Here you can find information about contact center software including a list of with the best contact center software for 2020.
Despite the changing times, some people still prefer the more traditional options. When you start a business you have to be ready to cater to all sorts of customers. And that means having a contact center for phone support. Without a good software phone support is costly, difficult to manage, and extremely time-consuming. But equip yourself with the correct tools and you can handle any situation and any kind of customer.
What is a Contact Center Software?
When it comes to customer service, there really is never a time when people aren’t having some sort of trouble. The IT support staff simply cannot handle all the calls, messages, emails especially when your business is slowly transitioning. A contact center software does as its name suggests, it establishes communication between the company and customer. It manages outbound and inbound calls, and even provides analytics. The real purpose of such a system is to let your customer service team perform with maximum efficiency. With its various features, the right contact center can save up to 670 working hours a year, providing the ultimate communication service between the company and its users.
Features of a Contact Center Software
When it comes to finding such a software for your business, you will find a plethora of them on the market. Each has its own unique features that determine how perfect it is for your specific requirements. Here is a quick rundown of all the qualities that you should look out for before making your final selection.
1. Omnichannel
An ideal contact center software doesn’t have just calling facilities but will support the customers through various communication channels like email, live chat or social media. The digital age is all about maximizing each medium to your advantage. For an efficient customer service should be spread out over multiple channels but also unified at the backend so all information can be logged in one place for easy access, regardless of the channel it came through.
2. Call Routing
Just connecting the customers to an agent is not enough, you have to make sure each customer gets assigned to the right agent that can most efficiently and skillfully solve their issue. Some software first connects the customer to an operator who directs the call to a specialized department but better software will offer a customizable options list from which the customer can select the department they believe their issue lies under. This way you can minimize problems where the customer connects to the wrong agent and even save up on time directing the customer.
3. CRM Integration
When it comes to customer service a major source of frustration for most is having to repeat their issue again and again on each interaction. It is a sign of a good business that they should store customer data and be informed on each individual issue before the conversation even begins. Of course this is not realistically possible. Contact Center software should store the data from each interaction in a file and send it along to the agent whenever they are connected, this gives the agent context and helps them sort out the case faster. No to mention, the conversation is smoother and the customer is left with a very positive impression. CRM Integration is the official jargon for simply storing all relevant data to the case in one place.
4. Call Queues
Even in virtual contact centers, there can be huge traffic that can force many customers to automatically disconnect from the server leaving a very bad impression of your company. It is important the software should offer a queue system that will assign the users a specific number and turn if all the agents are busy. You may not feel the need of such a feature immediately but a business will not always remain the same size and grow so you should prepare for the future and purchase a software that supports growth.
5. Voice Responses
These voice responses are like a “meanwhile feature” which keep the customer busy while the agent is pre-occupied. These include pre-recorded greetings, messages that play in between sessions, the informative menus, or if your company has a large audience and there is a waiting queue, the voice responses can be used for timely coverage to give the customers reassurance they will be eventually connected to an agent.
6. Outgoing calls
When we think of customer service we think of inbound calls and customer queries, but this is not the case. Companies often want to expand their customer support to proactively reach out themselves to reassure a good impression. The marketing department may also use this system to contact prospective buyers. It is important for such a software to have an automated dialer and logs which keep recorded data of all the calls.
7. Incident Analysis
This is a feature that allows you to deal with problem management and provides a prevention service against future incidents. A better software will be able to identify recurring issues and help the company prepare likewise. A system should evolve along with a business and work to reduce common issues that most customers are calling in for.
8. Performance Insights
A good system will also evaluate the performance of the company’s team. Most companies are working under some kind of service agreements, and the software can judge against these agreements how well the agents are performing against these conditions. This can include the amount of customers dealt with, incoming call volume, call trends and the average time taken to resolve an issue. Better software will have a feature to receive feedback to judge customer satisfaction. This feature is necessary for overall future growth of the company because it helps the supervisor administer the staff optimally.
9. Security
The customer’s details and personal information is shared during these interactions and it is important for the company to keep this safe. As a business you have to provide security and maintain your client’s trust which means investing in a system that hackers can’t get into. Make sure your system has message encryption so even if an outside party intercepts the message they will not be able to understand the contents. There should be IP restrictions so only authorized personnel have access to customer data. The software should also have a high end anti-virus as well so no one can transmit corrupted files using this channel.
Top 5 Contact Center Software
1. Adversus Dialer Software
For a very nominal monthly subscription, Adversus Dialer Software provides a fantastic omnichannel for making contact with your customers. It is designed to work with live chat, email, phone, and even works with other popular business applications like Office 365. Purchasing a software that is non-compatible with your existing systems can be a waste of money so it is important to verify this.
Adversus Dialer is a cloud-based system that means all the data will be saved up on the cloud and you will need minimal on premise installments, this not only means it will cost less but also have a strong backup to all the information. Of course the cloud is more susceptible to hackers as well. While they do offer data security as part of the software, we would still recommend equipping higher encryption methods for additional safety.
The best feature however, is its performance analysis of the agents. There is day to day reporting of all the activities across each department and even specific to each individual agent so you know clearly who is doing a good job and who isn’t. The analysis also extends to providing insight on what are some recurring tasks so the company can automate such tasks for quicker handling. The software is customizable to manage appointment scheduling, and creating unique data fields specific to each client.
Pros:
- Compatible with third party software
- Omnichannel
- Cloud-based backup
- Customizable
- Performance Insights
Cons:
- Difficult interface to get used to
- Limited security
2. CloudTalk
As you can guess from the name, this is yet another cloud-based software so while it offers great logging facilities you will have to be vary of hackers trying to get into your confidential files. A great feature of this software is its high compatibility. It doesn’t just integrate with other common business applications but also works ideally on all operating systems including, Linux, Mac, Windows, iOS, and Android so you can rest assured that no customer will have any trouble contacting and your agents will have no trouble using this software on their devices.
CloudTalk is designed to ensure customer satisfaction, this includes special features to provide a personalized experience to each client. With each call interaction history will be delivered to the agent and even an option to place outbound calls to the customer post interaction to make sure their task has been completed to full satisfaction. To please the customers even more the software includes interactive voice responses and pre-recorded voicemail that will play while the customer is on hold or in queue.
To make sure your human resource is working up to speed, the system offers a very unique emotional and behavioral analytics to verify how your customers and agents interact. This gives the supervisor optimum insight into his team.
Pros:
- Compatible with third party software
- Cloud-based backup
- Voice Responses
- Outgoing Calls
- Performance Insights
Cons:
- Randomly Shuts Down sometimes
- Limited security
3. Newfies-Dialer Software
This is majorly a marketing call center used to make contact with possible future clients. It has a great auto-dialer feature that will pull up a list of contacts and ring them one by one for the agents. This can be dangerous as well because it may call up clients you already have or black-listed contacts that your company doesn’t want to contact or who have already rejected your offers. Newfies has a way around this with their unique “Do Not Call” feature that allows you to add contacts to a list so when the system generates the auto-dialing contacts it won’t include these. The system automatically selects agents for the calls, making sure that no two agents handle the same client.
Like we stressed before this is a marketing software so it has a feedback feature as well. This allows the company to customize their own phone surveys which allows the customers to have an interactive experience with the pre-recorded voice messages and key presses.
Pros:
- Auto-dialer
- Do Not Call feature
- Agent Collision Avoidance
- Customizable Phone Survey
Cons:
- Focuses on advertising and outgoing calls
4. Bitrix24 Software
This software is built to organize. It tracks interactions and logs them under specific file names for easy access, and uses the data to produce statistics on sales and the target audience. Bitrix24 focuses on collecting insight on your consumers through interactive voice messages and surveys. It is a very complex software that tries to do multiple tasks at once. This makes it a double-edged sword because while it takes your customer service to a new level it is very difficult to manage and maintain.
Pros:
- Interactive Surveys
- Customer Insights
- Marketing features
Cons:
- Complex to manage
- Technical glitches which need re-entry of data
5. 3CX Software
This may easily be the cheapest call center system on the market. But while it covers all the basics of customer service it definitely does have its setbacks. Compared to not using any system it definitely boosts productivity and it works on all the operating systems. So you know your customers or agents will face no limitations when using it. But where other systems have exclusive features that take customer experience to the next level, this just doesn’t cut it. We would only recommend this for start-up businesses on a tight budget before transitioning onto a better system.
Pros:
- Cheap
- Basic Software
- Friendly User-Interface
Cons:
- Difficult setup
- No unique features
Conclusion
If customer service is manual then no matter how efficient it is. Human error is sure to mess up at some point but the software is void of such failure. Using a call center boosts your company’s capabilities but when it comes to choosing the best one for you. It depends entirely on your resources and requirements. For a marketing based company the Newfies-Dialer is recommended and for a budget-conscious startup 3CX would be better.