Customer experience is essential. The world of business is ever changing, but this remains the same. If you can consistently provide a great customer experience, everything else falls into place.

Your reputation will spread through word of mouth. Online reviews will praise you, bringing new business with them. Customer retention will happen naturally through the loyalty your service creates.

Poor customer experience will have the opposite effect, driving customers to your competitors. In the age of public online reviews, this is especially damaging – and even more so in these times of economic uncertainty. So, customer experience matters a great deal, and in this post, we are explaining how technology can help you deliver it.

The importance of the phone call

Many of your customer interactions may be face to face, but the phone call is still key to delivering great service. Customers expect efficiency and minimal waiting times, but they also expect friendly service from well-trained individuals. Your communications system is critical to delivering the right balance.

iPECS Cloud

iPECS Cloud is a unified communications (UC) solution from the globally trusted Ericsson-LG Enterprise. It delivers voice, video and instant messaging over the cloud, alongside options such as email integration.

This makes it a powerful, versatile communication and collaboration platform that is accessible on any device, anywhere. These cutting-edge multi-channel communication features can support your organization in all sorts of ways, which we have discussed . However, our focus here is on how iPECS Cloud helps deliver a business essential that never changes: the need for great customer experience on the phone.

Efficient call routing

First, the basics matter. When people call you, they expect a clear customer journey that ends in talking to someone who can help. It sounds simple, but many businesses do struggle to maintain this standard. This leads to frustrated customers, and reduced efficiency due to time wasted on misdirected calls. iPECS Cloud makes it easy to get this right.

First, the IVR is exceptionally easy to configure. Since it is a cloud solution, this can be achieved remotely and fast. The same is true of skills-based ACD and hunt groups. These features ensure that calls are queued to the correct agents, so that customers end up in the right place. With iPECS Cloud, you can create and configure these on an online portal with a few clicks, making it a highly efficient, easily manageable way to direct customers to the right place.

Smarter call handling features

If you do need to transfer callers or put them on hold, iPECS Cloud makes this easy, with advanced call handling features that allow agents to act with confidence and efficiency. There is even the option of a softphone, which allows you do handle calls over a laptop or desktop. This makes call handling even easier and more efficient.

Here, iPECS Cloud’s UC features also help. Each user has a presence setting which displays their availability in real time. If you need to transfer a call to someone specific, or simply double-check something while a caller is on hold, this removes the guesswork. You can see immediately whether they are available. Thanks to the iPECS ONE app, you can also reach them on their cell phone if they are out of the office. These features may save a few seconds per call, but those seconds add up to enable you to connect with more customers faster. This is a big boost to customer experience.

Minimize waiting times using iPECS Analytics

iPECS Cloud’s call handling and routing features make you more efficient. Customers need this. Ultimately, a great customer experience will always be undermined by excessive call waiting times. The optional iPECS Analytics module is the perfect solution.

iPECS Analytics delivers smart, easy-to-read reports into all your call-related KPIs including missed calls, waiting times and more. As well as scheduled reports, it offers live wallboards to display performance in real time.

These insights allow you to make better, smarter, evidence-based decisions about how you identify weaknesses, highlight successes, and manage your resources. That way, you can ensure that waiting times are optimized for the best possible customer service.

Improve quality with call recording

Efficiency is essential when delivering for customers, but our final point is arguably more important. Your customers will appreciate efficiency, but what about quality assurance? Your team needs to get the details right, and demonstrate great soft skills and build rapport. These are the qualities that make customers happy, rather than merely satisfied. iPECS delivers here too.

Our call recording module is a great solution for quality assurance, and making sure every call matters. First, you can use this for the regular sampling of individual agents to identify areas that may require improvement. iPECS call recording allows you to sample calls randomly, making this process fairer. When you identify great calls, you can use them for training new recruits on best practice.

It is also a great solution for complaint handling. Complaints are unavoidable, but handling them well can turn this unfortunate scenario into a success. It is an opportunity to show that you care – and with call recording, you can access past calls and demonstrate transparency to the customer.

Our call recording module is fully cloud-based, allowing you to access calls from anywhere in a searchable database. Not only does it help you maximize quality, but it is easy and efficient to use.

iPECS Cloud: Your communication solution

iPECS Cloud is a powerful tool for many reasons, including its collaboration and remote working features. However, it is equally powerful when it comes to delivering on more traditional needs. Customer experience will always matter, so your business must always deliver. iPECS Cloud is the solution that makes this possible.

To find out more, contact your regional Ericsson-LG Enterprise partner.