Modernizing Customer Experience: Why Cloud-based Contact Centers Are the Way Forward
Prashanth Kancherla
Jul 13, 2023 | 7 mins read
“The cloud services companies of all sizes; the cloud is for everyone. The cloud is a democracy.”
Marc Benioff, co-founder and CEO, Salesforce
Like all industries, call or contact centers are also going through a paradigm shift in terms of the technology they use, to provide the best customer experience. With the COVID-19 pandemic leading to effective use of technology to work from any location, and remote working becoming an acceptable standard of work, call centers are also adapting to a remote setup for their teams. Additionally, with the workforce and customers spread geographically, it is essential to move towards a more virtual setup, even for call or contact centers.
A cloud-based contact or call center is primarily a communication hub that uses cloud technology to host the call center technology. With the cloud as the equivalent of physical call center infrastructure, it handles all types of customer calls (both inbound and outbound) and communications, including voice, email, SMS, social media, and the web.
So, in contrast to an on-premise call center at a specific location, a cloud call or contact center can be accessed by anyone from the organization from any location through the cloud technology which is a system of high-performance servers situated at different locations across the globe.
As per the IDC report, the following figure shows the worldwide cloud IT infrastructure forecast by deployment type from 2018-2024:
First, let us understand the benefits of a virtual or cloud-based call center.
Benefits of Cloud-based Call Centers
Call centers have traditionally been physically set up with loads of telephonic infrastructure, such as cables, desk phones, desktops, and a host of other telephonic hardware. But with technological advancements, security threats, and work-from-home situations, cloud-based call centers are the future.
As more organizations that provide customer support through call centers, understand the importance and need for cloud-based call centers, let us understand the benefits of cloud-based call centers:
- Reduced requirement for physical space
One of the major benefits of cloud-based call centers is the requirement of less physical space, which reduces financial liability. Reduced physical space also reduces maintenance costs and other overhead expenses. As a result, money saved can be utilized in employee training and other essential expenses that can enhance customer experience.
- Improved productivity of the employees
As per a study by FlexJobs, about 66% of employees feel that their productivity is more at home than at the office. Similarly, according to a 9-month study by Stanford University, remote workers are 13% more productive than office workers. So, remote working might enhance the productivity of your employees.
- Improved management of the virtual team
With cloud-based IT setup and new remote team management software (such as Calendly, Doodle, Float, Organize Better, and Trello, to name a few) help to assemble and manage a virtual team effectively. You do not need to assemble the entire team in a single location. Online communicators, such as Microsoft Teams and Slack, help you connect with and manage your team at any time, irrespective of the location.
- Improved customer management
Cloud-based call centers provide all customer information at a single location, which can be accessed by any team member and from any location. This ensures better access to customer details and better sharing of information between different departments, making it easier to provide the best service to the customer.
In addition, customer calls are handled better with little or no waiting time. Also, customers are not restricted to just calling, they can reach out to the agent or the call center via different channels, such as chat, emails, and text messages.
The latest CRM software provides a detailed dashboard for all metrics you monitor for your call center. Such dashboards provide the following information to assess how well your team is performing and what is the customer’s experience interacting with your team:
- Detailed view of the team’s performance
- Detailed view of agent’s performance
- Detailed view of all call center metrics
- Details of the customers
- Details of the customer queries or service request
- Increased flexibility
Virtual or cloud-based call centers provide greater flexibility in terms of shift working. If yours is a 24/7 call center, then in a traditional setup, you might need to run at least three shifts, pay a higher salary to the team working on the night shift and provide logistical support, such as food, transport and so on. In a cloud-based call center, you can hire people based on which time shift they are comfortable working and also need minimal logistical support. All this saves a lot of money for the organization.
These are some of the major and financially significant benefits of a cloud-based call center. Now lets us look at some of the factors that play an important role in implementing cloud-based call centers.
Artificial Intelligence and Cloud-based Call Centers
Artificial Intelligence, or AI as we refer to it, is used in almost all fields and industries today, replacing repetitive and redundant jobs.
For example, earlier, a bank employee used to answer all the queries of the customers, mostly answering the same query repetitively for different customers. This resulted in the loss of productivity and effort.
Now, with online operations and AI in the picture, all repetitive and similar questions are handled by chatbots or live chat sessions, which are AI implemented.
AI and the use of AI-based software in a cloud-based call center provide several benefits, some of the important ones are given below:
- The use of AI in call centers helps to increase the productivity of the agents, who otherwise are busy resolving repetitive customer queries. Such queries can be taken care of by chatbots or live chat sessions. This relieves the agents to take on more complex and urgent requests from the customers and/or use this time to train themselves and their teams. This saves a lot of effort and time for the agent, who can invest this time in handling more complex customer queries. As per various studies, this increases the team’s productivity by up to 60%.
- The use of AI and AI-based predictive and analytical software helps in improving customer experience by identifying and resolving customer queries in less time and with more accurate information. This improves customer and agent interaction and provides a better customer experience. These solutions scan and categorize customer requests faster and more effectively. As a result, customer requests are handled faster lowering handle times and improving customer satisfaction.
- The use of AI helps in gathering and analyzing the data from existing customer queries, which in turn helps in a better understanding of future customer queries and requests. This saves time and effort and also provides a better user experience for the customer.
Generative AI service has been and will continue to play a major role in enhancing the service provided by call centers and ensuring a delightful user experience for the customer. However, you need to decide where the best use of AI is in your call center and how best it can be used in both AI and cloud-based call centers.
Another important aspect is security when it comes to cloud-based applications and IT setups. Security of cloud-based setups is the responsibility of both the cloud service provider and the cloud users. Most cloud services come with in-build security services, which need to be reviewed and updated periodically.
For a contact center, security is a priority because of a lot of customer data being gathered and used. One of the biggest security threats is data loss or data being misused. It is essential to review the security infrastructure and policies frequently and update them as per the security threats.
Ozonetel’s AI-powered Cloud Contact Center Solutions
Ozonetel offers you flexible, dependable solutions to build your customer communications on the cloud in an efficient, scalable manner. Leverage Ozonetel’s AI and ChatGPT-powered contact center solutions to enhance agent productivity through unbiased and intelligent performance audits. Equip agents with insights derived from millions of customer interactions, automate repetitive tasks and common queries efficiently, and deliver precise and actionable information for smarter and faster search results. Transform the customer experience at every touchpoint of their journey with its advanced capabilities. Here’s why you must use Ozonetel’s Cloud Contact Center Solutions:
Ultrafast: Ozonetel offers the industry’s fastest deployments. Have your solution up & running in as little as 24 hours if there are no external dependencies.
Interoperable: Our Open API platform seamlessly integrates with your CRM platforms
Truly omnichannel: A single platform to automate & manage phone calls, SMS, WhatsApp messages & chatbot conversations
Secure & robust: Enterprise-grade security. Enabling 100,000+ agent logins & 24million+ calls daily
Conclusion
Cloud-based contact centers will continue to replace traditional call centers for both small businesses and enterprises. With a customer-centric approach, cloud-based call centers are best suited to provide the best user experience to the customer.
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