In recent years, the need for integration has increased. As digital transformation becomes a priority for enterprises, the need to improve the customer experience is more important than ever. Companies have been forced to pivot and shift to handle a remote workforce and are quickly adapting to handle the “new normal.”
For companies looking to deliver a seamless customer service experience, it is crucial to start with the integration of unified communication. With the knowledge that agents will have direct access to subject matter experts within the organization, they can connect experts with customers in real-time, improving first-call resolution and reducing average handle time.
When starting to use a unified communications integration solution, there are a couple of things to keep in mind in order to connect all areas of the enterprise with customers.
Steps to Unify Communications in your company
Create a UC strategy that fits your business:
It’s all about finding the right tool for your business. Before implementing a UC strategy, study your company’s workflow – what do your daily operations look like? What information do you need from your employees?
If you are already using some communication tools, ask your employees for feedback on how they work. Let them suggest possible platforms or devices that could be beneficial to your company.
The goal here is to know which platforms are most useful for your business, and how they can be great investments toward success.
You also need to train your employees so they can remain productive and happy with their work.
Plan:
Most projects involve 80% planning and 20% installation. The complexity of UC means it’s critical to decide whether a UC solution will be installed in phases or consist of a rip-and-replace integration. Once you define your vision, you can assess your needs and cross-reference them with the company’s roadmaps, which means you can uncover obstacles early on, while synergies materialize quickly. Planning helps avoid a poorly executed deployment that disrupts the business, cripples future enhancements, and undermines confidence in the value of unified communications.
Determine what features your unified communications solution needs to have
In the cloud, responsive and secure
It is important to be implemented it in the cloud, so that all agents and employees can use it from any place, at any time, and from any device.
Contact Center Integration
The convergence of UC and contact center capabilities simplifies all customer workflows, regardless of the entry point, and helps manage conversations effectively. For example, Enghouse Connect, Enghouse Interactive’s Unified Communications (UC) solution, allows you to benefit from the joint development of UC and CC applications to optimize your organization’s customer experience (CX) capabilities quickly and easily.
UCaaS for chat, video, and telephony
You must have chat, video, and telephony, plus an easy user experience.
Decide on a UC software solution to connect all areas of the company with customers
Choosing the right equipment and software is very important to the UC adoption process. Planning is essential, and the staff involved in the project is paramount. While no two companies are truly alike, the need for easy-to-use and reliable communication tools has become a common theme across all industries. And with the right preparation, the chances of adoption and the effectiveness of the system become a real solution, perfectly tailored to your company.
There is not necessarily a “best” software solution when it comes to these. It’s more about what best fits your environment. That’s the beauty of many cloud-based contact centers today, as they offer several options to companies.
Can agents view presence status, and have direct access to click-to-dial, transfer, or conference with the expert? Evaluate the key features and functionality of each of the solutions to ensure your contact center can perform the actions you need to take full advantage of unified communications integration.
As you begin the evaluation process, look for ways in which your contact center and unified communications solution provider are the same, or at least partners. Although contact center and unified communications solutions are two different things, they should act as one to meet your needs. For example, Enghouse Interactive solutions integrate with Microsoft Teams or Enghouse Connect, the in-house solution.
If you require consulting to implement UC, click here.
