By
Nick Andrews
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Date Published: July 27, 2022 - Last Updated July 22, 2022
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Comments
Contact centers face a myriad of challenges today, including consumer call avoidance behavior, rising agent attrition rates, declining productivity, and difficulty hitting targets. Because of this, contact centers are turning to innovative technology solutions like branded communication to help overcome these challenges. This technology allows companies to brand calls with a logo, company name, department and reason for calling, all which can be displayed on incoming call screens at the time of the call and in the call log afterward.
By creating the trusted human connections consumers want, this technology has the potential to help contact centers increase customer engagement, improve agent experience, and boost productivity and conversions.
Here’s why:
Customer engagement
Contact centers making outbound calls for sales or lead qualification face the challenges of telecom carriers blocking or marking calls as potential spam and consumer call avoidance behavior when an unknown number pops up. Research shows that nearly 90% of people won’t answer a call from an unknown number.
Branded communication technology can bring a new level of transparency to the voice channel, making consumers comfortable answering their phones again. When companies can display their reason for calling, consumers will engage with them at a much higher rate, potentially creating an uplift in every phase of the buyer/customer journey.
Agent experience
Contact centers struggle with hiring and retaining staff. Those challenges worsened during the Great Resignation. A study conducted last year found that the average rate of agent turnover reached 58%.
This is another area where branded communication could have an impact, making agents happier and improving their job satisfaction. Consider that when consumers do answer a call from an unknown number, they are often skeptical and guarded. This introduces a lot of friction to interactions. With branded communication, consumers know who is calling and why, which helps calls go smoother and easier for agents.
When it comes to enhancing agent experience, the technology can also help determine what times and days are better to reach consumers and cut down on the number of dials it takes for agents to finally connect with a consumer. When agents are supported by technology that can raise the bar on efficiency and productivity, their job satisfaction increases.
Productivity and conversions
Contact centers are under pressure to increase internal productivity and reduce operational overhead. Branded communication technology can help contact centers achieve these business metrics. When agents are not spending time making repeated calls, they are able to boost their productivity.
Customers who know who's calling are more prepared to have a meaningful conversation with agents when they answer, which leads to more completed forms and applications, added upsell opportunities, and fewer games of phone tag.