8 Reasons to Switch to a Cloud-Based Contact Center

Do you like doing extra work? How about spending more money than necessary? Maybe you enjoy having too much equipment to maintain? 

No? None of that? 

Sounds like you might be a good candidate for switching to a cloud-based contact center.

A lot of traditional contact center managers don’t feel the need to switch. After all, “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it,” right? Well, perhaps the current method isn’t broken. It’s just really bent.

The truth is, every contact center could benefit from a cloud-based system. It’s not just the future of contact centers. It’s also a present best practice.

These are 8 incredible benefits your organization can experience by switching to a cloud-based contact center.

1. Scale Your Business

With cloud-based contact centers, you get the flexibility you need to adjust your employee number easily. And switching from a 50 seat to 500 seat call center becomes a lot more efficient.  With cloud based centers, it allows you to play for only what you use month to month. 

 This growth potential is perfect for businesses with new product lines, those entering new market areas, and especially organizations with seasonality.

2. Outsource Hardware

Don’t rely on your own servers, workstations, PBXs, or CTIs. Get rid of these potential (major) headaches.

Cloud-based contact centers have everything you need but don’t want to see. You never have to pay repair bills or mull over upgrading obsolete hardware.

Outsourcing your call center hardware needs also makes disaster recovery much easier. 

In the event of a natural disaster, you don’t have to replace destroyed databases and servers. And you won’t have to worry about lost data as it’s protected at off-site locations.

3. Integration Isn’t a Problem

Cloud-based contact centers integrate well, thanks to Application Programming Interfaces (APIs). APIs are software that bridge the gaps between two disparate applications.

Integrations allow data to flow seamlessly without the use of spreadsheets or manual tasks. This frees up a lot of time and resources for your team.

You can access all the information you need without hassle, just like you would if you kept everything in-house.

This global connection is what makes cloud-based centers so useful. You can integrate all your systems and connect your data streams into a single database no matter where your employees are.

That means you could have a fully remote contact center if you wanted!

4. Reduce Costs

One of the best reasons why switching to a cloud-based contact center benefits you is the cost savings.

When you have your own hardware or telephony services, you have to foot the bill for upgrades. Not doing so could leave you stuck with an outdated legacy system that simply cannot keep up or offer the features you need to remain competitive.

However, if you rely on a cloud-based center, there’s no six-figure upgrade costs you have to pay if you want to keep your system current. Instead, your third-party provider covers that for you.You just pay your monthly service fee and you’re good to go.

5. Budget Better

Speaking of upfront costs, you can budget ahead for years with a cloud-based contact center. Cloud-based platforms usually follow a subscription-based contract model.

You pay based on per-seat usage, meaning you always know the price. (This is great if you have investors as they love the idea of upfront expenditure forecasts.) Plus, costs scale with use. In short, you only pay for what you use.

6. Lower IT Costs

If you’re running your own call center, you probably have an entire team of IT professionals. And they’re probably swamped with tasks in addition to keeping your legacy system up-to-date and secure.  With a cloud-based contact center, that changes. 

You can drastically lower your in-house IT costs by keeping your staff smaller. Or, you can maintain your existing staff, but have them focus on other more strategic initiatives. If they don’t have to maintain a large, on-premise based platform, they’ll have a lot more time to catch up.

7. Improved Agent Monitoring and Transparency

Agent quality monitoring is always a concern. Your business and your clients need to be certain that you’re delivering on client expectations. However, with cloud-based contact centers, you can check in on your reps from anywhere in the world.

Most cloud-based call center providers offer a dashboard that gives you status updates and historical data for your team instantly. You can access this at any time to evaluate your agent performance. And with a centralized database, you can review call history and reporting with ease to ensure you’re reaching your KPIs.

8. Add New Tech Easily

Let’s say you want to add speech analytics to your call center. Or a Work From Home (WFO) solution. Maybe you want call recording QA. Or something even crazier…

Customer demands change constantly. People expect the “Amazon” and “Uber” of everything. Fast, cheap, easy, and high-quality. No matter what your industry is, you need to keep that in mind. Otherwise, you may end up unknowingly frustrating your customers.

With a cloud-based call center platform, you can easily integrate new features and applications that give your customers more. It’s as simple as connecting new apps with integrations (or waiting for the next software update from your tech provider). 

The end result is a contact center that’s extremely agile and ready for whatever the world throws at you. 

4 Necessary Considerations Before Transitioning to a Cloud-Based Call Center

While moving to the cloud is bound to benefit your business, there are some things about it that you should keep in mind. 

One is that you’ll have to figure out what to do with all that extra time and money…

The other is that there are 4 things you need to keep in mind before transitioning your call center to the cloud.

1. You Need Top-Tier Internet

Do you want the benefits of cloud-based call centers? You’ll need fiber-optic internet service. The faster your internet, the better service you’ll get. You don’t want a slow internet connection dragging down your business.

We have redundant high-speed lines coming into Expivia. So, we know exactly how you need to set your internet up to make the most out of the benefits the cloud provides.

2. Count the Cost

Average call center software costs $75-$300/month/agent for cloud-hosted software. In comparison, in-house hosted software costs up to $1,500/agent, with additional hardware considerations.

Sometimes, there are “hidden costs” associated with turnkey applications. You want to take a good look at the service agreement and evaluate any additional fees that might be in there.

Still, when you compare that to the salary of an in-house IT professionals, it’s a huge bargain.

3. The Rare Outage

And we do mean rare. We’ve worked hard to keep major outages from happening, but it’s possible. In these situations, it’s best to work with a provider who has excellent customer service and a track record for getting things up and running again fast.

Our partner, NICE CXone, has up-to-date tech and informs us of any outages immediately. It’s been years since the last big outage, so it’s not something to worry about.

4. Staying Secure

If your call center needs to be PCI compliant, cybersecurity is always a concern. 

That’s why you need to choose a cloud-based provider that can offer you peace of mind. A lot of providers are also PCI compliant, offer recording encryption, and inbound call masking. For federal government work, FedRAMP clusters are also a must.

If you’re ready to make the move to a cloud-based contact center, we can only encourage you.

NICE InContact has been incredible for us. And we know you’ll love the switch to a cloud-based system. Talk to Expivia right away and see how we can make the transition a smooth one.

 

We’d also love to hear your thoughts.

Do you have any questions or concerns about moving your contact center to the cloud? Already using cloud-based call center tech? What’s your experience like?

Let us know in the comments!