Some Basics of Cloud Telephony

Many people have heard about cloud computing and cloud telephony, but very few people understand what they are.

Cloud computing is all about accessing your data via the internet. You will have to pay a pre-determined recurring fee to use the service. When you use cloud computing services, you do not have to invest in expensive hardware or software. This makes these services cost effective and convenient.

What is cloud telephony?

Cloud telephony is another cloud based service. It uses voice over IP technology to deliver telephone calls over an internet connection.  Since cloud telephony runs on hardware owned and maintained by the service provider, businesses using this service do not have to invest in expensive conventional telephone equipment like PABXs. Of course, they have to pay a monthly subscription fee for using the service.

Great call handling features

VoIP is no longer about making free internet calls. Most cloud telephony service providers offer great call handling features including auto receptionist, call forwarding, music on hold, dial-by-name, parking, and screening. As a result cloud telephony allows SMEs to enjoy call handling capabilities that were formerly only available to large organizations. These call handling features also allow organizations to unify their physically separated staff.

Stay connected no matter where you are

Since calls are made over the internet, the physical location of employees does not matter. They can attend the calls no matter where they are. All calls are sent to a single landline number and then get routed to different employees. As a result, the caller gets the impression that all employees are in one place.

Cloud telephony services can deliver calls to cellphones. You may be running your small business almost exclusively from your mobile phone. This can give your callers the impression that your business does not have an office. When you use cloud telephony, you will get a landline number. Your mobile phones will then act as extensions of your landline number.

Cloud telephony also allows your staff to communicate better. They can, for example, call one another by dialing extensions. If they are at their computer, they can use the click-to-call feature. Cloud telephony also allows your employees to set up free conference calls.

Ease of use

Cloud telephony services can be easily set up. By contrast, if you use a traditional telephone system, you will need someone with consider technical skills to install it. This system will also need regular maintenance. Since cloud telephony uses equipment owned by the service provider, you do not have to purchase any costly equipment. In other words, when you use a cloud based service, you can reduce operating costs.

There is yet another problem with traditional telephone systems. As telecommunication technology is developing at a fast pace, these systems become outdated in months. By contrast, cloud service providers keep their equipment and technology at state-of-the-art level.

Huge savings

Since delivering phone calls over an internet connection is much more cost effective than leasing traditional phone lines, service providers can pass the savings on to their customers. In fact, an average customer who moves to cloud telephony can save up to 60% on line rentals and call costs. Better still, there is no compromise in call quality.

When you use cloud telephony, you will be able to provide better service to your customers. It also makes your staff more productive. There are obvious cost advantages, too.

 

Common Myths Related to Small Contact Centers

In the world of contact centers, bigger centers are in a position to offer visible benefits like a potential for voluminous sales and better profit margins. Most vendors look towards these for solutions and the small to medium enterprise (SME) contact centers get afterthought and hand-me-down products.
We thought it might prove useful to discuss some misconceptions existing in the market in the context of small contact centers.

Small contact centers are small just because of their size.

This is not true. Small contact centers face a unique set of business challenges. Their rewards are measured differently too. They need to be managed with much fewer resources than their larger counterparts. Their functional operations are also quite different.

Having a smaller workforce facilitates more training activities.

Large contact center solutions often require comprehensive training. It is imparted to all agents in a systematic manner. In contrast, smaller contact centers require most of their agents to play multiple roles. This leaves them with very little time to get formal training.

The SME contact center workforce needs solutions that are intuitive, easy to administer, and quick to implement. Big contact centers have specialized personnel while SME contact centers have many generalists.

It’s easier to manage problems in small contact centers.

The quality of customer service expected of smaller contact centers is much the same as that of larger ones. No direct correlation is possible between the number of agents and the volume of problems.

In fact, the many hats that an agent is required to don makes handling problematic issues even more challenging.

You can remove features from large technology solutions and sell them as small contact center solutions.

Though this tactic is commonly adopted, the end result hasn’t gone down too well with members of the SME contact center industry. The products appear more as token efforts with many gaps instead of being specialized ones.

Small contact centers cannot offer customer service on par with large contact centers

Enterprise size is irrelevant. Contact center organizations of the smallest size can largely impact businesses of all sizes. What’s critically important is maintenance of customer goodwill.

Challenges faced by SME Contact Centers

According to the manager of an SME contact center which services relatively large companies, the biggest issues they face revolve around technology solutions. She said that almost all the solutions available at present are very big, very cumbersome and very high-priced. It’s not possible to scale them as required so options become really limited. They do need similar resources, but smaller dimensions are required.

She said they also faced training issues related to new technologies and products. There weren’t enough agents to handle calls and putting them through intensive training was not possible. The team needed to depend largely on its own creative thinking abilities.

In conclusion, you can say that there’s definitely a market for specifically designed solutions for SME contact centers. It’s time the market stepped up to fulfill this need.