Contact center software is a technology solution developed for managing all the conversations between agents and customers. It supports businesses in offering omnichannel customer service and customer relationship management. It also offers a unified view of all types of customer communications across various communication platforms such as social media, email, phone calls, SMS, and other messaging apps. Due to the increasing focus of companies on enhancing their engagement with customers, the contact center software market value is set to cross $102,751.5 million by 2030.
There are two types of contact center software, relying on their hosting process. The on-premise solution is hosted on the local server of the business, and the internet hosts the cloud-based solution.
On-premise Contact Center Software
The on-premise solution can be deployed with the help of an experienced IT professional and the hosted partner. The contact center platform is hosted on the server of the company. Usually, there are limitations in accessing this tool outside the office premises.
Businesses that rely on on-premise solutions have to massively invest in the security features for customer data protection and alleviating cross-site scripting. Moreover, when the system is required to be upgraded with advanced features to offer team support, it needs to shut down the business operations.
Cloud Contact Center Software
A cloud contact center is hosted on a virtual server, cloud, where all the inbound and outbound interactions are managed by the agents. The cloud-based solution can be accessed and operated in real-time. You need to create an account on the contact center platform of the company and log in to the tool. After setting up the software, the team can remotely access the contact center hosted on the cloud for as long as the network connection remains live.
The service providers of cloud hosting hold the responsibility of securing business data as well as customer information. Moreover, when the software needs to be updated from the service provider, the upgradation happens without affecting the operations, along with keeping the workflows synchronized. This is why cloud-based solutions are expected to continue to gain prominence in the contact center software market over this decade.
Major Benefits of Contact Center Software
Reduced Costs: A contact center solution provides support in significantly reducing the operating costs by 50%, by mitigating the need for agent’s licenses with chats and telephone calls.
Easy Collaboration: Contact center software empowers contact center agents for quicker delivery of solutions by collaboration with the right people within and outside of the company.
Seamless Integrations: The contact center software can seamlessly integrate with numerous apps, CRM, and billing tools.
Quality Assurance: The contact center software help in providing improved customer support with quality management functionality for managing inbound calls and delivering enhanced customer experience.
Major Features of Contact Contact Center Software
Workforce Management: Contact center software offers ease in simplifying workforce management by providing shift schedules. It also takes care of planning, forecasting, and streamlining business operations for agents working globally.
Call Monitoring: Call center software facilitates managers, and supervisors in monitoring, routing, and even joining the live calls if required to intervene or talk to the customer. Several contact center solutions also offer automatic call distribution phone systems for determining the right agents who have picked up the call in the shortest time. Thus, the team spends their work hours attending to those calls that fall under their expertise.
Omnichannel Dashboard: A contact center software reflects all the incoming requests into one platform from various communication channels.
Performance Reporting: Performance reports are provided to measure the performance of the call center, through various metrics such as average hold time, handle time, and wait time.
Therefore, contact center software is increasingly adopted for improved customer experience led by easy operations of the contact center with reduced costs.