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For many businesses, delivering exceptional customer service – whether it be face-to-face or over the phone – is no longer a differentiator, it’s a necessity.

But keeping pace with evolving customer expectations can be daunting. Today’s customers expect seamless, omnichannel interactions across various touchpoints, from voice calls and emails to social media and chat platforms.

Thankfully, this is where modern contact centre software comes in, empowering you to step up your customer service experience with ease.

In this guide, we explore contact centre software, what it does, how it can improve contact centre operations, and considerations to make when choosing the best solution for your needs.

What is call centre software?

Call centre software is a suite of tools and technology used to manage and improve inbound and outbound phone calls, or support agents in their communication with customers.

Call centre software has various functionalities, that can include:

• Call routing
• Call recording
• Performance analytics
• Workforce management
• Speech analytics

However, with customers expecting to be able to use multiple channels to communicate, call centres need to offer omnichannel communications, and traditional call centre software is gradually being replaced by contact centre software.

What is the difference between call centre software and contact centre software?

The main difference between call centre software and contact centre software is that the former focuses on voice interactions while the latter encompasses a range of communication channels.

Call centre software primarily supports incoming and outgoing phone calls. Meanwhile, contact centre software offers a broader scope of tools to help agents handle everything from calls to emails, instant messages, and social media.

Most modern businesses opt for contact centre software to help them cater to diverse customer preferences, improving the overall user experience across every contact touchpoint.

More and more traditional ‘call centres’ have migrated towards an omnichannel approach by integrating new methods of communication and implementing more flexible contact centre software.

On-premise vs cloud contact centre software: Which is best?

When it comes to contact centre software, there are two main types. On-premise contact centre software is the more traditional model, where all of the technology infrastructure is handled by an in-house data centre.

The more modern, cloud-based alternative relies on third-party cloud hosting to alleviate the need for physical data storage at the contact centre itself.

There are pros and cons to both types of contact centre software, so the type that is right for your business usually depends on your needs and priorities. However, in recent years, cloud-hosted options have rapidly become the most popular choice thanks to their lower costs, flexibility, and efficiency.

On-Premise Contact Centre SolutionsProsConsGreater control over software and hardwareAll data stored on-site for enhanced privacy and securityNo monthly payments requiredExpensive and time-intensive installationComplex infrastructure and maintenance
Limited scalability

Cloud Contact Centre SolutionsProsConsQuick to set up
Easy to integrate and maintain
Flexible monthly pay models Easily scalable Accessible remotely for at-home employees Automatic updatesReliance on a third-party provider Only partial control of software infrastructure

Clearly, there are lots of benefits to choosing or switching to cloud-based contact centre software. Choose a reliable provider, and you’ll be able to unify all of your communication channels with one flexible solution that allows you to quickly scale up and down according to demand.

You can add seats with just a few clicks, allow for remote working, and even seamlessly share essential data throughout your organisation, with high-tech data collection and analytics. Put simply, cloud contact centre software leaves space for innovation, adaptability, and growth.

If you are interested in moving your contact centre software from a legacy on-premises system to the cloud, MaxContact specialises in seamless migration, training and support.

Common features of contact centre software

If you’re scaling up or simply looking to upgrade your contact centre software, you might be wondering about the features and benefits of the products of today.

The majority of modern products are flexible to your needs, but can include the following features:

• Automatic Call Distribution (ACD): This simplifies incoming calls and automatically distributes them according to the availability of your agents.
• Interactive Voice Response (IVR): An automated system that helps to quickly filter incoming calls to the right departments by allowing callers to interact with a pre-recorded or text-to-speech interface to exchange relevant information.
• Omnichannel Communication Channels: Most modern contact centre software supports voice, email, chat and social media communications, offering enhanced visibility over all of your customer’s interactions at once.
• Call Recording & Coaching: Gives team leaders the option to record or listen to conversations live and offer training in real-time, as well as streamlined monitoring and feedback.
• Workforce Management: Innovative contact centre software uses advanced analytics and AI to help you schedule and assign agents according to resources, skills and demand.
• Reporting & Analytics: You can gain valuable insights into the needs and behaviours of your users with customisable analytics dashboards.
• Speech Analytics: AI speech analytics software can analyse speech, language and sentiment to improve quality assurance, prioritise the most important calls, and gain a better understanding of user’s needs and feelings.
• CRM Integration: Contact centre software can now be fully integrated with your wider CRM systems from Salesforce to HubSpot and Zoho. This ensures customer data is aligned across teams and at your fingertips when required.
• Security & Compliance Features: From secure payments handled by IVRs, to robust data protection and compliance, high-quality contact centre software has several built-in features to protect your business and all of its communications.

Why use contact centre software?

Along with all of the capabilities mentioned above, there are many more benefits to using modern and responsive cloud-hosted call centre software. It can help:

Improve the customer experience

Streamlined contact centre software often results in faster resolution times when it comes to customer complaints and enquiries, resulting in positive customer experiences. It can also help direct incoming calls and messages to the correct department faster, reducing waiting times.

Customers also have the flexibility to reach out in a way that suits them, whether they want to chat via instant messenger, send an email, or resolve their query over the phone. With the help of tools like AI chatbots and IVR, they can often get the answers or solutions they need without the need for agent intervention.

Meanwhile, omnichannel capabilities allow agents to offer a more personalised experience, with all of the customer’s communication history at their fingertips.

Supercharge agent productivity

Call centre solutions have long sped-up processes, with incoming calls automatically routed to the next available agent. Modern contact centre software also allows you to record calls for quick and reactive agent training, with performance analytics to help you fine-tune ongoing operations.

Agents also have access to a more comprehensive array of customer information and data, helping support clients at scale.

Streamline operations

Nowadays, contact centre software does more than just support communications. Clever tools and intelligent analytics can monitor and assign agents according to resources and demand.

Automated and self-service systems allow you to reduce labour costs while serving more customers at speed.

Meanwhile, a modern, cloud-based system costs less to install than a traditional on-premise data centre, with flexible monthly payment plans depending on your needs. This boosts the bottom line while streamlining operations.

Facilitate scalable growth

Whether you are on a rapid growth trajectory or have an uncertain landscape ahead, modern contact centre software is agile and can adapt to your changing needs. Resources can be adjusted at the touch of a button according to call volume and demand, without the need for complex or expensive hardware adjustments.

How to choose the best contact centre solution for your business

When comparing contact centre software solutions and providers, it’s important to consider a few different factors at play:

• Unique needs of your business: Be sure to opt for a solution that solves the challenges you face.
• Budget and scalability: Consider both up-front and long-term costs, taking into consideration future growth and changing business needs.
• Security and compliance: Always make sure the provider you are considering offers robust security encryption and certified ISO compliance.
• Integration with existing systems: Search for contact or call centre solutions that can be seamlessly integrated with your existing systems for improved workflow and productivity.
• Reputation and support: Opt for a reputable provider that offers ongoing support to safeguard against potential issues. It’s always a good idea to take time to consider and compare the online reviews and case studies of potential providers.  

Why Choose MaxContact?

Looking for flexible and streamlined contact centre solutions that are customised to your needs?

We have established an industry-leading platform that puts your business at the forefront, from integrations with your existing software to work-from-anywhere functionality.

We understand that every minute counts when it comes to running a successful business. This is why we have developed a resilient, cloud-based platform using industry-standard development practices and multi-layered security. Our contact centre solution is also constantly monitored and maintained to eliminate unexpected downtime, with robust tools in place to maintain compliance.

Getting started is simple with the help of our specialist support and integration specialists, who work seamlessly alongside your team to build and implement the new system.

We take the time to understand your challenges and configure a solution that creates a smoother working environment, with dedicated technical managers to make the switch simple, and unlimited ongoing training and support.

Book a demo today.

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Discover how to choose the best contact centre software solutions. Learn about the features of contact centre software and how it benefits call centre operations.

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National Stress Awareness Month, run by the Stress Management Society every April, is dedicated to raising awareness of the modern stress epidemic and aims to help everyone find ways to cope with the pressures of daily life.

This year the theme of the month is ‘Community’, highlighting the importance of social cohesion to our mental health.

A focus on stress is always important, because stress levels have been rising for years. But finding ways to alleviate stress and reduce anxiety may be even more crucial in the aftermath of the Covid pandemic.

The pandemic affected us all, and continues to do so. Many workers were hit hard by a combination of factors. As well as health anxieties, changing models of work and staffing shortages forced many employees to do more with less.

As we emerge from the pandemic (or at least from pandemic lockdowns), the simple truth is that many workers across the nation feel they are no longer able to cope with the demands of their jobs.

As MaxContact’s own research shows, customer-facing staff are feeling that pressure as much, or perhaps even more, than most. Our Customer Engagement burnout report reveals that 72% of customer-facing employees feel they are burnt out or will be soon. That figure rises to 83% for those who work in contact centres.

How does stress affect contact centres?

Good employers want to reduce stress for staff because it’s the right thing to do. But it really is win-win. Research shows that employees who feel looked after are more loyal to the companies that employ them and are more committed to their roles.

Right now, contact centre leaders need to go the extra mile to realise these benefits. Their staff are facing a perfect storm, thanks to growing customer expectations and the need to adjust to new ways of working.

A growing body of evidence suggests that customer expectations soared during Covid. With stores and offices closed for long periods of time, contact centres became the front line of customer experience.

They remain so today. The current cost of living crisis also means contact centre staff will continue to face a high volume of difficult conversations, as customers struggle to meet payments or comply with contract terms.

At the same time, customers have become familiar with interacting through a variety of different communication channels. That’s great, but it means in some cases that staff are juggling more concurrent conversations, adding to their levels of stress.

Home working and hybrid

On top of it all, many staff are now working from home, at least some of the time. The benefits of remote work have been well discussed, but we should also acknowledge that some employees find it difficult to adapt to home working.

That’s true physically and psychologically. Some homes are simply too small or noisy to make satisfactory office replacements. In addition, many employees miss the social buzz of office life, and the support of colleagues.

Some of this can be replaced by virtual alternatives, but not all. Clearly, the shift to remote or hybrid work has increased stress levels in some workers.

A results-based business

It’s also true, of course, that contact centres are a results-based business.

Productivity metrics are collected and analysed continually. When you feel you’re already doing more with less, this monitoring culture can add to existing work-related anxiety.

That’s reflected in our research. The vast majority of respondents (84%) said that they feel under pressure from management to deliver quantity over quality. And that’s despite most (88%) saying their current responsibilities have expanded since the pandemic.

Many companies invest in technology to help employees do their jobs. But if the equipment is too complex, or too dated to meet modern requirements, it can have the opposite effect.

Reducing work-related stress

If this looks like a bleak picture, it needn’t be. While it’s true that many contact centre agents want to leave their roles (62%, according to our survey), it’s possible to operate customer service which maximises both worker wellbeing and customer experience. Indeed, the two tend to go hand in hand.

Here are some ways to reduce stress in your contact centre:

• Don’t invest in any technology – invest in the right technology

Specialist tech can automate manual tasks, reduce manual inputs, simplify omnichannel communication and allow customers to self-serve for basic requests. It can be a huge time- and hassle-saver for staff, and good for customer satisfaction levels, too.

• Promote a positive work culture

What do staff want? They want support. They want training opportunities to get better at what they do. They want a clear path to career progression. They want social opportunities. All of this is within your power.

• Make work easier

Difficult customers or tricky problems can make working life miserable. So give your teams the tools they need, whether that’s powerful scripting or easy ways to escalate issues. Lay out logical pathways for every eventuality so that agents never feel out of their depth.

• Feedback positively

Contact centre leaders need to know that KPIs and targets are being met. That’s a given. But the key to staff wellbeing is to help them meet these targets, rather than punishing them for failure. Make feedback sessions a positive experience, by offering training and advice where necessary, and creating a culture of support rather than one of blame.

Contact centres are facing a recruitment crisis, so they can’t pay lip service to employee wellbeing any longer. Use stress awareness month to make positive changes to your own company culture, and start exploring ways to help agents do their jobs in better, more fulfilling ways.

Our Burnout report is a great place to start. You can download your copy here.  

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The pressure on customers is well-documented, but service staff need the full support of their business and guidance from their leaders during these difficult times too.

The harsh reality of working within a customer-facing role is the abuse you may receive, sometimes on a daily basis. Physical or verbal abuse towards shop workers and call centre agents has long been an issue plaguing those in customer service roles, but during the pandemic, the number of incidents increased significantly.

With customers stuck at home, call queues becoming longer and many people struggling financially as a result of COVID-19, workers experienced the brunt of this frustration. The Institute of Customer Service revealed that in 2021, 60% of customer-service workers experienced hostility across the year, ranging from shouting and swearing to racial abuse, death threats, spitting and physical attacks.  

As businesses get into the swing of 2022, abuse to customer-facing staff cannot fall under the radar. With energy prices soaring in April and the nation already gripped in a cost-of-living crisis that is causing anxiety for people up and down the country, abuse and hostility will likely rise further for the workers on the receiving end.  

The cost-of-living crisis will already be putting unreported pressure on customer service workers who are dealing with angry or upsetting calls about rising costs. These employees are the forgotten workers of this crisis and in the coming months action needs to be taken to protect them long-term, not just during high periods of stress.  

This won’t be an easy fix, but the industry needs sustained commitments through initiatives, tools and policies that demonstrably support these workers’ wellbeing.

Protecting your workers’ wellbeing

Many customer-facing workers are reporting that their organisations have policies to try and help support their mental health. Yet our research revealed that whilst nearly all workers know about these mental health policies, just 32% said their leaders and managers follow them ‘all the time’. This suggests that while policies have been created, more could be done to ensure they are being implemented across the board.

There is no longer room for complacency here, businesses need to transform their working practices to put the wellbeing of frontline customer service staff at the heart of everything they do.  

Actively promoting the wellbeing of these workers and ensuring this forms part of your organisation’s culture is key. Whether you’re working from home or back in the office, one thing you should consider is encouraging staff to take regular breaks between calls or busy periods and setting up frequent check-ins to allow your teams room to breathe and break up busy workloads. Training managers to identify early signs of burnout and providing mental health support is key to help improve staff wellbeing before it’s too late.

Another way of improving morale is by championing the value they bring to the business and the softer skills they possess. Customer-serving workers are extremely skilled and celebrating their accomplishments as well as showing them a clear path to progression will help them see their job as fulfilling and a long-term career.  

This isn’t just the moral thing to do. Putting employees’ mental health, wellbeing and development first means happy customers will follow. After all, you can’t have great customer experience without happy and engaged employees.  

Rebalancing employee experience with customer satisfaction  

It’s clear that, especially in the struggle for business survival during the pandemic, companies have been used to putting the customer first. Businesses have long operated in this way, rules such as ‘the customer comes first’ and the ‘customer is always right’ have defined businesses for years. Obviously, this is simple business sense and will help drive revenue, loyalty and growth. It’s therefore easy to fall into the trap of constantly prioritising customers. However, if businesses don’t urgently fix the balance between customer satisfaction levels and investment in staff wellbeing, we will all suffer.

This year employee experience must become just as important as the customer experience. As prices continue to soar, many businesses will be focused on keeping their customers happy but considering the needs of your employees goes hand-in-hand with this. It isn’t a case of choosing between the customer or your employees, it’s focusing on how these elements work together in tandem. Making sure your employees have the tools and the support in place to deliver excellent customer service will ensure your staff aren’t burned out and your business thrives.

Tech support  

Many organisations have already invested in specialist customer engagement technology to help customer-facing workers do their job to a high standard. This extra support is now more important than ever to reduce burdening workloads.

Automating responses to simple queries and repetitive tasks can be instrumental in protecting workers from frustration and burnout. Using automation at early points in your customer journeys, through features such as chatbots, can help remove mundane tasks and make agents’ lives infinitely easier.

This will ensure that employees mainly deal with high-level and complex interactions which demonstrate real business value, which is more likely to deliver job satisfaction. At the same time, chatbots can dramatically improve a customer’s experience by providing quick and easy answers to simple questions.

Automating quality assurance is another example of technology being used to improve employee experience. Rather than managers trawling through hours of call recordings to check how workers are performing, speech analytics can automate the process by flagging calls with certain trigger words or negative sentiment. Managers are then able to hone in on these specific calls to provide further training or spot when employees might be facing a high volume of angry, abusive calls.  

In the coming months, employee wellbeing must become more than ticking boxes or window dressing. Customer-facing workers are already at breaking point after months of being overworked and underappreciated.

The reality is 72% of customer-facing workers say they are ‘burnt out’ or will be burnt out imminently, rising to 83% of those working in contact centres. Businesses must act now to support these workers who are on the verge of collapse and could be tipped over as a result of the extra pressures of the cost-of-living crisis.

Customer-facing staff are the cornerstone of every good business, let’s give them the support they deserve.

This blog was written by Ben Booth, CEO of MaxContact, for mycustomer.com. View the original piece here.

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What is speech analytics?

Call centre speech analytics uses technology to analyse recorded phone conversations between call centre agents and customers. AI powered speech analysis helps to identify trends, patterns and areas for improvement in customer service, agent performance and overall contact centre operations.

Speech analytics isn’t a new thing. In fact, it’s been around for nearly two decades. But thanks to developments in AI and natural language processing (NLP), speech analytics is growing in popularity and is a powerful tool for contact centres. But why is speech analytics needed?

Why do call centres need speech analytics?

75% of customers will spend more to buy from a company that offers a good customer experience (CX). On the other hand, nearly half of consumers would ditch a brand for a competitor due to poor CX.

In other words, good CX is a huge win for your business. Customers who are happy with the experience you provide will spend more with your business, forgive your occasional mistakes and recommend your products and services to others.

The problem is that it’s not always clear if your customers rate their experience as highly as you hope they do.

Many customers stay silent about their issues, leading businesses to miss crucial feedback. It’s not malice on the customers’ part, but discomfort or wanting to avoid hassle. This silence hurts business and can result in low customer satisfaction (CSAT), higher customer churn rates and reduced sales revenue.

Businesses can’t fix what they don’t know. So, how do we encourage open communication for happier customers and thriving businesses?

How does speech analytics software work?

Speech analytics empowers contact centres by automatically analysing call recordings to understand both agent performance and customer sentiment. It identifies keywords and phrases which reveal customer satisfaction or frustration, even if they didn’t explicitly say it. Looking beyond spoken statements, speech analytics software analyses voice characteristics, like intonation and pitch, picking up on emotions such as happiness, anger or confusion.

To measure agent performance, call centre speech analytics tracks metrics such as time on hold and silence periods, giving insights into both agent efficiency and customer satisfaction.

How is speech analytics used to improve contact centre operations?

The ability to analyse every customer interaction is a powerful tool but how is speech analytics used and what are the benefits?

1. Real-time speech analytics software can boost customer satisfaction by 20% and reduce churn

• Proactive Issue Identification: Speech analytics can be used to understand call drivers including emerging problems. Real-time call analysis can alert agents to any new issues and encourage them to address the issue and implement corrective measures to nip the problem in the bud.
• Real-time Sentiment Analysis: Call agents are able gauge customer emotions more accurately throughout the call, allowing them to ease any frustrations and personalise interactions, which all lead to happier customers.
• Targeted Upselling Opportunities: Eradicate the need for relying on your agent’s memory of what’s been said on the call. Real-time analysis can review calls and push alerts to agents to discuss new products or services, driving revenue by 10%.

2. Insights from ai speech analytics can be used to improve agent performance and drive engagement

• Personalised Coaching: Coaching your call centre agents is easy with post-call analysis. Review performance and develop targeted training and development plans based on individual strengths and weaknesses.
• Compliance & Quality Assurance: AI-led speech analytics can automate compliance checks across all calls. Real-time analysis (alongside post-call analysis) also prompt agents to read the relevant scripts while the call is taking place. This leads to increased agent compliance and reduces the risk of fines associated with non-compliance.
• Performance Benchmarks and Recognition: Use insights from speech analytics to identify and reward high-performing agents and showcase their successes to motivate and inspire the entire team.

3. Automated call analysis can be used to enhance quality management and call handling efficiency

• Quality management: Be more confident in the validity of your quality scores and agent assessments with speech analytics software that automates analysis of all calls rather than relying on a small sample of contact centre interactions.
• Reduce average handling time (AHT): Customers want quick and efficient resolutions over the phone. Speech analytics software can give you powerful insights that help you design better scripts to reduce AHT and cut costs.

One solution to the problem of reticent customers is speech analytics. You’ve probably come across hype around speech analytics before – the technology has been around for nearly two decades. The difference today is that it actually works.

The industry certainly seems to think so too. One recent study estimated that the market for speech analytics will grow at a CAGR of 22.14% over the next five years. And we believe its popularity is entirely justified.

Why choose AI-led speech analytics from MaxContact?

Our speech analytics software will help you to make better business decisions, and understand the ‘why’ behind 100% of your contact centre interactions.

We’ve kept it simple

High-level data is displayed on an intuitive dashboard and further information can be accessed from a central control panel. Simple to set up and easy to understand, MaxContact ai speech analytics provides sophisticated insights at the click of a button.

Powerful filtering at your fingertips

Our advanced solution pre filters nearly 70% of critical and problematic conversations that need further attention. This lets contact centre managers focus on priority issues before it’s too late. Thanks to faster response times, timely interventions and streamlined operations, managers can enhance performance and improve customer satisfaction by coaching agents in real-time.

Easy to integrate

And if all this sounds expensive and complex, it really isn’t. We offer a fully integrated platform designed to work seamlessly with our feature-rich, cloud-based contact centre software.

Speech analytics from MaxContact gives you the information you need to deliver market-leading CX, even if your customers are not always as candid about your service as you’d like them to be.
Book a customised demo to learn how our AI-led speech analytics can understand customer sentiment, improve call quality, and reduce churn in your contact centre.

Leveraging speech analytics for contact centre improvement

Book a customised demo to learn how our AI-led speech analytics can understand customer sentiment, improve call quality, and reduce churn in your contact centre.

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Outbound campaigns are an integral part of any company’s marketing and sales strategy. They can also be used for other reasons, such as after sales service, market research, collecting payments, confirming appointments and a host of other ways outbound features can transform customer experience.

In essence, an outbound campaign involves a business actively contacting potential or actual customers, rather than the other way round.

Everybody wants to do outbound better, and that includes your clients. The more efficient and targeted their outbound campaigns are, the more successful their businesses are likely to be.  

Good outbound campaigns result in a steady stream of sales queries or more satisfied customers – or hopefully both. They can mean fewer customers missing payments or more benefitting from an extended warranty offer.

So how do your clients get better results from outbound campaigns? The secret is matching good agents with good technology. Good agents have productive conversations. Good technology allows them to have more of those conversations, by putting them in touch with the right people, at the right time, with the right information.  

MaxContact’s powerful Contact Centre as a Service (CCaaS) platform empowers businesses to run successful outbound campaigns across various channels. It lets your clients plan and refine outbound campaigns in ways that non-specialised communications services simply can’t match.

Speed matters – but getting the pace right is crucial

In an outbound campaign, speed matters. The more calls agents make, the more success they’re likely to have.

In the context of a fast moving outbound campaign, manual dialling just doesn’t cut it. Instead, an intelligent autodialler does the heavy lifting, dialling numbers from the call list and connecting agents only when the call is genuinely answered.  

MaxContact’s auto dialler can detect when an answering service picks up the call, and either disconnect immediately or leave an automated message. Agents are left free for the next call. The use of MaxContact’s dialler can increase productivity by 500% compared to a traditional phone system.

But while speed is important, it isn’t the only thing to consider. MaxContact offers three different auto dialler modes to suit different kinds of outbound campaigns:

• Predictive dialling

Predictive dialling uses a sophisticated algorithm to match answered calls with available agents. It dials multiple numbers but can automatically adjust the rate to match your contact centre situation, speeding up or slowing down calls in real time to take into account the ebb and flow of demand. Predictive dialling is the gold standard for straightforward, high volume sales campaigns.

• Progressive dialling

Progressive diallers are auto diallers that slow the pace by only dialling a number when an agent is available to take the call. Dialling is instant and automatic, so the system still allows for a relatively high number of calls, but also eliminates the risk of customers abandoning calls. Progressive dialling is often used in more targeted sales campaigns, or those involving higher value goods or services.

• Preview dialling

A preview dialler takes the pace down another notch. When an agent indicates availability, information about the next call is sent to the agent for preview. After a set amount of time – say, five minutes – the number is automatically dialled. The purpose of this delay is to let the agent prepare for the call, using information typically taken from the company CRM system (with MaxContact, CCaaS and CRM systems can be fully integrated). Preview diallers are particularly helpful when the reason for the call is complex or sensitive. That could be a debt resolution call, or a call responding to a customer complaint.

Other outbound features

An intelligent autodialler is crucial to a successful outbound campaign, and MaxContact offers a range of other features to optimise your clients’ sales, market research or debt collection efforts.

Lead scoring, for example, uses data analysis to prioritise calls in terms of likely positive outcomes. In short, the hotter the lead, the higher its placing on the call list.

Drag and drop scripting makes it easy to create and refine successful sales scripts. A PCI-DSS compliant payments system means that sales and debt collection teams can take payments during the call, increasing the chances of a successful outcome.

“With the previous system, decision-maker contact rates were running at around seven or eight an hour. (With MaxContact) that’s now hitting 11 or 12, representing a productivity improvement of over 30%“

How data analytics helps

But if successful outcomes are in short supply, call centre managers can refine outbound campaigns instantly or over time using powerful data analytics.  

With MaxContact, your clients can visualise results with dashboards, reports and wallboards. Easy-to-read charts keep team leaders on top of agent and campaign performance rates. They can help identify the agents, scripts, call rates and follow-ups that really work, allowing contact centres to continually improve.    

Campaign analytics let clients measure success against targets and make changes in real time, which can produce an instant uptick in results. A click of the mouse tells them what’s working and what’s not.

Finally, modern outbound campaigns are about more than voice calls alone. Send payment reminders, aftersales care tips or product information by text, WhatsApp or email and contact customers in the way that best suits them.

“The speed of MaxContact is phenomenal! Especially when loading complex and multiple scripts to our agents and reporting on key statistics across the business.”

Intelligent outbound

If you have clients who run outbound campaigns, a powerful CCaaS platform is a much-needed addition to your product portfolio.  

Unified communication systems are great for internal communications, but don’t offer the functionality that can optimise external communications at scale. Auto dialling, campaign analysis and intelligent lead scoring, among a host of other features, will supercharge your clients’ sales, payment or after sales campaigns, giving you a new and fruitful revenue stream.  

For more information on our partner programme or if you are interested in joining, you can visit our partner page for more information.

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In 2022, customers have an infinity of choice. In nearly every category of product or service, an alternative to your brand or business (and usually several) is only ever a Google away.

At the same time, consumers have never been so prepared to switch provider or supplier, because switching has never been so simple. They’re also happy to detail poor experiences with brands and businesses on social media.

In this highly competitive environment, customer service becomes a key point of difference. Your products or services need to be spot on. Your after sales support needs to be equally excellent.

Proactive customer service is a new standard of excellence

More businesses are now impressing customers with proactive customer service.

Proactive customer service means that, instead of waiting for customers to come to you, you proactively contact customers who may be dissatisfied or having problems with a product.

Why’s that important? Customers know that products are sometimes faulty, and services are not always perfect. They won’t necessarily punish your business for an occasional glitch. According to Salesforce research, if a company’s customer service is excellent, 78% of consumers will do business with them again after a mistake.

Being proactive is an increasingly important ingredient in excellent customer service. By proactively contacting customers about a problem, you stop them having to take time out of their day to contact you.

By receiving a call or email unexpectedly sharing the solution to their problem (and any associated timeline), you reassure customers that something is being done and you care.

It’s all about being honest and upfront. When your train doesn’t turn up, you want to be kept informed of its progress, not kept in the dark. When your broadband goes down, a text message admitting to the fault and giving an expected fix time is the next best thing to a solution.

Proactive customer service isn’t just about problems. If something is genuinely beneficial, customers will usually be happy to be contacted about it, even out of the blue.

But it does work especially well when customers need help. That’s when they really appreciate informed, empathetic communication. It’s all part of a personal, customer-focused service.

How do you deliver proactive customer service?

So if proactive customer service is good for business, how do you do it?

Most importantly, you have to get to know your customers well. That means measuring customer sentiment and tracking it over time, so you can act quickly when satisfaction starts to wane.

Ask for feedback, monitor social media and dig into customer complaints. Do the same issues keep coming up? Is there a pattern to a recent rise in calls to your support centre?

Make sure agents know to note instances of customer dissatisfaction, even if they’re only mentioned in passing. Monitor use of online FAQs and how-to articles.

When you know the issues customers face, you can prepare proactive communications. For example, a problem that is starting to prompt calls to your support line might be relatively trivial, and easily fixed with a self-service article. Proactive messaging can direct customers to the right web page, so they don’t have to waste time on the phone.

Alternatively, a significant fault may require a lengthy fix, risking a wave of complaints. But proactively informing customers of the problem and keeping them updated on progress towards a fix is the best way to clear up confusion and diffuse anger.

And positive proactivity works too. An unsolicited call or email to help customers make full use of a great new feature or product release will create goodwill towards your business.

How MaxContact can help

Proactive customer service works. According to research, it can reduce customer churn by 3%-5%. Over time, that’s a lot of customers that stay with your business.

Proactive customer service relies on targeted, relevant and timely communication. With MaxContact, you can easily create and implement a proactive contact strategy, starting with the following features:

Omnichannel customer engagement

Sometimes a text is all it takes. At other times, a call is more personal. An omnichannel platform lets you proactively contact customers in a way that suits them.

CSAT and NPS

MaxContact lets you monitor important customer satisfaction scores, so you can act decisively if they start to slip.

Automated dialling

Segment customers and create automatic contact lists based on relevant data points, like “X days since support ticket closed” (ask them how the solution is working), or “X% reduction in usage” (get to the root of the problem before they abandon the service altogether). And if there’s a wider problem, automated dialling allows you to quickly contact customers before they contact you.

Bulk SMS

Target groups with bulk support texts, offering advice, a quick fix, or a simple “how’s it going?”

Analytics

Monitor data on things like wait times or first call resolution. If a customer has experienced sub-standard service based on metrics like these, send them an apology or even an email gift.

Speech analytics

MaxContact’s speech analytics platform can monitor customer sentiment even if a caller is not obviously complaining. Dig deeper to find the cause of dissatisfaction and proactively put it right.

Proactive customer service can improve satisfaction and reduce churn, but it’s difficult to do consistently without a smart and efficient communication platform in place. MaxContact helps in two ways. It offers the tools and analytics to monitor customer sentiment. It then gives you the contact options that make a proactive strategy possible.

Get in touch to hear how MaxContact can make a difference to your business.

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