Big is not always beautiful.
Big can also mean complex and costly.
For SMBs, those issues can stifle the kind of smooth digital transformation on which their future success depends.
Slick, cloud-powered communication capability is, of course, the most important element of that transformation: the ability to engage frictionlessly and efficiently with customers and colleagues about as important as it gets.
Not so long ago, an SMB – perhaps owner-operated or with just a handful of customer service agents - could be forgiven for thinking that the deployment of a traditional contact centre was an over-engineered luxury it didn’t need.
However, today’s customers are more demanding than ever before; and businesses of all kinds and sizes are almost fully reliant on digital functionality. Indeed, just a no-frills website – no matter how big or small – could now be described as a contact centre of sorts; connecting businesses with-customers via click-to-call voice, email, and webchat.
Add the myriad other benefits on offer from a modern contact centre and it means SMBs are now in the market. Pick the right solution and the returns on investment can be swift and significant.
“Even the term ‘contact centre’ can be foreign for some small businesses because they have never thought they were big enough to need one – demystified, it’s really only about ensuring that customers are able to get through to you whenever they want, and via any channel,” says Steve Tutt, Commercial Director at leading Broadsoft application innovator Kakapo, whose white-label Unity Contact Centre is perfect for SMBs that are keen to modernize.
“For Managed Service Providers and System Integrators, the SMB market is huge and the opportunity to educate should be an exciting one. It’s about bringing voice, email, messaging, webchat, even social media together onto one affordable and easy-to-use platform. It doesn’t have to be big and complicated, and it can deliver overnight benefits.”
Recent advancements in communication preferences have, of course, forced small businesses to try and keep pace. Some have added third party tools to their existing phone systems, such as an extra email account, webchat application, or WhatsApp, but they are separate, siloed, and do not work in conjunction with each other. Alternatively, they may have set up a voice call hunt group to avoid missed calls when their small team of agents are busy.
The problem is, that kind of Frankenstein tech stack is disjointed, inefficient, and expensive.
