The last couple of years have had a massive impact on the contact centre landscape. The influence of the pandemic has been phenomenal, pushing more customers to interact with companies online in search of faster, more convenient, and safer transactions.
Since 2020, we’ve seen a significant increase in everything from digital self-service to video conferencing. The changing landscape has also given way to a new kind of contact centre – an environment built for collaboration and employee experience within Microsoft Teams.
Today, we’re focusing specifically on the patterns and trends driving the evolution of the Microsoft Teams contact centre in 2022 and beyond.
1. Rapid Cloud Adoption
The pandemic proved contact centres without a cloud strategy simply couldn’t survive long-term. For business continuity, organisations need to invest in flexible, scalable technology systems, which work in any environment. CCaaS, or cloud contact centres as a service, have emerged as the ultimate solution to this growing need for agility.
The Microsoft Teams contact centre is the perfect solution for companies in search of flexible, cloud-based opportunities. Not only can companies access Microsoft Teams through the cloud via a range of partners, but they can access a highly flexible environment too, capable of adapting to suit their needs. Microsoft Teams’ open landscape is ideal at a time when companies are rapidly connecting multiple components of UCaaS, CCaaS, and CPaaS in one unified environment.
With the right Microsoft Teams cloud partner, you can build the hybrid or cloud-based environment you need for both the contact centre and your business phone strategy. Your vendor will help you to plan the ultimate migration into the cloud, based on your existing technology, your future needs for innovation, and your budget.
2. Agent Experience
“Customer Experience” has been the central focus of the contact centre for several years now. However, it’s only recently that companies have begun to recognize how important employee or agent experience is to ensure a good CX. If employees aren’t engaged and empowered by the tools available to them in the contact centre, they can’t deliver amazing customer interactions.
Bringing the contact centre into Microsoft Teams allows business leaders to create a more convenient and comfortable experience for employees. Agents can access the tools they need to interact with colleagues and customers in the same place. What’s more, many vendors working with Microsoft Teams contact centres also strive to provide the same consistent experience across multiple devices.
With access to custom integrations and APIs, your Microsoft Teams contact centre vendor can even build all of the tools you need to keep your teams productive into one single pane of glass. Fewer apps to jump between will instantly make your teams more productive while improving the overall experience in today’s age of remote and flexible work. It also makes it easier for business leaders to track data and knowledge flowing through the workforce.
3. Video in the Contact Centre
During the last couple of years, countless companies have discovered how valuable video is to improving collaboration and communication between team members. Video conferencing has emerged as the go-to method for keeping staff connected. However, this medium is valuable for more than just internal communications.
In many customer service environments, video can also enable more immersive and meaningful experiences for clients too. Video in the contact centre can help to bring context and engagement to the process of taking a client through complex issues or helping them to solve various problems.