Contact Center, The Business Cloud, The Cloud

What Is a Cloud Contact Center and What Can It Do for You?

Companies are switching to cloud-based communications after the pandemic made it clear that location-agnostic systems are a key to building business resilience. While unified communications (UC) is the heart of internal communications, for customer-facing teams, a cloud contact center is a must.

Organizations across the globe are well aware of this – growth for the cloud-based contact center market is expected to accelerate at a compound annual growth rate of nearly 20 percent from 2021 to 2026.

But the benefits of having a remote contact center go far beyond increasing resilience.

With a cloud contact center, your business can improve employee engagement, increase customer experience (CX), and more. Let’s unpack the details of a cloud-based contact center and explore why this technology is turning out to be such a vital part of post-pandemic business communications.

What Is a Cloud Contact Center?

A cloud contact center is a contact center that relies on software hosted in the cloud. That means the software lives on secure off-site servers maintained by a cloud provider.

In contrast to a traditional contact center – where customer service agents work on-site – with a cloud contact center, your agents can work from anywhere. That’s why it’s also known as a virtual or remote contact center.

Ultimately, instead of a physical office space serving as the hub of customer service communications, it’s the technology itself that acts as the hub.

 

As long as contact center employees have the software downloaded on their laptop, desktop, or another device, they can operate from any location.

Here’s the best part: Even with this leaner, high-tech setup, customers still receive an exceptional experience. In fact, with an industry-leading contact center solution, your teams can deliver more streamlined, personalized, and convenient service.

How Does a Cloud-Based Contact Center Work?

Don’t worry about renting office space or hiring local agents. When you’re using the cloud, you can put together a remote team.

Here’s how the contact center works:

• Your organization chooses a contact center as a service (CCaaS) solution. For the best results, opt for software with features for call queue management, smart routing, advanced call handling, and built-in business intelligence.

• Agents download the software suite to their devices. They might also need contact center equipment, such as a headset to ensure sound quality, and a good internet connection.

• The software does all the heavy lifting. When a customer calls, the CCaaS routes the call to the most appropriate agent. A modern solution will also track the interaction in real-time, giving managers useful insights. And with a CCaaS that integrates with your unified communications solution (UCaaS), your agents can also interact with customers via chat, email, SMS messaging, and voice.

6 Benefits of a Cloud Contact Center

Aside from the flexibility that comes with a remote team, there are other important benefits your business stands to gain from a cloud contact center.

1. The Ability to Offer 24/7 Customer Service

With a virtual team, your contact center agents don’t have to be in one location. You can hire agents in different time zones to expand your contact center’s availability without burdening your staff. This can lead to less customer frustration because they can call at their preferred time. It also helps to spread out call activity, making it easier to manage peak hours.

2. Reduced Contact Center Costs

Without the need to pay for office space, your business can save on overhead expenses with a remote contact center. Because you’re using cloud-based software, you also don’t need to pay for on-site servers and IT resources, and deploying a cloud solution is faster and more cost-effective than an on-premises one.

3. Better Engaged Employees

Cloud contact center software is designed to streamline processes for agents. With features like IVR (interactive voice response) and skill-based routing, customers are less frustrated, and agents can spend more time with customers who have complex issues.

4. Improved CX

Better engagement in itself boosts CX – research shows that companies that excel at customer experience tend to have 60 percent more engaged employees. But there are more ways that having a cloud contact center can give your CX a lift.

With an integrated cloud-based solution, customers have more interaction options, enabling them to connect using the channel they prefer. Agents also have better data visibility, which means they have real-time customer information that can help them resolve issues faster.

5. Advanced Business Intelligence

A modern CCaaS brings together real-time data, including in-depth interaction analysis powered by artificial intelligence. Managers can use these built-in analytics to make real-time decisions and generate custom reports. They can then use that information to identify issues, agents who need training, and how the contact center as a whole can improve.

6. Optimal Security and Reliability

When you use the right cloud provider, your remote contact center can also count on best-in-class security and reliability. Because your provider can invest more time and resources into network and infrastructure security, your business might be less vulnerable to a data breach with a cloud contact center. You can also choose a provider who guarantees exceptional uptime, so your agents never have to worry about poor performance.

Start Your Cloud Contact Center Today

With cloud technology, businesses of all sizes can operate with a high-quality contact center and deliver excellent customer service. All you need to do to get started is choose your CCaaS.

Intermedia Contact Center is a cloud-based solution that comes with all the features your business needs to boost employee engagement and customer experience and increase efficiencies. Learn more about how it works today!