For many companies, Microsoft Teams has officially emerged as the ultimate solution for unified communications. Capable of aligning, empowering, and informing employees all over the world, Microsoft Teams offers an agile environment for over 270 million monthly active users.
As companies continue to increase their focus on customer experience as the main differentiator for any modern brand, we’re also discovering the benefits of aligning internal and external communication tools.
For companies already leveraging Microsoft Teams as the ultimate tool for teamwork and knowledge sharing, it also makes sense to implement contact centre functionality too. The flexible nature of the Teams ecosystem means companies can work with certified partners to build all the capabilities of a modern contact centre; into the software, their workforce already uses every day.
So, why would your business consider a Microsoft Teams contact centre?
Microsoft Teams vs Traditional Contact Centres
In a world of hybrid, remote, and flexible working arrangements, companies are increasingly relying on cloud-based workplace “hubs” to unify their employees. The workplace has evolved into a digital environment, where team members can share content, send messages, arrange video calls, and track knowledge over the web.
Microsoft offers one of the most popular hub environments of all with Microsoft Teams – a solution which seamlessly integrates with the Microsoft Office productivity suite used by over 1 billion people worldwide. For countless companies already using Microsoft tools, Teams represents a natural solution for collaboration and communication in an existing productivity suite.
Now, the ability to integrate contact centre functionality through direct routing capabilities means brands can access internal collaboration and tools for customer service in the same place. A Teams contact centre, therefore, goes beyond the basics of a traditional IT environment, by bringing CX solutions straight into your agents’ existing working environment.
With Microsoft Teams contact centres, you can build agent capabilities into the heart of your overall communication and collaboration strategy, aligning team members, information, and processes, for a more streamlined approach to CX.
All the while, you have access to unlimited tools for enhancing your contact centre operations, from native integrations with CRM systems like Microsoft Dynamics, to apps and add-ons in the AppSource store. Companies can even work with innovators to build unique apps for their Teams instance using the Power Apps ecosystem.
The Benefits of a Microsoft Teams Contact Centre
With Microsoft Teams as both your UC solution and Contact Centre, companies can leverage the full benefits of a truly aligned cloud communication environment. You can bring your UCaaS and CCaaS systems to the same landscape, to synergise and synchronise team members wherever they are.
A Microsoft Teams contact centre built into your existing deployment with the help of a certified Microsoft Partner can deliver benefits like:
- Aligned cloud environments: Aligning UCaaS and CCaaS helps to unify your team members and ensure a better flow of information between staff. The right system will allow your employees to work more effectively together to solve customer problems. What’s more, agents will be able to get more of the subject matter expert support they need at speed.
- Cost savings: Aligning UC and Contact Centre environments can also help you to save money with a single environment to keep track of and maintain. The right partner can even deliver value-added services to manage maintenance for you.
- Productivity: With the right partner, you can build a contact centre environment into Microsoft Teams which synchronizes all of the apps and tools your team members use on a daily basis. This leads to a single pane of glass environment for your staff to access everything they need for productivity and performance.
- Flexibility: With a Microsoft Teams Contact Centre based in the cloud, you can instantly and easily scale your operations up and down to suit your service demand levels. You’ll be able to bring new team members on board, provision contact centre functionality to staff members in remote locations and more, all with a high level of security.
- Instant innovation: The flexible nature of the Microsoft Teams environment means you can easily add new channels and features to your contact centre solutions without a huge amount of initial investment. You can create bespoke workflows with automation tools, access real-time and historical reporting, and implement skills-based routing, all to enhance the most important metrics you’re tracking for your team.
- Reduced training: If you’re already using Microsoft Teams for UCaaS functionality and collaboration, you’re not going to have to introduce as much training to bring your team members up-to-speed on using the same tool for your contact centre functionality. This means you can get your workforce up and running in a new environment much faster.
Depending on the vendor you choose to work with, you can also choose from a range of deployment options, from using contact centre functionality alongside Microsoft calling plans, to leveraging cloud-native direct routing or building a comprehensive hybrid environment.
Finding the Right Partner for Microsoft Teams Contact Centres
Crucially, while a Microsoft Teams Contact Centre can have a number of valuable benefits to offer, the technology will always perform best when delivered by the right partner. Microsoft helps brands to differentiate the best partners for their contact centre solutions from the rest with certification and partnerships. Companies like Resonate, as well as being partners with Microsoft, are certified by leading Contact Centre vendors to deliver Teams Contact Centre solutions.
A company certified by leading Teams contact Centre Vendors vendor will be able to advise on the best approach and solution for building comprehensive contact centre functionality into your Teams environment based on the needs of your users, looking at everything from skills-based routing to state-of-the-art reporting. When you use an experienced partner you get:
- Intelligent features: Certified vendors use their deep knowledge of the Microsoft ecosystem to implement advanced and intelligent features into your Teams contact centre. This can include features like smart routing, reporting capabilities, and compliance recording.
- Attendant consoles: A certified vendor will provide Attendant console functionality, so you can professionally and efficiently transfer your callers to the right people. This capability improves the experience of callers and employees at the same time, to improve all-around business outcomes.
- Regulatory compliance: Your vendor will help to ensure you can remain compliant with all of the legal and regulatory obligations in your industry, including the ability to record and store communications for specific periods of time.
In today’s increasingly flexible and ever-changing environment, it’s important to have a contact centre solution in place that’s agile enough for your business. Microsoft Teams can offer the innovative and forward-thinking solution today’s businesses need, but only when you deploy your ecosystem correctly.
Reach out to Resonate today to find out how we can help you build the ultimate contact centre experience into Teams as a certified vendor.
