The business contact center is a fairly old, and very useful, concept. But if your call center is using old tech, you’re probably already experiencing limitations.
Today's customers and businesses communicate instantly, and expect to coordinate that communication across all channels. Setting up a cloud-based contact center is the best way to upgrade to the latest in communications technology, and it brings some important benefits with it.
Freedom to scale
Businesses change. Sometimes they experience a period of growth; sometimes there's a downturn and you need to tighten belts while you climb back up the ladder. Some industries experience seasonal shifts that can see calls and transactions double or even triple during some times and die down significantly at others.
A cloud contact center lets you adjust fluidly to these changes. If your contact center is located on site, it can be very difficult to scale up without an enormous financial outlay. If you need to downsize, you may still have to pay for infrastructure elements you're not using or risk losing them altogether.
Using cloud contact center software, you can scale up or down as you need. You don't need any technical knowledge to take on more agents or add a feature, and you can easily scale down once a season is over or to cut expenses.
Better responsiveness
When customers call, you need to know why they're calling, how the call went, how things could be improved, and how callers felt about the interaction. If you and your staff are just answering the phone as it rings, it's hard to keep track of any of this. If you have a legacy on-premises call center, it can take months to get information collated and analyzed.
The software that comes with virtual call centers gives you all the tools you need to measure every important component of your customer interactions. You can track whatever analytics are most important to you, see why they matter, and then respond quickly.
Smarter routing
Getting your callers to the right agent is key to improving customer service, improving the agent experience, and cutting down on wasted time and frustration. The newest call center APIs give you lots of control, so you can route calls effectively using an intelligent system.
You can route calls based on the priority of the caller or to certain agents based on answers customers give when they first ring through. The system even works with you to help you understand in real time how effectively calls are being routed.
Armed with that information, you can tweak the system to make things even more efficient. You can make sure all your agents are placed where they can be most effective and productive. And you can more effectively plan those periods when you'll need to take on more agents or lower hours for a while.
Coordinated communication
Today's customers expect to be able to reach you by any communication channel. Some people still want to call, but many people want to use text messaging, email, or even social media to stay in touch.
Not only do people want these options for communication, but customers expect that anyone they talk to through one channel will be aware of communication that has already happened via other channels. This means you need omnichannel integration.
When someone calls your virtual contact center, agents can see all the data related to that customer, including emails, chats, or social media communication that has already taken place. With that level of integration, you will be equipped to deliver a customer service experience your callers will appreciate.
