It’s hard to believe that another year is already winding down and the holidays are on the horizon.For many businesses, the holiday season brings with it the strongest sales of the year. Revenues shoot up, and profits accelerate—or at least begin to materialize.
It’s important to remember that with that uptick in sales comes a corresponding uptick in contact center traffic. Which makes perfect sense: If more folks are buying your products and services, chances are at least some of them will have questions or concerns—and they’ll turn to your agents for answers and remedies.
Since that’s the case, it may be time to start preparing your contact center for the inevitable influx of customer calls. Thanks to modern contact center software, that preparation is accomplished easily.
By investing in modern contact center solutions, you can transform your contact center, equipping your agents with the tools they need to effectively handle holiday traffic. That’s because contact center tools provide tons of functionality, including:
• Omni-channel coverage. Today’s agents need to handle much more than phone calls. There are emails, chats and SMS—not to mention the smorgasbord of social platforms customers may decide to use to reach out to a brand (e.g., Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Google+). Best-in-class contact center software streamlines all of these communications mediums into one central queue, giving agents the ability to track customers as they move across channels. This makes it easier to deliver positive experiences, particularly during heavy volume periods.
• Scalability. During the holidays, your contact center may very well experience an inflow of questions and complaints as customers scramble to track down gifts for their loved ones. And once those presents are given, recipients may have questions of their own. Strong contact center solutions provide companies with the scalability necessary to easily add or subtract seats depending on business needs.
• IVR systems. Customers who call contact centers don’t like being transferred from one agent to another. The good news is that robust contact center tools feature Interactive Voice Response (IVR) systems that enable customers to essentially route themselves to the most appropriate agent. What’s more, if wait times are especially long, customers can opt to leave recorded messages that agents can return when call volumes subside.
• Skills-based routing. Contact center solutions also feature skills-based routing functionality, which automatically sends callers to the most qualified available agents. In addition to preventing staff members from having to transfer callers to their colleagues, skills-based routing also ensures quicker issue resolution and a higher degree of customer care.
• Real-time monitoring. With contact center tools, managers can also unlock the power of real-time monitoring. This enables them to listen to exactly how agents handle customer calls—and intervene that moment if need be. Additionally, managers can capture all interactions, using these recordings to coach and train their agents. They can also identify areas that are backed up (e.g., hundreds of Twitter questions) and delegate the necessary resources to respond swiftly and effectively.
To learn more about how the right tools and technologies can improve your contact center this holiday season, please click here.
