My family recently welcomed a new child into our lives – and into the house we bought years ago that once fit our family of four nicely. Now, we have three kids, a re-designed kitchen, a bedroom-turned-playroom that’s becoming a playroom-turned-bedroom to accommodate the new baby, with many of our children’s toys and supplies exiled to our attic. Due to the state of the housing market, moving isn’t a realistic option, yet we need a lot more space.
This all got me thinking: Wouldn’t it be cool if we lived in a “hosted” house? Like a hosted software environment, we could easily add on a bedroom, taking it away when our oldest goes to college. We could expand our yard for however long our children want to play football in the back. Since we now have less time to clean the house, we could have someone come in and do it every day, for free. We’d have built-in service any time there’s a plumbing problem, A/C issue or need to re-decorate. And my personal favorite: Our TVs, microwaves, refrigerator and dishwasher would be upgraded constantly, without being charged a dime.
Financially there are huge benefits to a “hosted house.” No initial cash outlay—and instead of locking ourselves into a 30-year mortgage, we’d only pay for however long we choose to live here. There’s virtually no risk in case we realize we made a mistake and want to move.
While the “hosted house” concept isn’t hitting my neighborhood anytime soon, it’s readily accessible to contact centers through hosted, cloud-based dialers. After years of relying on on-premise dialers (or in this allegory, that costly house that isn’t built to scale, where you need to make every repair and upgrade), consumer-facing organizations can now gain the same flexibility, cost savings and resource utilization that I’d face in my dream home:
- Like that added temporary bedroom for our newborn, businesses only need to pay for the exact number of phone lines and licenses they need, with the option to increase or decrease based on agent capacity at any given moment;
- Similar to the updated home electronics, upgrades are conducted in real-time, and are automatically built into the dialing system for free;
- Built-in cleaning and repairs (proactive and reactive) is just like the frequent upgrades all customers receive without having to spend dollars and waste time deliberating over the investment. The latest and greatest are supplied constantly;
- The house without a mortgage is the same as a hosted dialer with a minimal up-front investment and low maintenance fees.
The next time you’re debating on-premise vs. hosted dialers, ask yourself: Which house would you rather live in?
