Connected communication platforms could be the answer for improving customer services
Elly Yates-Roberts |
Covid-19 has changed the way we communicate, collaborate and conduct business. We now expect businesses to meet us on our terms.
In response, new channels and capabilities are being added to contact centres for sales, customer service and marketing activities. However, this can result in piecemeal, costly and complex communication estates with multiple vendors, interconnectivity challenges and, worst of all, a fragmented, siloed approach to communication channel data.
A recent Forrester report found that, on average, contact centres run 3.7 different business applications and 74 per cent of agents use four or more applications per interaction. According to the decision-makers surveyed, their top-three challenges stemmed from this situation. Without a clear, unified view of their communication channel data, these leaders are unable to measure performance, identify improvements or recognise success.
To optimise customer experience, increase throughput and maximise first-call resolution rates, businesses require integrated all-channel solutions, where voice, video, SMS, WhatsApp and all digital messaging channels are provisioned via one endpoint from a single provider and integrate seamlessly with customer relationship management platforms.
Customers can tell when the agent or automated solution they’re engaged with has all the detail from their last interaction, or when they’re able to conduct one conversation across a seamless blend of chat, SMS, voice or video channels.
The benefit goes beyond improved customer interactions. Agents, managers and supervisors can leverage streamlined, integrated tools that help them perform their duties in a more meaningful way. Improved use of automation can free up resource from repetitive tasks to value-add activities. Crucially, with every all-channel conversation being enabled via a single platform, businesses can finally get the unified, accurate and complete visibility into communication data they require. This enables them to identify and achieve operational efficiencies, reduce costs and wasted effort, and work to deliver the differentiating personalised experience that turns clients into ambassadors.
Solgari is supporting customers across the world today in realising the opportunity of unified conversation data via our all-channel communication solution, Converse, which is available for Dynamics 365, Teams and the Power Platform. By unlocking the insight contained within each communication channel, we deliver the clarity required to make better business decisions and the capability to meet customers on their terms, however they prefer to communicate.
Ed Grant is chief operating officer at Solgari
This article was originally published in the Autumn 2021 issue of Technology Record. To get future issues delivered directly to your inbox, sign up for a free subscription.