The core market for contact centre solution providers is the small to medium-sized enterprise (SME) sector, and with good reason too. This is the sector that has seen the best growth in recent years and will continue to do so in near future, current economic problems notwithstanding.

The focus area of the SME is to grow fast by providing their customers with the best possible service. Here enter the contact centre solution providers who can provide quality solutions such as multichannel integration, effective customer relationship management (CRM), the most efficient call routing, first-call resolution, customer self-help, and VoIP call control at reasonable prices.

Earlier, some of these contact centre solutions were available only to large, well paying companies but with the introduction of IP telephony and software-as-a-service solutions, most of the cutting edge features are now within easy reach of the SME.

SME Requirements
However, what these SMEs need to watch out for is not to opt for features they don’t need. Quite often, contact centre software offers ‘cool’ features and companies do opt for them under the impression that they will help improve their processes. Later they find that they have ended up paying extra for something that nobody needs or wants and it remains unused. Also the money spent on training the staff for these features goes to waste.

To satisfy their needs, the SME needs a technology provider who can cater to the defining characteristics of such firms. SME’s are characterised by speed and flexibility to respond to customer demands and the professional contact centre solution provider should first assess the capabilities and competitive edge of the firm before offering them a solution. This will go a long way in ensuring a satisfied client and a long-term relationship.

On the part of the SME, they should decide upon a contact centre solution provider who can respond to their vision, business goals and pace for change properly. To do this, the SME needs to work out customer requirements, their business practices and operational goals by themselves, or they run the risk of getting a solution which is either inadequate or which does too much. The following quick tips will help you in getting the right solution provider.

7 questions to ask before you finalise your contact centre solution software
When screening for a contact centre platform ask yourself and your prospective vendors the following questions:

1. Is the solution offered a complete, consolidated solution encompassing all your call centre needs? If that is not the case, you might have to buy a number of solutions from different vendors and will have to integrate them together, which is a costly affair and prone to problems.

2. Does the solution support all the interaction channels such as voice, Web and e-mail etc.? This is critical because in today’s Internet dominated world, quite a few queries come through these Web channels and your call centre should be ready for them.

3. Is integration between the proposed contact centre solution and third party business applications like CRM possible?

4. Is the solution being offered, and its inherent technology scalable, i.e. can it support your growing business and the query turnover over a period of time?

5. Does the solution allow your workers to work from multiple locations including home?

6. Does the proposed solution provide for proper reporting, supervision and management regardless of the agents’ location?

7. Does the solution require expensive proprietary hardware or can it run on readily available standard hardware?

If the answers to most or all of above questions are in the affirmative, you have got yourself the right contact centre solution. The moot point is, don’t get swayed by the ‘cool’ features. Rather assess your requirements and budget calmly and check whether the particular contact centre solution meets your needs.

Kate Dawson is a call centre administrator and has an in-depth knowledge of contact centre solutions such as telephone call routing software, predictive dialler’s, VoIP call control etc.