How to Make the Most of Your Contact Center During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Society today is in a unique position as a result of the current COVID-19 pandemic. Individuals and businesses everywhere are facing much uncertainty regarding the current circumstances, how long they will last, and what exactly the long-term impacts will be.

Fortunately, your organization’s contact center can be a great tool for making the situation a little easier for you and your customers. Read on to learn how you can make the most of your contact center during these uncertain times.

1. Update your broadcast messages. Public health guidelines and restrictions relating to self-isolation are changing every day. These changes mean that the way your business operates is changing, too. You may be reducing your hours of service, temporarily closing some of your brick and mortar locations, or making some other changes specific to your company. No matter what changes you make, keep your customers informed by updating your broadcast messages to reflect these changes.
   
2. Have your employees connect to your contact center from home. One of the best ways for people to stay safe and healthy during this pandemic is to stay home and avoid being in close proximity to other people. These precautionary measures mean that employees should be working from home if possible. In the case of your ice contact center agents, there are numerous ways that they can log in and handle contacts from home. Whether they choose to bring their work computer home, download iceBar onto their personal computer, or use a download-free online version of iceBar, your employees have the flexibility to connect from anywhere, allowing them to do their jobs safely.
   
3. Increase user capacity. One of the side effects of all the uncertainties we’re facing is an increase in customer inquiries about their accounts, operational changes within businesses, and more. Contact centers everywhere are seeing significant increases in interaction volumes. Make sure your organization is prepared by adding capacity so that you can handle more interactions at any given time.
   
4. Add new modalities. Show your customers that you’re here for them during this difficult time by enabling them to reach you in the way that is most convenient for them. By adding modalities such as email, IM, SMS, or social media messages, you can provide your customers with easier access to assistance and enhance customer loyalty as a result.
   
5. Add a chatbot to handle frequently asked questions. Many of the questions your customers are asking right now may be very similar in nature. Let a natural language chatbot handle those so your agents can save time for questions that require human support, ultimately increasing efficiency and allowing your organization to handle more contacts in less time, keeping your customers and your employees happy.

For more information on how to implement these changes on with your contact center during the COVID-19 pandemic, check out ComputerTalk’s recent blog post or reach out to our team today.