Using voice-over-internet technology, VoIP contact centers provide convenient communication for organizations. These contact centers can handle substantial call volumes, offer growth flexibility, and integrate communications to optimize customer service. Aside from cutting down costs, we will explore many more advantages of VoIP contact centers and focus on the best cloud contact center features in this article.
What is a VoIP Contact Center?
A VoIP contact center is primarily a hosted contact center system that handles communication through agents using VoIP technology to power calls, video calls, and chats. Due to multiple communication pathways such as text chats, emails, fax, and calls, VoIP contact centers have become a preferred organizational form of customer communication.
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What is the Difference Between a VoIP Contact Center and a VoIP Call Center?
Essentially, a VoIP customer service contact center is similar to a VoIP call center but has added features. While a VoIP call center only communicates via voice calls using VoIP technology, a VoIP Contact Center communicates with more than just phone calls, such as via emails, fax, texts, social media integrations, and web interfaces.
VoIP Contact Centers and Call Centers can either be departments within an organization or operations outsourced to a separate organization. While call centers may have different inbound and outbound call support agents or a blend of both, VoIP-powered, remote contact centers have agents handling all forms of communication. While call centers continue to be a viable form of communication, more businesses are shifting towards VoIP contact centers due to added convenience of multiple pathways of communication. Comparing call center vs. contact center features and functionality will ensure you choose the best system for your business.
What are the Best VoIP Contact Center Features and Benefits?
The best contact center benefits and features are numerous. The technology is known for having a wide range of valuable features and benefits.
Cost-Savings
A VoIP contact center for your business helps in cutting down costs immensely. Depending on the nature of your business and its requirements, the cost reduction will vary. A VoIP contact center saves initial expenses on business phones and PBX hardware, as it does not depend on these extra equipment for its functionality. VoIP networks allow both voice and data across the same channel. There is no requirement to spend extra on additional wiring.
Furthermore, VoIP contact center calls are considerably cheaper than those made through traditional telephone-network-based call centers. In a VoIP contact center, employees can provide their services remotely, save commute and office space costs, and reportedly exhibit increased productivity. A VoIP contact center enables businesses to cut recurring expenses such as repairs, taxes, and maintenance fees.
Comparing contact center systems will help you lock in pricing that is in your budget and make sure you get all the features you need to support customer interactions.
Portability and Accessibility
A VoIP contact center provides unprecedented ease in easy accessibility and increased portability. Contact center calls can be made and received from anywhere with a decent broadband connection. In case of unavailability of one contact center agent, the call can be directed to another agent, or a voicemail can be sent to the same agent, enabling greater productivity through increased flexibility. Furthermore, the contact number for a VoIP contact center is entirely portable.
Higher Scalability
A VoIP contact center has higher scalability making it an attractive choice for growing businesses. Therefore, whether you are expanding your business and opening a new branch or preparing for the holiday season powered by the internet, your VoIP contact center will be perfectly functional without investing in dedicated hardware or additional equipment.
Advanced Team Functionalities
Equipped with advanced features such as auto attendant and call transferring, a VoIP contact center can make an enterprise seem more approachable and far more developed than it initially might be.
Improved Voice Quality
VoIP contact center calls have the perfect quality required when dealing with customer issues and queries. With a stable and steady internet connection, users experience crisp voice quality, clarity, and no call dropouts or latency issues. With VoIP contact centers, businesses have bid farewell customer support calls with background noise, echoes, static, and delays.
Ease in Multitasking
In a VoIP contact center, multitasking comes with great ease. Besides phone calls, VoIP allows users to share images, video clips, and documents while engaging in conversation. This allows for integrated meetings with clients or team members without geographical restrictions.
Improved Security
VoIP contact centers leverage advancements in IP technology, such as optimized identity management and encryption, to cater to security threats.
How Much Does it Cost to Set up a VoIP Contact Center?
There are pros and cons to every contact center, so understanding costs may be the deciding factor for your company when choosing a new system. While the total cost of setting up a VoIP contact center will vary based on business requirements, you can save considerably by switching to one. Starting from implementing a VoIP contact center, begin the savings on initial expenses such as investing in business phones and PBX hardware. VoIP technology does not require extra hardware for functioning as the internet powers it, and only a stable internet connection is needed. There is no need for additional wiring since both data and voice use the same channel in VoIP.
Furthermore, hosted contact center calls are considerably cheaper than traditional telephone-network-based call centers. Also, since employees in a VoIP contact center can operate remotely, that reportedly increases productivity and cuts down on business expenses. Lastly, recurring expenses such as taxes and repairs are cut down.
What is the Best VoIP Contact Center Software?
The best VoIP contact center software for your business provides the most optimized communications with your clients and your staff. Furthermore, it should create ease of access, cost savings, good voice quality without any background noise or delays, enhanced security, convenience in multitasking, and scalability.
The best VoIP contact center system will offer tools and features to support automated workflows and provide all the functionality you need.
Contact center workforce optimization advantages are numerous and will help your company work efficiently while improving customer experience and reducing costs.