The Benefits of a Cloud-Based Contact Center

Today, contact centers play an integral role in fostering long term customer relationships as they are the focal point of all customer connections. This has prompted a number of organizations to focus on cloud based contact centers or the conventional on-premise contact centers. However, many companies are adopting the cloud based contact center for customer support and connection because of the many benefits it offers. The following are some of the numerous benefits of a cloud-based contact center:

Fast deployment and integration with the existing infrastructure 

For the complete deployment or use of an on-premise contact center or system, there must be infrastructural changes including hardware and software changes, telephony changes, upgrade or installation. This requires a huge capital investment as well as time. On the other hand, cloud based contact center takes a very short time to deploy and it is easy to set up. This is because the services are offered by online service providers. The only equipment that is needed is a computer and an internet connection. 

Global access and delivery 

Cloud based solutions enable companies and clients to provide on-demand services and support to consumers that is accessible at anytime of the day and in any part of the world. This is made possible by the increased proliferation of mobile devices and online services that is increasing the demand for customer support.

Cost-effectiveness

Cloud-hosted contact centers do not require upfront expenditure to set up or deploy. Basically, these are services offered on a pay as you go payment model. This means that companies pay for services they need. This is cost effective in the sense that the information technology expense or spending will be reduced compared to an on-premise contact center which is a better return on investment in the long run.

Personalized customer service 

Cloud based contact centers allow companies and business to pick and select particular services to guarantee a more personalized user experience. The applications can be customized to suit customer demographics including geographical location, language as well as profile. Cloud computing also allows integration of other applications for example billing software, business reporting, purchase order management, analytics, just to mention but a few. 

In summary, from the above benefits, it is clear to suggest that cloud based contact centers can actually enable enterprises and businesses to lower their operational costs, deliver quality services and increase their efficiency.  

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Thinking About Getting Your Contact Center On The Cloud? Here’s What You Should Know

Cloud-based contact centers are emerging as the preferred solution over on-premise IT infrastructure. The reason is quite understandable since cloud-based business centers offer the dexterity of scalability along with minimal maintenance and manpower costs.

Most contact centers run on small-to-medium budgets. They don’t have the capacity to incorporate ever changing applications or technologies. With evolving market and consumer outlooks, businesses find it difficult to sustain on-premise models.

On the contrary, solutions on the cloud are rather easy to access, cost effective, and offer a large scope for personalization. This allows contact centers to scale-up and upgrade their user and operational requirements on-the-go. However, assuming that a single ROI model is applicable for all contact centers is a mistake. At the outset, most client packages offered by cloud-based IT solutions providers seem similar. However, these options are created with a much broader perspective. However, a generic model might not be suitable for every business. Cloud-based IT vendors might present a similar sales pitch, making it even more demanding to identify a bundle of services relevant for your business.

Here, we discuss how cloud-based contact centers help you extract a higher ROI and some basics about how to strategize your cloud driven operations:

Hardware Capital Expenses

On-premise IT models present the major hurdle of purchasing new systems, server space, and upgrading existing IT infrastructure. On the other hand, cloud tech deployment is rather effortless. The vendor is responsible for setting-up the hardware. Some tweaking might be required to the existing laptops or desktops, but this isn’t demanding.

Software Capital Expenses

Your existing network might not be capable of handling increased consumer volumes. When upgrading your customer responses, you might need to install expensive software packages. Usually, software solutions include a hefty licensing fee. Cloud-based functionalities are rather simple. Here, the vendor takes care of the registration and licensing, leaving you with the responsibility of merely using the installed programs. You can personalize the usage levels and demand extra software capabilities. This impacts your monthly rental.

In-house set-ups often require large-scale, annual upgrades and might suffer from cyclical defects. This can lead to significant expenses and downtime. Being on the cloud means your vendor is responsible for providing the required services, inclusive of maintenance, repairs, upgrades, or modifications.

Disaster Management Expenses

Disaster prevention and management might not look like a major expense, but its installation and efficient working can take a serious toll on your organizational budget. On-premise management can include off-site maintenance too. This can be an additional cost where applications, hardware, and data need to be duplicated for an off-site workplace. However, cloud-based vendors need minimal inputs to duplicate your existing data infrastructure at remote locations. Similarly, cloud-based vendors offer packages where data recovery and backup, along with contemporary security measures, are often a part of standard offerings.

Maintenance & Operational Expenditures

Cloud deployment doesn’t present any operational expenditure. There is no need to employ qualified professionals for daily usage or for maintaining the cloud-based infrastructure. With a monthly billed, usage model, you have the liberty to scale up/down the services in accordance with your budgetary restrictions.

Most cloud-based vendors incorporate gradual, smaller software tweaks rather than a time consuming, major upgrade. This prevents downtime due to software issues. Some vendors might even appoint a weekly visit where a qualified IT professional spends a few hours at the client’s office. The idea is to provide hands-on assistance with frequently-used applications and understand the kind of customization needed by the contact center. The installation period and learning curve for a cloud driven IT infrastructure is negligible. Vendor sourced cloud solutions usually offer 24x7, round-the-clock support through the Web and telecalling.

Choose Wisely

We hope that you are not misled by the promise of saving enormous amounts of money. Yes, cost reductions are at the core of cloud-based contact center solutions, but they shouldn’t be the only consideration. When evaluating different cloud solution vendors, pay attention to the kind of security features on offer. Explore the kind of liberty offered when opting for additional users and growing data requirements. The proposed procedure of cloud deployment should not pose a threat to the inherent systems employed at your workplace. It shouldn’t compromise employee privacy either. The deployment should be simple and deliver quantifiable outcomes.

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How Cloud-Based Solutions Help Contact Centers Perform Better

We are witnessing an unprecedented preference, among businesses of all sizes, for adopting a cloud-based infrastructure. It seems that being on the cloud is perhaps the only choice for small-to-medium scale businesses. This includes contact centers that continue to evolve, becoming more customer conscious. As businesses grow, they need a platform that helps them comprehend changing consumer habits and raise their customer service benchmarks. As the number of cloud vendors grows, decision makers at contact centers need to familiarize themselves with the basics and finer nuances of being on the cloud.

Why are More Businesses Adopting a Cloud-Based IT Infrastructure?

Reduced capital expenditure combined with the ability to improve customer service levels is at the core of most decisions that favor a cloud-enabled infrastructure. Being on the cloud helps contact centers reduce their daily operational expenses, ensure faster deployment of software or hardware upgrades, and improve the brand’s image across various channels. Using the cloud infrastructure, businesses can concentrate more on their core processes.

For contact centers, this translates into addressing more consumer queries with better outcomes, improving internal training & development practices, and creating structured data warehouses. This helps contact centers stay leaner, more agile for future growth, and intuitive to changes in market or consumer outlooks. Rather than worrying about buying expensive servers or making software upgrades, managers can channel their energies towards ensuring better compliance with customer service and data privacy protocols.

How Cloud-based IT Infrastructure Helps Contact Centers Become More Flexible

As businesses become more consumer sensitive, data driven, and socially interactive, they need a cost-effective and easy-to-adopt IT infrastructure. Contact centers too need to grow across different consumer-oriented channels. They want a greater share of the revenue pie in a very competitive marketplace. Contact centers need an IT setup that can be quickly scaled up or down without compromising security of consumer data.

Rather than being restricted by an IT system or in-house technology, contact centers prefer hassle-free, ready-to-be-deployed cloud-based services. With cloud-based solutions, contact centers can ensure uniformity in customer services even across distant, remote locations. The concept of centralized contact centers is becoming outdated. With consumer data always available on the cloud, managers can better delegate and distribute their time and resources for training and employee-development initiatives.

How Cloud-Based IT Infrastructure Helps Contact Centers Ensure Business Continuity

As cloud-based contact centers don’t have any hardware, software, or location-related limitations, there are minimal chances of any downtime. This also helps contact center managers to establish smaller, regional (feeder) units. Cloud-based functionality makes it easier to get faster decisions from senior managers and administrators who are often on the move. These personnel merely need to log into the cloud-hosted interface and resolve queries. For customers, this means quicker resolution, improving the overall quality of customer service. This kind of business continuity advantage is difficult to find in any other type of IT infrastructure. Using cloud-fueled interactions, senior managers can run collaborative online training programs even as they travel to explore newer markets.

How Cloud-Based Contact Centers Benefit from Integration of Different Channels

Multiple channel integration has surfaced as the most talked about aspects of using cloud technology. For businesses, staying connected with customers and having conversations across different mediums has become a critical requirement. This kind of interaction cannot be limited to merely answering customer queries or offering product information.

As businesses become more data intensive, contact centers are turning into a key, integrated resource that helps to collate, interpret, and use data for driving profits. Today, contact centers are regarded as an important touchpoint where critical data about customer behavior is generated. Agents are expected to help customers drive through various channels such as social media and emailing.

With more customer data available for analysis, contact center managers can create better tools for predicting customer behavior. This interaction also provides clarity about the utility of different types of promotional campaigns—underlining why marketing departments are increasingly collaborating with contact center agents.

Decision makers at contact centers should fully understand the implications of adopting the cloud. When comparing different cloud vendors, evaluating how well the solutions on offer match the organizational objectives is recommended. Apart from being reliable and easily accessible, cloud-hosted solutions must be coherent with the ROI projections. It is better to make detailed ROI analysis before consulting a cloud solutions provider. Security is an equally important factor. It is better to search for vendors with a proven, solid platform on offer.

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How Cloud-Based Contact Centers Deliver More ROI

Businesses across the world are getting leaner, keen to reduce their managerial and infrastructure responsibilities and boost productivity. This trend is being witnessed in the niche of contact centers too. Conventionally, contact center activities have delivered a decent ROI. This explains why they have become a worldwide phenomenon. However, this ROI can be raised further. This happens when typical contact center activities are performed using a cloud-based IT infrastructure.

Cloud-based Contact Centers and Scalability

Businesses are fast realizing the enormous potential of a cloud-based contact center. For starters, it offers the unique advantage of quick scalability. Sometimes, it is difficult to approximate the volume of business activity in the near future. Here, contact centers need an IT infrastructure that can be expanded as and when the need arises. Contact centers fill this requirement perfectly. There is no need to buy expensive software packages to upgrade cloud services.

Most cloud service providers offer easy-to-run bundled packages. Contact center managers merely need to request a bigger bandwidth of services. Increased scalability offers another advantage—businesses apprehensive about the ROI of a typical cloud-based contact center can opt for a condensed, smaller package at the start. When decision-makers feel convinced about the effectiveness of services, they can easily scale up their cloud-based services.

Cloud-based Contact Center ROI and Customer Service

Contact centers are among the most consumer-centric workplaces. The quality of work and even the ROI is calculated in terms of the level of customer service delivered. However, customer preferences and behaviors can change rather abruptly.  To ensure that their agents are at par with changing consumer mindsets, businesses need a cost-effective and dexterous resource. This requirement is holistically addressed by cloud-based IT infrastructures.

With cloud fueled functionalities, agents are better equipped to handle a bigger volume of customers without compromising the quality of customer service. Systematically managing daily customer traffic, quickly resolving customer concerns, and engaging customers with relevant information helps to reduce the rate of abandonment. This helps to sustain a bigger pool of current and probable customers, directly contributing to the ROI.

Cloud-based Contact Center ROI and Overall Costing

Cloud driven contact centers help to lower the overall IT costs. Usually, businesses face challenging infrastructure, training, and learning costs when adopting a new technology. Periodic updates and maintenance costs further add to the burden. However, contact centers driven by cloud services don’t face such costing predicaments. A business using cloud-based infrastructure benefits from minimal costs, including negligible IT recruitment requirements or maintenance costs. The entire range of functions related to keeping the cloud-based infrastructure running is the responsibility of the cloud services vendor.

Higher ROI & Better Outcomes with Cloud-Based Contact Center

With lesser running costs and better customer service, a cloud-based IT environment allows businesses to concentrate upon different aspects of organizational efficiency. This includes executing protocols for employee training, performance, and evaluation. Again, this helps employees to perform better which means more satisfied customers and a higher ROI.

With the assurance of minimal IT glitches, businesses can reduce their downtime and the threat of losing customers. As businesses realize the larger-than-expected ROI delivered by a cloud-based contact center, they can allocate more resources towards handling unpredictable customer traffic. This includes identifying different methods for customer engagement.

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How Customer Contact Centers Are Going to Change Over the Next Few Years

Thanks to the credit crunch, companies have realized the need to adopt a customer centric strategy. However, contact centers are unlikely to undergo major changes over the next few years.

What are the possible changes?

Now that new and innovative products are making their foray into the market, we should definitely see an improvement in customer care. Several organizations have already turned to cloud-based systems to improve the performance of their contact centers. There are also many organizations that have not yet woken up to the challenge.

The problems facing the contact centers

The most important factor that is still preventing many companies from upgrading their contact centers is the lack of budgets. Another reason is that organizations have not yet felt the need to change. Contact centers have been around for decades and have established a certain way of doing business. They just don't feel the need to embrace change anytime soon.

It is true that all organizations now want to be customer centric, but very few have got the right technology and people in place to deal with an empowered customer. Budget constraints are another major problem. Most organizations allocate nearly 90% of their operating budget to run existing systems. They do not have enough money to invest in newer systems.

Furthermore, running a contact center is hard work. Agents can go sick and customer problems can go unresolved. As a result, call center managers do not have enough time to explore the market to see if new technologies or products are available. All of these factors prevent them from adopting change.

The slowly changing face of call centers

The biggest change so far is the adoption of VoIP technologies. Now nearly 50% contact centers use VoIP. However, this change is largely fuelled by a desire to reduce operating costs. What's more, those contact centers that use VoIP do not use all the available features.

Another area that witnessed growth is the deployment of automated tools like IVR. Unfortunately, these tools have not yet been able to significantly improve the customer service.

Contact centers of tomorrow

Things are unlikely to be all that different 3 or 5 years from now. Over the next few years, the most likely changes will be the investments in VoIP technologies. There will also be some workforce optimization.

The two things that give hope to people expecting a sea change in customer care are the rise of cloud solutions and the increasing empowerment of the customer. Most companies now realize the need to improve their customer service. This will definitely encourage companies to invest in technologies that support multiple channels.

Gone are the days when letters and telephone were the only tools customers had at their disposal. Now they can contact the support center via multiple channels including text messaging, chat, and video. Applications that can personalize web-based interactions will also be popular in the future. There will also be an increase in the number of companies using smart desktop and web-based systems.

As we have already seen, the biggest change will be the adoption of cloud-based VoIP solutions. When companies use cloud systems, they do not have to invest in expensive hardware and software. Using a cloud-based solution is as simple as using a traditional web browser. As a result, agents and customers can use them easily.

Social media

Customers are increasingly taking to the internet to voice their complaints. Tools that allow companies to integrate social activity to their customer handling strategies are also likely to be popular.

In short, customer contact centers are unlikely to change much during the next five years or so. However, customers are more likely to receive better service.

Top Reasons To Embrace Cloud Technology

Modern customer contact centers employ technologies that allow them to talk to a large number of customers from one center. Customer contact centers need to be innovative. In fact, call centers have been adopting innovative technologies for some time. Most centers already support call recording, automatic dialers, and sophisticated routing.

In most cases, the company owns both the software and the hardware and hence they have complete control over the technology they use. While several companies still prefer to own the technology, this approach has several drawbacks. First, purchasing equipment is costly. Second, proper maintenance will be difficult without expert guidance.

Many industry analysts feel that the need to own the technology is actually holding the industry back. But this should change when the cloud technology becomes more popular. Cloud services eliminate the need to own expensive hardware. Moreover, it allows customer centers to improve the quality of their services.

A recent report published by Gartner confirms that when call centers use cloud-based technology, their total operating cost reduces. Furthermore, most cloud solutions permit the integration of several channels.

Customers themselves have already embraced cloud technology. Apple customers enjoy the benefits of the cloud-based service iCloud. It allows them to store their data in the cloud and access it from any device they like. The popularity of cloud services will only increase in the coming years and then firms that do not possess the same capability will look outdated.

If cloud technologies are better why should businesses obsess with the idea of owning technology? This can be attributed to the natural conservatism present in the IT field. That also explains why IT departments are unwilling to adopt wholesale changes without assurance of the benefits.

There are some other reasons as well. IT professionals are responsible for ensuring that the technology will provide the desired results and that it will be constantly available. Consequently, they seek control over the technology they use.

Fortunately, cloud technology advanced so much during the last few years that service availability is no longer a cause for concern. In fact, several providers of cloud services now guarantee 99.99% service availability.

Moving your customer contact centers to the cloud has several benefit:

·         Cloud technology allows the consolidation of contact centers across different sites. This improves overall efficiency and reduces operating costs.

·         Cloud technology also provides the ability to utilize data from various sources. This helps frontline agents to serve their customers more efficiently.

·         Greater flexibility is another advantage. Cloud services allow you to scale your operations up or down. At any given time, you only pay for the services you use. When your requirements increase, you can upgrade to a higher plan. This flexibility helps save money.

·         You get access to expensive software and hardware without having to invest in them. Since the equipment is owned and operated by the service provider you do not have to worry about maintenance either.

 

·         When you use cloud services, you can upgrade to newer technologies as they arrive.

Hopefully, when a heavyweight analyst like Gartner confirms these benefits, and assures companies about the availability of impressive services, we will see many more organizations adopting cloud technology in the coming years.