All You Need To Know About Contact Center Software: Part 1

"Please stay on the line. Your call is important to us. Thank you for your patience."

After a continuous loop of the most soothingly hurtful words for almost 24 hours, most people will slam their phones and give up on trying to get their 'crappy, broken' phone fixed under warranty. Not Phoebe Buffay! Phoebe is patient, Phoebe is resilient, Phoebe has nothing else to do and most importantly, Phoebe is fictional!
 
Normal people, nay real people, will give up on your brand if they're not responded to adequately and in timely fashion. In fact, 61% of consumers say that they have stopped transacting with a business after a poor service experience. Make sense to be available and actively respond to your customers on every possible communication channel they can use to reach you, don't you think?
 
That's where Contact Center Software comes in. To ensure that customers don't have a horrible experience like Phoebe and leave your brand forever.
Drama aside, what is a Contact Center Software? How does it work? Where did it come from? Do I really need one? Answers to all that and more in 3, 2... 1
 

What Is A Contact Center Software?

Imagine you are in urgent need of some cash, you reach an ATM, insert your card, do all that needs to be done and right before your precious money is about to be dispensed, everything goes black. Don't worry, you are not attacked by the Joker; there is a power failure at the ATM. A sudden ting on your phone alerts you about the situation, xx amount debited from your account but the actual horror strikes when you see no banknotes coming out! 
 
Panic-stricken, you try to contact your bank through all possible channels to get your money back. You send an email, you call the customer care center, you probably even tweet about it. You are all over the place and share your frustration on every channel you can think of. To track all these communications in one place and manage your issue better, banks use a central software known as Contact Center Software A.K.A - CCS.
 
Contact Center Software is a one-stop communication channel between an organization and its customers and possible customers. CCS integrates and records all communication via phone, email, online chat and social media posts in one place so that agents can supervise the customer interactions in the most ideal way. 
 
Contact centers can be said to be the evolved versions of call centers that we've known traditionally. 
 

The Journey From Call Centers To Contact Center Software

In the 1960s, Private Automated Business Exchanges (PABX) started gaining traction in England. The PABX was an automated telephone switching system in private enterprises that included Automatic Call Distributor (ACD) technology that allowed businesses to filter incoming customer calls and assign them to agents. In 1965, Birmingham Press and Mail in the United Kingdom became the first call center to use a Contact Center Software - GEC PABX 4 ACD. This software evolved over the years into what we now know as the Contact Center Software we know today because, frankly, customers were tired of being treated like Phoebe.

It wasn't till the 1970s that the Interactive Voice Response (IVR) technology entered the call centers, which allowed a computer (automated system) to interact with callers. In the 1980s, the outbound dialer (outgoing calls) was first introduced, creating sales and marketing opportunities for call centers. The advent of the internet in the 1980s-90s drove significant and dynamic growth for businesses of all types. It offered new channels for consumers to connect with companies and ask their questions, complaints and compliments. Thanks to the internet, call centers were beginning to take on a multichannel approach and soon enough, "call centers" were rechristened to "contact centers.” In the 1990s, online chat and electronic mail, AKA email, became more popular, making online webchat possible.

Another way for consumers to contact organizations. In 1999 and the early 2000s, we welcomed cloud technology, which supported customer service representatives to better manage high-volume call hours. By 2014, the modern version of Contact Center Software had evolved enough to manage customer contacts that come via the web, email, mobile/ phone, social media, SMS and other channels. Today, contact centers solutions record and analyze every piece of data available to monitor the system's performance with critical metrics, such as service levels, quality results and customer satisfaction. 

History, check! Now, do you want to know how this elaborate system works? We have the answer in the next section.
   

How Does Contact Center Software Work?

Remember the movie Boss Baby's opening scene? The entire system is set in place to identify and assign each baby to the right place (family or management). Imagine that but much more organized and replace the babies with different queries from your consumers. That's how Contact Center Software works.

To begin with, the contact center receives a customer call. The software first identifies the caller by matching their contact number against the existing database; if not, an ID is created in an unknown caller with no previous record. An existing customer's previous communication records are shared with the agent. The software also creates or assigns a "ticket" to a unique identifier for the issue. This helps them be equipped with all the information and issue history, including information about the communication that the customer may have made on channels beyond the telephonic calls, like previous emails, complaints on some portals, etc. In the meantime, the customer is asked to respond to automated messages to be directed to an appropriate agent. The agent then receives the call, understands the issue and helps resolve it.

Any assistance required during or after the call can be triggered directly from the software, either through an email or a message. If the issue is resolved, the agent closes the ticket and a feedback message is sent to the customer. If the problem is unresolved, the latest communication and update is documented to aid further communication. If the agent needs to call the customer at a later stage for an unresolved issue, the software allows the agent to do so instantly, at the click of a button. They can also trigger follow-up emails and messages regarding the case directly from the software. All this information is then analyzed and recorded to understand the agent's performance, communication efficiency and customer satisfaction.

Overall, a Contact Center Software streamlines communication and information to bring efficiency in providing customer support. 
 

Why Businesses Need Contact Center Software?

In the world of instant popcorn and instant noodles, customers look for instant resolution of issues. They want to be heard and they want to be heard now!. This is where Contact Center Software comes into place. What's the ultimate goal for a business? To make profits, duh! However, keeping customers happy is also a major goal, isn't it? If delivering the best customer support experience to your customers is your key goal, Contact Center Software is your most significant aid. A Contact Center Software gets you the reputation of "always being there for your customers." It allows you 24X7 availability quickly and efficiently.

Not just that, in today's competitive industry, you walk that extra mile or two to deliver a top-notch customer experience that also ensures your customers stay loyal to you. Customers today expect professionalism, speed, efficiency and even friendliness. A Contact Center Software is just helping you out in meeting their expectations.

As Clare Muscutt rightly points out, "Building a good customer experience does not happen by accident. It happens by design." Contact Center Software is the design that you establish to deliver a seamless customer experience. Merely through the magnitude of features that a Contact Center Software offers, your business can automate and streamline the customer's experience. Through the hassle-free and instant communication experience you offer, you foster meaningful customer relationships. Trust TechDogs on that; it builds your brand reputation.

Curious to know more about all the fantastic features of the software? We, at TechDogs, don't like to leave our readers hanging. Explore all that Contact Center Software has to offer in Part 2 of our Contact Center Software series.