Call centers are stereotyped as being sources of frustration, both for customers and for agents who are stuck in cramped cubicles all day. This image is really outdated, however, and fails to capture how the modern contact center can actually offer great customer experiences and improve your relationship with your clients. You have no greater resource than your customers, after all, so it makes sense to provide stellar customer support whenever possible. One of the best ways you can do this is with a virtual contact center.
Put simply, a virtual contact center is one where the customer support agents work remotely rather than at an on-premises location. Running a virtual call center helps save your business money on the operational costs of running an on-premises call center and maintaining the proper infrastructure. It also provides your employees with the many benefits of remote work that have become so obvious during COVID-19. Supporting a virtual center now can be one of the ways you approach the “new normal” of work, which is likely to be a hybrid of remote and office work for most businesses. Here are some other great ways that a virtual call center can benefit your company.
It’s easier to hire a diverse team.
When you’re running a traditional contact center, you’re limited to hiring candidates who live in your same geographic area. One of the greatest benefits of a virtual contact center is that you’re free to hire agents from all sorts of locations and from different time zones. This makes it much easier to provide customer support around the clock.
Imagine that you’re a child custody attorney in New Orleans. Child custody litigation can be a drawn-out and expensive process, and even worse, it has deep emotional costs for both the parents and children. If your law firm call center isn’t equipped with intelligent solutions like interactive voice response (IVR), AI-powered chatbots, and remote agents ready to take calls at any moment, you risk missing potential clients in their time of need.
The last thing someone going through family law litigation needs is to feel that they aren’t important when they try to reach an attorney for their initial consultation or a case update. With smart routing and a diverse team working at all hours, your legal services will always be available to clients in need.
Omnichannel routing provides stand-out customer journeys.
These days, call centers aren’t just for voice calls. Customers can also contact agents via digital communication channels, such as email, text, SMS, mobile app, or live chat. While this already provides great convenience to customers, the best virtual contact center software takes it a step further with true omnichannel routing.
This means that callers can seamlessly switch between communication channels if the need arises, such as if they need to continue a voice call as a webchat when they enter a public space. Even better, they can do this all while keeping in contact with the same support agent. This helps save everyone’s time, and it creates unique and memorable customer journeys that really showcase how far you’re willing to go to offer the best possible support.
CRM integrations make customer data more valuable.
You’ll experience even more benefits if you integrate your virtual call center software with your customer relationship management (CRM) solution. With a unified agent desktop, your support agents can easily keep track of all conversations across all communication channels, enabling them to jump in any conversation with the full context of the situation. Even better, customer data pulled from your CRM can offer additional insights into the needs of repeat callers, and it even makes for great opportunities to make special offers to your best customers.
Running a virtual contact center gives you better customer support with less hassle, and it empowers unforgettable customer journeys.
