Introduction

Not everyone who talks to customers works in a contact centre. For many businesses, customer communication doesn’t stop with the customer service or contact centre team, that’s where 8×8 Engage comes in.

Sales teams speak to prospects. Finance teams deal with payment queries. Engineers discuss installations and repairs. HR teams communicate with employees. Account managers handle client relationships.

People may not spend their entire working day answering customer calls, but when the phone rings, the quality of interaction matters. This is where 8×8 Engage makes a real difference.

As an independent communications provider, Complete Voice & Data helps businesses look beyond simply choosing a phone system. We look at how people communicate, where customer interactions take place and how technology can make those interactions more efficient.

8×8 Engage

8×8 Engage is particularly interesting because it brings together the capabilities of 8×8 Work and 8×8 Contact Centre. This enables customer-facing employees to handle contact centre interactions without necessarily needing to work from a traditional contact centre.

8×8 Engage is designed for employees who communicate with customers as part of their role, but whose primary job isn’t necessarily working in a contact centre.

Rather than creating a separate environment for these employees, 8×8 Engage connects contact centre functionality with 8×8 Work.

This means users can handle calls from contact centre queues directly through the 8×8 Work environment, including on desktop, web and mobile. For businesses, this can create a much more flexible approach to customer communications.

Instead of asking, “Who works in the contact centre?” the better question becomes, “Which of our employees needs to communicate effectively with customers?”

Who is 8×8 Engage designed for?

8×8 Engage is particularly suited to organisations where customer communication is spread across different departments, locations or job roles.

Sales Teams

Salespeople are often on the road, working from home, visiting customers or moving between meetings. With 8×8 Engage, calls can be managed through the same 8×8 Work environment already used for business communications.

For example, imagine a vehicle dealership with a central enquiry queue. A customer calls asking about a particular vehicle. Rather than the call being handled exclusively by a central contact centre, an available sales specialist can receive the queued call, even if they are working away from their usual desk.

That can mean a faster response and a better chance of converting the enquiry.

Field service teams

Engineers and field-based employees are another good example. A customer may call with a technical problem that requires specialist knowledge. Instead of taking a message and waiting for an engineer to call back, the relevant team member can receive the interaction while working remotely.

8×8 Engage is designed to support users working across different locations, making it particularly relevant to mobile and distributed teams.

IT helpdesks

An organisation may have a dedicated IT support number, but the people providing support aren’t necessarily sitting in a traditional contact centre. With 8×8 Engage, calls can be routed into the appropriate queue while IT staff continue to use their normal 8×8 Work environment.

This could be particularly useful for businesses with multiple offices or hybrid-working teams.

Finance and accounts teams

Consider a finance department dealing with customer payment queries.

Most of the team’s time might be spent processing invoices and managing accounts, but they still need to answer customer calls.

8×8 Engage allows those employees to participate in customer call queues without turning the entire finance department into a conventional contact centre.

HR and internal support

The same principle applies internally. An HR team could have a dedicated employee support queue, allowing calls to be routed to available HR specialists.

The result is a more structured approach to internal communications, while giving the HR team the flexibility of a modern cloud communications platform.

The benefits of 8×8 Engage

1. One environment for communication

One of the biggest advantages is simplicity. Employees can use 8×8 Work for their normal business communications while also handling customer interactions through Engage. That reduces the need to switch between different systems and applications.

2. Better use of people

Contact centres can create a problem when demand fluctuates. You might have a team of dedicated agents handling calls while specialist employees elsewhere in the organisation have the knowledge required to help customers. 8×8 Engage provides a way of bringing those additional people into the customer journey.

This can be particularly valuable for organisations where specialist knowledge is more important than simply having many call handlers.

3. Improve responsiveness

Customers don’t necessarily care which department answers their call. They simply want to speak to someone who can help. By intelligently routing calls to available and appropriate employees, businesses can reduce unnecessary transfers and callbacks. That can lead to a more responsive customer experience.

4. Support hybrid and mobile working

The modern workforce isn’t necessarily sitting behind a desk. 8×8 Engage works through 8×8 Work across desktop, web and mobile, giving employees greater flexibility over where they work.

For businesses with hybrid teams, field employees or multiple locations, this can be particularly valuable.

5. Access to more advanced customer engagement

8×8 Engage isn’t simply about answering a phone. The wider 8×8 platform provides capabilities including intelligent routing, digital channels, analytics, AI-powered summaries, transcription and customer interaction history.

This means businesses can start with a relatively straightforward requirement and potentially develop a much more sophisticated customer engagement strategy over time.

At Complete Voice & Data, we can help you assess where 8×8 Engage fits within your wider communications strategy and whether it is the right solution for your organisation.