The importance of cloud contact center solutions

The future of enterprise business communications is based in the cloud. A cloud-based contact center can put customer satisfaction at the heart of evolving technology and open incredible pathways to efficiency and scale — especially when combined with a feature-rich unified communications-as-a-service (UCaaS) solution.

The transformation has been profound. In the past, organizations had to build out separate business phone systems and contact centers, and pay for the installation and maintenance that went with them. Or companies managed contact center solutions by tacking on components to existing private branch exchanges.

By comparison, cloud contact center solutions employ hardware-light approaches without a need for complex, on-premises set ups. When combined with a UCaaS solution, you get a flexible and effective way to connect with customers and employees across channels.

What is a cloud contact center?

Before we go any further, it would be best to establish a simple cloud contact center definition. First, a contact center allows customers to get in touch with your company via multiple channels to receive support.

As well as taking phone calls just as at a traditional call center, agents can provide support on other platforms like SMS, chat, or social media, meaning the customer can choose their preferred communication method.

It can also be used for outbound calls and messages. The various advanced features that come with modern cloud contact center solutions make life much easier for your sales agents and lead generation teams.

The cloud element simply means the platform is underpinned by cloud technology rather than on-premises infrastructure. This is generally much more convenient for the company and has a range of benefits, as we’ll discover.

How does a cloud-based contact center work?

From the client’s point of view, cloud contact center architecture is fairly straightforward compared to traditional telephony networks. Rather than using the Public Branch Exchange (PBX) setups of old, a contact center in the cloud uses a secure internet connection to a server hosted by a third-party provider.

What this means is that there’s no on-site wiring or hardware for you to maintain. Your agents can use any internet-connected device such as a laptop or phone to access the platform. Voice calls are supported by Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) technology, while messaging is transmitted instantaneously across the secure network.

All tech updates are handled by the cloud provider, so the whole process is hassle-free. On top of which, you can integrate the software with existing tools such as your CRM, so that all your customer data is available to your agents as and when they need it.

Benefits of cloud contact centers

Of course, that’s only a couple of the cloud contact center advantages you’ll notice should you decide to make the switch. There’s a whole host of other benefits, too.

Speed of deployment

In the history of contact center technology, on-site installation has been an obstacle to first-day functionality. Put simply, enterprises have had to wait weeks for engineering teams to finish the job.

The cloud can free organizations from that constraint, allowing deployment in days, sometimes hours. Less lost time means a competitive advantage, especially in a marketplace that puts a premium on speed of response.

More efficient routing

For a successful enterprise, the volume of incoming communications is always going to grow. With a cloud contact center solution in place, that doesn't have to pose a problem.

The cloud-based system automatically prioritizes and dynamically routes users to where they can be helped first, best, and most efficiently. This simplifies your workflows and makes the business of handling calls as efficient as possible. It also has the potential to deliver a significant boost to key metrics such as first call resolution rates.

Every interaction is multichannel

Nothing drives a customer crazier than having to repeat their information to every new participant in the course of a single interaction.

Voice, text, and other channels available to the user can become part of a whole-customer view that tracks and informs every participant, empowering real-time conversations at every step.

Change is the only constant when it comes to technology. And when business communications transform — i.e., artificial intelligence, chatbots, and beyond — cloud contact centers transform with them.

The good news is that as the technology behind cloud contact center tools advances and price points drop, support and service will also emerge as key differentiators.

Suits remote and hybrid teams

For teams that are geographically remote, a cloud contact center is also a mobility solution.

Since you don’t need to be physically located in an office that hosts telephony infrastructure, there are no restrictions on where your agents can operate from. All they need is an internet-connected device and secure access to the platform. This also means you can log into the system when you’re traveling for work or otherwise on the go.

Scalability

Whether a business is expanding or right-sizing, communications need to change over time. A room or suite full of expensive contact center hardware is an inefficient way to respond to this reality — a cloud-based solution that can scale at the push of a button is a better fit.

That means no more patchwork fixes to volume overload scenarios and no more over-investment when business demands adjust. Scalability is an always-on element of the approach. It also allows companies which operate in fields that experience seasonal peaks and troughs in traffic to remain nimble and continuously adapt the system to their needs.

Enterprise-grade security

Another major cloud contact center benefit is that your customer data can remain securely protected at all times. Cloud contact center technology generally comes with privacy and security measures built in to ensure business-critical information is safely stored and processed.

Typical security features include top-end encryption and secure payment options for transactions. For example, Vonage invests heavily in security and privacy measures and maintains a wide range of compliance certifications across our product lines. They include ISO 27001, PCI-DSS, SOC, HITRUST, and CSA STAR, to name just a few.

Better integrations

With the sheer amount of data processed by today’s businesses, having efficient solutions for managing it is a priority. Rather than letting information sit in isolated data silos, it’s vital to bring it together so it’s easier to keep it updated and as accurate as possible.

With cloud-based contact centers, this is straightforward to achieve. Modern cloud contact center solutions come with a wide range of integrations out of the box. These create a direct connection between your contact center software and your productivity, marketing, collaboration, and customer engagement tools. This eliminates the need for your employees to switch between multiple systems, simplifying all of your workflows.

Lower cost

Finally, one of the reasons the cloud contact center market has been expanding is that it helps companies of all sizes save money. For one thing, there’s no need to maintain an in-house infrastructure team, meaning labor costs are lower.

In addition, the ongoing costs are much more predictable. You’ll usually pay a fixed subscription per user billed on either a monthly or an annual basis. You can select different tiers of service, so you’ll never be stuck paying for features you don’t use.

Cloud contact center features: Useful tools to streamline your workflows

So, what kind of features can you expect from a cloud contact center solution? Here’s a rundown of some of the tools that you can take advantage of.

Automatic Call Distribution (ACD)

An ACD system routes inbound calls and customer messages to the appropriate channel, whether that be voice, email, chat, social, or SMS. It uses an intelligent routing algorithm to make sure any customer query reaches the right agent first time.

You can select which criteria the algorithm uses, such as skills-based routing. You can also set the system to prioritize individual calls, for example by pushing calls from premium subscribers to the head of the queue. Overall, the ACD makes the whole process of distributing calls and messages vastly more efficient. And that’s great news for your team’s productivity, not to mention customer satisfaction.

Virtual assistant

When a customer calls your contact center, the virtual assistant plays a welcome message and invites them to interact using voice or their phone keypad. It then leads the customer through an options tree.

Depending on what the customer selects, the virtual assistant will either hand over the call to be routed to a live agent by the ACD system, or will offer self-service options so the customer can resolve their query themselves. This saves time both for the customer and your support team.

Old-style automated answering systems could sometimes lead to frustration for customers if the options presented were limited and unsuitable for more complex queries. But advances in technology have made this problem a thing of the past.

Vonage’s AI-powered Virtual Assistant takes the concept to another level. It uses Natural Language Understanding (NLU) to gain a deeper insight into caller intent, meaning it can steer the customer in the correct direction quickly and consistently.

What’s more, it’s a solution that’s customized precisely to your business’s needs. A conversational designer is always on hand, both pre- and post-sale, to manage the service, so it’s kept updated precisely to your specifications.

Call recording

The call recording feature allows you to record inbound and outbound calls for future reference. You can set your own rules for which calls to record, for example by specifying individual caller numbers or simply choosing a percentage to be recorded at random.

You’ll be able to easily access the recordings whenever you need to for verification or training sessions. Some systems also let you enable agent-only recording, in which the customer end of the conversation isn’t recorded. This can be useful for coaching or quality assurance purposes.

Automated dialing

With automated dialing, there’s no need for your outbound call reps to waste time dialing individual numbers. The system queues up the next number from your list as soon as the previous call is finished. This reduces the chances of misdialing and speeds up the outbound calling process, boosting productivity.

This feature leverages dynamic dial lists that you can set to automatically refresh when new leads are added. And with the right integrations, you’ll be able to dial numbers directly from inside your CRM, saving even more time.

Voicemail drop

When your sales reps dial a number and the call goes straight to voicemail, the time spent leaving messages individually adds up over the course of a shift. Luckily, there’s a way of speeding the process up.

Voicemail drop lets you record a message in advance. As soon as an outbound call hits the recipient’s voicemail inbox, your rep can just drop the message into it with a single click and move on to the next call immediately.

Advanced video capabilities

Not everyone wants to reach out or be contacted using voice calls. And even those who do may find it helpful to switch to video chat mid-call. A top-tier cloud contact center solution will give you a broad range of video and screen-sharing capabilities, so you can speak to your customers or leads face-to-face.

Having video as a native channel in your contact center offering underpins its status as a genuinely omnichannel platform. What’s more, it can help boost trust with your customers because they can see who they’re talking to. You can usually also record video sessions and store them for later reference as needed.

Real-time analytics

Making data-driven decisions is the cornerstone of business success. To achieve this, you need to be able to view updated analysis in an accessible way. Cloud contact center solutions come with advanced analytics capabilities to help you monitor all your key metrics.

Your teams will have access to customizable dashboards that make it simple to create a detailed overview of your important data. You’ll also be able to leverage historical trend data to help adjust your strategy.

Best practices in cloud contact center migration

While the benefits of switching to a cloud contact center aren’t in doubt, the practicalities of making the move may seem challenging. But this doesn’t have to be a problem. As long as you follow a few best practices, you’ll find that the changeover goes very smoothly.

Have a migration strategy in place

You already have a lot of critical customer data stored in your legacy system. In order to avoid any potential issues around data loss or inconsistencies, it’s crucial to have a clear migration policy in place in advance of the switch.

Develop a migration plan that lists the steps involved in each transition phase. Set out a reasonable timeline, and break each section down according to who will be responsible for each element of the process. Make sure all stakeholders are on board and ready, such as your IT support team and contact center agents. This will give you the best chance of ensuring everything goes well.

Focus on training

Training shouldn’t be an afterthought. Prepare for the implementation of your new contact center by prioritizing coaching on the new system for all of your customer support agents and sales reps. You might also need to consider additional training on the expected changes in workflow processes, as this can sometimes be overlooked.

Ensuring all your staff are well trained means they’ll be ready to hit the ground running on day one. Of course, regularly reviewing your training provision on an ongoing basis is a must as well.

Make sure to select the right provider

Not all cloud contact center providers are equal. Some provide more comprehensive features than others, and pricing models vary. Obviously, it’s vital to make sure you find an operator that aligns with your business needs in those respects.

But there are also some other practical factors you should take into consideration that might not be obvious at first glance. With that in mind, we’re going to look at a few questions you should ask before taking the leap and committing to a specific provider.

Solutions support: Questions to ask potential cloud contact center providers

Understandably, when enterprises approach customer care solutions, they want to be assured that they will be provided with the best support every step of the way. Before you move forward with any vendor of cloud contact center services, ask some key questions, including:

• Do they offer 24/7 support, and what kind of response and resolution times can you expect?

• How do they handle security, including data backup, disaster recovery plans, and monitoring?

• What is the implementation process, timing, etc.? 

• Can you get a free demo, and can multiple agents try out the software?

These and other questions can help make sure you define a high level of service before you engage. In the end, as technology continues to advance and price points drop, support and service have emerged as a real differentiator. That's good news for your business and even better news for your customers.

Making cloud contact center solutions work for your business

Cloud contact center solutions are ready to meet your enterprise business communication needs. Take advantage of advanced tools to ensure you’re delivering the top-level service your customers expect, and leverage real-time analytics features to fine-tune your strategy and help achieve all your business objectives.

What's more, combining a cloud-based contact center with a unified communications solution using a single vendor can take employee and customer experiences to the next level. 

Learn more about Vonage Contact Center. And feel free to reach out to a Vonage expert today for additional insights.