From Cost Center to Revenue Generator: CX for Contact Centers

In today’s fast-paced world, time is money. This rings especially true in the contact center industry, where being put on hold leads to delays and frustration.

However, what happens after being put on hold truly separates the good from the bad in the contact center world. A customer with a positive experience—a quick response time, personalized recommendations, and the full resolution of their issue—will reward a brand with loyalty and referrals.

The global contact center software market was valued at $42.47 billion in 2023 and is projected to grow to $218.31 billion by 2032, with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 19.6%. This rapid growth is driven by the integration of AI and machine learning features, an increased demand for cloud-based contact centers, and the expansion of omnichannel services for more robust customer engagement.

Contact centers are a core part of the customer experience (CX), but their value can be challenging to measure. However, investing in omnichannel communications tools to improve the customer journey pays dividends in increased satisfaction, retention, and revenue growth.

Why Should Brands Prioritize CX for Growth and Revenue?

Innovative brands understand that happy customers are their strongest advocates, working to eliminate barriers to a positive customer experience. They also recognize the importance of breaking down siloes between internal departments and removing friction along the customer journey.

Top-quality CX is a vital contributor to brand growth. Almost all (98%) companies with excellent or good customer engagement surpassed their revenue goals, compared to only 65% of companies with poor customer engagement.

The value of “obsessing” over excellent customer service cannot be overstated. Many CX teams struggle to close the loop between insight into customer pain points and the actions required to solve them. Customer-obsessed B2C firms, however, see almost double (1.8x) the revenue growth and twice the market share growth of their non-obsessed competitors.

Embracing innovative contact center technology, including AI, agent assist, and analytics, enables companies to deliver exceptional CX consistently—positively impacting customer retention, loyalty, and the organization’s bottom line.

Measuring the Value of Customer Experience

When looking to trim expenses, executives often turn their sights first to “cost center” activities. These departments might not be seen as major revenue generators, but they often contribute directly to the brand's value—like CX teams.

While the value of CX may be challenging to quantify, companies can measure customer experience with established metrics. These include:

• Customer Satisfaction Scores (CSAT)
• Net Promoter Scores (NPS)
• First Contact Resolution (FCR) rates
• Customer Effort Scores (CES)

Other customized metrics, such as average spend per customer or retention rates, are gaining popularity with brands looking to understand their CX performance.

To maximize CX investments, brands must ensure the customer journey is seamless, frictionless, and engaging. They should establish a direct link between the intangible benefits of their CX strategy, like increased customer loyalty, and the resulting financial benefits, like ROI.

In the face of budgetary pressures, businesses that can demonstrate a clear cause-and-effect relationship between superior CX and the impact of high customer satisfaction on growth and cost savings will benefit from their investments, turning contact centers from perceived cost centers into revenue generators.

Unlock the Potential and Move Beyond the Cost Center Mentality

Fortunately for CX professionals, companies are beginning to understand that investing in customer satisfaction improves their bottom line. That’s why Mitel prioritizes clients’ unique needs and goals when creating the ultimate contact center experience for their customers.

When delivering world-class customer support, Mitel’s suite of award-winning contact center solutions is intuitive, omnichannel, and customizable. Drag-and-drop interfaces make creating interaction flows for crucial customer touchpoints on all media accessible—no complex programming is required.

AI-powered chatbots provide quick, self-service resolutions for basic customer inquiries. More challenging issues are elevated to human representatives, who benefit from agent-assist technology, which offers complete customer histories and real-time suggestions from a unified interface.

Unify OpenScape Business has an embedded contact center with intelligent call routing and CRM integration to ensure every customer has a satisfying, seamless journey. With flexible deployment models and solutions for mobile workers, OpenScape Business is adaptable for all employee experiences while meeting customers on their preferred platforms.

Upgrading your contact center technology is more than an investment in CX—it’s a way to transform the customer journey and build long-term relationships that generate revenue. Over 25,000 companies trust Mitel customer experience solutions to improve their customer satisfaction scores, first-contact resolution rates, and customer effort scores.

Are you ready to improve the customer journey and realize the value of your CX? Talk to a Mitel expert to learn how to transform your contact center into an omnichannel customer experience.