For some technology solutions (customer relationship management (CRM), for example) the cloud is now the de facto standard. Its rise, however, did not happen overnight.
In her recent research, Migrating to a Cloud Contact Center: Tales from the Far Side, customer experience industry analyst Sheila McGee-Smith points out that for contact centers, the move to the cloud has been slow compared to many other industries. According to the report, “For the past few years, thousands of companies large and small have chosen contact center-as-a-service (CCaaS) every year. At the same time, the proportion of businesses choosing traditional premises solutions continues to decline year over year. The direction of change is clear.”
For contact center leaders just beginning to explore cloud solutions, making the right decision can seem daunting. From customer experience improvements to operational efficiencies to possible cost savings, there are many critical issues to consider. A good place to start is by determining what you can do with your current contact center technology and compare it to what you could do with a cloud-based solution.
To help, we just released the Contact Center Cloud Technology Quick Guide. This practical primer on the cloud and its role in the contact center is designed to arm you with a high-level view of the cloud and its role in the contact center.
Here’s a peek at what it covers:
Why Move to the Cloud?
From low, upfront and predictable costs to ease of deployment and simple management, the cloud delivers benefits that appeal across industries. There are other critical capabilities enabled by the cloud, though, that take on particular value for contact centers. And these capabilities have direct effects on the increasingly critical customer experience.
The Power of Omnichannel
Omnichannel contact centers help you deliver on an exceptional customer service by enabling you to support your customers through their preferred channels. Think text, chat, email, social media. But more than that, the cloud unifies disparate systems and allows agents to connect all interactions and provide a seamless experience across channels—which amps up the overall customer experience.
Full omnichannel capabilities allow you to use intelligent call routing; pivot between interactions; share information among agents; and integrate directly with CRM platforms.
Reliability
Cloud contact centers that rely on market-leading cloud infrastructures like Amazon Web Services (AWS) help ensure your contact center is available when your customers need it—often 24/7. They also deliver high redundancy and low latency, which improve overall performance and ensure consistent availability—all mission-critical to a positive customer experience.
Security
Keeping customer data secure is critical for your contact center. A security breach is a quick way to send customers to your competitors.
Not long ago, security was the top reason companies hesitated to move to the cloud. Today, many organizations understand security in the cloud can be even more stringent than for an on-premises data center. That’s because large cloud vendors have the resources to hire the right security personnel and install the most advanced security solutions. As a cloud customer, you benefit from the same stringent security as a large enterprise, regardless of the size of your business.
Read the Complete Guide
Ready to dive a bit deeper? Download the complete Contact Center Cloud Technology Quick Guide here.
Learn + Tell Us about Your Cloud Search and Win
ICMI Contact Center Expo (May 13-16) is another valuable way to better understand how your contact center can better meet its goals. The conference offers three days of content-packed sessions, an exhibit hall for vendor info and demos, and the opportunity to talk to contact center leaders and hear practical insights.
I invite you to stop by Booth 608 to learn about Serenova’s cloud contact center solutions, including our native workforce optimization/quality management.
We’d also love to hear about your plans for exploring and possibly transitioning to the cloud. When you stop by the booth and answer five brief questions, you’ll instantly receive a Starbucks gift card. We’ll publish the results of the survey after the show.
To learn more about the state of the cloud contact center, read about the results of our survey at Enterprise Connect 2019 here.
