Contact Centre: the tool for creating interactions your customers will remember (for the better)
Contact centre and call centre: same battle?
Well, no, not really. While the call centre is limited to telephone calls (as its name so aptly suggests), the contact centre has established itself as a true hub for customer interaction, whatever the communication channel used.
It has to be said that customer habits and expectations have changed dramatically in recent years. Instant messaging applications and video calls are among their preferred contact channels. We need to modernise our customer relations!
To help you enter the era of Customer Service 4.0, find out what a customer contact centre is, why you should use one, and how it differs from a call centre (your customers will love it).
What is a customer contact centre?
A contact centre is a platform for managing all customer interactions from different channels (on line and off line) in a single place and at the same time. A conversation can start on chat, and continue via a phone call with an agent.
The aim is to unify the customer experience and treat all requests (whatever the channel) with the same importance, via omnichannel routing. It creates a common queue for all requests, enabling them to be allocated to the most qualified person for automatic response.
This decompartmentalisation between the different contact points is a strength for the company, because the information from these interactions is also centralised, giving customer relations agents a 360° view of the individual.
Offering a single experience, a unified customer journey, seamlessly changing channels according to needs and desires.
Here are the different channels that can be handled by the contact centre:
- telephone
- chat
- text messages
- videoconferencing
- social networks, etc.
ℹ️ Did you know? Nearly half of contact centres have invested in artificial intelligence for their chatbots, thereby improving the self-service (or self-care) aspect of customer relations and freeing up agents' time.
Differences between call centres and contact centres
A call centre is a group of people responsible for receiving incoming calls and also for making calls. It may be a department within the company, or a specialist external service provider who carries out the task for several customers.
The main differences between a call centre and a contact centre are :
|
|
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| Manages calls only | Manages all contact channels |
| Telephone or telephony solution | Omnichannel platform (social networks, calls, emails, chat, etc.) |
| Reactive customer service | Proactive customer service with the ability to anticipate needs |
| Limited view of each customer | 360° view of each customer |
| Interactive voice response (IVR) for self-service | Self-service via IVR or chatbot |
Why use a contact centre?
To improve customer service performance
The contact centre makes it possible to offer customers a quality service at various levels.
Firstly, intelligent routing automatically directs each incoming request to the agent who is best qualified to answer it, based on each person's speciality. Putting the customer directly in touch with the right contact not only results in a quicker response, but also a more relevant one, for a positive experience (your customers don't like to be wandered from agent to agent before stumbling across the one who has the answer to their questions).
Secondly, a global view of a customer (history, preferences, typical profile, etc.) gives agents a real advantage when it comes to offering the best possible service. In-depth customer knowledge helps them to quickly identify the problems encountered by their contacts, and even to anticipate them so as to come to their rescue in advance. For example, if the usage statistics show that a customer has tried a feature but does not use it regularly, it is possible to send them a message with a specific tutorial.
Finally, by automating a number of tasks and improving self-service, the agent's status can be permanently transformed. On average, they spend 25% of their time looking for information that already exists somewhere. Freed from time-consuming tasks with no real added value and simple customer requests that can be resolved by a bot, they can now act as true experts on more complex problems. They are in better working conditions, and can project a positive image of the company with a quality service.
👉 So improving customer service performance increases customer satisfaction.
To personalise the customer experience
According to a study by Infosys, 86% of users admit that personalisation influences their purchasing decision, and that a personalised message increases the likelihood of purchase by 125%.
When you see these figures, you realise that we can no longer do old-fashioned customer relations, and that we need to make them feel valued through the experience they have. The contact centre enables us to create a tailor-made relationship, generating a real bond of attachment over time. And we can't stress this enough, but a satisfied customer is a loyal customer, and a loyal customer will earn you more than convincing a new one.
👉 You'll be able to send personalised, relevant messages, on the best channel and when the customer needs them most.
To unify the customer journey
Do you know what irritates your customers? Yes, there's no doubt that they find it difficult to contact a company, but you should know that they also hate having to repeat the same information several times to different people. This contributes to friction and frustration in the customer journey (and that's not good for you).
The contact centre gives you all the keys you need to avoid negative experiences with your company. Thanks to the decompartmentalisation between the different means of communication, the continuity and fluidity of the experience are ensured.
👉 All the information gathered from the various interactions helps you to refine your customer knowledge as you go along, so you can offer them increasingly relevant interactions over the long term to encourage engagement. A virtuous circle!
Software for setting up a contact centre
Setting up a contact centre is not something that can be improvised, and you need to make sure you choose high-performance software that can be customised and upgraded to meet all your needs.
Twilio Flex offers a range of intelligent solutions to create a customised omnichannel contact centre in just a few days. Integrate all the channels you want to manage into its intuitive interface, automate some of the interactions via IVR or chatbot, and distribute requests directly to the people qualified to answer them. You'll be able to offer a unique experience that will delight your customers!
The contact centre in a nutshell
- The contact centre is a platform for handling all customer requests, whatever the channel used, in a unified way. Thanks to AI and automation, it offers efficient self-service and distributes requests to the most appropriate contacts.
- It differs from a call centre, which only handles telephone calls.
- Integrating a contact centre into your business is good for business, because it improves customer service performance, offers a smooth customer journey and a positive personalised experience.
So, are you convinced by the contact centre?
Article translated from French