Every Business Needs a Cloud Contact Center

The power of a cloud contact center can’t be understated. That might sound hyperbolic but contact center solutions aren’t only for mega-corporations with thousands of daily calls. Every business can benefit from the customer and employee experience improvements provided by a cloud contact center platform. The access to data alone can make the investment worth it for years to come. A report from Bain & Company found that increasing customer retention rates by 5 percent can increase profits by 25 to 95 percent.

That said, there are two main types of contact centers: omnichannel and multichannel. This article aims to clarify any questions you might have about whether a cloud contact center platform is right for you.

What is a Cloud Contact Center?

Definition and explanation of a cloud contact center

A cloud contact center is software that enables businesses to manage customer interactions across multiple customer service channels, such as phone, email, chat, and social media, in a cloud-based environment. It’s increasingly important that the customer experience takes center stage in your organization. A recent report from Salesforce found that 71 percent of customers made purchase decisions based on customer service quality.

Additionally, cloud contact centers provide a scalable, flexible, and cost-effective way to deliver customer service and support. Beyond that, access to actionable data and training opportunities is enormous.

Benefits of moving to a cloud-based contact center

Although the benefits are many, something that often gets overlooked is the reduced stress of the company for maintenance. The managed service provider (MSP) will be handling the uptime, upgrades, and support concerns, which frees you up to focus on your business and the customers it serves. Here are some example benefits:

• Reduced costs and increased efficiency
• Scalability and flexibility to handle changing customer needs
• Improved customer satisfaction and experience
• Enhanced collaboration and communication among contact center agents

Your organization is constantly changing, growing, and evolving, and for all those changes to be positive, you need to be present to foster them.

Key differences between on-premise and cloud contact centers

The obvious but crucially important difference is cloud contact centers are hosted in the cloud, while on-premise contact centers are hosted on-site. The appeal of on-premise systems has dropped considerably over the years since the cloud has become so reliable and more cost-effective. Another difference is cloud contact centers offer greater scalability and flexibility, while on-premise contact centers require more maintenance and upkeep. With on-premise, depending on the complexity and size of the operation, there’s a chance you could need a person on-site full time to manage users and service the system.

Multichannel Contact Center: Key Features and Benefits

Definition and explanation of a multichannel contact center

A multichannel contact center is a software solution that enables businesses to manage customer interactions across multiple channels, such as phone, email, chat, and social media. A multichannel option snaps different programs or software pieces together to complete the contact center.

For instance, a startup could begin by offering phone and email as avenues to communicate. Then, once they become more established, they begin to add additional communication channels, like SMS and video conferencing. At this point, they have three different pieces of software to handle the interactions, but they are considered a multichannel contact center that provides a seamless customer experience across multiple channels.

This approach is essential for e-commerce companies aiming to deliver effective multichannel customer service. It allows customers to choose their preferred contact method and enhances engagement through diverse and convenient interaction options.

Key features of a multichannel contact center platform

• Integration with multiple communication channels, such as phone, email, chat, and social media.
• Real-time analytics and reporting to track customer interactions and agent performance.
• Self-service tools, such as IVR and chatbots, provide customers with quick and easy solutions.
• Personalized customer service and support through customer data and analytics.

Benefits of multichannel communications for customers and businesses

It’s becoming increasingly important to engage with customers wherever and however they’d like to interact with you. Improved customer satisfaction and experience will lead to more loyal customers and better advocates of the products and services you provide. Even more important to remember is that your employees are equally as crucial in this process. If the systems they use make completing their work more difficult, then over time, that increased effort will burn employees out and will trickle down to the interactions they have with your customers. By introducing a multichannel communications solution, you increase efficiency and productivity levels for contact center agents.

Omnichannel Contact Center: Key Features and Benefits

Definition and explanation of an omnichannel contact center

An omnichannel contact center is similar to a multichannel solution except in one key area; omnichannel has all the different communications channels housed in a single interface or communication management module. This incredibly easy-to-use software implementation means your agents get to stay in one place instead of hopping around to different applications. To a customer, there is virtually no difference in how they communicate with you, but agents can be centralized in their work, which positively impacts customers with faster turnaround times.

Key features of an omnichannel contact center platform

There are many “must-have” features when it comes to an omnichannel solution, but three tend to stand out:

• Consistent voice: Every interaction can be consistent across channels. Instead of having one employee handle chat, then another email, and someone separate handle phone calls, that single customer in three different channels could receive three wildly different experiences. The seamlessness of the same system for all channels allows your agents to focus on the client instead of the channel.
• Centralized customer data: When information is spread across applications, it can be difficult to quickly reference past interactions or open issues. With an omnichannel contact center solution, you get access to every touchpoint in one place—one screen to rule them all.
• Faster resolution: The neatly consolidated communication paths will reduce the length of time it takes to resolve issues. Faster times = happier customers.

Benefits of omnichannel communications for customers and businesses

The enhanced collaboration and communication among contact center agents allow you to ramp up productivity and amaze your customers with visibility across the organization to all things customer-related. You’ll never have to utter the phrase, “Do you know who you spoke with?” again. Customer history is at your agents’ fingertips. With this unified information tool, you’ll get better customer insights and data to inform business decisions. That’s powerful!

Omnichannel vs. Multichannel: What’s the Difference?

Consolidating programs and workflows can dramatically impact your business’s operational efficiency. A joint Qatalog and Cornell University study found that 59 minutes are spent daily simply looking for information trapped within tools and applications. Although omnichannel and multichannel software solutions are similar, time efficiency alone could be enough to make the decision to go with an omnichannel option.

Key differences between omnichannel and multichannel contact centers

It may seem obvious at this point how similar these two options are to one another. Generally, you can strap a decent multichannel solution together in the early stages of your business, but depending on what you do, an eventual upgrade to omnichannel will probably be the right long-term decision. Here’s a quick breakdown of the differences we’ve discussed so far:

• Omnichannel contact centers provide a single, unified view of the customer, while multichannel contact centers provide separate views of the customer for each channel.
• Omnichannel contact centers enable seamless transitions between channels, while multichannel contact centers may require customers to repeat information or start over.

Provide a Better Customer Experience with a Cloud Contact Center Solution from United Business Technologies

There’s an important need to personalize and customize the customer experience, and you get those options in spades with an omnichannel cloud contact center platform. Use the expanding feature set to train contact center agents to provide personalized customer service and support. The reports and analytics you’ll receive will more than justify this added attention to providing next-level customer service.

For almost 15 years, United Business Technologies has been providing well-rounded business communications that allow you to sleep better at night. We keep your business needs top of mind in everything we discuss with you. What good is adding you as a client if you aren’t happy and it doesn’t add value to your business? Contact us today, and let’s take steps to have you join the UBT family.