The adoption of cloud-computing business models is increasing rapidly—the events of 2020 have accelerated its adoption. In fact, according to global data broker McKinsey, cloud-specific spending expected to grow at more than six times the rate of general IT spending through 2020.
Increasingly, businesses are coming to realise that they must scale, pivot and become more agile and flexible in today’s competitive global marketplace. Business models and systems must be adaptable and readily able to flex to meet changing customer expectations.
Cloud based technology enables exactly this—particularly cloud based contact centres.
Unlike premises-based contact centres, cloud based contact centres are a network-based service that allow your business to handle customer interactions through an entirely web-based platform.
As customer expectations of businesses evolve and technology adapts to meet these expectations, there is a business strong case to move your contact centre from a premises-based model to the cloud.
Why Move Your Contact Centre to the Cloud?
Scalability and Flexibility
The model of a cloud-based contact centre inherently has in-built scalability and flexibility. This is because a cloud contact centre enables you to hire off-site agents, who may even be located internationally. As such, your contact centre is not only able to have extended business hours, it also means that you are able to add additional agents to the help desk with a click of a button during busy periods.
This flexibility and scalability allow your help desk to fluctuate with increases and decreases in demand without paying for overtime or additional infrastructure.
Decreased Downtime
When you move from a premises-based contact centre to a cloud contact centre, you no longer have to worry about ‘scheduled maintenance’. Instead, your service vendors will automatically take care of maintenance and software updates on your behalf without any interruption to regular operations. So, if you face any technical difficulties, you don’t have to worry about you or your staff needing to find a solution; your partner will do that for you.
Data Security and Business Continuity
The inherent safeguards and redundancies built into a remote contact centre means that small to medium-sized businesses are able to achieve previously-unattainable levels of data security and business continuity. This is because cloud contact centres have in-build data security, recovery and safety for both employees and customers.
A cloud contact centre is able to block any potential security threats while also protecting your services and data in the cloud.
Productivity and Efficiency
Many of the features that cloud contact centres have to offer can help to improve the productivity and efficiency of your centre. For example, through the integration of AI in the form of chatbots, you can free up your live agents from menial tasks, allowing them to focus on more complex tasks or customer issues.
Increased Employee Satisfaction
Remote contact centres can increase employee satisfaction, enabling higher agent retention. This is because the flexibility of a cloud contact centre means that agents can choose hours which are most convenient for them. Additionally, remote contact solutions – such as chatbots – mean that agents spend less time dealing with menial tasks which can ultimately help them to feel more engaged and fulfilled.
Cost Effective
The costs associated with a remote contact centre are far fewer than a premises-based contact centre. For example, a cloud contact centre does not need to spend money on infrastructure, rent, IT staff, technology hardware or several other overheads. Additionally, add-ons and upgrades are already accounted for in the initial purchase of cloud contact centre software, which means there are fewer ongoing costs. As such, your contact centre can focus this money elsewhere, enabling you to improve the customer experience and grow your business.
Improved Customer Service
A remote contact centre helps to facilitate improved customer service, which results in happier customers and increased customer loyalty. Many contributing factors can help to improve customer service; flexibility and scalability means that they’re needs are attended to quickly and efficiently, reduced costs allow more money to be invested in improving the customer experience, and decreased downtime reduces customer frustration.
Additionally, application programming interfaces (APIs) can be used to gather customer data, providing them with a personalised experience that incentivises their loyalty.
Conclusion
With customer expectations rising in tandem with business pressures and costs, now is the time for businesses to focus on their survival. Businesses must take the leap, and move their contact centres to the cloud to ensure business continuity, improve their customer service, productivity and data security, and slash costs.