Many companies are thinking about unified communications (UC) and some are already in the midst of executing on UC strategies, but most of these efforts are focused on improving employee productivity. While this has merit in its own right, it is a narrow way of looking at what UC can do for the business. UC, done right, has the potential to make an enormous impact on much more than internal productivity – it can transform the way organizations interact with customers and can potentially really lift the bottom line.

A customer who is satisfied overall with a company interaction is four times more likely to do future business with that organization. This is a stat that is hard to ignore. For most companies, the opportunity to make things right or pleasant starts with the contact center. Every one of those interactions can validate the initial purchase, and can provide opportunity for new ones, but the opportunity dissipates if the company is not actively engaged with the customer. That’s where unified communications for the contact center comes into the picture. It will have a significant role in the effectiveness of those customer-company communications.

Educating the business, the contact center, the IT department (and others) on the role that the contact center and the customer play in every organization’s UC strategy and how it will benefit the customer - and ultimately the bottom line - is critical. Because the reality is – organizations are going to see the greatest ROI from their UC strategy when the contact center is a major part of that strategy.

Increased Customer Satisfaction= Increased Revenue
There are various definitions of UC floating around, but all of them have a common thread - helping employees find and access the right people on any device at the right time. And, currently, most organization’s UC goals revolve around increasing employee productivity and streamlining internal processes.

And, while employee productivity can certainly be positively impacted by UC, it’s not easy to quantify and measure productivity and streamlined communication processes. Certainly, companies can, for example, lower meeting and travel arrangement costs and increase internal problem resolution. And, while these are beneficial, they may not have a significant affect on bottom-line revenue.

But when customer interactions come into play, which impact sales, collections or customer service, the success of those interactions clearly make a mark on the bottom line. As a result, unequivocally, organizations will see the greater ROI from their UC strategy when the contact center is part of, or even leading the UC strategy. A bold statement, of course, but certainly not made lightly. And there are numerous reasons to support this statement.

Contact center agents are on the frontline communicating directly with customers, but for many contact centers, these agents also serve as conduits between those customers and subject matter experts across the enterprise. Incorporating the contact center as part of any company’s overall UC strategy can help drastically increase your agents’ efficiency.

A recent study found that 10.3 percent of all telephone inquiries contact centers handle on a daily basis require assistance from knowledge workers in other departments. The study also found that each of those inquiries that is directed out to a knowledge worker in the enterprise requires two interactions to fully resolve a customer’s issue and lasts approximately two-and-half minutes longer than a call that is handled within the confines of the contact center. There are roughly 926,000,000 interactions a day between businesses and customers around the globe. To put this in perspective, this means more than 95. 4 million contacts a day

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