Blog
The business continuity imperative
Published: 07/28/2020
Updated: 07/28/2020
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“One-half of organizations will not have established business continuity as an investment priority” by 2022.
This statement from recent research by Ventana Research is concerning, considering the crippling effect that the coronavirus crisis had on organizations worldwide. It’s imperative that all areas of an organization continue to function during a crisis, in order to deliver consistently excellent services and drive customer loyalty – and your contact center is key to achieving this.
Ventana Research assert that investing in the contact center, particularly the agent and customer experience, is paramount to business continuity. For without the means to deliver great customer experience, no organization can function. This is especially true during and after a crisis, making agents, and the service they deliver, worthy of investment.
In the face of unprecedented disruption, Ventana Research states that organizations must invest in three key areas to ensure sustainability: Digital Transformation, Agent Management, and the Cloud.
Digital transformation
Digital transformation in the contact center is central to business continuity according to Ventana Research. When confronted with unexpected spikes in demand, having the right technology will save your customers and agents precious time, without sacrificing service quality. In particular, intelligent automation is fundamental to achieving the operational excellence required in a crisis.
Automated, interactive digital experiences such as chatbots, allow customers to engage with your organization whenever they choose. Behind the scenes, intelligent automation is necessary to optimize essential processes. By automating time-consuming and repetitive tasks, you can liberate your agents to focus on delivering the exceptional customer experiences they were trained to provide.
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Agent management
Effective workforce and resource organization is crucial to operating in a crisis. As Ventana Resarch simply put, “without a prepared workforce, a contact center is not ready to fulfil agents or customers’ expectations”.
With a multi-faceted agent management portal you can clearly understand your agents’ strengths and utilize them effectively to improve contact center efficiency. Agent skillset, schedule, and even personality should be taken into account when matching agents to customer contacts, to deliver the best possible experience.
Contact center systems also need to be streamlined for increased efficiency. Agents must be able to rapidly access customer information in order to resolve enquiries promptly, and avoid frustrating customers. With a completely integrated CRM system you can access a 360 degree view of your customers, enabling your agents to deliver a consistent, personalized service that builds customer loyalty.
The cloud
Ventana Research encourage businesses to immediately migrate all contact center applications to the cloud. Why? Cloud services provide unmatched resiliency, which is essential for functioning throughout a crisis. They also allow for more flexible workforce management, improving agent job satisfaction.
A cloud contact center solution allows agents to access contact center functionality remotely. This facilitates a healthier work-life balance, improving their experience, and in turn, the experience that they give your customers.
Driving customer loyalty is essential for any company looking to survive in a crisis, and the contact center is vital for this. Make business continuity your priority with an agile CCaaS solution that can be deployed within hours.