The more communication small businesses receive, the harder it is to manage and track. Today that communication includes calls, texts, messages, and online form submissions—meaning your teams must deal with increasing volume and complexity.
Communication centers have always been important to businesses, from switchboards to receptionist desks. Now cloud contact centers are poised to become the hub for simplifying customer communications, reducing chaos, and providing insights into what your customers want (and what marketing is making them reach out).
How does cloud contact center software work?
So, what is a cloud contact center? It is a centralized platform in the cloud where you can manage all your contacts and communications, including calls, chats, texts, and form submissions. One inbox means teams won’t lose or forget messages. You also have context about where customers contacted you as well as about the nature of all previous conversations. This information creates an experience that is better for both customers and customer service representatives.
A cloud contact center exists in the cloud, so companies don’t need to worry about hardware investments, setup, and maintenance. Setup is simple and includes signing in to your account, choosing preferences, and uploading or recording your voicemail message. A platform with a mobile app will allow you to access the center from your smartphone and keep your organization’s calls and messages separate from your own.
Key benefits of a cloud contact center
How it improves business productivity
Small businesses that use cloud contact centers report increased productivity without the need for added resources. Here’s why:
- Work together better. A cloud contact center supports real teamwork by automatically routing calls and providing a unified inbox, so everyone knows who’s picking up a lead, which customers still need to be helped, and more.
- Understand customers. Lead Intelligence, or full visibility into each touchpoint along the customer journey from the point of acquisition, allows employees to access background and context that drives better customer conversations. Artificial intelligence (AI) can also help transcribe and analyze communications, so you get insights into trends and topics that translate to real business value.
- Analyze performance. Integrated team analytics and reporting can help you evaluate data like answer rate, time spent on calls, and the number of completed calls. You can view by individual or team and quickly see how your teams are doing and where you can make adjustments or improve training.
- Simplify business infrastructure. Without complicated phone systems, IT teams can focus on business initiatives rather than supporting communication equipment. Cloud contact centers also make it easier to scale as you grow.
- Save money. A cloud contact center is more cost efficient than many other solutions, with a faster return on investment and the predictability of subscription pricing.**
According to a recent CallRail study, 95% of SMB leaders reported wanting to improve their customer communications tools. Learn more about the reasons they cited, along with key solutions on the horizon by downloading the full report: Making the Dream Work with Team Work: How small businesses can keep leads from falling through the cracks with better communications.
How it elevates customer experiences
Cloud contact centers also help businesses provide better service to customers. Here’s how:
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Have better conversations. With call attribution, you can guide conversations based on source information. See where leads came from as well as look into customers’ previous conversations. Knowing where they are in the journey and what brought them to you will let you have the right conversation with the right information at the right time.
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Respond to customers faster. Get back to prospects and customers more quickly by seeing who still needs a reply and what they requested. You won’t waste time asking colleagues about a customer’s communication history when you have every bit of information you need at your fingertips.
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Give the right information. Customers don’t like to repeat their requests or explain an issue over again for each new agent. With a snapshot of a customer’s record, you can quickly give customers the answers they want.
Why move to a cloud contact center?
With a cloud contact center, you centralize and simplify customer communications. You don’t have to manage multiple sources of incoming calls and messages. Look in just one place for calls, texts, live chat, and even form submissions from all the different platforms where you run ads.
Unlike many cloud contact solutions on the market, Lead Center by CallRail provides insights about the results of all your marketing efforts in one place, making it easier than ever to make business decisions.
Choosing the right cloud contact center software
How do you choose the platform that’s right for your business? Consider whether the software:
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Includes reporting and analytics. Can you review call lengths and agent response times? Can you analyze calls and texts for important words or phrases?
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Transcribes calls. In addition to call recording, can you easily access transcriptions?
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Routes calls. Can you automate where calls should go? Can you set them to reroute when an agent is on another line or unavailable?
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Monitors calls and performance. Can you monitor customer calls so you can provide coaching and training to improve the customer experience?
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Uses artificial intelligence. Does the solution use AI to help analyze calls so you can improve customer communications?
Lead Center Success Stories
One of the best ways to find the best cloud contact center software for your business is to look at customer reviews and case studies. This is some of what CallRail’s customers have been able to do with Lead Center:
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Reclaim lost leads. The employees at Toronto Tees had a hard time juggling calls and in-person customers, so many calls went unanswered. After implementing Lead Center, they were able to capture those calls and rescue 15-20% of lost leads and convert 10% more.
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Increase productivity. With a small team, Screen Medic—a home screen repair shop—missed a lot of customer calls. However, once they started using Lead Center they were able to return calls without wasting time trying to learn whether someone else had contacted the customer. Now they get more work done with the same sized team.
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Save revenue from lost leads. Without visibility into leads, homebuilder D.R. Horton was contacting leads multiple times and repeating questions, which was frustrating for both customers and sales representatives. Lead Center gave the sales team insights into customers’ previous calls and interactions, helping agents improve performance and saving the company thousands of dollars in lost revenue.
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Get back time. DCI Properties is a real estate business that buys properties directly from sellers. Agents who were working in the field or from home couldn’t access the office lines, and the VoIP providers they tried didn’t provide adequate call quality. With Lead Center, agents have access to lead tracking, one-click responses, and business numbers through their mobile phones—decreasing research and response times.
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Improved workflow. Top Job Asphalt used Lead Center to put both their inbound and outbound interactions in one platform. This allowed their team members to see all customer communications in one place and prevented leads from slipping through the cracks. As a result, they streamlined workflows and doubled their sales.
Cloud contact centers simplify, centralize, and streamline customer communications. The right solution can improve employee performance and the customer experience while boosting your bottom line.
Find out how you can capture more leads with a cloud contact center. Sign up for your free trial of Lead Center.