Contact Center Software You Need to Have This Year

Efficiency, productivity and profit. 

These three pillars will be what all contact centers will be focusing on this year – especially after so much was interrupted throughout 2020. So what are ways that they can be impacted to trend upward throughout the year? You’ll need to look into contact center software to get your organization started on the right foot.

 

What is contact center software?

Funny enough, contact center software is software and technology designed to assist in the functions and efficiency of contact center functions. Contact centers have a lot of moving parts. From phone calls, to manage customer notes and profiles and toggling through a database for providing solutions, there are plenty of responsibilities that require agility and the tech to support all these functions.

Agents really, consciously or not, on the contact center software that enables the IVR logic to route calls appropriately. From there, they also require the software that recognizes current customer profiles to refer to their background with the organization and any previous requests. That’s just the tip of the iceberg though. With all this functionality that keeps the call center organization as a whole running, you can see that having the right software in place is key to keep the ship moving. 

 

What are different types of contact center software?

There are a handful or so of different types of contact center software that make the whole operation run. Some of the most integral are:

• Automatic Call Distributor (ACD): ACDs are the software that assign calls to agents. While it has some capabilities to help determine the reason for the call, this often gets picked up by the IVR initially.
• Interactive Voice Response (IVR): IVRs allow for the capability to route callers to the appropriate department or agent. There are scripts spoken throughout the call to prompt users for their call purpose, directing them to the correct solution provider, or sometimes, even information to help themselves.
• Predictive Dialer: Predictive dialers are absolutely critical for agents performing outbound calls. This software allows for batches of numbers to be dialed at once and then utilizes logic to screen away answers from answering machines, but then connect an idle agent to individuals that answer. 
• Call Analytics: Call analytics software allows for assessments and measurements of how your calls are actually going. These will give you key metrics like average handle time (AHT), call length time and others.
• Call Center Monitoring & Data Visualization: Software that gives you call center monitoring and data visualization provides the insight into how everything is going. However, rather than call analytics simply gathering and offering lots of raw data, this type of software organizes it into a manner where you can easily see and make sense of what’s happening. This will also give you guidance into adjustments you may need to make to improve efficiency.

 

What are some contact center software benefits?

Probably the biggest benefit of utilizing contact center software is the minimizing of manual labor. Whether it be having someone manning the transfer of calls, performing hundreds of outbound calls a day or even someone analyzing your data, these types of software exponentially increase productivity – ultimately boosting your profit, and customer and agent experience alike.

Having contact center software in place also allows you to gain a competitive edge. If you’re automating several functions, you’re able to do so many tasks a lot more quickly. Customers calling into call centers are now provided a solution a lot more quickly, allowing you to gain a leg up on providing solutions and ensuring longer lasting customer loyalty.

 

List of contact center software you need

So what software should you look into specifically? Take a lot at this brief list of suggestions you may need this year:

1. ACD

• • Avaya Aura – This communication manager software is an extensive platform to help deliver Unified Communications solutions to enterprises large and small, delivering voice and video capabilities for digital and IP-based communication devices. 
  • Twilio TaskRouter – Twilio TaskRouter can distribute tasks such as phone calls, texts, leads, support tickets, and other work items to the people and processes that can best handle them.

2. IVR

• • Cisco UCCE – This desktop software supports API for customization and centralization of daily tools and applications for a single workspace application, with extensive functionality for inbound and outbound voice and IVR, as well as post-call IVR feedback.
  • Genesys IVR – Eliminate wasted agent productivity with Genesys Cloud voice automation, a simple, easy-to-use IVR platform. 
  • Five9 IVR System – Five9’s IVR prompts help automate common customer interactions by providing a high- quality self-service flow.
  • Azure IVR Bot – This IVR solution can easily get started automating requests, or, where existing human-operated systems exist, this solution can be extended to incorporate existing functionality and workflows.

3. Predictive Dialer

• • Amazon Connect – This action enables you to program outbound calls to contact customers. These contacts might take the form of automated reminders, follow-up calls, calls to schedule appointments, a first-time contact initiated from an online one-click call button, or a promotional outreach.

4. Call Analytics

• • AWS – Contact Center Intelligence Post-call Analytics on AWS to help drive deeper quality management insights through automatic analysis of contact center conversations.

5. Call Center Monitoring & Data Visualization

• • Aceyus – Top 10 Best Contact Center Solution Provider specializing in data aggregation, visualization and normalization. In our product, we bring together all the previous components to give you something you can make sense of in one place.

 

What does contact center software normally cost then?

Oftentimes, contact center software will depend on how many agents you have and will need seats for on the software, on top of startup costs and fees for actual use of the software. 

For agents costs, depending on the software, you can expect a cost of anywhere from a monthly basis of $10 per agent to $200 per agent. Start up fees can range from $5,000 to $20,00 with the understanding that this will include set up, installation, transfer and application of data, and ongoing tech support. From there, you can also anticipate ongoing costs of a range from a monthly $1,000 to $10,000. However, keep in mind that sometimes, software providers will also include your per agent cost in this monthly fee. 

 

As you can surmise, contact center software is essential to operate an efficient and profitable organization. Take note of our suggested list of partners to utilize for these needs. Make sure when you’re considering who you will utilize that you also include a conversation to confirm that the ones you go with will function with each other as needed. 

 

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