A Guide to purchasing contact centre technology
If you are in the market for purchasing contact centre technology as an upgrade for your existing contact centre platform or for a completely new set up it can be confusing, time-consuming and complex process.
Cloud contact centres, PABX, API’s and so on as well as new fully integrated contact centre solutions within CRM tools like Salesforce, Microsoft Teams, Amazon Connect, ZOOM etc are making the decision in knowing which way to go harder than its ever been.
Smaller organisations, in particular, don’t always have the specific knowledge, industry access or large scale procurement governance in place.
And for larger companies, going through a formal governance process (e.g. Request For Proposal/RFP) can be time-consuming, costly and full of risk.
And with the customer experience now the primary point of differentiation for many companies (not product or price), purchasing contact centre technology that is going to cater to your current and future needs is going to be core to your long term success.
The four stages of purchasing contact centre technology
Once you have established the new for purchasing contact centre technology there are four key steps:
1. Identify your need.
There are different solutions for small, large and growing organisations.
Understanding the available technology, and what you need for your business is a great first step.
Whilst functions like an ACD are most likely essential, there is a plethora of new contact centre technology out there including speech analytics, workforce management, CRM tools, knowledge Management Platforms and so on as well as more standard items like automatic diallers, reporting tools, automatic callbacks etc.
You may also need your new contact centre technology to integrate with your current or future technologies.
And most importantly, does it meet the needs of your customers?
2. Articulate it
Once you’ve established your business needs, you need to articulate them in a way that is going to make sense to contact centre technology vendors.
Put simply, describing your needs clearly will help you get a more accurate quote and enable you to compare ‘apples with apples’ if you are approaching multiple technology suppliers.
3. Governance
Set up the right process that fits your governance.
If you are going to tender, you need to make sure it’s a level playing field for all the vendors participating in the process.
Therefore your process must be robust enough to include everything you need so all costs are included.
A tight governance process will also ensure the final decision is easier and fair.
4. Implementation
Once you have selected the successful bid, you then need to manage the implementation.
Sure, the vendor will know all the‘tech stuff’ but they will still need to get information from you on platform and system integration and software design.
You need to be able to articulate what these needs are to save changes later (and added cost) and to make sure it’s customer-friendly.
Implementing new contact centre technology can be a daunting experience for those who have not been through the process.
And rightly so!
There are many pitfalls that can easily blow out your budget or end in the wrong type of technology for you.
So how can you take the pain out of the process?
Particularly for those with no background in such a purchase?
We’ve got some simple tips you can use below that will help you when purchasing contact centre technology.
How to simplify purchasing contact centre technology to ensure success
There are four things organisations without the skills or experience can do to improve and simplify the process when purchasing contact centre technology:
1. Research available solutions & suppliers
Browse through our free CX Directory for a list of industry technology suppliers with a focus on the Australian contact centre market.
It costs nothing to reach out to suppliers and talk to them about your needs.
2. Use a formulated document
A template document typically allows you to pick the type of technology and load specific information about your organisation and desired outcomes.
Good templates will also have a suggested selection criteria and scoring system.
Rather than spending days writing a document from scratch, you can use a template and just load your specific information into it.
We have a ready-made template you can purchase directly from us please Contact Us for more details.
3. Use a consultant
Even with a template, there are pitfalls and if you have not purchased contact centre technology before.
You might not articulate your needs fully or be able to measure the responses.
Specialist consultants with experience in contact centre technology can do this for you, and guide you through the process as much as you need and in most cases, contact centre consultants are vendor agnostic ensuring you get the best solution for your business.
Refer to our CX Directory where you will find a list of industry consultants where you can search by skill and location.
If you are electing to go through a formal procurement process, consultants can also prepare and manage an RFI (Request for Information) and RFP (Request for Proposals) for you as well.
4. Use our free service
Rather than reaching out to lots of different vendors and having the same conversations repeatedly, we can help you find the right technology partners for free!
Simply leave your details below and we’ll contact you to discuss your requirements and then we’ll connect you to recommended suppliers who can meet your specific requirements saving you time, money, risk and stress!
