This article will discuss the importance of a contact centre in a company in working on, organizing and solving any questions and problems from customers.
Table of Content
1. Benefits and Definitions Contact Centre
1.2. What, Benefits, Stages and Differences?
1.2.1. What is a Contact Centre?
1.2.2. Benefits of a Contact Centre?
1.2.3. Stages of Contact Centre Status
1.2.4. What is the Difference Between a Contact Centre and a Call Centre?
1.3 Why Running a Contact Centre in 2021 is Important
2. Types of Contact Centres and Companies
2.1. Companies That Need a Contact Centre
2.2. Types of Calls/Contact Centre Cases?
3. Qualities of Contact Centre Personnel
3.1. Actors Involved in the Contact Centre
3.2. The Five Important Activities Performed by Contact Centre Team
3.3. What Qualities do Contact Centre Staff/Persecutor Need to Have?
4. Important Features of Contact Centre Software
4.1. Must-have Features of Contact Centre App
4.2. Omni-Channel Application or Software to Facilitate Contact Centre
1. Benefits and Definitions Contact Centre
1.1 Introduction
You must have often heard the word “Contact Centre”, when you experience problems in conducting transactions or activities with the company, then you will contact this service to find answers and solutions to your problems, but what exactly is a contact centre and what are the details? tasks, and their importance to the company.
1.2 What, Benefits, Stages and Differences?
1.2.1. What is a Contact Centre?
Contact Centre is often the central point from which all customer interactions can be managed in a business, this service is not the same as Call Centre. Contact Centre provides more services such as live chat, call recording, email, automated and interactive voice responses, and social media.
Customer-facing teams use contact centre software as a single platform to handle complaints coming from all communication channels.
1.2.2. Benefits of a Contact Centre?
Benefits of the Contact Centre for companies
- Provide information services related to the company’s products / services needed by customers, company contact centre must master the services and products offered by the company to customers or called product knowledge.
- As an extension of the company to provide services to customers, become a company that is well known by customers, the contact centre is able to provide considerable benefits for the company
- Listen to and resolve complaints or problems experienced by customers after using the company’s products. One of the Contact Centre services provided by the company is to address any problems or complaints submitted by customers. After sales activities require this service to be a mediator and solution provider for customers.
- Increasing product sales, the Company uses this service in sales and marketing activities. This serves to contact potential customers and introduce or offer company products with the aim of increasing sales.
- Companies to reach customers in large numbers, relying on the contact centre the company can reach a wider range of customers.
- Being efficient for companies in serving customers, sometimes companies use a contact centre in the form of a system that is designed in such a way that it can meet consumer needs related to company products.
Benefits of Contact Centre for Customers or Consumers
- Get information about products or services from the company: Sometimes customers are still confused about how to use or function a part of the product or service they purchased. So this is where the benefits of the Contact Centre are, namely providing information, and providing explanations about the products or services that customers need
- Submitting questions, complaints, criticisms and suggestions to the company: Contact Centre is useful for consumers who will provide criticism or suggestions to companies related to products.
- Make transactions more effectively and efficiently: Some businesses or companies use this service to serve the process of selling or buying products or services
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1.2.3. Stages of Contact Centre Status
There are important status stages in the Contact Centre:
New or Open
Each report received from a customer based on its category will be accepted as a new request to be followed up by the relevant division
Assigned or Responded
The problem report that has been given by the customer and has been categorized will be given to the division concerned, at this stage the problems will be understood and studied first so that they really understand the root of the problem until they find a solution that can be offered to the customer.
Closed or Resolve
After getting a solution, it will be implemented to solve the problem, it is necessary to ensure that each solution must be profitable for the customer and they can still do their job.
1.2.4. What is the Difference Between a Contact Centre and a Call Centre?
By communication channel
Call Centre only focuses on telephone lines to communicate, interact with customers or consumers directly. Meanwhile, the Contact Centre does not only use telephone lines but can also use media such as email, live chat, chat bots and social media.
Complaint queue management
Call Centre requires a solution to manage incoming conversations, this is because all conversations are only through telephone lines.
Unlike the Contact Centre, because a company needs to provide services from many channels, it needs a tool or application that can handle all conversations or is Omni-channel.
Procedures that require self service
Call Centre, a customer must wait for their complaint to be received and resolved by the Call Centre agent.
With the Contact Centre, customers are given more choices, customers are given several options to submit their complaints based on the channels provided by the company’s Contact Centre. With this customer can analyse
Automatic Ticket Pickup and Routing
The Contact Centre uses an automated system to route the complaint ticket to the right agent, this is based on keywords, customer history and agent skills based on complaints. By routing tickets, Contact Centre reduces turnaround time for customers.
While the Call Centre, the ticket collection system or determining the route has not been implemented, the Call Centre only focuses on resolving complaints per incoming call.
Information about problems experienced by customers
Call Centre utilizes incoming telephone calls as the only means of communication, gathering information related to customer problems can only be viewed based on incoming calls.
While the Contact Centre has been integrated with the help of software or applications from various channels, the Agent can maximize every task he gets.
1.3 Why Running a Contact Centre in 2021 is Important
2. Types of Contact Centres and Companies
2.1. Companies That Need a Contact Centre
Contact Centre is very useful for a company, because along with the times, more and more communication media can be used. With this service, a customer can easily contact your company if there are questions or problems that need to be resolved, here are the types of companies that need this service.
2.1.1. IT Support
As explained in the company that requires a contact centre, if your company is engaged in IT then one of these divisions will be needed for your company. An IT Support handles customer problems and the company’s problems or needs around IT, Basically IT Support requires more than one person to work, because there are many sub-tasks from an IT Support.
What is an IT Support Specialist?
If you have an interest in technology and like troubleshooting, you might consider becoming an IT Support specialist
IT Support specialists provide assistance and technical support to businesses or consumers who experience technical problems, hardware, software, network and others. Some examples of problems handled by IT Support are.
- Slow Device
- Connection Problem
- Can’t Access Data
What do IT Support specialists do?
IT Support specialist must have knowledge of computer systems, software (applications), networks and electronic systems. They provide explanations to customers and employees, answer and solve problems in the category of technology-based products or services.
IT Support specialists handle most customer problems via email or telephone, but in some cases or problems need to come to the location, if the problem lies in hardware or software that needs to be repaired, cleaned and modified.
When assisting customers in solving their problems, IT Support Specialists will ask specific questions to understand the problem.
Because most customers are not familiar with technical terms and may not understand the problems that occur so they can’t explain them well, IT Support requires listening skills, communication skills and patience.
Some IT Support Specialists work for companies only, their job is to carry out continuous testing of the equipment and software used by the company.
If there is new equipment or software in the company, IT Support will test the product and provide feedback to the vendor and ensure the product can be used with existing company systems.
When there is a system change in the company, the IT Support Specialist will arrange training times to explain how the hardware or software works to employees who work as easily as possible.
2.2. Types of Calls/Contact Centre Cases?
Contact Centre for Information
This Contact Centre usually only handles questions from customers regarding product or service information provided and other information such as questions about the company.
Contact Centre for Complaints
This Contact Centre focuses on complaints or problems experienced by customers, this section is not to resolve customer complaints or problems but as a medium that will channel customer problems to the right agent
Contact Centre for Help
This type for helps a customer in solving the problems they are experiencing in a more general scope, only dealing with problems or questions that are not specific.
Contact Centre for Compliments
Customer is also able to give praise or feedback to the company regarding the products/services they use and can also relate to the results of work or services that have been carried out by the contact centre division.
3. Qualities of Contact Centre Personnel
3.1. Actors Involved in the Contact Centre
Customer Service
Customer Service usually handles customer questions in the form of information about products or services provided by the company as well as questions about the company.
Helpdesk
The helpdesk handles problem reports submitted by customers, the helpdesk does not come down directly in solving problems, the job of a helpdesk is
- Responding to Problems
- Categorize
- Prioritizing Problem
Engineer
After the problem has been categorized and its priority, it will be submitted to the engineer to solve the problem, an engineer will perform several stages in solving the problem
- Troubleshoot
- Resolve
Agent
This division focuses on more specific products or services and can be a salesperson or make sales, this division will not handle questions that are not their specialty, for example insurance agents.
Management
Every work that has been done by the above divisions will be accepted by the management, this division will evaluate based on the existing work, to determine the company’s strategy and what needs to be improved in the future.
- Report
- Performance
- Improve
3.2. The Five important activities performed by Contact Centre Team
You can see how the contact centre works in the pdf file below:
If you have read how the this pdf, then you can enter the section “Qualities that Contact Centre Actors need to have”
You can see how the contact centre works in the pdf file below
If you have read how the this pdf, then you can enter the section "Qualities that Contact Centre Actors need to have"
3.3. What Qualities Do Contact Centre Staff/Persecutor Need to Have?
To complete the assigned task, these services must be able to work together as a team and create a system that manages customer service requests well. The contact centre must have the ability to be successful as a qualified agent and create a good customer experience, here are some of the skills needed
Have good knowledge of products and solutions
Customers need the right solution in a short time regarding their problems, a good contact centre agent must be able to understand and help provide solutions to solve problems.
Flexibility
The duties of a contact centre cannot be predicted every day, therefore they must always be ready for conditions and be able to adapt to unexpected situations.
Good organizational skills
Every question, problem or complaint asked by a customer will be different in terms of cases, priorities and time to handle it, therefore agents need good skills in categorizing problems received.
Creativity
An agent must be creative in providing solutions and suggesting alternative ideas that benefit the customer and the company.
Calm under pressure
Always ready and not easily confused when facing difficult and complicated problems from customers, must keep the atmosphere calm and in control like a professional agent.
Friendly
Contact centre agents are the face of a company because the first communication a customer will make is to the agent, because they must have a friendly attitude, make sure the customer gets a good and friendly company picture.
Quick response
As a contact centre, of course, you will often face community problems and complaints. Therefore, this profession is indeed required to have the ability to quickly respond to a problem
This serves so that what has been conveyed by the customer can be well received by and can provide the right solution.
Communicative
Communication skills are needed because their daily life is dealing with customers via telephone, so this communication skill becomes important. The purpose of this is so that customers can understand what is conveyed by a contact centre in the solutions provided so that customers feel comfortable
4. Important features of contact centre software
4.1. Must-have Features of Contact Centre App
Features needed to simplify and improve customer service. Some of the basic features that a contact centre application must have include:
Omni-Channel
Creating a good interaction between the company and customers thanks to all data and processes from a well-integrated channel. Customers who have interacted with the company will be registered automatically
Interactive Voice Response (IVR)
IVR empowers customers to serve themselves thereby reducing support team work. Technology that allows humans to interact with computer-operated telephone systems via user input of voice and DTMF tones via keypad.
Automatic Call Distributor (ACD)
Directing calls from customers to support agents automatically based on criteria that have been selected by the customer, ensuring that every incoming call can be responded to quickly and accurately.
Routing Agent
To arrange the route of agents who will handle customers easily. Customers can be directed to the right agent
Automatic Notification
Sending notifications in the form of email, social media and others to send interaction status, product or service promotions or other important information
Reports & Analytics
Provide detailed report information on interactions, customer contacts, status and other important information that has occurred. Reports can be used as a measuring tool to make future decisions
4.2. Omni-Channel application or software to facilitate Contact Centre
Here are some applications or software that can be used to help companies
HubSpot is an all-in-one marketing website based application that can provide advice through SEO, blogging, social media, marketing automation and marketing analysis. This app provides all the features and tools you need, converting visitors into leads and turning leads into sales.
The structure has been designed to increase sales, profit levels, margins and predictions. With features that are very useful for strengthening marketing strategies, even complex planning and implementation.
Bitrix24 is the leading free CRM, project management and collaboration platform used by more than 4 million organizations worldwide.
Social intranet, a platform that combines easy communication through media such as email, telephone, live chat and social media with management tools for business purposes. You can communicate with colleagues through this application, plan, monitor, to save and use documents.
GLPI which stands for Gestionnaire Libre de Parc Informatique is an IT Asset and Management system package that provides Service Desk, Live Tracking and Auditing Software features.
GLPI is a website-based application that requires a web server to be used. The advantage of a web-based application is that it can be used on all devices with just a web browser.
This application can be a company solution in building an asset database and managing administrative and financial information. That way, IT companies can create reports and documentation of technical information and maintenance records of existing assets.
Salesforce is a software company based in San Francisco, California, United States. Cloud-based software application that provides CRM (Customer Relationship Management) system services.
By using Salesforce, companies that use this system make it possible to see customers as a whole through a system that is integrated with various services such as “Salesforce Sales Cloud”, “Service Cloud” & “Marketing Cloud”.
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5. Conclusion
Contact Centre is very important for a company in serving its customers and assisting the company team in organizing any problems or problems reported by customers. Many industries use this service such as IT Support, finance and others.
By utilizing applications that have been developed and have been made in such a way as to be Omni-channel with features and automation that can make it easier for the company team to manage the data received.
This service requires people who need to have special abilities so that every job can be well organized and given and completed by the right people, every job must also be well documented. The data can be used by the company to determine policies that will be carried out in the future.
With the help of existing applications, it will be much easier for the company team to work with the features that have been provided so that every problem can be handled properly and every problem and interaction that has been done can be recorded for reports and evaluations for the company. Every problem that is opened must be solved.
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