ideal choice for companies looking to take complete control over their software or want to ensure secure storage of customer information.
2. Cloud-Based Call Center Solutions
They are generally cheaper and more scalable and flexible substitutes for on-site systems. Cloud-based software is best for small teams of agents, remotely working companies and for those that have budget constraints. They are effective because you do not need any physical space to house servers or hardware. Moreover, the companies which use online call center software don’t have to pay maintenance, upgradation or labor costs required in on-premises software. As cloud software is subscription-based, small companies don’t need a lot of money to invest in the technology. As these systems have no restriction of physical space, companies can employ agents around the globe. They can choose experienced agents from a wider talent pool to offer round-the-clock support by employing agents outside their time zones.
Benefits of Call Center Technology
1. Improves Customer Service
Your call center serves as a place for your customers to contact you whenever they face any issue regarding your product or service. The persons who need your professional assistance can also contact you to resolve their problems. When a customer places a call, they expect an immediate response and a faster possible solution from your side regardless of the time of the day. They want answers to their queries when your agent receives their call. However, during peak hours it becomes really difficult to manage bulk call volume on time. With the help of call software, you not only meet your customer needs professionally but can also enhance the efficiency of your call center agents.
2. Increases Productivity
Every business aims to optimize productivity by offering exceptional customer service experience. However, this process is quite time-consuming and probably requires round-the-clock service because customers want to resolve queries according to their timeline or availability. Through call center software, companies can ensure the provision of full-time service and elevate their customer satisfaction level. This software increases your productivity and enables you to manage your customer requests efficiently. Call center software can manage every query like sales, technical issues, ticket support and appointment setting seamlessly. Lastly, this technology also improves your agent’s productivity at work.
3. Cost Effective Solution
If you are thinking of employing more agents to deal with bulk volume calls, reconsider your decision. Instead, you can lower the cost by getting online call center software. The beneficial features of this software will remain functional 24/7 and will bring huge benefits to your business. When this software can do a lot of things for you then you can save a huge cost. Moreover, you neither have to allocate physical space nor have to spend money on developing infrastructure with this software. Meanwhile, this software has built-in features to measure call metrics or route calls so you don’t need to invest in additional features.
4. Build Professional Image
Customer service calls have a great role in determining your business image. For instance, when customers place calls to resolve issues and get responses effortlessly, they consider your business as a professional service provider. Call software efficiently directs the customer’s call to a professional agent and reduces wait times. Shortly, having an immediate answer to queries is important to ensure customer satisfaction level. Failure to answer customer calls will also lead to missing out on a sales opportunity. Additionally, businesses can stay connected with their customers, collect more leads and close more deals through an effective calling strategy.
5. Identify Priority Calls & Improve Security
Based on urgency, call centers can prioritize calls to improve customer loyalty and experience. The software helps agents to decide which calls need fast response. It also keeps other calls in the queue to avoid missing any important call in the process. Call support also proves handy in situations when it gets the customer connected with a sales rep in a timely manner. Moreover, customer information is an important asset of every company so its security is highly important. A call center software has a cloud backup facility that automatically stores customer information. Companies can use this data further for quality assurance and training purposes.
Final Thoughts
Indeed, Online Call Center Software is a worthy investment to ensure customer support satisfaction. It has become a necessity for every business that wants to improve customer service and productivity. This software helps your agents manage incoming and outgoing calls and offers diverse features that prove beneficial in handling technical support, general inquiries, complaints and more. Whether you are looking to implement an on-site or cloud-based system, you are providing your agents tools to increase first call resolution rate and overall efficiency and productivity. If you want to gain more insights about which type of software has more value for your agents and customers, you can contact Cherry Berry UCM for expert suggestions and to get our services.
