There are a lot of contact center providers who promise the moon, sun and stars in the contact center they sell you, but can they support it? Do they have the expertise needed to implement it and configure it so you are able to leverage every feature it includes?
No matter how fancy the contact center, if your vendor can’t set it up properly, it’s not going to do what you need it to.
Many contact center vendors won’t support your system, can’t guide you on the different features and how they can help improve your operations, and don’t have the expertise needed to do more than sell it. In fact, many communications vendors don’t sell contact centers because they don’t know enough about them. There are those unscrupulous few who sell you on features and benefits but don’t know how to implement them.
5 Signs of a Good Contact Center Provider
1. Experienced with contact centers
Not all communications providers are experts at implementing and supporting contact centers. Ask them about the different contact center solutions they’ve sold, installed and support. If they are few and far between, they do not have enough experience to handle the technical curveballs that can arise with installation and configuration.
They also won’t be able to help you streamline and optimize your contact center system to operate at maximum efficiency or configure the contact center so that you can take full advantage of the features it offers.
2. They offer support
Your contact center is likely a major source of income. There is safety in having a supportive partner who is there for the long haul. Contact centers are complex systems with a lot riding on their successful deployment and ongoing functionality. Your vendor should offer both remote and onsite support after the installation so that, if you experience any challenges, you have someone to talk to and can get a resolution quickly.
Also ensure that they have continuity on their staff. How many people on staff know your contact center? Gregg Communications has taken over contact center support contracts from other ShoreTel (now Mitel) vendors because they had only one certified technician and that individual left the company, leaving all of their contact centers unsupported. With eight technicians fully certified on ShoreTel contact center products, we’ve been able to offer our clients long-term expert support.
3. Can configure and explain different features
All the automation features, reporting functions, routing and self-service options won’t work if they’re not configured correctly. Many vendors don’t do any of the configurations during the installation, and they don’t have the expertise to advise you on which features are best for your organization or how to access the features you need while staying in your budget.
“Having grown over 85 years to one of the nation’s leading florists, we needed a state-of-the-art communications system. ShoreTel improved our handling of customer calls into the Contact Center, gave our distribution center and ten Chicago-area branches uniform station equipment for the varying needs of our users, and added far more features than our previous systems at a lower monthly cost.”
— Jim Phillip, Chairman & CIO, Phillip's/1-800-FLORALS
4. Work to keep you running at peak efficiency
The demands placed on your contact center will change frequently, and it takes someone with the knowledge and skill to ensure that the system can not only keep up but is performing flawlessly. We review contact center reports with our clients, explaining what the reports mean to their productivity and bottom line, and offer recommendations to improve.
For example, we worked with a Dallas contact center and their management did not want to use an auto-connect feature that we recommended. We recommended it to eliminate the agent delay in answering a call. We were able to configure it for a one-month trial period and showed them that it eliminated 12 seconds of response time. We helped them do the math: their 800 calls per day x 12 seconds = 2 hours and 40 minutes of more productivity per day.
5. Can help you evolve as your needs change
Contact center is a process, not an end result. Your partner needs to be capable of helping you grow and evolve as a contact center organization. That means they have the flexibility to offer different contact center solutions and have enough insight into your organization’s needs to make recommendations and support your initiatives.
We recently upgraded a contact center for one financial services organization and it helped them triple their growth in the last 2-3 years. As they grew, their vendor was unable to support their system, so we took on their support and helped them navigate a network update. These are normal activities with growth and the evolution of your organization. Your provider needs to be able to keep up.
Gregg Communications has been implementing and supporting contact centers since the early 1980s. We have unmatched expertise and experience. Contact a Gregg expert online or call 630-706-8222. Let’s talk.