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Mar 03 2017 3 Reasons To Move Your Contact Center To The Cloud

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What would you say if I were to ask you, “What is the goal of your contact center?” Hopefully it’s something along the lines of helping people solve their problems in a way that is as efficient and painless as possible. (If not, well… that’s a whole different issue.) It’s a very “warm and fuzzy” human pursuit, but if you peel back the layers on most customer service strategies designed to meet that goal, you’re going to find technology nestled at the heart of it, in the form of customer contact software. This should come as no surprise, since it’s the central hub for communications where most customer interaction and service-related transactions happen.

That means any contact center leader worth their salt is always looking for an edge in finding the right balance between enhancing customer experience and reducing costs. Sounds great in theory, right? But achieving equilibrium between maximizing cost efficiencies and identifying the best channels to engage with customers, to learn how to retain them and increase their loyalty to your business isn’t easy.

This is where the cloud comes into play. As technology continues to play an increasingly critical role in the contact center, the cloud is proving to not only a viable option, but perhaps the best option to affordably reduce the effort of your customers the exceptional OmniChannel experience.

So if you’re a contact center supervisor who is buckling under the weight of your options, here are three key reasons why investing in a cloud contact center might be the right decision for you.

No. 1: It Supports a New Generation of Customers

Smartphones and tablets have already transformed the way that customers do business with you, so it makes sense that the customer service industry is feeling the pressure to adequately support these devices, since this is how most people would prefer to interact with you.

In addition, an increasing amount of customer service teams are also looking to add new support channels like SMS, Web-chat and social media to properly service their customers. Cloud contact centers are an attractive option because they offer access to new features and channels without breaking the bank. Cloud contact centers have zero to little upfront costs and a palatable usage-based OPEX, making the transition from an on premise contact center to the cloud both easy and profitable.

No. 2: Upgrade Your IT with No Upfront Investment

The cloud model is subscription-based, so all technology management and ownership is outsourced to the provider and the user pays for the service on-demand.

Or, to put that in plainer terms, you’ll never have to go through another painful (and expensive) software upgrade again. Cloud offerings generally offer best-of-breed technology platforms delivering tremendous agility, massive scalability and information security measures more stringent than even some of the most sophisticated corporate environments. Making the leap to the cloud can drive significant cost savings and reduced TCO. The Aspect Software cloud infrastructure does an excellent job delivering both performance and scalability.

No. 3: Anytime, Anywhere Support 

The rapid proliferation of online services and mobile devices is driving demand for customer support that is available 24×7. Cloud contact centers make it easy to provide on-demand customer support anytime, anywhere in the world. For customer service teams tapping into the rich labor pool that is the “at-home agent” market, cloud contact centers are opening new doors in providing significant flexibility and control.

Final Thought

Cloud contact centers can drive significant operational efficiencies without chewing its way through your budget. And the flexibility, scalability and data integrity delivered can far exceed even some of the most stringent corporate environments.

That said, as the interest in migrating the contact center to the cloud has increased, so has the number of cloud contact center solution providers. So there are a lot of cloud contact center providers in the market today. If you’re feeling a bit at a loss about where to start looking, I’d recommend checking out some of the well-known providers, including Aspect Software, 8×8, Interactive Intelligence, and inContact.

They all have great options available, but remember you’ll need to determine which solution best aligns with your goals, needs and your budget. Because while cloud technology is agile by nature, there is no such thing as a  “one-size-fits-all” cloud platform.