As we go through 2025, one thing is clear: the relentless focus on a constantly improving customer experience (CX) isn’t going anywhere.
While CX has been the “North Star” for many businesses for decades, the technologies that enable them to keep the customer at the heart of what they do have evolved tremendously over the last five years.
...customers expect enterprise-grade service: even when they’re dealing with a mom-and-pop shop...how can SMBs deliver...?
However, these innovations haven’t impacted all businesses equally. The small and mid-sized business (SMB) segment has been left behind as the reality of implementing these CX “best practices” runs up against the reality of SMB operations.
The CX Challenge
At the core of the matter, customer experience/contact center solutions are not one-size-fits-all. The needs of enterprise and SMB organizations can vary wildly. But most contact center solutions on the market today are designed for an enterprise-class customer, with expanded tool sets that collect more and more data.
Implementing and managing these solutions is an outsized task for many SMBs. But their customers expect enterprise-grade service: even when they’re dealing with a mom-and-pop shop.
So, the question that must be answered is this: how can SMBs deliver an enterprise-grade CX without the enterprise-level cost or complexity?
ID the Issue(s)
For SMBs to deliver an enterprise-grade CX, the first step is to identify what customers prioritize when it comes to experience. And that is what we call the “Big Four” elements: speed, convenience, knowledgeable help, and friendly service. SMBs can thus get the biggest bang for their bucks by prioritizing streamlined solutions that optimize for them.
Let’s look at these in-depth.
1. Need for Speed
This may feel a bit like beginning at the end, but optimizing speed is really all about understanding the data around your customers and their calls.
This doesn’t mean collecting millions of data sets that must then be painstakingly analyzed. Instead, it refers to core reporting that shines a light on response times, high volume periods, average call times, and more, so the SMB can structure its call center schedule accordingly.
When a call center is correctly staffed using these core data insights, SMBs can see meaningful improvements across their speed-related KPIs.
2. Convenience is King
Waiting on hold is never a good experience, and ideally, hold times can be significantly reduced by optimizing call center staffing based on data analytics.
Even with the best data prediction strategies, spikes happen, and when they happen, SMBs should leverage convenience tools to give customers alternatives.
Core contact center features like automated call backs and on-hold messaging to direct customers to alternative engagement channels can up the convenience factor, giving customers choice in their engagement.
3. Knowledge is Power
No matter how quick or easy your call center makes the experience for your customer, if they’re not getting connected to the right help, the overall impression is less than ideal.
Here, a well-designed skills-based routing solution can go a long way. Setting up skills-based routing doesn’t need to be a complicated endeavor.
Taking the time to implement this tool can make it easier to determine the right staffing schedules for coverage. It ensures that customers get connected to someone who can actually help based on what they truly need.
4. Let’s Be Friends
If you can get the first three elements of the CX right, the fourth one becomes easier: quick, convenient, and knowledgeable help smooth the path for a friendly interaction.
Additional call center features like barge and whisper allow for on-the-fly coaching. They can enable agents to learn on the job, help train staff on how to best respond to difficult customers, and provide valuable insights into agent-customer interactions.
Solving for the Big Four
Historically, CX solutions were expensive hardware-based technologies that required substantial upfront investment, in addition to the resources and support required for day-to-day management.
Today, while prices have come down significantly, especially among the cloud-based CX solutions, using them effectively can be costly to set up. This is due to the sheer complexity of the technology, requiring a hefty investment of subcontracted consultants to get started. Even for SMBs that make the investment, proving an ROI is often challenging.
SMBs can thus get the biggest bang for their bucks by prioritizing streamlined solutions that optimize for them.
Focusing on the Big Four CX elements helps to eliminate some of the noise when determining the right contact center solution for an SMB implementation.
The goal is to jettison the features and functionality that may compete with or complicate an SMB’s ability to deliver against the CX Big Four: because we know that excess configuration negatively affects workforce adoption.
The SMB CX Go-Forward Plan
Like enterprises, SMBs deal with inbound customer inquiries and issues, and have the same opportunities to sustain and expand their customer base through an impeccable experience.
Results-driven SMBs will – and should - stay laser-focused on the CX Big Four elements with technologies that are easy to implement, learn and maintain, and with sensible feature sets, to implement a sure-fire strategy for success.