8x8, provider of cloud-based contact center, unified communications and collaboration services, has unveiled Virtual Contact Center (VCC) 8.1, the latest version of its contact center solution. Three key out-of-the-box components of the release are Proactive Web Engagement, Customer Connection Scripting, and Direct Agent Connect.
“Designing a consistent experience across multiple channels is key to building profitable relationships with customers, old and new,” said Sheila McGee Smith, principal analyst, McGee Smith Analytics, in a statement. “An important success factor is having the tools and processes in place to painlessly create these experiences. Virtual Contact Center 8.1 brings sophisticated contact center functionality---such as a comprehensive multichannel routing design environment and proactive Web chat---to an easy to implement cloud-based solution, significantly increasing the business value and ROI for new and existing 8x8 customers.”
8x8 Virtual Contact Center 8.1 features the following enhancements:
Proactive Web Engagement: Increase sales close rates on the Web by bridging the gap between Web self-service and live agent interactions by sending an offer for a chat interaction based on behavior on the Web.
- Define buttons, chat invites and popup forms that the customer will see when a chat offer is made using the configuration tool.
- Manage the customer experience through a powerful scripting tool that provides a new level of flexibility to decide when to offer chat, which invitation to provide the customer and which chat form to use.
- Routing rules in the script identify the best agent or queue based on information about the customer as well as the status of the contact center.
Customer Connection Scripting: A single scripting environment that manages interactions across all channels allows organizations to build loyalty by providing a consistent customer experience.
- Proactively engage customers on the channel of their choice as you see fit, or respond when they reach out to you.
- Connect customers to the right agent and arm that agent with the right information to solve the customer’s problem quickly and efficiently.
- Ensure a consistent customer experience across all channels by providing a single tool to define the flow of interactions via voice, email, chat and the Web.
Direct Agent Connect: Out of the box capabilities that enable direct connections between agents and high value customers to build strong sales and support relationships with key customers; critical for complex sales transactions like a real estate purchase, or refinancing a house, where the customer might need to interact with their sales representative several times over the course of the transaction.
- Includes flexible framework to handle every scenario such as what to do when the agent is out of the office or on lunch break.
- Reporting and administrative tools to give supervisors insight into direct interactions.
- Gives the agent power to provide custom greetings to key sets of customers.
“In a world where consumers control how and when they engage with the companies they do business with, having an effective, multichannel customer engagement strategy is an imperative [that] businesses can’t ignore,” said Darren Hakeman, 8x8 senior vice president, product and strategy, in a statement. “Virtual Contact Center 8.1 brings together all of the capabilities and tools businesses need to ensure successful customer interactions packaged in the fastest to deploy, easiest to use cloud-based solution available.”