With the competitive nature of today’s market, businesses need to truly delight their customers. Companies stuck within the conventional approach toward communication can’t seem to do that. The new Unified Communications (UC)-focused approach considers spending money on communications as an investment to keep customers satisfied, and yes, delighted. And yes, technology investments in UC improve customer experience and will drive competitiveness.
Today’s customer engages with brands through the channels of their choice. They’ve come to expect instant answers and frictionless engagement. Unified Communications (UC) brings email, voice mail, videoconferencing, messaging apps, and other communication channels together, for seamlessness in communication that greatly enhances customer experience (CX). Businesses have come to embrace UC because it brings customers the hi-touch service they are after.
Here are six key trends in UC that improve customer experience.
Integrating a variety of communication channels and tools into a single platform requires a system of endpoints that work with the enterprise network and comply with existing security protocols. APIs make this possible.
Communication APIs make it easy to add third-party communications channels to a single mobile app or web platform. The APIs are the veins that give life to the platform and deliver quality connection.
Consider a home delivery app. The app may have a built-in capability that allows users to contact by chat. For an additional option for communication, the business may integrate a third-party voice capability, allowing users to connect through voice messages. APIs facilitate making such connections seamless.
Consider the fact that cloud adoption has increased exponentially due to the COVID-19 pandemic. To enable seamless remote work, an overwhelming number of businesses upgraded to cloud-enabled telephony with UC technologies from their legacy PBX and ISDN telephony systems. The cloud consolidates telephony and newly adopted collaboration tools in a customization-friendly unified communications-as-a-service (UCaaS) environment.
UCaaS consolidates voice, video, messaging, and other content sharing tools used by the business, in the cloud. This enables access anytime and anywhere. The op-ex as-a-service model improves cost-effectiveness and makes it easier to roll out omnichannel strategies.
Unified Communication channels offer a slew of technologies that improve enterprise efficiency and, subsequently, the customer experience.
Real-time presence information displays real-time availability of colleagues. A directory lists the right expert for any issue. Agents view the directory through their dashboard to identify the available resources to resolve a customer query. Presence information alerts the status of each available team member. The agent can easily see who is available to take a call in a single view.
When all resources use the same system, efficiency improves, and customer wait time is reduced.
Often, a business’s customer support staff wastes time juggling multiple communication platforms. The downside is not only time delay. It also causes disconnects and inaccuracies that frustrate the customer.
Single sign-on, coupled with an intuitive, integrated interface spares the agent from the hassles of switching between different tools. Common access and identity management protocol speeds up resolution.
In addition, an integrated interface brings together customer support, CRM, field service, and functional suites. This centralizes operational control and streamlines the workflow. Using this single platform, agents are provided visibility of previous communications, which allows more comprehensive communication and support to customers.
The latest technological enhancements connected with UC enhance the audio quality of customer support agents, relative to traditional telephony.
HD voice enhances the voice quality to a crisp, clear, and natural level. UC wideband makes the communication between customer and agent crystal clear. Wideband systems transmit rich audio over the digital network with incredible fidelity, thereby improving the clarity in the communication.
Greater clarity means customers and agents do not have to repeat information and the chances of miscommunication decrease. Research by Jabra reveals 82% of consumers appreciate the feeling of having a call with customer service agents that feels more clear and connected.
UC makes it easier to apply emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence to improve the customer experience. Artificial intelligence tracks customer comments proactively and helps to deliver a hyper-personalized customer experience. Chatbot technology automates routine questions, delivering an interactive FAQ that will handle the most common customer needs. This frees up your agents for more time to answer complex or higher-level questions.
Conclusion
Companies are feeling the heat of competition as every business’s competition is just a few clicks away. The new UC-focused approach considers spending money on communications as a wise investment to keep customers delighted. Delight your customers stay and they stay with your company, are more willing to close new deals and spend more.
