No longer are call centers hardwarecentric. Capital costs have dropped considerably, and features have multiplied. With cloud call center software, the hardware that does the heavy lifting is located elsewhere and services are delivered over the Internet. Starting a call center now requires a much lower initial investment, making the call center a real option even for small startups. Download this white paper to learn more.
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Great call center features are available to businesses of all sizes with cloud call center software
Before the cloud, the call center was all about the hardware Call centers required dedicated support teams and trained technicians to install, configure and manage the infrastructure, and call centers had little flexibility The pre-cloud call center required a capital investment on a scale that was only available to big players with deep pockets Tools for things like call recording were expensive and required long term commitments
All that changed with cloud-based call center software No longer are call centers hardware-centric Capital costs have dropped considerably, and features have multiplied With cloud call center
software, the hardware that does the heavy lifting is located elsewhere and services are delivered over the Internet Starting a call center now requires a much lower initial investment, making the call center a real option even for small startups
With cloud-based call center software, businesses have more control over features from how calls are routed to which greeting messages play for callers Moreover, data collection, analysis, and reporting are far more sophisticated, allowing call center managers to make informed decisions about staffing and make the call center as efficient as possible Call center software is not only affordable, it opens
up great customer relations opportunities for businesses that may never have imagined being able to afford a call center
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Innovative Technologies
Interactive voice response, easy configuration, and advanced reporting make cloud call center
software a winner
Research by Magnetic North found that 71% of decision-makers in legacy contact centers are open to cloud technology or actively considering implementing cloud-based call center software due to
limitations of legacy equipment Around half of respondents said that legacy contact center equipment prevented them from reaching key performance indicators
Some of the terrific features you’ll find with today’s cloud-based call center software include speech
recognition, skills-based routing, configurable interactive voice response (IVR) capability, advanced
analytics, and reporting And one of the most popular things about cloud call center software is that
updates are rolled out uniformly, quickly, and without disruption
Cloud call center software scales up or down easily, whether you have a 10-person call center or a
call center employing hundreds of people Should your call center needs change, scaling is quick
Easy scalability is great for businesses that have seasonal variability, because it’s done using an
intuitive web-based interface and can be done far more quickly than scaling up a legacy call center
Other great features you can expect from your cloud-based call center software include simple and
secure agent login and logout, flexible queuing, skill-based ring strategies, real-time displays, agent
“barge in,” monitoring, and whisper functionality, and recording of agent calls for archival or quality
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Easy Integration
Cloud call center software lets you integrate with CRM and other business applications
Cloud call center software can now be easily integrated with other applications your call center team regularly uses, including customer relationship management (CRM) platforms With today’s cloud-based call centers, rather than having separate contact management, IVR, conversion management, and autodial solutions, all these solutions can be integrated, resulting in a much more efficient
solution that costs less
With old systems, integrating the applications used in your call center was painstaking and required a lot of time and expertise from your IT team Those days are over Integration of call center software with CRM solutions like Microsoft Dynamics, Salesforce, and NetSuite is readily available and pre-packaged This allows for seamless integration; agents can keep using the CRM application they’re used to while experiencing a smoother, more productive workflow
Some cloud call center software solutions also support integration with things like billing systems and order entry systems, so customer requests can be managed more quickly You can even get cloud call center software with Do Not Call compliance software
The net result of using call center software that plays nicely with other business applications is more productive agents, who won’t waste time transitioning from one app to another Accuracy of records should improve, and customer relationships can be strengthened when customers find the service they get when they call your agents to be quick, helpful, and accurate The old hardware-centric call centers simply could not do all the things that today’s cloud-based call centers can do, let alone at the
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Scalability & Flexibility
Should your small call center need to grow, scaling up is easy with cloud call center software
The scalability of cloud call center software favors small businesses With huge enterprises,
eventually the cost of building their own data centers becomes more cost-effective than using the cloud But with small and medium-sized businesses, the scalability of the cloud can be revolutionary, particularly when needs change rapidly
When small startups utilize the cloud for their call center software, they can immediately use features they couldn’t afford in the days of the hardware-centric call center Should their call center grow, they can add new seats as they’re needed rather than planning ahead to have legacy equipment installed
in hopes of it being used eventually
Moreover, businesses with seasonal pushes, like those that do the majority of their business around Christmas, can scale up call center operations quickly and efficiently, and then scale them back down when call center activity goes back to its normal level
Flexibility is inherent in cloud call center software Not only can different configurations be done easily through a web portal, call center operations themselves are more flexible Depending on the phone system supporting the call center, agent telecommuting becomes an option, one that can help reduce call center turnover
The analysis and reporting features in most cloud call center software gives call center managers
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Customer Satisfaction
Cloud call centers give you the tools to maximize customer satisfaction
If your call center is based on legacy hardware that you can’t bear to replace due to all the money you’ve sunk into it, you could be hurting your business long term Customers don’t like having to call customer service, and when they encounter dropped calls and inefficient customer service, they’re more likely to become someone else’s customer
Fortunately, cloud call center software helps improve customer service When your cloud call center
is integrated with your CRM system, an incoming number can be linked with a customer profile
Because a customer profile is displayed on the screen, whoever takes the call immediately knows who is calling This eliminates a lot of information intake that used to be manual, saving everyone time and frustration
Cloud call center systems assist with agent training as well Call center managers can listen in on calls without the caller’s knowledge, can advise the agent during the call without the caller knowing, and can even barge into a call should that become necessary These features make agent training quicker and more effective, so agents can maximize productivity as soon as possible
The statistics and reporting that is done by today’s cloud call center software tells call center
managers everything they need to know about times and days when call volume goes up, length of calls, and routing of calls All this information makes it easier for the call center manager to schedule staffing appropriately and tweak call routing rules to ensure more customers are well-served
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Takeaways
Today’s call center is miles ahead of the call center of a few years ago
Cloud-based call center software has resulted in the modern call center that is in another league from the “iron-based” call centers of yesterday A generation ago, only large companies with big budgets could afford call center features that are considered basic today The cloud makes these features affordable and available, even to the smallest businesses
Because today’s cloud-based call centers make it easy to configure and scale operations, managers have much more control The cloud allows for quick and easy scaling up and scaling down When it becomes clear that five more agents are needed, adding those five seats can be done as soon as the new people are onboard No longer do call centers have to pay for seats that go unused most of the year to accommodate peak demand periods
Integration of call center software with business applications, including CRM software, billing, and ordering streamline operations, makes the call center as well as the overall business more efficient In addition, the flexibility inherent in the cloud call center makes it possible to integrate cost-effective perks like allowing agents to telecommute
If you thought your small business couldn’t afford to have its own call center, it’s time to think again
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