Cloud-based Contact Center Featured Article

Dig through the telecommunications news space and you’d be hard-pressed to find any contact center coverage in the last couple of years that didn’t have some connection to the cloud. After all, the benefits to the cloud-based contact center are real and measurable, driving a number of organizations to adopt this deployment platform to support their call center activities.

In fact, according to Ventana Research, 63 percent of companies responding to their cloud-based contact center benchmark research indicated they were likely to adopt cloud-based applications. Another 44 percent shared their intent to invest in cloud-based communications.

A full 73 percent recognized that simply making the move to the cloud doesn’t guaranteed improved performance and all agents will have to be trained on how to effectively handle customer interactions.

This feedback from the majority points to a theory shared by Aberdeen (News - Alert) Research in its white paper, The Hidden ROI of a Cloud-based Contact Center. The real source of ROI, when migrating to the cloud-based contact center, is not the lower capital outlay associated with pay-as-you-go pricing.

Aberdeen suggests it is the goal of increased customer satisfaction that is motivating key decision makers to make this change.

The market is rapidly evolving, which means customer demand is following the same trend. When customers are lost because the contact center cannot directly meet their needs, the organization loses money.

According to Aberdeen’s research, annual costs for cloud-based facilities are 27 percent lower due to a reduction in customer turnover. In other words, it’s not the pricing model, but the support of customer care initiatives that make contact centers on the cloud the more cost-effective choice.

One of the reasons the cloud-based center can improve customer satisfaction is the proven reduction in activity interruption. Believe it or not, but the costs associated with establishing and/or managing activities in this environment can result in higher costs for IT staff. This higher cost is quickly offset, however, by the 36 percent less downtime in the actual contact center.

And when this downtime is reduced, the center minimizes the number of abandoned contacts and lost clients.

This reduction in customer churn, according to Aberdeen, is the hidden ROI of the cloud-based contact center. But simply implementing the infrastructure to support the migration to the cloud is not enough to generate the desired results. Fortunately, Aberdeen research shows that the call centers making the move to the cloud are also more likely to implement the necessary strategies to support success.

For instance, the cloud-based contact center is more likely to create customized reports on the results of contact center activities; provide agents with performance results on a weekly basis; segment and record the actions of the contact center within the data center; and create a backup of all contact center data for use when necessary and/or beneficial.

The cloud contact center is also more likely to deploy the technology enablers that yield a better customer experience.

As companies continue to migrate their contact centers to the cloud, the bar for acceptable standard in quality service is getting higher, putting more pressure on premise-based centers to match the performance of their cloud-based counterparts.

As the battle rages, the customer emerges the winner, enjoying greater quality care and satisfaction in every interaction.