Contact centre landscape

In the past, contact centres (or call centres as they were more correctly known) were big rooms filled with often low-paid, low-skilled workers fielding phone calls.

Over the past ten years, technological advancements have led to an upskilling of the contact centre worker and a reduction in headcount.

Today they can be seen more like Digital Service Agents, some handling several conversations across multiple channels simultaneously – and they can work remotely from anywhere.

Contact centre technology is not just for contact centres!

As the technology moved to the cloud, it became more flexible and cost-effective. So once only considered the sole domain of large organisations, Contact Centre Technology is now being used by companies of all shapes and sizes.

Businesses can tap into the advanced call and messaging features and take their customer communications to another level.

Some key features include:

• Combine all their customer communications on one single platform
• Expand the number of communication channels they offer to customers
• Allow customers to self-serve
• Integrate with 3rd party systems such as a CRM
• Enable their teams to work effectively from any location

Brexit and the Pandemic have led to a significant acceleration in cloud deployments.

Many businesses turned to Contact Centre Technology during the Covid pandemic as it enabled their teams to work effectively from any location.

Organisations are struggling to fill vacancies since Brexit, so they are reaching out to use our Artificial Intelligence technology to fill the gaps caused by a lack of staff.

As a result, customers are now coming to expect seamless digital experiences.

So to stay ahead in 2024, we will see more businesses embracing contact centre technology, being active on all the right channels, and subsequently gaining a competitive advantage.

Embracing the change in customer contact

Who drives the deployment of contact centre technology?
Contact Centres differ from many other technologies as they sit front and centre of the organisation’s customer communication and impact many different departments.

Often a decision to implement (or replace) a contact centre involves a range of different people with often different and conflicting objectives. It is, therefore, KEY to find out who and what is driving the project. It will most likely be led by IT; however, it will it may be driven by other key people in the business, and IT will simply be the fulfilment arm.

A good project is ALWAYS run by someone dedicated to the project who captures a detailed list of user requirements throughout the business and who is responsible for delivering the chosen solution – Often this is not the case, and the project is allocated to someone within IT.

Business areas that benefit from contact centre technology:

• IT
• HR
• Operations
• Sales
• Marketing
• Finance

Key things to consider when selling contact centre software:

• Only prospects with a high level of customer communication are likely to invest in a contact centre. Someone in a B2B operation is less likely to do it. Someone in the public sector is often governed by cost and regulations, so ensure you are closest to the cheapest competitor – when selling in this sector (you don’t always have to be the cheapest).

Target according to your strengths

Be aware of your competition and what they are offering. This will also help you set the agenda, so you establish a requirement for the area where you are the most strong. Be aware that customers will ask for everything – it is your job to find out what they are really interested in, as no one can deliver everything. It is vital that you understand what and who is driving the project as selling contact centres is all about covering all the angles.

Know your competition

Checklist to identify customer requirements

• What technology do they use now, on-premise, no technology or existing cloud?
• Check out their website to find NON-GEO numbers etc, webchat and email, and any other social media sites-check them out.
• Use LinkedIn Sales Navigator if you have it to build up a DMP profile if possible.
• Call their sales number and see how they respond – tell them you are a mystery shopper working for marketing etc. and see how effective they are at dealing with you. Ask them questions about the systems they use and any issues they have etc., including sentiment analysis, gamification etc.
• Try and find out how much they pay contact centre staff and if they are bonused on performance and if so, how – it is important to understand what they use to measure service performance, if CSAT try and get figures
• Find out who provides their current ISP and telephone service.
• Are they part of a bigger group of companies, and if so who? also check out any market information you can find about them, maybe posts on LinkedIn from them or any other social media giving out information about them – both positive and negative.
• Try and establish their pain points. These will generally be associated with functionality, integration, usability, cost or support – often, change is the catalyst – Check out any other projects they are running. Have they just been acquired, or are they growing or reducing in size?
• Look at Companies House to find out who the Directors are, their current performance and financial year – If possible, read accounts, as that will often detail the strategy for the coming years.
  
  

Make sure you build a message that meets the objectives of each person you have identified in the Decision-making process.

• Who are their customers, and is their market subject to any impending new regulation?
• Do they take payments over the phone from customers?
• What are their current staff turnover levels – check out sites like Glassdoor to see if anything has been posted about them
• Do they operate a flexible/hybrid working scheme?
• Does anyone in the DMP have previous experience running a contact centre, and was the experience good, bad, or indifferent – who did they use?
• Are they adopting the Cloud, and are security concerns around data security something that is of importance to them?
• Do they want to try new channels of communication with customers?

Key knowledge points – summary of questions:

• Do they have high levels of customer contact?
• Is there any market regulation pending?
• Are they a growing or declining business i.e., something that causes change?
• Are they adopting Cloud culture?
• Are they adopting flexible working?
• Do they have any bad/good press, i.e., reported data breaches etc.?
• Have they any budget underspend?
• Are there any significant senior management changes?
• Are they completing/planning any major technology implementations?
• When does their current contract end?

How will we help and support you to sell and win?

The Daktela team will do as much, or as little of the sales, marketing, implementation, or support you want us to.

From promotional ideas and one-off queries to help with pitches, we’re on hand to help, so just let us know the level of advice or support you need.

Stand out from the crowd, with Daktela in your portfolio you can help your clients deliver exceptional customer experiences and grow their business.