4 Must-Have Call Center Technologies for Improved Customer Service

For call centers these days, so much is made of “doing more with less.”  Luckily, so many exciting technologies are currently available to help contact center staff make the most of what they have, while allowing them to improve upon the service they deliver.

Here are four must-have call center technologies that can help you improve the customer experience:

Integrated Agent Desktops

Many solutions now offer the ability to integrate the agent’s desktop application with CRM data. Giving agents a single view of a customer across multiple channels can be a game changer. Agents are more productive and responsive to customers, while handle times are shortened.

For example, knowing a caller’s entire history can allow agents to get to the heart of an interaction right away, without having to ask the customer to repeat information multiple times.

Delivering superior customer service requires agents to be empowered with the right tools.

Workforce Management (WFM) Solutions

Given that the agent salaries usually represent the majority of operating expenses in a call center, being able to accurately forecast and staff accordingly is crucial (especially for larger call centers, or those that are more complex). Workforce management technology does just this- allowing companies to allot the right number of agents to handle the projected call volume, while taking into account scheduling realities like breaks, vacations, training classes and more.

Planning is key to keeping a call center running at peak efficiency.

Universal Queuing

The “call center of the future”: It’s the contact center of today, where agents interact with customers across multiple channels like voice, chat, social and mobile. Among the tools companies have to streamline their workflow is Universal Queueing, allowing agents to handle requests from customers on different channels, all from a single desktop.

There are many ways to implement multi-channel interactions and, of course, a one-size-fits-all approach doesn’t suit everyone. For example, not all agents are skilled in all media types, so sometimes there’s a balance to be struck between single and multiple queues.

Improving the service you deliver across all channels means making the most of your agents.

Call-Back Solutions

In terms of improving customer service, you’d be hard pressed to do better than eliminating hold time for callers. That’s exactly what call-back solutions do: They replace hold-time with a call-back so callers don’t have to wait on the line. (If you’ve ever heard the message “Press 1 to get a call-back, rather than wait on hold”, then you’ve experienced this first hand.)

The benefits go far beyond customer experience; they can help call centers reduce costs, lower abandon rates, decrease Average Handle Times (AHT), and improve service levels.

They’re not just for people that call your contact center directly. Call-backs can be implemented as click-to-call-back on the web and mobile, allowing customers on websites, mobile applications, social media, etc. to reach an agent without having to dial, navigate an IVR, or wait on hold. Solutions like Fonolo can be implemented across a variety of channels.

Offering to give customers back what they value the most – their time – is a sure-fire way to improve the customer experience.