Keeping the customers happy is one of the keys to any businesses' success. So naturally, achieving that is easier said than done, but the fact remains that satisfaction often drives more revenues than new sales.
A significant facet of customer satisfaction is how efficiently the contact center works and deals with problems. But, as Dan Hayes, Chief Customer Officer at Spearline, says, in many ways, the agents that take customer service calls are the face of the business, adding that it is not just the contact center where the quality of communication has an impact.
"Agents are the business face to their customers. Suppose a customer has a poor experience when engaging with an agent. In that case, it has a negative impact on that business's brand and will ultimately negatively impact their business," said Hayes.
"The underlying communications infrastructure is the foundation on which a quality customer experience is built, and it's interesting how a single degraded audio line can have a pretty substantial impact on different customers.
"Obviously, poor audio quality is going to lead to a poor experience for the customer. In particular, a conference may have multiple participants joining the call, and that one terrible audio line can deliver a terrible and frustrating experience for all parties involved. In addition, some of these participants could be from different levels of an organization, such as members of the exec team, hoping to meet and close a global deal with the business.
"But if terrible audio quality is stopping that from happening, it can easily ruin a meeting and lead to frustration between all parties, ending the deal on bad terms. Loss in revenue, tarnished relationships, and terrible brand reputation overall are just a few penalties businesses could face."
The Elephant in the Room
As with every business out there, the contact center has been disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic, with agents dispersed into domestic settings, juggling the frantic demands of instant fixes from impatient voices and homeschooling their children.
Hayes added that the pandemic just goes to illustrate the importance of quality connections when conducting customer support.
"The pandemic has had a major impact on Contact Centre communications," said Hayes. "Once the pandemic hit, most organizations moved their agents from working in an office environment to working from a home environment.
