Call Center
The Future of Unified Communications for Contact Centers
As businesses feel increasing pressure to improve the efficiency of their contact centers, it is imperative that they employ unified communications. For those who are not familiar, unified communications is the process of integrating today’s broad range of advanced tools, technologies and applications to create real-time unified messaging to communicate with consumers.
The elements of unified communications include messaging options such as fax, email, voicemail, text messaging, instant messaging, predictive dialer, presence technology, conferencing and voice over internet protocol (VOIP). The purpose of creating a unified communications system is to build and maintain good relationships with customers which fosters long-term customer loyalty and is the foundation of successful businesses.
The Growth of Unified Communications
Companies must remember that every interaction with a customer contributes in some way toward the overall customer relationship. Using unified communications can bring organizations a number of benefits including enhanced teamwork and streamlined operations. According to a report from Transparency Marketing Research, the market for unified communications is expected to reach $61.9 billion by 2018. Keep up with the changing workplace by utilizing the following tips and insights.
- Embrace new ways of communicating by investing in platforms that offer flexible options such as voice, video, email, collaboration tools and cloud solutions.
- Fully integrate unified communications solutions with workforce optimization.
- Utilize programs like Microsoft Lync which use unified communications to give people the power to collaborate more efficiently. For example, Lync equips employees with collaborative tools such as instant messaging. Having a common communications platform along with the tools to instantly communicate with team members gives people a more efficient way to communicate and allows them to work remotely or via mobile devices. These effective tools have been shown to increase productivity.
- Use cloud-based social customer service platforms that will create flexibility that will improve the customer experience by offering consumers more efficient solutions when they need them.
- Data also plays a huge role in successfully utilizing unified communications. Use data analytics to extract relevant concepts and build unique strategies to optimize your unified communication system.
Michael Finneran, President of dBrn Associates, wrote an article on the Webtorial website stating that he believes unified communications tools will become even more seamless so that users will need to take as few steps as possible to incorporate communications into any service or function they need. With the right advanced unified communications infrastructure in place, any business can see a wide range of benefits 
such as increased productivity and efficiency which can ultimately lead to increased profits. As more customers and businesses begin utilizing new technology such as smartphones and tablets, companies must deploy unified communications tactics to keep up with these profitable trends. Stay ahead of the curve by transforming your relationships with your customers through advanced unified communications.
Want more on call center software? Browse additional blog posts, product reviews and top 10 reports using Business-Software.com’s call center resource page.
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Mitch Perkal
Expert in CRM, Cloud Computing, Social Media Management and Call Centers
