Along with other aspects of business operations, contact centers need to evolve to integrate with the technology of smartphones, tablets and social media. Specifically, customer service representatives should be able to communicate with clients and address customer concerns through a variety of outlets, such as social media, instant messaging, calls and texts. Contact centers that strictly use onsite solutions won’t be able to do this as easily or efficiently.
Here are several reasons for contact centers to transition to the cloud.
Increased Productivity
Contact centers that move to the cloud enable customer service agents with virtual tools that vastly improve efficiency and effectiveness. If a customer asks a question that an agent doesn’t have a clear answer to offhand, cloud-based tools will allow agents to discover information quickly and deliver answers. This is a step up from the old method of looking at document after document when trying to find a clear answer for a customer.
Additionally, the cloud allows customer service agents to work from nearly anywhere at any time. Many customer service agents even work right from home.
Faster System Deployment
Unlike the limitations of onsite contact centers, cloud-based contact center systems are often deployable within 48 hours, according to eWeek. Previously, it often took months for a system to be deployed. This too is changing with other aspects of contact centers enabled by the cloud. Shorter deployment time increases productivity, allowing businesses to focus on more important tasks because they no longer need to keep track of infrastructures.
More Cost-Effective Solutions
Contact centers utilizing the cloud have been found to effect profitability by lowering the costs of contact center operations and upfront expenses. Unlike premise-based systems, business managers don’t have to worry about spending more to expand their systems to satisfy customer service demands. Contact centers managed on private clouds are ultimately more scalable than older models.
Better Overall Customer Interaction
Delivering a positive customer experience is vital for businesses today. Cloud-based contact centers are more favorable than legacy systems for customer interaction because of their ability to handle more than one channel simultaneously.
The cloud allows information from several different sources to display within a single interface, assisting more efficient communications with customers. The cloud allows agents to transfer conversations to different mediums, including e-mail and phone, based on a customer’s preferred method of contact.
Tighter Security
When a contact center is located on a private cloud, businesses no longer have to worry about their sensitive data. The cloud allows data security vendors to take on the responsibility of keeping data safe and secure. Many cloud service providers offer security packages that help keep private information private. The security packages are particularly beneficial for companies that don’t have an IT team that can properly come up with effective security measures.
Ultimately, choosing cloud-based contact center solutions will increase the productivity of customer service reps, keep customers satisfied more consistently, and properly protect sensitive data. Cloud-enabled contact centers lower costs, while making contact center operations easier and more efficient.[:]
