6 Ways Contact Center Technology Helps Small Businesses Grow Faster

Contact Center as a Service (CCaaS) is a cloud-based customer service solution that enables customer conversations across multiple communication channels from a single interface. The best customer service software is scalable. It allows your small team to maintain an excellent customer experience as you add new support options, like live chat, SMS, and 24/7 phone support. 

CCaaS software offers customer service capabilities normally reserved for enterprise companies, including access to customer insights, team collaboration tools, and automation. While deciding to invest in contact center software for your small business is a big decision, it’s one of the best ways you can acquire new customers and build loyalty with the customers you already have. 

Instead of piecing together several customer support software systems that don’t communicate with each other, consider a customer service solution that merges the entire customer journey into a single, easy-to-use interface. 

Let’s explore six ways modern CCaaS solutions solve problems for small business owners and their customers:

Benefit 1: Expand your business and customer loyalty

There's a good chance you've altered your business operations or diversified your revenue streams to deal with recent economic challenges. According to the UPS Store Inside Small Business Survey, 38% of respondents "indicated they made operational changes, such as selling new or different products/services, selling online, offering curbside pickup and/or delivery, or closing one or more locations."

Adding sales channels or services can result in an onslaught of customer inquiries across messaging and social media platforms. As a result, your customer support team may struggle to manage customer conversations. A robust CCaaS platform provides a service hub for customer interactions, allowing you to expand your business without deploying additional software systems.

Benefit 2: Increase customer satisfaction across multiple channels

Salesforce recently reported that nearly half of growing SMBs state they have increased the ways customers can reach them and are more thoughtful about how they communicate with their customers. Adding new communication platforms can better connect you with clients. The best customer service software for small business owners puts the latest technologies and real-time data at your fingertips. 

Suppose you currently offer phone support or use a ticketing system. In that case, you may want to explore live chat, self-service options, and in-app support software. Each channel aids your customer service reps by giving them access to customer data and letting them seamlessly switch between channels during a conversation. 

CCaaS provides advanced reporting and analytics tools for your multi-channel support services. You can also collect satisfaction surveys during interactions across all channels. That gives your company customer insights without requiring clients to change platforms or invest a lot of time. 

Benefit 3: Leverage integrated small business customer service software

According to Salesforce's Small and Medium Business Trends Report, 53% of SMBs use customer service software, and 56% have customer relationship management (CRM) tools. However, they're often using one or more services to add phone support, live chat, help desk software, and customer self-service tools. 

A unified customer service platform for small businesses can replace or improve current help desk programs. It also integrates communication tools with business software, giving you one source of customer data and insights. Contact center software integrations build efficiencies into workflows by automating cross-platform information gathering and reporting. 

Benefit 4: Attract and retain customer service reps

Although 59.8% of Small Business Pulse Survey respondents haven't seen much change in their number of employees, another 30.5% saw a moderate to significant decrease. These small businesses must make do with fewer customer service teams — and that's where CCaaS can make a difference. Your CCaaS solution helps onboard new agents quickly and provides tools that improve agent experiences.

Integrated small business customer support systems sync with your workforce management and optimization programs. Supervisors can easily monitor performance metrics and call volume details, quickly identifying training opportunities while accurately scheduling agents. 

You can also use tools like Agent Assist to support your representatives and reduce busywork. It analyzes customer sentiment in real-time and recommends FAQ answers or knowledge-based articles agents can use to assist clients. The user-friendly dashboard lets employees quickly reach out to a supervisor without alerting the customer.

Benefit 5: Overcome customer engagement challenges

In 2021, according to Salesforce, small businesses prioritized "bringing innovative offerings to market," "keeping up with demand," and "personalizing customer engagements." However, entrepreneurs ranked "responding to customer inquiries quickly" higher than the previous year. As SMBs focus on accurate, personalized, speedy service, customer service software will play a critical role. 

Modern CCaaS solutions engage users by supporting them on their preferred channel. When your client communicates with a live or virtual agent, your small business customer service tools go into action. Conversational artificial intelligence (AI) tools, such as virtual agents and voice IVR allow human-like interactions instead of robotic menu selections.

Likewise, UJET's SmartActions collects information before and during calls to reduce repetitive questioning and ensure faster resolutions. The combination of responsive chatbots and intelligent routing satisfies a customer's need for swift, personalized service. They can also engage with your team using the smartphone already in their hands.

Benefit 6: Improve customer service team productivity

Salesforce's Small and Medium Business Trends Report finds that 51% of growing SMBs accelerated customer service technology investments in 2021 compared to 32% of stagnant or declining companies. In addition, 62% were motivated by the potential to increase productivity. 

CCaaS platforms let you build efficient workflows using pre-session SmartActions and built-in team collaboration tools while ensuring your CCaaS can exchange data in real-time with your CRM. And automation capabilities, such as customer ticket management, reduce after-call work (ACW). 

How to find the right customer service platform for small businesses

Delivering customer support can be challenging for small businesses as clients shift to different channels. CCaaS blends each new channel smoothly into an easy-to-use interface, allowing customer service reps to maintain high-quality interactions as volume increases. Explore UJET's CCaaS 3.0 and learn how to leverage it to achieve your goals and scale your company efficiently, and learn more about UJET's best SMB contact center package.