Managing a call centre and keeping customers happy can be challenging. However, the good news is that you can make things easier with a Contact Centre as a Service solution.
First off, let’s talk about what we mean by “contact centre” – as it’s easy to get contact and call centres confused. The difference is that as well as handling incoming calls, contact centres also use various digital channels, such as social media, live chats and emails, for customer support.
Keeping track of all of these – especially if a customer decides to use more than one of them for the same query or transaction – can be tricky. That’s where Contact Centre as a Service (CCaaS) solutions comes in, giving businesses the ability to run a virtual contact centre wherever they are. Everything is completely cloud based – it doesn’t matter if teams are at home, in the office or working remotely.
Traditionally, contact centres use a private cloud network which can be complex and resource heavy. For some organisations, for example highly regulated industries such as banking and financial services, this is a worthwhile compromise. However, moving your contact centre to a public cloud with CCaaS solutions changes everything – you will experience benefits such as rapid deployment and scalability, alongside the expected flexibility, reliability, security and more.
Since the pandemic hit and remote working increased, we’ve seen a rise in demand for CCaaS. Here are some of the main benefits of moving your contact centre to the cloud:
Cost-effective
CCaaS is appealing for a number of reasons, but one of the main ones is that it enables businesses to purchase only the technology they need, reducing extra costs tied to traditional call centre systems. You’ll save on expensive hardware, IT support and overall energy costs.
Another big cost saving that comes with using a CCaaS solution is that you only pay for what you need. Traditional call centre technology pricing is fixed, with limited to no flexibility on cost adjustments, however often you use it. But users of CCaaS typically pay a monthly licensing fee or pay-as-you-go pricing, so you never pay for more than you are using.
Better customer experience
Customers may choose to call you, but increasingly people prefer to use different channels like live chats, email or social media. Luckily, many cloud-based contact centre solutions support omnichannel experiences. This means that your agents can meet customers wherever they are most comfortable – whether it be over the phone, email, video chat, texting, or Facebook messaging.
Contact centre agents can pick up and respond to questions or requests coming from various channels, your customers will get faster responses (without being put on hold!) and in a way that’s most convenient for them.
Scalable
Making adjustments to your on-premise system, such as adding new features or installing it on new computers can be a hassle.
CCaaS solutions, meanwhile, are all easily scalable. Because you only pay for the features you need, you can adjust your plan at any time. Need a greater plan with more features because your business is growing? With just a few clicks, you can move from your current plan to a different one.
If your contact centre starts growing rapidly or experiences a sudden increase in calls, it’s also easy to add in more agents to the system. This may be the case during seasonal periods if you need take on temporary staff to meet that demand.
If you need a custom plan for your company, that’s not a problem either, all CCaaS providers tend to offer tailor made plans too.
Flexibility
Another big benefit of a cloud-based contact centre is the flexibility it gives employees in terms of remote working. Since agents can access the software online, it’s much easier for them to work in different locations but still be managed effectively. Having some of your employees working remotely can help cut business costs too, if you want to downsize your office space or aren’t ready to scale up.
Giving your employees more freedom and flexibility to work where they choose may also boost morale and employee productivity.
Improves productivity
Contact Centre as a Service platforms have all the tools your agents might need, all in one piece of software.
This includes call monitoring and recording, silent monitoring, video meetings, instant messaging and more. If agents can perform all of their tasks in one place, it will naturally speed up their work. What’s more, CCaaS tools allow users to quickly and easily share files or updates between team members.
Such platforms also have built-in automation features to take care of repetitive tasks like updating databases or sending emails. This saves your agents time and as long as those automation tools are regularly monitored, they can do several tasks at the same time. That means more time for your staff to take care of your customers!
Report and analyse
Using CCaaS will give you access to automatic reporting and analytics. The software can track key contact centre metrics, such as uptime, downtime as well as missed and declined calls.
These insights can boost overall performance. If you’re seeing a big increase in missed calls, for example, you might need to evaluate whether you have enough agents during peak hours to keep up.
Likewise, these reporting tools will help managers and supervisors recognise when agents may need additional training and enable them to perform their jobs efficiently and effectively.
CCaaS technology isn’t going away any time soon. By 2027, the global contact centre software market is expected to climb to $72.3 billion. Choosing to invest in a cloud-based solution now could help save you time and money down the road when you would (inevitably) need to make the switch from an on-premise solution to a cloud-based one.
We recently announced a strategic partnership with leading CCaaS provider, Five9 and they are joining us for our next OneTALKS webinar on June 30th. We will explore how Contact Centre as a Service is changing the way businesses of all sizes create profitable customer experiences through purchasing only the technology they really need.
Keep your contact centre ahead of the curve with a CCaaS solution from Onecom – just contact our team to find out more.