In the constant and crucial pursuit of balancing customer satisfaction with efficient operations, many organisations opt for CCaaS (Contact Centre as a Service). This software-based application enables organisations to communicate with their customers.
CCaaS solutions offer organizations a wide range of opportunities to enhance their CX by making the customer journey more frictionless. From Interactive Voice Response (IVR) to automated self-service options and multi-channel communication, contact centre software solutions offer advanced features to improve how organisations interact with customers.
What’s more, contact centre technology can work in conjunction with your customer experience software or customer experience management platform to continually improve how you serve, engage and interact with your customer base.
This article will explore how your organisation can improve customer experiences using CCaaS technology.
Why is CX important?
Firstly, let’s take a quick look at the importance of delivering a positive experience to your customers.
According to reports by Forrester published in 2018:
- Over one third of consumers stated they would walk away from a brand after just a single bad experience.
- Conversely, 65% of customers believe a positive experience with a brand is more influential than great advertising.
- A mere one-point increase in CX scores can increase to $10-$100 million in annual revenue.
Clearly, the importance of CX must be considered. If you’re searching for ways to improve CX in your organisation, you may want to consider implementing a CCaaS solution.
What are the benefits of using a CCaaS solution to improve CX?
Implementing the right CCaaS solution can significantly boost the customer experience and subsequently improve satisfaction, loyalty and retention.
Here are some ways contact centre technology can lead to a more positive experience for your customers.
- Offer different communication channels to satisfy varying customer preferences:
In today’s digital age, there is an ever-increasing array of channels through which consumers can interact with organisations. A modern contact centre solution will offer various communication options, including voice, email, SMS, web chat and social media.
By providing a choice of channels for your customers, you allow them to communicate with your organisation in the way that suits them best. For example, some customers will prefer to use the phone and speak to a live agent, while others will opt for the convenience of enquiring by sending a message through web chat.
Additionally, particular types of enquiries are better suited to specific communication channels. A simple product question or a straightforward delivery query could be addressed quickly and easily using the chat feature on your website. At the same time, a more complex enquiry about billing might be better handled over the telephone.
Not only can CCaaS solutions enable your customers to communicate with your organisation using the channel they prefer, but they can also allow people to switch seamlessly between different channels. For example, if a query proves too complex to be resolved via web chat, a customer can select to be transferred to an agent via a phone call to continue the conversation.
- Improve responsiveness and resolution rates:
Contact centre software features such as Interactive Voice Response (IVR) and self-service options can enable your business to resolve customer enquiries faster and more efficiently.
By using the IVR to route customers to the most appropriate department or agent for the enquiry in question, customers can have their queries addressed more quickly and avoid having to repeat their enquiry to multiple agents.
Similarly, offering self-service options that allow customers to access information without having to speak to a physical agent can help to improve the speed of resolution. For instance, if your organisation chooses to integrate with your Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system, customers can utilise the self-service options to retrieve information that specifically relates to them, i.e., their account balance. This functionality allows customers to resolve their own enquiry without needing to wait for an agent to answer their call.
Features such as an IVR and accessing self-service can allow agents to focus on higher-value activities and more complex customer enquiries that require a specific skill set. This will subsequently lead to maximising agent productivity and improving response times.
- Deliver more personalised customer experiences
Personalisation can make a significant difference in delivering a positive CX and providing a seamless customer journey. In turn, this can give your organisation a healthy competitive edge.
An advanced CCaaS solution will comprise features that can enable your business to create more personalised customer experiences. For example, leveraging the feature of an Intelligent IVR enables customers to access information pertaining exactly to them – such as an estimated date on when their delivery will arrive.
CCaaS software can also enable agents to be prepared with information about a customer before they’re connected, allowing a more personalised conversation, faster resolution times, and increasing the chance of improving the first call resolution rate.
- Demonstrate that you value your customers
Showing customers they are essential to your organisation is vital to providing a high-quality CX and increasing satisfaction rates. When used effectively, your CCaaS solution can help your customers feel valued when interacting with your brand.
Rather than a customer having to go through the frustrating process of repeating the nature of their enquiry multiple times, an advanced CCaaS solution will ensure contact centre agents have all the information they need at their fingertips.
Similarly, CRM integration can provide a more welcoming experience for existing customers, with agents equipped with relevant details about a customer and their history. This can help to ensure the customer feels valued and taken care of.
- Maximise agent productivity and attract top talent
Implementing a feature-rich CCaaS solution can empower your contact centre agents to work more efficiently and productively. Cloud-based CCaaS software will enable staff members to work from any location and, combined with a modern and intuitive interface, will make it easier to work quickly and effectively.
In addition to improving overall CX through advanced contact centre technology, cutting-edge CCaaS software will provide agents with a positive working experience to achieve the best results. This can enable your business to attract and retain leading talent, enhancing CX.
- Achieve Continuous Improvement through Data & Analytics
Equipped with an effective CCaaS solution, your business can obtain valuable data and insights into the customer experience. Contact centre technology, including in-built reporting modules and real-time dashboards, will allow your organisation to assess and monitor performance. The results identified can enable problem areas to be uncovered, with the result to improve outcomes.
Accessing comprehensive reporting on critical metrics such as call volumes, wait times, and resolution rates can provide the visibility your organisation requires to drive performance improvements and resolve problem areas sooner rather than later.
Businesses can use data-driven insights derived from CCaaS software to improve customer satisfaction, strengthen their competitive edge, and ultimately increase Return on Investment (ROI).
What are the features of a CCaaS solution that can help your organisation deliver exceptional customer experiences?
To leverage CCaaS technology to drive CX improvements, you need to ensure the contact centre software selected has the right features to meet your organisation’s requirements.
ipSCAPE’s contact centre technology platform is designed to help organisations provide the best possible experience for their customers, with a wide range of advanced features that make the customer journey as seamless as possible.
The following features can enable you to improve your CX with an efficient and high-performing contact centre:
- Interactive Voice Response (IVR)
With an IVR, your customers can use their telephone keypad to select an option based on the nature of their enquiry. From their keypad selection, their call can be routed to the appropriate department or the most suitably skilled agent.
An IVR system can help to improve CX in several ways:
- Increase first-call resolution rates: routing each call to the correct department or agent can resolve inquiries quicker; in contrast, the customer could be directed to the first available agent who may need to possess the skill set required to determine the customer’s enquiry adequately.
- Reduce wait times: IVR callers can be routed straight to the correct agent, meaning less time spent on hold or having to repeat their enquiry to multiple agents.
- Offer self-service: which can enable customers to resolve queries themselves. Simple enquiries such as store opening times can be answered without speaking to a live agent, settling faster.
- Intelligent IVR
Building on the capabilities of an IVR system, ipSCAPE’s Intelligent IVR is a powerful routing tool that integrates with a Web Services Connector and enables organisations to create more sophisticated workflows. With an Intelligent IVR, you can provide customised experiences that increase satisfaction and enhance CX.
Creating an Intelligent IVR can support enhancing CX in the following ways:
- Offer a streamlined service: pulling pieces of customer data from your CRM can help calls to be routed more effectively, e.g., if a customer is located in Brisbane, the Intelligent IVR will identify this and direct the call to the customer’s nearest store.
- Scalability: there is no restriction to the number of customers that can be served, meaning all customers can communicate their enquiry without fearing their call being abandoned.
- Prioritise high-value customers: by integrating with your CRM, the Intelligent IVR can identify higher-valued customers and prioritise their calls accordingly. Moreover, the Intelligent IVR also can route customers to an agent they’ve communicated with previously, which can help build stronger customer relationships.
- Customer Self Service
Self service options can help your organisation enhance the customer experience and reduce operational costs. With ipSCAPE’s self-service functionality, callers can resolve their enquiry without needing to speak to a physical agent.
Customer self-service can be used to improve CX by:
- Resolving enquiries faster: as self-service can provide fast access to the information customers seek, this functionality can enable quicker resolution of straightforward queries.
- Reducing customer wait times: by enabling customers to resolve their enquiry, they do not need to wait to be connected with an agent.
- Delivering positive brand experiences: using ipSCAPE’S innovative self-service functionality allows your organisation to customise various of elements to keep your contact centre experience on-brand. Adding music and selecting the right Virtual Agent Voice to represent your brand throughout the customer self-service journey can support your customers to resonate with your organisation.
- Post-call and post-chat surveys
Integrating surveys into your workflows after a call or web chat interaction is a valuable way to capture customer feedback and assess how they view their experience with your brand. The insights obtained can then be used to improve your CX.
Deploying surveys after a call or web chat interaction can allow your organisation to:
- Capture Net Promoter Score (NPS): NPS measures customer loyalty and satisfaction. It is found by asking customers how likely they are to recommend your product or service within a survey. This score can be used as an indicator of performance and can act as a benchmark to drive improvements in satisfaction levels.
- Identify problem areas: that can be found by analysing survey results, revealing particular areas that need to be addressed to improve CX. Survey results may point to dissatisfaction based on specific variables such as the quality of customer service interactions, confusing IVR menu options, or the information (or lack of) available via the call or online.
- Improve agent performance: through the collected data, supervisors can be notified about calls with unsatisfactory ratings or low scores. This allows proactive action by contacting the customer to minimise future problems. This can help enhance your CX as the customer feels valued knowing your brand has acknowledged them.
- Multi-channel communication options
Today’s CCaaS software needs to offer more than just phone-based communication to cater to differing customer communication preferences. ipSCAPE’s cloud contact centre software allows organisations to interact with customers across various communication channels, including Voice, SMS, Email and Web Chat.
Enabling customers to contact your business across multiple channels can help to improve your CX in various ways:
- Allowing customers to choose how they make contact: offering multi-channel communication options provides your customers with the freedom to select their preferred channel. This can enhance CX as customers can choose whichever channel offers the most comfortable.
- Providing more convenience to customers: having the option for customers to visit your website and commence a conversation via web chat is far more convenient in contrast to calling. It is essential to be mindful that ‘convenience’ is perceived differently by every person across your customer base.
- Ensuring a seamless transfer between channels: if a customer is required to start from scratch and repeat their enquiry each time they contact your organisation on a different channel can cause a negative customer experience. Transferring customers across channels and equipping each customer service agent with relevant information can help your organisation deliver a positive CX across every touchpoint.
As you can see, choosing the right CCaaS solution for your business can significantly improve your customer experience. Enhancing your CX can lead to higher satisfaction levels and improved retention rates, increasing revenue.
If you’d like to discover how ipSCAPE can help you enhance CX in your organisation, check out our suite of advanced customer service contact centre features or get in touch to find out how ipSCAPE’s award-winning software can help your contact centre operate more efficiently and effectively.
ipSCAPE is a feature-rich, scalable cloud communication technology solution with advanced integration capabilities. We help businesses connect with their customers through multi-channel communications, including Voice, Web Chat, Email, SMS, IVR, and other emerging channels.