Last week, I had to contact a hardware store’s customer service department. I was dreading it. I was worried it would take a huge chunk of time, they would give me the runaround, and my issue wouldn’t be resolved. But to my surprise, I had a phenomenal contact center experience! It was simple, seamless, and fast. As a result, I’ll definitely buy from that company again.

Positive customer experiences stick with us just as much as negative experiences. And often, it comes down to the quality of service we receive that determines whether we stay loyal to a company. One report found that 65% of consumers say negative customer service interactions motivate them to switch brands.

But the inverse is also true. If you deliver a positive experience through your contact center, you impact your customers’ impression of your brand and their loyalty. When a contact center experience is terrific, there’s widespread positive impact: increased CSAT, boosted customer loyalty, and more retention. And you know what that means: more sales.

Want to improve your contact center experience and reap all these benefits? Read on for key tips and tactics.

What Exactly is Contact Center Experience?

Your contact center experience describes how your customers perceive their interactions with your contact center. Don’t get this mixed up with a customer experience, though. There is a difference.

Your customer experience is the experience customers have with your brand across every touchpoint of the entire buyer journey. It starts with the discovery of your brand and ends post-purchase.

Think of it like this. Your contact center handles customer service, and the quality of that service shapes your contact center experience. So, both your service and your contact center experience contribute to your broader customer experience.

Still with me?

Even though the terms aren’t synonymous, they’re related. Each component feeds into the other. By improving your service quality, you improve your contact center experience. And with a better contact center experience, your overall customer experience gets a huge boost.

Check out this guide to improving your customer experience and CSAT scores.

How to Craft a Seamless Contact Center Experience

With all that sorted out, it’s time for the good stuff. Here are some actionable steps you can take to craft a positive contact center experience.

Hire the Right People

We know great customer experience drives revenue. But what’s the source of that great CX?

The answer is simple: it’s your team.

Considering a single interaction with an employee can make or break an experience, it should be clear that the people representing your brand matter.

One of the best things you can do to improve your contact center experience is to hire the right people. Look for a contact center employee who:

• Pays attention to detail
• Retains knowledge
• Stays organized
• Is friendly and patient
• Can carry a conversation
• Is empathetic
• Listens well

Invest in the Right Tech

If you want to provide customers with a seamless experience, you must support your agents with the right technology. Look for a scalable, customizable solution that fits your team’s needs. Be sure to look for these must-have features to empower your agents and offer a great contact center experience.

• IVR (interactive voice response). An IVR system lets callers interact with a menu that can direct their calls to the appropriate agent or department.
• Omnichannel capabilities. Customers expect seamless interactions across multiple channels, like phone, email, chat, social media, etc. An omnichannel contact center platform ensures consistency and continuity, regardless of the channel used.
• Chatbots. AI-powered chatbots handle routine inquiries, freeing up human agents for more complex tasks. They can offer immediate responses and are available 24/7, which enhances customer satisfaction and efficiency.
• Analytics and reporting. Advanced analytics provide insights into customer behavior, trends, and agent performance. This data helps optimize processes, improve customer service, and inform business decisions.
• Integrations. Consider integrations for your CRM system, databases, and other tools. Integrations streamline workflows and let agents quickly access relevant information during interactions.
• Dialers. Automated dialers increase agent productivity by managing outbound calls, reducing idle time, and ensuring compliance with regulations.

Want more information on CCaaS tech? Check out this blog post.

Manage Performance and KPIs

Performance management has a massive influence on your contact center experience. When done well, it drives engagement, improves employee retention, and highlights training gaps. And with all of these comes better business performance. Your customers benefit when you set the bar high for your agents and encourage continuous improvement.

To evaluate contact center performance:

• Set and track KPIs, such as your average handling time, first call resolution, customer satisfaction scores, etc.
• Schedule regular performance reviews where you work one-on-one with agents to identify areas of improvement.
• Use call recordings and analytics to locate gaps in training.

With effective performance management, you can boost your contact center experience.

Create Feedback Loops

Feedback loops are essential to improving the contact center experience. They help identify areas of improvement and drive positive change. Believe it or not, agents and customers have the best insight into whether your contact center is thriving or not. Take the time to regularly collect and act on feedback from both audiences.

Collecting feedback through surveys, customer reviews, and agent evaluations helps identify pain points, trends, and opportunities for improvement. But you can’t just gather it and expect things to change. Use the feedback to inform strategic decisions and drive innovation as you look ahead.

Here are a few tactics to gather useful feedback from customers:

• Send follow-up emails after you’ve provided a service and ask for feedback. NPS surveys and CSAT surveys are a simple way to get a temperature check on how your customers are feeling.
• Pay attention to online customer reviews. Look at message boards and review sites to see how your customers talk about you.
• Conduct customer interviews for more in-depth conversations about the experience.

Here are a few tactics to gather useful feedback from agents:

• Send anonymous surveys that ask questions about the workplace culture, technology, and other general observations.
• Conduct regular one-on-one meetings with each team member, giving agents space to air their frustrations or ask for help.
• Always conduct exit interviews. If employees are leaving, take the time to understand why and gather their insights into your operations before they go.

GoContact Can Help You Deliver a Stellar Contact Center Experience

To deliver a contact center experience that goes above and beyond, you need the right technology partner. With Broadvoice’s GoContact platform, you can customize your contact center, outfitting it with enterprise-level features that are easy to use, manage, and afford.

Meet your customer’s expectations with seamless omnichannel capabilities, IVR and IVA routing, and queue callback. Then, track your performance with real-time analytics, quality monitoring, and KPI dashboards. Our scalable solution lets you adjust your software to match your contact center’s needs. With the right vendor, you set your team up to improve your contact center experience and keep your customers happy.