Over the previous few months, I’ve had the pleasure of working with Will McKeon-White on a report that appears at the advantages and challenges associated to bringing Unified Communications (UC) and Contact Middle (CC) options collectively. The results of this work is our new report: Come Collectively: Combining UCaaS And CCaaS Unlocks New Buyer Worth.  My favourite factor we uncovered in our analysis is a use case the place manufacturers use the shared UC and CC infrastructure to blur the traces between distant workplaces and a centralized contact heart, leading to higher buyer experiences and extra environment friendly customer support.

Right here is how this might work for me. I’ve State Farm insurance coverage, however I don’t name State Farm’s 800 quantity. I name Mimi, my native agent. If she or her administrator are within the workplace, they may reply; if nobody is there I’ll depart a voicemail (bear in mind voicemail?) and they’ll name me again. That is how issues have labored for years, however it’s not optimum for both the shopper or the enterprise. In case your UC and CC methods are tightly built-in, it’s straightforward to do one thing significantly better.

I all the time need to get a reside particular person after I name. If nobody is offered in Mimi’s workplace I’d be blissful to speak to another person at State Farm if they’re able to assist me resolve my problem. With UC and CC collectively, it’s easy to ahead my name to the contact heart when nobody is within the native workplace. If I need to arrange a tee time for golf with Mimi, I’ll have to be transferred again to voicemail. If I’ve a query on protection, or charges, or the standing of a declare, the contact heart can reply these questions. Forwarding these calls to the contact heart can occur seamlessly with out the shopper even being conscious that it occurred. From my perspective as a buyer, I simply obtained somebody from the workplace who has the reply at their fingertips. For the model, they will present buyer experiences that enhance loyalty and assist their brokers deal with promoting insurance coverage.

This permits manufacturers to construct native, excessive contact relationships at a scale that solely a contact heart can present.

Let’s discuss dentists for a second. RingCentral buyer Heartland Dental offers providers for his or her dentists that embody their telephony infrastructure. When somebody calls the dentist’s workplace, they may reply if they will. If nobody solutions, the decision will roll over to a centralized contact heart the place an appointment could be scheduled, or common questions could be requested. The affected person simply thinks they’re speaking to somebody within the workplace and will get their enterprise finished.

What impresses me probably the most about Heartland’s strategy is the knowledge they create to their guidelines for when to ahead to the contact heart. When a affected person calls, they anticipate six rings after which the decision will go to the contact heart. In the event that they consider the particular person calling is a prospect, an unanswered name forwards after solely 4 rings. Why? As a result of Heartland is aware of that the majority people who find themselves searching for a brand new dentist will go together with the primary one which solutions their name, and so they need to be sure that they’re the primary to reply.

This can be a use case the place each the model and the shopper profit. I’ve seen it work at surgical procedure facilities, automobile dealerships, and a number of other different companies. This type of hand-off is second nature to deployments the place UC and CC are tightly built-in, and really tough to do cheaply when handing off between separate providers. Whereas this is only one of many use circumstances which might be highlighted in our report, it’s one that doesn’t get the visibility it deserves and is one thing that many manufacturers and their clients may gain advantage from.