Customer experience (CX) stretches beyond the walls of the contact center

The role of customer service continues to stretch beyond the walls of the contact center. Every day, we see more back-office employees, as well as other members of the organization, playing key roles in support of customers at every step of their journey. Therefore, contact center agents must be able to easily interact with the rest of the organization to deliver consistent, seamless, and frictionless customer experiences.

Picture this: you’re on the phone with a contact center agent who has just determined that in order to resolve your issue, they will need to put you on hold in order to connect with “someone else” who most likely does not work within the contact center. Worst case, the agent tells you to call another number to contact said department. We’ve all been there.

Ensure faster resolution with SMEs outside the contact center

Fortunately, there is a better way. Imagine that, instead of passing you off and forcing you to start all over again, the agent was able to chat with that department directly or conference them in to help resolve your issue quickly. You would be over the moon! That business went above and beyond to ensure faster issue resolution because they value your time and your business.

For the most part, agents are well equipped to navigate customer interactions with purpose-built solutions for the contact center. But when a customer’s inquiry goes beyond the agent’s knowledge, the customer is forced into a frustrating position of having to find expertise outside the contact center on their own. In the new work-from-anywhere contact center world, cubicle walls have come down, but siloed communication walls are higher than ever.

Working remotely means agents can’t lean over and ask a teammate for help. And it’s awkward and bad for customer experience to direct a customer elsewhere.

8x8 Contact Center Certified for Microsoft Teams

8x8 Contact Center, a certified solution by Microsoft Teams, delivers customer experience excellence in a way that is just not possible with a Teams-only solution. Now your agents have access to a complete contact center solution, fully integrated with Microsoft Teams, that provides presence and access to subject matter experts outside of the contact center.

At 8x8 our Agent Workspace helps streamline these workflows. 8x8 Agent Workspace is a design-led agent interface that provides a single pane of glass for interaction handling. It presents context across channels for faster, personalized CX.

With 8x8 Contact Center for Microsoft Teams you can:

Improve CSAT by connecting agents to the rest of the organization

  • Reduce friction. Customers are no longer dismissed or told to contact a different department if / when the agent did not have an answer
  • Differentiate through white glove service. Customers feel that extra steps were taken to ensure issues were resolved, making them feel prioritized in the eyes of the business

Improve agent empowerment and engagement

  • Increase communication and collaboration. Agents feel connected to the larger organization, which is critical in the new operate from anywhere environment
  • Simplify onboarding. Agent Workspace requires minimal training time and is easy to use right out of the gates
  • Retain more agents. Agents more effectively service customers, reducing frustration and increasing overall job satisfaction

Improve CX through shared ownership of the customer

  • Speed resolution. Teamwork and collaboration between agents and employees reinforces customer-first culture and mentality
  • Increase visibility and transparency. Key stakeholders gain better understanding of customer experience to identify opportunities for improvement

Contact center leaders know that the interactions that happen between agents and customers are essential to overall customer satisfaction, retention, and growth. But in order to be truly successful as consumer demands evolve and the nature of customer inquiries can go beyond the walls of the contact center, agents must be connected with the larger organization. With 8x8 Contact Center for Microsoft Teams, contact center leaders can transform their organization to break down communication silos and open up a wealth of opportunities.

Let’s team up to launch your contact center towards better customer experience, better productivity, and better connection with the rest of the organization through Microsoft Teams.