Not so long ago, many business leaders assumed contact centers were only essential for larger organizations, tackling thousands of calls and customer service requests every day. However, as customer expectations have evolved, the contact center has emerged as a must-have resource for every company, no matter its size or target industry.
Studies show that 83% of customers believe excellent service is more important to their purchasing decisions than price or product features. Additionally, up to 50% of customers will switch to a competitor after encountering just one negative experience.
Unfortunately, there’s more to creating an exceptional contact center, and delighting customers than simply being able to answer calls. Today we’re covering some of the biggest challenges small business owners face when implementing an effective contact center, and how to overcome them.
Challenge 1: Simple, Cost-Effective Deployment
One of the biggest challenges SMBs face when deploying contact center solutions, is choosing a system that’s cost-effective, straightforward, and requires minimal training. Fast-paced SMBs don’t have the time or money to waste on complex configurations and training requirements.
However, many traditional contact center solutions can be complex to implement, particularly if existing teams don’t have the engineering skills required to configure the solution. Fortunately, there is an alternative. Leading contact center providers offer access to bespoke plug-and-play systems, eliminating excess cost and complexity.
There are even providers who can offer integration solutions, like Unity for Teams, which allow companies to access contact center solutions within the tools their teams already use (Microsoft Teams). This reduces the need for extra training and complex onboarding.
Challenge 2: Enabling True Omnichannel Experiences
Omnichannel experiences have become a must in every business environment. Consumers expect to be able to interact with companies on the channels of their choice, from social media to SMS. More importantly, they expect every touchpoint in their journey to be aligned, contextual and streamlined.
Unfortunately, while many businesses understand the value of omnichannel interactions, fewer than a third of contact centers are truly “omnichannel enabled”. The key to bridging the gaps between channels, and delivering more consistent customer experiences, is leveraging a platform that delivers full access to a range of communication platforms, and aligned data transfer between channels.
A valuable omnichannel solution can even enhance traditional customer experience channels, with the use of call back solutions, and virtual queuing software. This provides companies with a way to give consumers a simple, zero-hassle experience across all channels.
Challenge 3: Reducing Abandoned Calls
Abandoned calls are a significant problem for every business, but they’re particularly detrimental in the SMB environment, where every lost call has a direct impact on revenue. Unfortunately, without increasing the number of available agents, it can be difficult to ensure calls are never lost.
Intuitive contact center software solutions can address this problem. For instance, Kakapo Systems’ “Keep My Place in Queue” technology allows customers to request a call back after they reach the front of the queue, reducing the time they spend waiting on hold.
These tools work alongside innovative call back solutions to ensure that agents know exactly which customers to follow up with at any given time. These tools can be deployed into the contact center environment, and aligned with solutions like the Unity Supervisor ecosystem, which provides supervisors with real-time insights into queue statistics.
Challenge 4: Empowering and Engaging Agents
Improving the customer experience should be a priority for every business and contact center. However, one thing many organizations overlook is that excellent customer experiences rely on your ability to empower, engage, and support agents. The more you empower your team members with the right tools and solutions, the better they can serve customers. To overcome this challenge:
- Deliver simplicity: Look for a contact center solution that provides a straightforward, customizable, and intuitive interface for agent navigation. Prioritize systems that require minimal training, and make it easy to visualize queues, waiting times, and access call handling tools and ACD technology.
- Ensure accessibility: Design your contact center solution to support the needs of every employee, regardless of whether they’re working in the office, or remotely. Hybrid-ready contact center solutions will give users the same consistent experience regardless of where they’re accessing their cloud software.
- Leverage innovative tools: Take advantage of gamification systems to keep agents motivated and engaged. Explore intuitive solutions that automatically transcribe conversations for agents, or save them time searching for valuable customer information.
Challenge 5: Managing Teams
To keep operational costs low and reduce talent turnover, many SMBs are investing in hybrid and remote working strategies. Unfortunately, while flexible work delivers a host of benefits, it can make it harder to manage your distributed workforce. Finding the right way to manage and support your teams has a huge impact on your chances of success.
Studies show companies with their own agent empowerment programs outperform their competitors by up to 70%. To achieve the best results, provide supervisors with extensive sets of contact center tools that support agile and in-depth resource management. Ensure they can access solutions for call monitoring, barge-in options, and even real-time analytical dashboards.
Ensure supervisors have the resources they need to accurately pinpoint which agents need extra support, and develop the right training resources for performance optimization. This will ensure you can consistently get the most value out of all of your remote, in-office, and hybrid staff members.
Challenge 6: Accessing Insights for Decision-Making
Finally, to optimize costs, efficiency, and performance in the contact, SMBs need to be able to access intuitive insights from throughout the customer journey. They need to be able to monitor comprehensive metrics and KPIs from every channel, and make quick changes to their processes to improve customer loyalty and retention.
Unfortunately, accessing data from multiple channels and transforming it into actionable insights can be complex. That’s why it’s so important to leverage a contact center solution that provides tools for historical reporting, real-time dashboards, and monitoring.
Some innovative solutions like Kakapo Systems’ technology can even help you to align your sales, customer success, and marketing teams, by allowing you to track customer acquisition costs, and monitor engagement through multiple channels. There are also tools that allow companies to set up custom notifications and real-time alerts, with real-time views into essential metrics.
Overcoming SMB Contact Center Challenges
The contact center has become an essential resource for businesses of every size in today’s CX (Customer Experience) focused world. To stay ahead of the competition, retain customers, and increase profits, businesses need a comprehensive contact center solution that ensures they can delight their customers across every channel.
With the right technology, business leaders can overcome the common challenges in the SMB contact center, and pave the way for long-term growth.
