MARKET REPORT UC&CC
Merging technology – UC & CC
The Contact Centre is starting to see the world of Unified Communications creep into the technology stack
as companies look for ways to improve Customer Experience and differentiate themselves. Comms Business
spoke to the market to find out what this trend means for the Channel
Although 2020 will
always be remembered
for one thing, in the
communications market
it will also be remembered as the
year Unied Communications
took o in spectacular fashion.
A small handful of vendors may
have grabbed the headlines, but
nearly everyone in the space has
seen a signicant uplift. In the
Contact Centre space, there was
a mad rush this March to enable
agents to work from home, with
varying success, but also allow
them to still provide a great
Customer Experience (CX) to
customers.
Is this the major driver
behind UC entering the Contact
Centre? Comms Business asked
the market.
Martin Taylor, Deputy CEO
at Content Guru commented,
“Maintaining consistent
external communication is more
important than ever during the
current COVID-19 outbreak.
Customers are concerned
about – and require immediate
response on – issues ranging
from nance, to travel and
health. To tackle the increases in
volumes and variety of contacts
during these challenging times,
it is vital for contact centre
operators to call upon all the
resources available to them,
meaning both trained agents
and other colleagues in the ‘back
oce’. is is particularly the
case when all parties may well be
in their respective homes.
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“Back oce employees can
help by standing in as agents
during periods of peak demand
or front-oce sta sickness, or
by being a subject matter expert
whom call agents can consult.
To enable this shift to happen
seamlessly, presence integration
between CC and UC is key.
Tony Martino, CEO of
Tollring, said “A key driver
behind UC in the contact centre
is to improve information ow
and collaboration between
teams. is is essential to deliver
excellent customer experience,
and the contact centre is a prime
example of where uid and open
collaboration pays dividends.
One of the well-established
metrics for contact centre
performance is rst contact
resolution. However, FCR
is notoriously dicult to
achieve. One approach is to
make sure that agents are both
knowledgeable and empowered
to make decisions. Another
requires that teams can pass
customers over to dierent
departments for information, or
to aect a resolution seamlessly.
Both methods are potentially
problematic, requiring either a
skilled (and thus more expensive)
workforce, or in the case of
passing people over internally,
the ability to know whether
colleagues are available, having
the resource available to eld
calls in a timely manner, and
to pass on information so that
the caller doesn’t need to repeat
themselves to every new agent.
Comprehensive UC with
monitoring delivers the much
sought-after collaboration and
solves many of the barriers to
FCR. UC enables more uid
resourcing, easier access to
internal expertise, and enhanced
by
CCaaS From Home? Support your customers with our remote CX Solutions.
01344 524 401 ChannelPartners@contentguru.com @cgchirp
30 | Comms Business Magazine | July 2020 www.commsbusiness.co.uk
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