Transform Your Call Center Into a Contact Center

By Jeff Valentine, CEO, Callfinity. As published in the November 2009 issue of Call Center Times, page 12.

Whether you’re a fan of the original Transformers™ cartoons and toys or the new CGI adventure, there’s no questioning the obsession many of us have with these giant robots that transform into sleek vehicles. Although the premise of Transformers may be a bit of a stretch, the fascination with robots performing multiple functions is pretty justifiable.

Everyday life transforms, technology evolves...

... and businesses struggle to stay ahead of the competition. Transformation is essential to survival, whether you’re an Autobot trying to blend in with the humans or a corporation trying to stay in touch with its customer base.

Since the dawn of the internet, the telecommunications industry has been transforming. The way that businesses can keep in touch with their customers has evolved into a combination of phone calls, email, live chat, and fax.

Although your call center may be equipped to handle multiple communication methods, coordinating these efforts requires an ACD that can prioritize your business efforts on the fly.

Contact center agents can reach out to customers

By transforming your call center into a contact center, your customers can get a hold of your agents no matter what their desired communication method. Better yet, contact center agents can reach out to customers at a moment’s notice via email, phone, or live chat.

With cell phone customers upgrading their T9 keypads for iPhones™ and BlackBerries™ with wireless web access, failing to keep multiple communication channels open can mean the difference between a customer for life and a former client.

Making the jump with Universal Queuing

If you’re contemplating the jump from call center to contact center, Callfinity’s ContextACD™ has everything you need. ContextACD’s standards-based modular design interfaces with any PBX transforming your business into a customer communication hub. Traditional ACD features like configurable timeouts, customizable hold treatment, and whisper announcements have been combined with queuing support for telephone calls, web chats, emails, faxes, and voicemails.

This combination of queuing is called Universal Queuing™, and it's a Callfinity "first."

Universal queuing allows contact center managers to create specific priorities for each agent. When an agent logs in (from any location, even their homes), that agent's assigned priorities determine which call, chat, email, fax, or voicemail they are assigned. Once the task has been assigned, ContextACD provides a screen pop up to the agent using a standard web browser.

Combined solution for recording

To further help businesses maintain a consistent communication center, ContextACD can be combined with Callfinity’s ContextRecorder™ to record phone calls, live chat, screen activity - basically anything an agent is working on. This technology allows administrators to effectively train employees across multiple communication platforms using real-world examples.

We may be a long way from shape shifting robots, but it would be foolish to ignore technology’s hair trigger.

Computers are outdated the second they hit the shelves, so just imagine how much your industry changes during your morning rush hour commute.

In order to keep your business ahead of the curve, your contact center needs to be able to distribute and organize live chat, email, fax, and phone.