The COVID-19 pandemic has changed the workplace—probably forever. Agility is now priority number one. This extends to the contact center—businesses need to have agents ready to help their customers, no matter their size and no matter the circumstances.
A cloud contact center, sometimes known as a cloud call center, makes it possible for small businesses to be agile and improve workforce productivity without losing out on any contact center functionality. Small businesses can connect agents easily to customers to ensure that they are responding to demanding customer needs.
Taking the contact center to the cloud
This much is true: Effective customer experience management boosts customer loyalty and fuels long-term growth. Customer service is business-critical; do it well, and you'll set yourself apart from your competitors.
But how can small businesses provide exceptional customer service, build customer loyalty and increase productivity and efficiency in the work-from-home economy, which is likely to survive well after the coronavirus pandemic is over? How can you ensure that a decentralized environment won't hurt your customer service interactions?
The answer is a cloud contact center. A cloud contact center is an agile, flexible solution that provides SMBs with the ability to scale when needed. On-premises solutions can support homebound workers, but often at reduced capabilities; cloud contact centers give agents and supervisors access to full functionality of a contact center from virtually any location at any time.
Cloud contact centers can offer the full suite of functionalities - automated call distributors, integrated voice response, mobile and agent desktops, workforce management and advanced analytics. The flexibility that the cloud provides helps to keep your customer service efficient, effective and innovative. It also means that the days of a warehouse full of call agents are over. A virtual contact center doesn't just empower your customer service team; it can also help to keep them agile and efficient.
The benefits of a cloud contact center
A cloud-based contact center can help simplify operations for SMBs. There is no need to invest time and capital in setting up a physical contact center; your customer service agents can work from virtually anywhere, anytime with the full spectrum of services they'd have in the office. No on-premises equipment also means no need to maintain technology and no risk of legacy infrastructure becoming outdated. SMBs can control costs, increase reliability and ensure that they're always up to date on compliance.
Cloud-based contact centers are also easily scalable and flexible to handle seasonal demands without considering desk space. This allows small businesses to easily add agents as they get ready for seasonal demands or decide to grow their business without requiring a huge investment.
Cloud contact centers can simply be integrated with existing business solutions such as customer relationship management (CRM) or help desk apps that small businesses currently have in place. This helps small businesses to provide personalized customer service to their consumers.
Modern contact centers are within reach
It doesn't take a fortune to leverage the power of a cloud contact center. It doesn't require a vast warehouse of desks, either. Solutions are well within the grasp of the average SMB.
You need simple, affordable solutions that are easy to set up and use; a cloud call center needs only an agent, a headset, a computer and a reliable internet connection. One agent or many, the equipment needs remain the same.
With the customer service platform decentralized, agents are freed from the landline, meaning they can answer or return customer calls virtually anywhere at any time. And with contact center features such as smart routing, call back capabilities, call recordings and much more you can ensure your customers are connected to the right agents in an effective manner. This helps maintain both employee and customer experiences. Happy and productive employees lead to happy customers.
This is the sort of flexibility SMBs need in the new normal—the ability to meet customers where they are, when they need it.
Learn how the new Verizon Contact Center Hub can help your contact center the agility, reliability and scalability of the cloud.
The author of this content is a paid contributor for Verizon.