Businesses need to step up with the growing customer demands, optimize their existing IT ecosystem and migrate to a technology that can ensure seamless a customer experience which will retain customers in order to stay ahead of the complex competitive environment.
Cloud-based contact centers do just that. They are a service based on a network where a provider owns and runs call center technology, offering their services remotely to businesses through a subscription model. Cloud-based call centers provide a fresh way to tackle your business challenges by enhancing customer interaction, boosting customer satisfaction, and pinpointing areas in the organization that would greatly benefit from this model’s implementation.
The following reasons will showcase why you should choose a cloud based call centre rather than an on-premise one:
Installation
On-premise: It can be time-consuming. This includes planning the necessary hardware, licensing, setting up and making the software systems compatible.
Cloud-based: Perhaps the easiest as it does not require any complexity of maintaining the hardware and operates efficiently right out of the box, without any assembly.
Operational & Ownership Costs
On-premise: The cost is relatively high. The setup costs include purchasing the hardware (servers, headsets or phone, computers, etc.), licensing, and the necessary office space for its accommodation. Further expenses amount up due to newer revolutionizing technology and frequent software upgrades.
Cloud-based: Typically no investment necessary in the hardware, hence these systems don’t have substantial setup costs. The only costs that these systems require is a strong internet connection as everything is cloud-based.
Easy Call Centre Management
On-premise: With hardwired systems and software systems consuming considerable amount of resources of the call centres, managing them on a regular basis becomes a strenuous task.
Cloud-based: These, on the other hand, require minimal management as the most significant burden of maintaining hardware systems is eliminated.
Flexibility in Business Operations
On-premises: Once installed, it is difficult to customize them as the number of agents fluctuates. Also, with on-premise systems, customer agents cannot work remotely. This creates a hurdle in delivering 24*7 customer service which will result in the loss of valuable customers.
Cloud-based: In contrast, Cloud systems are available through subscriptions, making it simple to add or remove users by canceling a subscription. These systems also enable agents to work remotely as long as they have a good internet connection, providing dependable customer support regardless of their location or time zone.
Scalability as your Business Grows
On-premise: As your call centre grows, it becomes necessary to scale your centres supporting workforce. The scalability of this system is sluggish as new investment has to be made in new hardware & architecture.
Cloud-based: These offer a scalable software system where they are just dependent on data servers. There is no external investment on the new hardware systems.
Reliability over your business systems
On-premise: One vital advantage that on-premise has over cloud-based systems is the quality of the call. However, in the event of a physical system breakdown, it affects the overall performance of the call centres.
Cloud-based: These are far more reliant on a strong Internet connection. So, better the connection the more robust customer support you will attain.
How to choose the right Cloud-based Call Centre for your Business
A myriad of cloud contact centre solutions are available in the market. However, enterprises need to evaluate various selection criteria while choosing a cloud-based contact centre. These include assessing the technology, vendor positioning as well as the targeted customers.
Technology: Enterprises need to identify the gap in their existing business strategy that creates a roadblock in delivering a seamless customer service. This includes identifying the hardware, routing, applications and workforce to manage the technology. Most importantly, businesses need a solution that will enable them to measure the successes & failures of their customer service organisation.
Vendor Positioning: Enterprises need to be strategic so that the cloud-based call centres match their strategic roadmap in customer service along with the customer experience. Vendors should help educate enterprises and provide multi-channel capabilities as they become available with version upgrades.
Realistic Strategy for your Customers: As technology is growing day by day, several businesses are engaging with cloud contact centre solutions to obtain a better picture of a cloud offering and make informed decisions on critical data. Customer experience is becoming a top priority for organisations as they have understood the basic that customer is king”. This has necessitated the need for quality service to retain existing customers and improve customer loyalty.
In conclusion, the more recent the technology, the more well maintained your IT systems and processes will be. Cloud based contact centers do just that by providing revolutionary cost-effective solution to the age old problem of traditional call-centers. Since cloud based contact centers are more poised to deliver customer delight, it is the technology that end users are going to prefer moving forward.