With the evolution of cloud services, integration is the answer to all problems. The integration of applications results in better efficiency and integration of platforms results in reduced costs.
Hence to achieve improved efficiency and lower costs, UCaaS (unified communications as a service) and CCaaS (contact center as a service) should be integrated or bundled up.
The collaboration of UCaaS and CCaaS is highly beneficial to both the channel partners and their customers.
To understand the benefits of UCaaS and CCaaS integration, to both the channel partners and customers, let us learn more about the two technologies and their functioning.
What is UCaaS?
UCaaS means Unified Communications as a service; it is responsible for consolidating and integrating an organization’s communication applications like voice, video, messaging, and conferencing into a single cloud-based platform.
These communication applications are useful for modernizing the company’s phone systems and for streamlining its workflows.
With key features like call forwarding or routing, bridge calls, virtual receptionist, voice-to-email transcription UCaaS support mobility, and in-office collaboration.
What does CCaaS mean?
CCaaS means Contact Center as a service; it is responsible for enabling multi-channel communication through a single cloud-based platform. While UCaaS is more focused on internal collaboration, CCaaS focuses on external communication like customer communication.
Contact center solutions help in simplifying the communication systems for agents who need to be in touch with the customers. The company agents could be either the sales staff or the inbound customer service, representatives.
The key purpose of CCaaS is offering customers with competent and effective technical support, customer service, and sales assistance. CCaaS offers features like split recording, skills-based routing, customer authentication, and AI-powered voice analytics.
UCaaS vs. CCaaS
Both UCaaS and CCaaS have similar functionality, but for long they have been being used by different departments within the same organization for different purposes. Conventionally they have always coexisted in the same organization but for different users with different applications.
However, in recent times the focus from UCaaS vs. CCaaS has shifted, and companies are now looking for integrated platforms that can support both their office staff and the contact center, agents.
The evolution of the cloud has made this integration possible. This integration between UCaaS and CCaaS helps the company to manage a single platform, reducing the hassles involved in handling too many vendors.
By integrating and collaborating UCaaS and CCaaS together, companies can avail and enjoy the functionality of both the platforms from a single cloud-hosted vendor whereby saving cost and improving performance.
What are the benefits of Unified communications? What are the benefits of UCaaS and CCaaS integration?
Some of the key benefits of UCaaS and CCaaS Integration are:
- Better and effective collaboration between office staff and contact center
- Improved customer experience
- CRM integration
- Data Integration
- Cost Reduction
- Better and effective collaboration between office staff and contact center
In several situations, contact centers are required to collaborate directly with the company’s internal departments like outbound marketing callers are required to be in touch with the sales team to pass on leads for closure.
Some contact centers are self-sufficient, but may still have to collaborate with the office staff on some occasions to gather some insight or information particularly.
Take an example; a customer or prospect calls the contact center with a query about the product which the agent is unable to answer.
In such a situation, the agent can access the company directory in UCaaS and check for an employee in the manufacturing department who is free, they can chat with the employee and get answers to the queries and then pass on the information to the customer.
If the answers are very technical and complicated, the contact center agent can also route the call directly to the concerned employee.
- Improved customer experience
In most instances when people try to contact a business, they are unaware of whether they are speaking to someone in the company office or at the contact center. They believe they have contacted the company and expect a seamless customer experience and quick resolution.
When contact center agents and company employees are unable to communicate with each other in real-time, and the customer call is passed from the contact center to the employee, the customer may have to introduce themselves repeatedly or may have to try calling different numbers.
Customers don’t like identifying them again and again, explaining their problem or query to each person getting connected.
Therefore integration of UCaaS and CCaaS is very useful in functions where caller authentication is required and the calls need to be recorded and logged from compliance or audit perspective.
When both the systems are integrated, the customer is required to be authenticated only once even if the call is passed on from one center to another.
For example, a customer calls the salesperson and inquires about some technical support.
In such instance instead of the salesperson giving the customer the contact number of a technical support executive, the salesperson can contact the technical team directly and patch the customer to the call with the help of a unified communication system.
- CRM integration
Most of the UCaaS platforms can be integrated with CRM applications like Salesforce, which help to enable key features like click-to-dial and automatic call logging.
Users of the UCaaS system can view pop-ups on their screen displaying the incoming caller’s details from the CRM. Users can also enter notes about their interaction with the customer which is further logged into the CRM.
The integration of CCaaS and UCaaS helps the CRM to stay updated, as teams and employees across different locations or in different functionalities can easily access and share data about their customer interactions in real-time. No need for multiple logins or toggling.
- Data Integration
The integration of communications data means employees or agents across departments and functions can be on the same page with regards to communication.
In the longer run, it will help to leverage sophisticated data analytics tools, IoT automation, and AI algorithms.
- Cost Reduction
Both UCaaS and CCaaS are one-stop shops for all communication needs, they help in reducing the communication costs.
By integrating UCaaS and CCaaS, companies can avail the functionality of both the platforms from a single cloud-hosted vendor, which means the company can save on the installation and management of expensive hardware.
With only one vendor managing both the platforms, lesser cost of operation as don’t have to pay multiple vendors and above all only one single platform for the IT department to manage.
Save your Time and Money – Integral Choice
Though many organizations are still in the cloud migration process, there are many who are all set to take the next big step: Integration.
Integral Choice is a telecommunications agency that is dedicated to supporting your business connectivity needs including cloud-based solutions.
Integral Choice is one of the experts and trustworthy Managed IT service providers in the USA.
With our vast experience, we are well-positioned to guide you and offer you the best-integrated communication solutions which can help drive sales, bring in repeat business, and more referrals.
To benefit from the integration of UCaaS (Unified Communications as a service) and CCaaS (Contact Center as a service solution), you can opt for their bundled services.
Email us on Nick@4ici.com or call us at (678) 255-2707 for more information on integrated UCaaS and CCaaS solutions.