Powering Better Customer Experiences for Energy and Utilities Providers

As their presence in the national news highlights, energy and utilities providers are facing significant and unprecedented challenges. Customers now expect improved customer service and efficient, streamlined customer experiences, meaning that digitisation is now required across the industry. Energy and utilities companies need to adopt more proactive models when working with customers to match accelerating consumer expectations around digital interactions.

As part of our thought leadership discussion series, Solgari Speaking With…, Joe Leberte sat down with Johan Vandekerckhove from MECOMS, a Ferranti Brand, to discuss the changes and challenges that the energy and utilities industry is currently facing, emerging trends in the sector and how unified communications and Contact Centre as a Service solutions can help.

Here are the key takeaways from our discussion, to help guide your implementation of unified communication solutions in the energy and utilities sector.

 

New customer expectations underpin every interaction

Consumer expectations around digital interactions are accelerating rapidly. In the utilities industry, self-service via automation has emerged as a key trend, enabling customers to manage their own bills, meter readings, accounts and interactions. This unlocks higher customer satisfaction at a lower cost. Remote working practices have now disrupted traditional on-premise contact and call centres. In order to meet customer demands as efficiently as ever, utilities companies need to find new ways to make all communication channels available from any location, on any device, at any time. The answer lies in Cloud-provisioned communication solutions that integrate seamlessly with industry-specific operational technologies, CRM and collaboration tools such as Microsoft Teams and Microsoft Dynamics 365.

 

Data-driven decisions are essential

As energy and utilities companies introduce new communications strategies to meet demands, making data-driven decisions is essential. When data is siloed in separate applications and communication channels, it is impossible for different agents to understand the full picture of a customer journey. Solgari helps to bring customer data into a single source of truth, helping every agent to make contextual, informed decisions, no matter when they become involved in the interaction. For instance, Solgari have worked with MECOMS to integrate the full range of communications channels into the MECOMS 365 solution suite: specifically created for the Energy and Utilities industry and now helping eliminate communication data silos.

 

Increasing customer satisfaction reduces churn

As customer experience is paramount, energy and utilities companies need to prioritise providing a user-friendly, simple and convenient service for their clients. If customer communication channels are cumbersome and difficult to navigate, the customer experience will be negatively affected. Every customer is different, and they each have unique communication requirements. Using an all-channel communication solution allows customers to reach you in the way that suits them, without sacrificing efficiency for your agents.

Additionally, this solution will enable greater collaboration across internal teams within your organisation. Traditionally members of each department would each work with their own system. However, an all-channel contact centre solution, like Solgari, will consolidate these systems, allowing agents across departments to work on the same platform, with full data visibility. As 40% of utilities customers that are switching providers are never even contacted by the retention team, facilitating this transparency will help customer retention and offer additional upsell and cross-sell opportunities.

 

Transform your communications strategy

To learn how the combination of both Solgari and MECOMS 365 enables transformative outcomes around customer engagement for any utility company with heavy communications requirements.

 

Watch our full webinar on-demand today.

Facilitating Seamless Customer Experiences for Microsoft Users: A Solgari and QGate Discussion

In the most recent instalment of our thought leadership discussion series, Solgari Speaking With…, Joe Leberte sat down with Alastair Jupp, the Managing Director of QGate. A partner of Solgari, QGate helps small to medium-sized organisations optimise their business processes, achieve digital transformation and enhance their customers’ experience through Microsoft Dynamics 365 CRM and Power Platform.

In this episode of Solgari Speaking With… Joe and Alastair discuss how QGate and Solgari can help businesses enhance the built-in functionality of Microsoft Dynamics 365 and improve the customer experience they offer with integrated communications channels. Read on to discover the key takeaways and how Solgari and QGate’s partnership could help your business.

 

Enhancing the core functionality of Microsoft Dynamics 365

Customer expectations are evolving at a rapid rate. Microsoft Dynamics 365 has the core functionality that your business needs when it comes to delivering good customer service, but in order to truly elevate the customer experience you need to be able to bring together multiple channels of communication. These integrated channels are not available out-of-the-box with Microsoft Dynamics 365. Aligning Solgari and QGate allows you to bring many different communications channels to Microsoft Dynamics 365 almost immediately, no matter where you are in your Dynamics journey.

 

Using data intelligently

Centralising your data and utilising it effectively is the hardest part of using a CRM tool, like Microsoft Dynamics 365. Once you have the right channels feeding into it, your CRM will bring your data together into one place, allowing you to apply your data analysis, personalisation, automation, forecasting and security. However, in order to take advantage of these core benefits, you need to integrate and connect your CRM to relevant data sources and communication channels.

Accurate, relevant data underpins the implementation of a successful customer experience. Many SMEs believe that effective data analysis requires huge monetary investment and is beyond their reach. At Solgari and QGate, we want to help smaller businesses pivot and be flexible with their data, just like larger enterprises. Solgari and QGate plumb voice and digital communication channels directly into Microsoft Dynamics 365, providing agents with the contextual data they need to drive conversations forward, achieve first-call resolution and have immediate impact on the customer, every time.

 

Seamless multi-channel communications experience

Customers are now expecting to see what they experience in their personal lives reflected in their professional communications. As a result, B2B organisations need to be able to replicate a multi-channel, seamless and personalised communications experience. Optimising your CRM can help with this. Integrating Solgari and QGate into Microsoft Dynamics 365 will allow you to use data to inform and improve communication strategies, offering a more personalised experience for clients. Additionally, having a unified view of customer interactions and history will allow you to overlay AI technology to identify deeper trends in the data. This will enable you to predict customer behaviour, anticipate consumer needs and proactively serve your clients, all of which will aid the overall customer experience.

 

Enhance efficiency

Time is a valuable thing, particularly for SMEs. Solgari and QGate will allow you to achieve the contextual customer and employee experience you are looking for, with simple and seamless management. Your CRM will help to automate sales processes and facilitate self-service capabilities, improving efficiency, saving on costs and enabling a more effective use of resources. QGate then provides a one-stop-shop for your Microsoft CRM, helping to simplify licensing and management. With our help, you can achieve enterprise-level abilities without an enormous financial investment.

 

Elevate the customer experience today

To discover how Solgari and QGate’s partnership could aid your business’ communications strategy and take your customer experience delivery to the next level, watch our full on-demand webinar now.

 

Watch now

 

5 Business Communication Software Mistakes to Avoid

Effective communication, both internal and external, is paramount to the success of any business, driving collaboration, productivity and strong working relationships. In a digitally enabled world, implementing the right business communication software is foundational to achieving these benefits. However, with so many options on the market, choosing the right software can be challenging, and implementing is all too often another source of unwanted cost, complexity and risk.

To help you avoid roadblocks, stunted productivity and inefficiency, we have collated five of the most common business communication software mistakes that you need to avoid.

 

1. Not prioritising contextual customer service

Context is key to effective communication with customers. Customers rarely communicate solely with one contact within a business or by using only one channel. Therefore, to deliver effective service, you need to break down internal silos within your organisation and ensure that information is shared across departments. If your business communication software cannot support contextual customer service, then customers will be forced to waste time repeating their needs to different agents. This will negatively impact the experience clients have with your organisation.

Solgari is a full-function, all-channel contact centre solution that unifies your business’ communication channels, including Voice, Video, Chat, SMS and social media. As all communication channels are brought together in one centralised portal, any customer service agent can pick up a ticket and have provide effective, contextual customer service.

 

2. Accepting inefficient communication

When you need to contact someone, you don’t want to be kept waiting – and the same is true for your customers. Your business communication software needs to support efficient communication with both internal and external players, or else you will hinder productivity. Solgari allows you to switch between channels quickly and easily and automate bulk communications when needed, speeding up the process of connecting with clients and colleagues.

 

3. Lack of integration

When implementing a new business communication software, you shouldn’t have to sacrifice the effectiveness of any existing tools. To see the best results, your software should complement and enhance the tools and solutions you are already using, including your CRM or Case Management platform, and any internal collaboration solutions including Microsoft Teams. Ideally, your business communication software should serve as a digital hub, bringing together essential elements from across your organisation.

For instance, Solgari integrates seamlessly with your existing CRM solution, delivering an all-channel communication endpoint directly into your CRM screen. This enables you to connect with clients via any channel without ever leaving the CRM window, achieving higher speed to value.

 

4. Falling short of compliance requirements

Your customer and employee data needs to be properly protected, including any data compiled through their communications. In specific industries such as Financial Services or Healthcare, you’ll need to be able to demonstrate the ways in which you securely and compliantly record and archive all-channel communications. If your business communication software is not compliant with regulatory requirements, then your business could face significant legal and financial repercussions. Compliance is particularly important for businesses operating in highly regulated and data sensitive industries. Fortunately, Solgari is built for compliance, abiding by key data and security regulations including GDPR, PCI DSS MiFID II and more.

 

5. Not measuring success

How will you know if your communication solution is effective if you are not tracking and measuring outcomes? If you are not monitoring key metrics and KPIs, you risk overlooking significant problems with your business communication software. Solgari is equipped with advanced reporting and analytics capabilities which allow you to gain a deep view into your communications across channels and generate real-time, in-depth reports to track your successes and help you implement any necessary improvements.

 

Ready to embrace communications success?

Are you looking for a full-function, Cloud-based Contact Centre as a Service (CCaaS) solution that will help you transform your business communications and overcome pervasive challenges? Look no further than Solgari. If you’re ready to start revolutionising your communications, get in touch with the experts at Solgari, today.

 

Get in touch

 

The Benefits of Omni-channel Sales and Marketing

Customers expect a seamless omni-channel journey with fast, efficient and personalised communication that spans effortlessly across devices, at home or on the move. Whether on a mobile, laptop, computer or tablet, customer experience is expected to be exemplary. The benchmark for what successful customer service means is now higher than ever. Knowing and mastering the difference between “business as usual” and truly transformative customer service is now mission critical – this short guide is a vital resource for any business leader charting a route towards growth for their organisation.

 

What is Omni-Channel Sales and Marketing?

Omni-channel sales and marketing is the practice of businesses carrying out their sales and marketing campaigns across multiple channels to promote, interact and communicate with customers. It permits a seamless experience for clients across all the channels through which a business sells.

With omni-channel sales and marketing, you can build powerful cross-channel relationships with prospects and customers, and leverage the data generated across every interaction to refine your understanding of their preferences and requirements.

 

What are the Benefits of Omni-Channel Sales and Marketing?

 

1. Increased sales

Omni-channel sales and marketing solutions provide the tools, channels and data insight to maximise the value of every interaction, and each indication of interest. Sales teams can respond to leads and prospects faster, on their channels of preference, and with the most relevant offer based on their interaction history. By increasing the volume and value of conversions, omni-channel solutions drive up sales and revenue across the board.

 

2. Greater client satisfaction

With an omni-channel approach, the customer experience is enhanced as all channels are merged; enabling a smooth and efficient navigation of all platforms. For example, Solgari combines all communication channels into one, unified place. As a result, customers will benefit from faster resolutions and more complete outcomes. This can lead to tangible improvements such as an increase in Net Promoter Score (NPS), a customer loyalty and satisfaction metric which reveals how likely your clients are to recommend your services. If you are looking to scale your business and increase revenue, building brand advocates who will recommend your services to their colleagues and peers is essential. This simply cannot be done if the customer experience is not optimal.

 

3. Improved customer lifetime value

Omni-channel communication is a customer-centric experience that helps to improve customer lifetime value. Customers value being at the forefront of operations, and omni-channel services ensure this. In fact, 53% of leading European retailers see improving lifetime customer value as a crucial reason for implementing an omni-channel strategy.

 

4. Real-time support

An omni-channel approach enables you to create real-time reports on any part of your communications. It’s crucial to keep up with your customers’ evolving demands and expectations, especially when 64% of customers expect to receive real-time customer support.

 

5. More customer data collected

With an omni-channel approach, your customer service, sales and marketing channels act as a source of invaluable information. From this data, you can strengthen and enhance the relationship you have with your customers.

 

6. Increased operational efficiency

Another business benefit of adopting an omni-channel platform is increased operational efficiency. Bringing all your channels into a single platform generates unified analytics, allowing you to see the whole customer picture, rather than just per-channel data. You can then develop or refine practices to reduce or remove obstacles to excellent customer service and deliver the desired customer outcome in the minimum time. For example, with Solgari’s all-channel communications solution for Dynamics 365, supervisors and admins gain access to real-time reporting wallboards and visualisations that detail call handling, response times and queue efficiency across voice, SMS and social channels.

 

Finding the Perfect Partnership with Solgari

Are you ready to take control of the conversation with an omni-channel sales and marketing solution? If so, Solgari is the perfect solution for you. Our omni-channel services include:

Bridging voice, video, chat, SMS, mobile messaging and social media, our omni-channel communications solution (CCaaS), will streamline your sales and marketing and boost your business to near-limitless success. To find out more, get in touch today.

 

Contact us

 

A Unified Communications Cost Benefit Analysis

Unified Communications (UC) refers to the integration of multiple essential communications tools, including voice, video, SMS, social media and instant messaging, with the goal of streamlining user experience and enhancing productivity and communication. Using a Cloud-delivered version of UC, Unified Communications as a Service (UCaaS), can deliver exceptional Return on Investment (ROI), as well as collaboration and connectivity benefits. This means that implementing UCaaS can have significant and tangible business impact.

When carrying out a unified communications cost benefit analysis, it is essential to consider the different types of ROI. Hard ROI refers to easily quantifiable measurements that contribute to your business’ overall success. The most common example of this is increased revenue. By contrast, soft ROI describes a return that is not as easily quantifiable. This could include factors such as increased productivity, greater brand awareness or higher customer satisfaction.

 

The four core metrics for a UCaaS cost benefit analysis

 

Revenue generation

Unified Communications solutions equip every agent to increase transaction volumes and maximise lifetime customer value (LCV). Whenever and however a customer contacts the company, the agent is armed with the right blend of communication channels to engage with the customer in the way they prefer, the data to deliver contextual service, as well as the ability to meet their needs and capture the opportunity without further follow-up or unnecessary delay.

 

Cost reduction

Implementing UCaaS solutions enables businesses to sidestep the upfront and ongoing costs of purchasing and maintaining an on-premises business communications platform. Cloud-based solutions are always up to date and highly available. They are capable of scaling across teams and geographies fluidly to match headcount, and adapting flexibly to the changing nature of business: offering additional cost savings and future-proofed peace of mind.

 

Boosted productivity

UCaaS solutions, like Solgari, enable customer-facing teams to make every interaction count and maximise the value of each conversation. Increasingly, the boundaries between internal collaboration and external customer service are collapsing. Solgari for Microsoft Teams combines Solgari’s comprehensive blend of channels, with full-function contact centre functionality, delivered as a native application within the Microsoft Teams platform: extending and enhancing the market’s leading collaboration solution. Factor in the right level of automation, such as IVR or Skills Based Routing, to ensure that every inbound communication gets to the right person as quickly as possible, and the efficiency gains achievable across the organisation quickly stack up into a productivity paradigm shift.

 

Customer satisfaction

Solgari integrates directly with your existing CRM solution, allowing your employees to locate customer information more efficiently and deliver more effective, contextual and informed customer experiences. This helps to encourage customer retention. By integrating your unified communications solution with your contact centre, you can monitor customer service KPIs such as first-call resolution and customer satisfaction, aiding your unified communications cost benefit analysis and allowing you to clearly measure ROI.

 

About Solgari

Solgari is an all-channel unified business communication solution designed to deliver swift and seamless communication capabilities no matter where you are based, or what industry you work in. With a range of native integrations, including Microsoft Teams, Microsoft Dynamics 365 and Salesforce, Solgari is primed to help develop valuable, lasting customer relationships.

To discover more about the power of Solgari, get in touch today.

 

Contact us

 


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Contact Centre Myths Debunked

A myth, parable or fable… what are they and why do they exist? Well, they tend to be borne from fantasy, a belief or believed truth, a manifestation of something resembling reality. Their purpose? To comfort, confuse, construe… whatever the intention, they rarely represent the truth. It would be fair to say that the idea of ‘contact centres’ have certain connotations to those that have never experienced, worked in or passed through one. There is an unfair stigma attached to contact centres and, for many, imagery of glazed-eyed employees crammed into a dimly lit room can be conjured.

There are a number of myths surrounding contact centres, most of which are unrepresentatively negative. The purpose of this blog is to debunk contact centre myths and highlight the important role they play in the ever-changing world of business.

 

Myths Concerning Contact Centres

 

“Customers don’t dial into customer support these days”

While chatbots and social media have grown in prevalence, especially amongst younger generations, calling customer support is still the method of choice for most consumers. The reason is simple: customers want to know they are talking to a human being, who understand their issue, and is able to resolve it, there and then.

Chatbots can be useful when addressing trivial issues that can be answered with a simple ‘yes’ or ‘no’, but for more complex issues or queries, calling into customer support is still number one. This is especially true when call centres and customer relationship management (CRM) tools are unified, allowing businesses to deliver a real-time, personalised resolution to customers.

 

“Call centre workers will soon be replaced by robots”

The idea of automation, artificial intelligence and robotics holds an importance place in the future of business and should be welcomed rather than feared. All three can be used to streamline processes and to elevate burdensome and time-consuming tasks. The sole purpose is not to render humans redundant, rather support them. People also enjoy talking to people. Contact centres are founded on this principle, and this is unlikely to change anytime soon.

 

“Call centres are too pricey”

For business owners, the bottom-line is always at the forefront of their minds. While setting up a bricks and mortar call centre, with administrators and on-premises personnel can be costly, this is noy the only way set up phone support for your business. You can operate a Cloud-based call centre at a fraction of the cost, as you can select flexible packages that will increase, or decrease, depending on your company needs. This means that organisations can benefit from the many advantages of a call centre, without having to incur unnecessary costs.

 

“It’s difficult to set a call centre up”

Another sentiment that is simply not true. Again, as is true with costs, establishing a physical call centre can take time. However, opting to set up a Cloud-based call centre can take as little as five minutes. Your agents simply need to connect their devices, whether it is their desktop, laptop or smartphone, to perform their role. Not only is this easily done, but it means you can have agents based in a variety of different locations and time zones, without having to go through the stringent legal procedures of setting up an offshore entity.

 

“Agents will be unproductive if they are working remotely”

A gripe of many business owners. Productivity is essential, and the success of an organisation could very well hinge on it. When organisations made the shift to the hybrid, or remote, working model, productivity was a huge concern. However, there have been troves of reports that indicate that working in an office does not necessarily mean employees will be more productive or work harder. This is also the case with call centre agents, who may actually benefit from the added autonomy and flexibility that comes with working from home.

 

The Call Centre is Far from Dead… It’s Thriving

Communication is key, and your communications are an integral component of your business. Solgari have a wealth of experience helping organisations of all sizes establish their Cloud-based call centres in a cost-effective, efficient way. To find out how the experts at Solgari can help you build your call centre, get in touch, today.

 

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