3 Tips to Transform Your Contact Center Customer Experience

Contact centers are the unsung heroes of customer experience (CX), turning unhappy clients into brand advocates, gathering important audience data, and enhancing the company image. From live agents to self-service portals, the right omnichannel contact center platform can elevate the customer experience, streamline workflows, and boost the bottom line with cutting-edge technology.

Here are three tips for elevating your CX game and maximizing the value of your contact center operations.

1. Optimize Channel Shift in Contact Centers to Improve the Customer Experience

Brands are exploring ways to improve customer service while cutting costs, leading to a trend in channel shifts – migrating from traditional channels like phone calls with human agents to digital channels such as automated chatbots or mobile apps. However, not all brands can rely solely on self-serve or digital channels. A channel shift may work for some, but it’s not a one-size-fits-all approach.

To achieve the best results, it’s crucial to identify your customer base’s drivers, intents, and personas and then determine the percentage of interactions on a specific channel. Understanding your core audience lets you decide whether voice-based or self-serve interactions are best suited for your contact center. For example, a hospital with an elderly demographic may need to prioritize phone-based support. At the same time, a clothing brand catering to a digitally savvy audience may focus on self-serve options.

AI models will become more integral to the contact center customer journey as they advance. By 2025, a projected 80% of customer service and support organizations will apply some form of generative AI, improving agent productivity and customer satisfaction.

However, it’s important to remember that customer experience should drive technology, not vice versa. While AI chatbots can manage basic inquiries and help personalize experiences, live agents are still vital for more complex tasks. By prioritizing CX and realizing the voice of the customer, brands can enhance the customer journey and drive value realization.

2. Remove Departmental Siloes to Maximizing Contact Center Value

In today’s complex customer landscape, businesses must adopt a cohesive and integrated contact center strategy across all departments. Effective communication and a unified approach to CX are critical components for removing siloes and maintaining the brand’s image.

This requires coordination between leadership, especially the Chief Operating Officer (COO), Chief Marketing Officer (CMO), and Chief Technology Officer (CTO), who must all understand the commercial intricacies of the company and the vital role that customer experience plays in value realization.

For example, imagine the marketing department launches a new call-to-action campaign. The contact center must be fully informed of the right messaging to best serve customers during that time. By integrating the contact center into the overall business strategy, brands can provide customers with a consistent experience across all channels.

Because they directly interact with the public, contact center representatives offer valuable insights to help shape marketing initiatives. With access to a wealth of customer data and analytics, they can provide live feedback on preferences, behaviors, and sentiments. Brands can leverage this information to deliver more targeted promotions, enhance the customer experience, and drive successful campaigns.

Ultimately, business leaders must recognize the contact center's value – not just for solving client problems but also for their in-depth, first-person knowledge of the customer experience. By removing departmental siloes and integrating the contact center into the overall business strategy, innovative companies optimize CX for maximal growth.

3. Leverage Technology to Deliver an Exceptional Customer Experience

Today’s contact center market is more competitive than ever before. To differentiate themselves with top-notch customer service, brands must leverage the latest technology solutions.

Mitel’s award-winning omnichannel contact center solutions give brands the edge in creating and capitalizing on exceptional customer experiences. With features like interaction routing, performance analytics, and real-time dashboards, brands of any size can tailor the customer journey for maximum engagement.

To fully harness the power of a contact center platform, brands need to establish a solid data foundation. This begins with implementing a robust data management system. Then, brands must define a clear vision with a solid end goal. With effective management practices and departmental coordination, they can provide a truly connected, integrated, best-in-class customer experience.

Additionally, brands shouldn’t overlook fundamental elemental elements like workflow optimization and self-service interactive voice response (IVR). Once the basis for a seamless customer and employee experience is in place, brands can assess their progress with quantifiable metrics like net promoter scores (NPS) and customer satisfaction (CSAT) and decide how to build their contact center platforms best.

Whether their agents resolve customer needs from a centralized location or work remotely, businesses can customize their contact centers with API integrations and advanced features like AI-powered chatbots, speech analytics, and quality management. The rich customer data collected by contact centers can help brands tailor key touchpoints for specific audiences.

No matter which Mitel solution they choose, brands must set clear metrics and regularly review progress to fully utilize their contact center platform. A robust data foundation and effective management practices are the keys to CX's success.

Unlocking the Full Potential of Contact Center Operations

The right contact center technology can turn customers with complaints into long-term loyalists. The contact center is a direct line to the public, and a positive brand experience can lead directly to increased profits.

Whether your brand is an SMB or an enterprise, Mitel’s contact center platforms are tailored to your customer journey. Contact us to learn how upgrading your contact center technology can improve customer experience.