Call centers must have an immaculate reputation, both for the generation of revenue and for impeccable customer service. In recent years, the cloud-hosted contact center has gained traction in the corporate world, due to the many benefits these types of call centers offer over traditional ones. Here are several of the advantages of hosting your call center in the cloud, and why you should make the switch from a conventional call center to a cloud call center.
1) Cloud-based call centers boost productivity.
Having your call center in the cloud gives you a great deal of flexibility, which translates into genuine revenue for your bottom line. Traditional call centers require your agents to “check in” with managers to monitor the degree of calls, judging by both quantity and quality in context. With a cloud-based one, managers can use the cloud to eliminate wasted time through real-time monitoring and call routing. Also, cloud-based contact centers are entirely scalable from the start, since online resources may be added or subtracted according to the volume of calls.2) Broader access of services, localized for your customers.
The proliferation of smartphones and tablets in the past year have made cloud-based contact centers a must-have for any business. Consumers want direct access to customer support all day, every day. With a cloud-based call center, you can meet the demands of your customer easily: your staff of agents are available around the globe (not just when you are open for business). Furthermore, cloud-hosted applications allow you to add whatever services you need to personalize your customers’ experience. Finally, customer data may be stored in the cloud as well, providing your agents with all of the necessary information to properly meet the needs of your clientele.3) Data is more secure in a cloud-based call center.
When you store your information in an internal network, your data is subject to the elements. A hardware crash, a power surge, or general human error can cause your mainframes to malfunction, and even with a perfect system backup, your traditional call center may be compromised for days or even weeks. With a cloud-based contact center, you have the advantage of storing large volumes of data offsite, so the information you store there will be more protected from common technology pitfalls.4) Cloud-based servers allow for rapid deployment, with very little infrastructure costs.
When you create a conventional call center, you have to purchase IT infrastructure, software, hardware and telephony, and you must go through an extensive hiring and training process to prepare your team of agents. With cloud-based contact centers, everything is already set up and ready to go. In addition, all of your cloud-based agents are often working-from-home with their own equipment, which allows you to circumvent additional costs. In the end, all that you really need is a computer with internet access to connect with your cloud-hosted contact center.5) The most cost-effective type of call center is a cloud-based one.
This cannot be stressed enough: you are guaranteed to save money on your bottom line with a cloud-based contact center. There is no upfront expenditure to get the call center up and running. You don’t have to hire an IT team, or purchase the necessary hardware. Employees are often very satisfied working offsite – making the turnover rate for agents quite low – minimizing your costs for the hiring and training process. And since the software and hardware is constantly being updated by the cloud center itself, there’s no need to physically upgrade your own conventional call center’s infrastructure as the years go by.
Traditional contact centers simply cannot compete with what cloud-based ones have to offer: simple start-up, reliable and secure data infrastructure, a dedicated team of agents, and a revenue-building model that pays for itself almost immediately. It’s clearly a win-win for any business.