According to research from Salesforce, 80% of customers say that the experience a company provides is as important as its products and services. It is now more vital than ever for contact centres to be able to cope with high levels of demand, because customers are demanding better experience from every service. Contact centres need to be reachable anytime, anywhere and by any means.
Today’s ‘always-on’ world requires immediate answers across multiple channels that weave seamlessly together, along with the guarantee of excellent service no matter what the size of the contact centre. Ensuring the smooth delivery of all of this is absolutely key to customer satisfaction.
Tackling high volume
The largest global contact centres serve millions of customers with thousands of seats. In situations like these, what’s the best way to deliver excellent customer service at such high volumes? Contact centres with cloud infrastructure are uniquely placed to deal with high levels of enquiries, and can ensure a flawless service no matter the demand. Screen-pops bring customer data and information on past interactions directly to agents, reducing customer frustration, as callers don’t have to repeat information they have already provided. Intelligent automation can route enquiries to the most appropriate available agent or chatbot, who are then equipped with the relevant information to engage with the contact. Technologies such as these help to ensure that customer engagement is consistently high across contact centres of all sizes, even those with thousands of seats.
When demand peaks
It can be difficult to predict exactly when there will be high volumes and spikes in demand, but they should be planned for nonetheless. Fleurop Interflora, the world’s largest floristry company, experiences huge increases in demand in the lead-up to St. Valentine’s Day. Events like Black Friday and Cyber Monday also create spikes of demand for contact centres in the retail sector and beyond. For organisations like UK Power Networks, EDF Energy and Rail Delivery Group, unexpected disruptions, delays, or weather events can trigger floods of urgent and vulnerable callers.
Even while experiencing an inundation of enquiries, there are many ways to reduce wait time, and preserve an excellent customer experience. Mass communications can be proactively sent out in the event of unexpected disasters, pre-empting enquiries and relieving pressure on the contact centre. What’s more, automation and chatbots can handle low-complexity, repetitive queries, reducing the length of the queue and giving agents more time to deal with more complex issues.
As customer service expectations rise year on year, and the subscription economy snowballs, it is vital for contact centres to continue to meet demands and provide exceptional service. In order to stay ahead of the game, the contact centre industry must ensure they handle high volume contact efficiently and accurately.
By: Ed Winfield, Global Partnerships Director at Content Guru (https://www.contentguru.com/)