No longer are call centers hardwarecentric. Capital costs have dropped considerably, and features have multiplied. With cloud call center software, the hardware that does the heavy lifting is located elsewhere and services are delivered over the Internet. Starting a call center now requires a much lower initial investment, making the call center a real option even for small startups. Download this white paper to learn more.
Why Progressive Businesses Use Cloud-Based Call Center Software Why Progressive Businesses Use Cloud-Based Call Center Software © 2013 Business.com Media, Inc. All rights reserved. | 888.441.4466 2 Great call center features are available to businesses of all sizes with cloud call center software. Before the cloud, the call center was all about the hardware. Call centers required dedicated support teams and trained technicians to install, configure and manage the infrastructure, and call centers had little flexibility. The pre-cloud call center required a capital investment on a scale that was only available to big players with deep pockets. Tools for things like call recording were expensive and required long term commitments. All that changed with cloud-based call center software. No longer are call centers hardware-centric. Capital costs have dropped considerably, and features have multiplied. With cloud call center software, the hardware that does the heavy lifting is located elsewhere and services are delivered over the Internet. Starting a call center now requires a much lower initial investment, making the call center a real option even for small startups. With cloud-based call center software, businesses have more control over features from how calls are routed to which greeting messages play for callers. Moreover, data collection, analysis, and reporting are far more sophisticated, allowing call center managers to make informed decisions about staffing and make the call center as efficient as possible. Call center software is not only affordable, it opens up great customer relations opportunities for businesses that may never have imagined being able to afford a call center. Why Progressive Businesses Use Cloud-Based Call Center Software © 2013 Business.com Media, Inc. All rights reserved. | 888.441.4466 3 Innovative Technologies Interactive voice response, easy configuration, and advanced reporting make cloud call center software a winner. Research by Magnetic North found that 71% of decision-makers in legacy contact centers are open to cloud technology or actively considering implementing cloud-based call center software due to limitations of legacy equipment. Around half of respondents said that legacy contact center equipment prevented them from reaching key performance indicators. Some of the terrific features you’ll find with today’s cloud-based call center software include speech recognition, skills-based routing, configurable interactive voice response (IVR) capability, advanced analytics, and reporting. And one of the most popular things about cloud call center software is that updates are rolled out uniformly, quickly, and without disruption. Cloud call center software scales up or down easily, whether you have a 10-person call center or a call center employing hundreds of people. Should your call center needs change, scaling is quick. Easy scalability is great for businesses that have seasonal variability, because it’s done using an intuitive web-based interface and can be done far more quickly than scaling up a legacy call center. Other great features you can expect from your cloud-based call center software include simple and secure agent login and logout, flexible queuing, skill-based ring strategies, real-time displays, agent “barge in,” monitoring, and whisper functionality, and recording of agent calls for archival or quality assurance. When your call center solution is based on cloud call center software, these features are available to you, whether you have a very small call center or a very large one. Why Progressive Businesses Use Cloud-Based Call Center Software © 2013 Business.com Media, Inc. All rights reserved. | 888.441.4466 4 Easy Integration Cloud call center software lets you integrate with CRM and other business applications. Cloud call center software can now be easily integrated with other applications your call center team regularly uses, including customer relationship management (CRM) platforms. With today’s cloud- based call centers, rather than having separate contact management, IVR, conversion management, and autodial solutions, all these solutions can be integrated, resulting in a much more efficient solution that costs less. With old systems, integrating the applications used in your call center was painstaking and required a lot of time and expertise from your IT team. Those days are over. Integration of call center software with CRM solutions like Microsoft Dynamics, Salesforce, and NetSuite is readily available and pre- packaged. This allows for seamless integration; agents can keep using the CRM application they’re used to while experiencing a smoother, more productive workflow. Some cloud call center software solutions also support integration with things like billing systems and order entry systems, so customer requests can be managed more quickly. You can even get cloud call center software with Do Not Call compliance software. The net result of using call center software that plays nicely with other business applications is more productive agents, who won’t waste time transitioning from one app to another. Accuracy of records should improve, and customer relationships can be strengthened when customers find the service they get when they call your agents to be quick, helpful, and accurate. The old hardware-centric call centers simply could not do all the things that today’s cloud-based call centers can do, let alone at the great prices available today. Why Progressive Businesses Use Cloud-Based Call Center Software © 2013 Business.com Media, Inc. All rights reserved. | 888.441.4466 5 Scalability & Flexibility Should your small call center need to grow, scaling up is easy with cloud call center software. The scalability of cloud call center software favors small businesses. With huge enterprises, eventually the cost of building their own data centers becomes more cost-effective than using the cloud. But with small and medium-sized businesses, the scalability of the cloud can be revolutionary, particularly when needs change rapidly. When small startups utilize the cloud for their call center software, they can immediately use features they couldn’t afford in the days of the hardware-centric call center. Should their call center grow, they can add new seats as they’re needed rather than planning ahead to have legacy equipment installed in hopes of it being used eventually. Moreover, businesses with seasonal pushes, like those that do the majority of their business around Christmas, can scale up call center operations quickly and efficiently, and then scale them back down when call center activity goes back to its normal level. Flexibility is inherent in cloud call center software. Not only can different configurations be done easily through a web portal, call center operations themselves are more flexible. Depending on the phone system supporting the call center, agent telecommuting becomes an option, one that can help reduce call center turnover. The analysis and reporting features in most cloud call center software gives call center managers real-time information they can use to make changes that improve call center effectiveness. For example, peak call information can help the manager establish call center hours that allow agents to be most productive and customers to be served quickest. Why Progressive Businesses Use Cloud-Based Call Center Software © 2013 Business.com Media, Inc. All rights reserved. | 888.441.4466 6 Customer Satisfaction Cloud call centers give you the tools to maximize customer satisfaction. If your call center is based on legacy hardware that you can’t bear to replace due to all the money you’ve sunk into it, you could be hurting your business long term. Customers don’t like having to call customer service, and when they encounter dropped calls and inefficient customer service, they’re more likely to become someone else’s customer. Fortunately, cloud call center software helps improve customer service. When your cloud call center is integrated with your CRM system, an incoming number can be linked with a customer profile. Because a customer profile is displayed on the screen, whoever takes the call immediately knows who is calling. This eliminates a lot of information intake that used to be manual, saving everyone time and frustration. Cloud call center systems assist with agent training as well. Call center managers can listen in on calls without the caller’s knowledge, can advise the agent during the call without the caller knowing, and can even barge into a call should that become necessary. These features make agent training quicker and more effective, so agents can maximize productivity as soon as possible. The statistics and reporting that is done by today’s cloud call center software tells call center managers everything they need to know about times and days when call volume goes up, length of calls, and routing of calls. All this information makes it easier for the call center manager to schedule staffing appropriately and tweak call routing rules to ensure more customers are well-served. Why Progressive Businesses Use Cloud-Based Call Center Software © 2013 Business.com Media, Inc. All rights reserved. | 888.441.4466 7 Takeaways Today’s call center is miles ahead of the call center of a few years ago. Cloud-based call center software has resulted in the modern call center that is in another league from the “iron-based” call centers of yesterday. A generation ago, only large companies with big budgets could afford call center features that are considered basic today. The cloud makes these features affordable and available, even to the smallest businesses. Because today’s cloud-based call centers make it easy to configure and scale operations, managers have much more control. The cloud allows for quick and easy scaling up and scaling down. When it becomes clear that five more agents are needed, adding those five seats can be done as soon as the new people are onboard. No longer do call centers have to pay for seats that go unused most of the year to accommodate peak demand periods. Integration of call center software with business applications, including CRM software, billing, and ordering streamline operations, makes the call center as well as the overall business more efficient. In addition, the flexibility inherent in the cloud call center makes it possible to integrate cost-effective perks like allowing agents to telecommute. If you thought your small business couldn’t afford to have its own call center, it’s time to think again. Cloud call center software solutions have lower buy-in than you might expect, and you can start small and scale up as needed. If you’re not sure where to begin, check out the call center software section of Business.com. There you’ll find helpful articles and tips, as well as an easy way to get quotes for comparison of costs and services. Why Progressive Businesses Use Cloud-Based Call Center Software © 2013 Business.com Media, Inc. All rights reserved. | 888.441.4466 8 Business.com is the go-to resource for small and medium-sized businesses, helping these businesses compete effectively and thrive by offering a host of resources for research and comparisons on the business services most in demand. . Why Progressive Businesses Use Cloud- Based Call Center Software Why Progressive Businesses Use Cloud- Based Call Center Software © 2013 Business.com Media,. is based on cloud call center software, these features are available to you, whether you have a very small call center or a very large one. Why Progressive Businesses Use Cloud- Based Call Center. call center is miles ahead of the call center of a few years ago. Cloud- based call center software has resulted in the modern call center that is in another league from the “iron -based call