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What is a Contact Centre? Types, Features, & Benefits
Learn how contact centres improve service efficiency and boost customer satisfaction.
Learn how contact centres improve service efficiency and boost customer satisfaction.
A contact centre is a hub that manages customer interactions through multiple customer service channels, from live chat to voice. It relies on customer service software, AI, automation and other tools to deliver exceptional customer experience and improve agent productivity.
Our research finds that 88% of customers believe their experience with a company is as important as its products. With customer expectations on the rise, contact centre experience is more critical than ever.
Let’s dig into what a contact centre is, why it’s important and how contact centre software can set your business up for success.
A contact centre provides customer support across many channels — chat, email, voice, web, SMS and more. Support teams use contact centre software to engage customers and deliver consistent service, no matter how a customer keeps in touch. Unified customer data, omnichannel engagement, customer service AI, automation and other tools enable contact centre teams to provide efficient, personalised support for every customer interaction.
When it comes to customer service, the terms "call centre" and "contact centre" are frequently used interchangeably, but they have distinct differences. A call centre primarily handles phone-based interactions, whereas a contact centre offers a comprehensive range of communication channels. These channels include phone, live chat, email, chatbots and self-service knowledge articles, ensuring customers can keep in touch in the way that best suits their needs — even at 3.00 a.m. on a major holiday.
Discover how contact centre leaders are using AI and a complete view of customer data to deliver effortless service at scale.
Understanding the different types of contact centres and how they work can help you to choose the right one for your business and customers. Let's look at how types of contact centres differ when it comes to customer engagement and technology.
Keeping today's customers happy and loyal means providing excellent, efficient and consistent service. Yet 69% of service professionals say it's difficult for them to balance speed and quality, according to our research. Here are some of the top contact centre features that can help to meet customer expectations.
Contact centre CRM software provides a complete view of all customer data, including current and past interactions across all channels, previous purchases, account information and more. This allows your contact centre to handle a wide range of customer needs from a single platform.
Real-time views of customer interactions mean agents or AI chatbots can efficiently pick up where the conversation left off, so that customers don't need to repeat themselves. With access to complete customer histories, contact centres can also help to generate revenue by offering product suggestions based on past purchases.
An omnichannel contact centre uses cloud-based software to manage customer interactions across multiple channels. It helps you to deliver a connected experience across all channels — no matter how they contact you.
On average, today's customers use 10 different channels when making a purchase. A customer may choose to use chat, voice or SMS for the same issue on separate occasions. What matters most is that they have a consistent experience. This is key to keeping customers engaged and improving loyalty.
AI customer service software boosts agent productivity by automating routine processes and tasks. In fact, our research finds that of service organisations currently using automation, 54% reported time savings as a major benefit.
AI provides agents with contextual, relevant responses based on CRM data and customer history. All customer conversations can be automatically summarised, documented and added to a knowledge base — creating a system that continuously helps improve customer experience.
Contact centre automation also improves agent productivity by analysing and summarising past cases, automating data entry for new cases and routeing customers to the correct agent.
If you've ever experienced a chatbot that led you to a cul-de-sac, you understand why customer satisfaction relies on intelligent routeing. When a chatbot can't help, customers expect to be connected to a live agent or given alternate ways to get the help they to need.
Universal Routeing ensures contact centres provide the best type of support for different customer needs, including product, type of enquiry, agent expertise and more. All work is routed through the same engine (i.e., chat, voice and email) using the same routeing logic. This ensures the mostappropriate agent is assigned, contributing to shorter resolution time and higher customer satisfaction (CSAT).
Self-service options give customers a convenient way to get help any time, day or night. In fact, our research finds that 61% of customers report preferring to find their own answers to simple issues using self-service resources such as chatbots and searchable help centres.
Customer self-service software frees agents up to focus on other tasks. AI is improving the breadth and quality of self-service resources with features like:
High-performing service organisations are using data and AI to generate revenue while cutting costs — without sacrificing the customer experience. Find out how in the 6th edition of the State of Service report.
Companies are using customer service strategies and tools to meet their customers' unique needs. Let's take a look at a few examples.
Today, many healthcare organisations use customer service automation to streamline appointment scheduling and management.
For example, when it's time to visit the doctor:
By providing a connected, automated customer experience across channels, healthcare organisations offload basic tasks from busy office receptionists and give their patients easy appointment management. Proactive appointment reminders and automated self-check-in also help keep healthcare organisations running smoothly.
Whether it's a business customer worried about losing online sales or a sports fan gearing up for a watch party, Internet service providers (ISPs) need to fix connection issues fast.
For example, when a customer can't access the Internet:
Customers are less frustrated when they get support straightaway and know what to expect; in this case, the chatbot provided a timeline for the phone call.
Many retailers now rely on social media to connect with customers. That also requires managing negative comments.
For example, when a customer posts a negative comment about a product on a company's social media:
By engaging directly on a social media platform and being able to generate resolutions quickly, retailers can keep their customers happy and improve loyalty.
To provide the best possible customer experience and give agents time to focus on the most complex issues, contact centre teams should consider these strategies:
There’s a lot to think about when choosing the best contact centre software for your organisation — budget, business goals, vendor compatibility, integration with existing technology and more.
Here are some of the most important things to keep in mind:
Contact centres are a crucial part of service operations. Investing in the right tools and technology is more important than ever. With 85% of decision makers saying service is expected to contribute a larger share of revenue this year, an exceptional customer experience is a key part of making that happen.
Satisfied customers are more likely to make another purchase, upgrade their services and remain loyal. With the right strategy and tools, contact centres can improve customer satisfaction and loyalty, gain new customers, drive revenue and much more.
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