Choosing the Right Microsoft Teams Contact Centre Vendor

Get to grips with what to look for in a Microsoft Teams contact centre

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Choosing the Right Microsoft Teams Contact Centre Vendor
Contact CentreNews Analysis

Published: January 24, 2022

Rebekah Carter

Microsoft Teams has taken the world by storm in more ways than one. The solution for collaboration and communication from Microsoft is helping to pave the way towards a new world of remote and hybrid work. Teams has made such a significant impact on modern companies; many are already looking for ways to make it a more central part of their day-to-day routine.

With Microsoft Teams in the contact centre, companies can access all the productivity-boosting capabilities of Teams when communicating with clients and customers. Since Teams is limited in its communication capabilities on its own, the best way to unlock the highest level of functionality is with a dedicated Teams contact centre vendor.

The question is, which contact centre solution provider is best?

Here are just some of the factors worth considering when choosing your Microsoft Teams Contact Centre vendor.

1. Microsoft Approval

The most obvious thing to look for in a Microsoft Teams contact centre vendor is approval from the Microsoft team themselves. The leading solutions on the market today are “certified” by Microsoft for their ability to work seamlessly with the Teams landscape.

Looking for this certification, as well as evidence of long-term strategies working with Microsoft, should give you an experience you can rely on. Many CCaaS providers are “Gold” partners with Microsoft, with years of background supporting everything from Microsoft 365 to Skype for Business communication tools. Microsoft approval also ensures you’re getting a native integration, rather than just bolting contact centre features onto a Microsoft environment.

2. Flexibility

Your ideal contact centre provider in today’s ever-changing landscape should be flexible enough to adapt to suit your needs. The right vendor will give you an easy-to-use administration portal, where you can easily add new people to your team when your contact centre grows and change control settings.

It’s also worth looking for a contact centre provider capable of building solutions specific to your needs. Many of today’s companies need specialist security and privacy systems in place to protect essential data in a digital environment. You might even have unique requirements when it comes to things like data sovereignty. A good contact centre provider will adapt to suit you.

3. Reliability

The standard considerations that should appear whenever you purchase a contact centre solution should still be evident when you’re investing in a Microsoft Teams Contact Centre. No matter what kind of company you’re running, you need to know your contact centre will continue to operate securely and reliably in any environment.

When picking your Microsoft Teams contact centre, look for a vendor capable of offering a fantastic series of failover and support solutions, so you don’t have to worry about sudden downtime damaging your reputation. Most CCaaS companies will be able to offer guaranteed Service Level Agreements for peace of mind. A 99.9% uptime guarantee is usually the minimum worth looking for.

4. Agility

Microsoft Teams is constantly evolving and improving, with new features rolling out all the time. The best contact centre vendors will always be ready to take advantage of the new functionalities that might benefit the contact centre landscape. Look for a company with a commitment to constant innovation and growth, so you can stay ahead of the curve in your contact centre.

The ability to leverage new APIs and SDKs from Microsoft will be extremely useful for companies in search of the perfect contact centre too. Your vendor should be able to help you take advantage of everything the Teams ecosystem has to offer. This could include taking advantage of the latest AI systems and smart assistants to implement self-service into your contact centre, or exploring new opportunities to improve your contact centre agents’ user experience.

5. Customer Experience

As mentioned above, just because you’re investing in a Microsoft Teams contact centre, doesn’t mean the basic considerations often present in contact centre purchases aren’t still important. You’re still going to need to work with a contact centre vendor committed to giving you the best possible experience as you transition into this new landscape.

Consider what kind of support and guidance you’re going to need with your Microsoft Teams ecosystem. Do you need training to help your team take full advantage of the new service, or maybe a dedicated team of developers to help you build integrations for Microsoft Teams? At a basic level, your contact centre vendor should at least ensure it’s easy to provision your technology.

6. Convenience

The concept of “convenience” when looking for a Microsoft Teams contact centre vendor is far-reaching. One of the most important considerations is whether your existing contact centre technology will work efficiently with the new software solutions you want to implement. Microsoft’s environment works well with a range of hardware vendors and software solutions.

However, if you find the connection between the tools you already have and the ones you want to use isn’t already there, you may need a vendor capable of building that link for you. It’s more likely you’ll need this support to enable a new level of convenience if you have specific needs, like a demand for access to industry-specific tools.

7. Omnichannel Support

Finally, you’ll need to make sure the contact centre solution you invest in will serve your customers in a way that helps you to impress your target audience. Any contact centre solution in the modern world needs to be omnichannel to reach customers across a range of platforms. A Microsoft Teams environment is no exception.

Make sure your contact centre vendor can connect you with your customers wherever they are, whether this means accessing messaging tools like Facebook Messenger or WhatsApp, reaching clients over video chat and voice call, or connecting through SMS. You should be able to communicate wherever your customers need to connect with you.

 

 

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