A traditional, on-premise contact center is quickly becoming a thing of the past. They need a lot of maintenance, require hard-to-find replacement parts, and don’t usually address multichannel customer expectations.
For these reasons, cloud contact center solutions are the right approach for companies to evolve the customer experience.
What is a Cloud-based Contact Center?
For background, a cloud-based contact center is the central communications hub where companies field and resolve customer inquiries and oversee outbound communications. The contact center is hosted on an internet server and utilizes several communications channels such as voice, email, social media, and online chat.
In addition, all these channels are part of the same integrated system. So, while customers can engage according to their preferences, they can also switch to a different channel (such as email or webchat) without disrupting the service.
On-premise vs. Cloud Contact Center
An on-premise contact center is the more traditional, hardware-based contact center setting. All communications infrastructure, including hardware and software, stay onsite. Because of their infrastructure, an on-premise contact center typically requires frequent maintenance and upgrades, which can become expensive and interrupt service for customers.
A cloud-based contact center, on the other hand, is hosted in the cloud rather than on-site, which makes communication more accessible. Since communication happens via the cloud, agents can be located anywhere and customers can always reach the business, particularly through intelligent virtual agents (IVAs).
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Cloud-based Contact Center
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On-premise Contact Center
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No hardware required
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Hardware required
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Convenient, streamlined implementation
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Complex implementation
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Low maintenance, often managed by a third party
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High maintenance, requires on-site management
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High reliability
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Greater risk of service disruption
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Real-time service upgrades
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Manual and often time-intensive service upgrades
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Seamless scalability
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Inhibited scalability
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6 Benefits of Cloud Contact Center Solutions
A cloud-based contact center offers advantages to businesses that are not available in a legacy, on-premise contact center. Six benefits are outlined below:
Benefit #1: Flexibility
Since a cloud-based contact center does not rely on a physical location, it is a more flexible option for organizations with remote and hybrid workforces. Cloud contact centers also offer greater flexibility to adjust contact center operations as needed (e.g., based on usage, as the organization grows, etc.).
One type of business that can benefit from this scalability is one that’s seasonal, such as a lawn care company. Cloud solutions make it simple for contact centers to expand or reduce software licenses, servers, IT personnel, etc. based on their needs. Seasonal companies can scale up or down as needed depending on demand.
Additionally, with a cloud-based contact center companies also pay for what they use, and there are no overhead fees, which ensures every penny is used wisely. This also means that seasonal companies do not have to worry about paying for the tool during off-season.
Benefit #2: Multichannel Support
Today’s customers value options and immediacy. Having multiple communications options available means customers can easily reach a business in the ways they prefer. For example, a cloud-based contact center can offer customers different channels or points of access to support (e.g., phone calls, voice bots, interactive voice response, webchat, video, email, social media, etc.). This allows customers to choose which method of communication is most convenient for them, which increases satisfaction.
Benefit #3: Cutting-Edge Technology
For companies that use an on-premise contact center system, it can take weeks or months to deploy new technologies and/or channels. With a cloud-based contact center, businesses can add capabilities on the fly, which allows agents to immediately act on new opportunities.
Some providers will even let users pilot new tools before they make a long-term commitment. This allows companies to test the waters with new solutions before fully implementing the technology.
One cutting-edge technology businesses can deploy is an AI-enabled IVA. IVAs enable task automation, lower average call cost, allow self-service, and are available 24/7. This technology helps businesses get the most of their cloud-based contact center, as it streamlines business processes and allows live agents to focus on more complex business matters.
Benefit #4: Enterprise-grade Reliability
A traditional on-premise contact center is more susceptible to outages than a cloud-based contact center. Common risks include local severe weather, building hazards, and even regional network outages.
Cloud contact center solutions are built for reliability. The latest contact center technologies support high network uptime and typically have disaster recovery solutions in place to mitigate downtime.
Benefit #5: Reduce Costs and Generate Revenue
Cloud contact center solutions provide several cost-reducing features. Provide support to your customers without the need to expand your workforce or extend work hours. Mosaicx is a cloud-based IVA that can be added to a contact center. It’s available 24/7 to answer frequently asked questions such as current balance, application status, and transaction history.
Using AI, Mosaicx relieves the burden placed on human agents, escalating issues to human agents only as necessary. Human agents can then focus on the most challenging, custom, or complex tasks.
Businesses can also maximize sales opportunities with IVAs. IVAs can send promotions, loyalty programs, new services, and portfolio enhancements via personalized SMS or voice messages. IVAs can even send customers messages about billing, application status, and announcements.
Benefit #6: Better Customer Experience
A cloud-based contact center has access to a wealth of customer data that can improve problem-solving and support. The purpose of contact center operations is to solve problems for customers. You want to make it as easy as possible for them to get in touch with you. Seamless interactions can play a significant role in a positive customer experience.
A cloud-based contact center enables customers to engage with the business in the ways that work best for them, which can lead to a better experience. This is possible because many cloud contact centers leverage modern solutions such as IVAs. These virtual agents also help businesses enhance the customer experience by personalizing responses to customers.
IVAs can gather data, predict customer needs, learn about customer behavior, make simple transactions, understand requests and perform complex tasks, all while offering a humanlike experience for customers to reach a resolution quickly. By delivering high-quality experiences to customers, businesses can increase customer loyalty.
Mosaicx Optimizes Cloud Contact Center Operations
Mosaicx enhances cloud-based contact centers to help you meet your customer experience goals. Mosaicx uses machine learning to understand the spoken word or text to help customers find information quickly and resolve issues without the help of a live agent. The software provides personalized responses and recommends the next best action, creating always-on, surprisingly simple experiences.
Mosaicx uses conversational AI to support defined customer service modules, like taking payments or checking account information. We identify customer needs, look for services to automate, and select corresponding service modules to create an experience that is exclusively yours.
Cloud contact center solutions are a great option for companies that want to evolve contact center operations. Businesses that implement a cloud-based contact center can see benefits such as flexibility, multichannel support, cutting-edge technology, reliability, cost savings, revenue opportunities, and a better customer experience.
Mosaicx
