Must Have Features for Contact Centers

By Charron Conley
Updated: February 21, 2011

Contact center solutions are distinctive in that they must feature customer care along with capabilities that enhance agent's jobs. There are a number of functionalities that go along with phone systems, but knowing which ones will best serve specific call centers is important. Contact centers have so many multifaceted purposes. Call center features for phone systems offer businesses unique benefits that increase positive customer experiences and agent implementations as well as save money and improve ROI. Here are some of the latest must-have features seen in contact centers:

Routing Capabilities

An IVR (Interactive Voice Response) walks callers through self-service applications. This saves time and costs getting customers to the best agent. Also, IVR can help collect caller information and help them figure out what they need through an automated service. This feature is extremely beneficial in contact centers allowing the agents to get right to the customer’s needs rather than having to transfer multiple times.

Built in real time statistics

In any contact centers, there is extensive date and information that needs to be monitored. Having features that allow built-in real time statistics can help track date more effectively. Real time statistics can built right into the software. This assists the employees in viewing and administering the displayed data in real time. With this software, deadlines can be easily met and management is able to monitor what is going on, and potentially fix any problems in several different locations without any time delay.

Quality monitoring capability 

Having quality monitoring software is key to a contact center. Having several ways to monitor agents will help supervisors keep track of past records of the interactions between the call center agents. There is also a feature for caller review. This allows the customer to rate the quality and helpfulness of the agents.

Call Recording

With increasing guidelines from government regulations pertaining to contact centers it helps to have a clear record of calls. This protects companies form any false accusations of not following guidelines. Availability of recorded data can be used to argue resolution and offer security against fines and legal costs. Recording calls also helps for training purposes. New agents can listen to correct and incorrect call handlings to further understand their objectives.

Script & Call Flow Designer 

Whether a call center is used for IT support or banking, there are scripts that can help agents with their calls. For each different type of business, the process of collecting, establishing and distributing information varies. The challenge is to understand requirements for each subdivision of the company and designing a customized script for the agents. With this feature, an agent can easily be reminded on their screen of essential points and questions that need to be addressed in order to have the utmost success in customer service.