The 6 Must-Have Features of Contact Centre Software in 2021

For businesses that want to remain competitive in the years that lie ahead, perfecting the customer experience is essential.

And if your systems are lacking, then delivering the level of service your customers are demanding will be next to impossible.

But with so many different contact centre software solutions on the market, how can you even know where to start?

The key to knowing which software is right for your contact centre, is knowing which features and capabilities to look for.

Read on to discover X must-have features of contact centre software, for businesses that want to take their customer experience to the next level, and lay the foundations for long-term success.

1. An all-in-one, omnichannel dashboard

To provide a leading customer experience, you need full visibility of both your team and your customers.

An all-in-one, omnichannel dashboard lets you see all customer activity across all your channels at once.

This enables you to align inbound demand with internal capacity.

No customer fails to get through, and you can deliver a smooth and seamless experience every time.

According to Microsoft[1], 66% of customers use an average of 3 communication channels to connect with a customer service team.

So having the tools to deliver cross-channel support is vital.

2. CRM Integration

31% of customers cited having to repeat themself as the most frustrating part of a customer experience[2].

If your contact centre can integrate with your CRM software, your customers won’t have that problem.

CRM integration ensures your agents always have the right customer information at their fingertips.

With detailed data on each customer and all of their interactions with your business across all channels, this supports a much smoother and more consistent experience.

And, it means your agents are never lacking the information they need to resolve a query.

3. Skills-based call routing

Being moved from department to department is a classic sign of poor and outdated customer service delivery.

Skills-based call routing can ensure this never happens to your customers again.

By setting pre-determined rules, your software can automatically forward particular queries to an agent with the right skills and knowledge to handle them.

This results in…

Increased first-call resolution

Reduced handling times

Higher customer satisfaction rates

4. ‘Anytime, Anywhere’ flexibility

A recent study of 2,000 UK employees found that around 67% of team members would prefer to split their time between the home and the office[3].

Cloud-based contact centre software enables teams to connect to their systems and work from anywhere in the world, just as they would in the office.

All they need is an internet connection.

For contact centres, remote working has been shown to bring a number of benefits…

75% of contact centres say remote working reduced attrition

61% say it made their team more productive

74% of home agents say they enjoy a better work-life balance[4]

5. Seamless systems updates

Another key benefit that cloud contact centre solutions can offer is the elimination of maintenance processes.

Like most cloud technologies, cloud-based contact centre systems are updated automatically, meaning your team is always working on the latest and best software.

Plus, a cloud-based solution requires no physical space. And once setup and configuration is complete, there is no need for any hardware upkeep and maintenance.

Your systems stay future proof with no input required, and you enjoy dramatically reduced operating costs, and hassle-free systems updates.

6. Automated recording

The more you monitor your calls, the more you can refine your processes.

Whether that means enhancing your levels of quality assurance and training or collating more data to demonstrate compliance to the relevant authorities.

Having automated recording capabilities allows you to dramatically upscale your call monitoring with no extra cost or effort needed.

The best contact centre systems will allow for automated recording which can pause itself when a customer is reading out sensitive information, such as their payment details.

This allows you to retain airtight compliance while enabling your agents to fully focus on the customer.

Key takeaways

While there are many different factors that work together to make happy, loyal and repeatedly satisfied customers, ultimately, technology underpins them all.

Having the right contact centre software is key to providing a customer experience that meets and excels the expectations of the modern customer.

If you are unsure which solution is best for your business, look for one that, as a minimum, boasts the following features…