Companies have been alleviating costs by outsourcing their customer service needs to third-party call centers for years. By allowing a separate company to handle their customer calls, they’re able to save on networking, infrastructure, and software needs, paying the third-party only a fraction of what it would cost to maintain all the necessary components themselves. But as technology continues to evolve in favor of wireless communications and technology, a new trend has developed that will simplify call center services even further: the cloud-based contact center.
Through cloud migration, call centers can have all of the software they need without being saddled with infrastructure-related expenses. This includes all the required applications, databases, help and scripting documentation, and communication programs. Cloud-based customer service also allows for all of the core functionality expected from a call center, like call routing, and the necessary security features to protect your customers’ information. Service providers shoulder the burden of providing their subscribers with these features while maintaining the software they use, including associated IT functions and duties, as well as regular upgrades and troubleshooting.
The nature of cloud-based services also makes for stronger service reliability. When severe weather or natural disasters strike, the functionality you migrated to the cloud will be unaffected. System backups provided by the cloud results in significantly less downtime and lost revenue all around.
The biggest benefit reaped by call centers migrating their services to the cloud, however, is scalability. Many call centers support businesses that, while doing business year-round, have set busy periods. They may serve a lot of calls during those high-traffic months, but when call volume dips low they’re still stuck paying for bandwidth, software, and other operational needs. It’s during the slow months that the call centers get hit the hardest, struggling to balance costs until the busy season returns.
Not only do cloud-based operations reduce costs all around, but they can be adjusted to accommodate for less (or more) work. Call centers can adjust their cloud usage to control their expenses as their business needs demand without having to resort to more drastic cost-cutting measures. Flexible infrastructure costs like these allow for easy adaptability. The cloud is also a great way to connect all of your customer service representatives at once, regardless of their location. Those working from home or different office locations around the country can work with customers and each other through simple software options, greatly reducing the amount of specialized equipment needed to bring the team together and grant everyone access to the tools they need.
A growing number of call centers have turned to cloud migration for the above reasons and more, and it’s inevitable that the industry as a whole adopts cloud migration practices in the near future. Rather than wait for the industry to make cloud migration services a commonplace practice, it’s in the best interest of call centers to adapt early. Those that do will hold several major advantages, outlined above, over their competitors who don’t and will stand firmly on the edge of new and emerging cloud services that could improve their efficiency even further.