How Cloud Contact Centers Add Value to the Customer Experience

Providing an outstanding customer experience is essential, especially as businesses focus on modernizing communications to expand their existing cadre and better interact with customers. And, with the rise of remote operations, decision makers are exploring how to integrate cloud-based communications technologies that meet their employee and customers’ needs. Cloud contact centers are an essential component of making sure customer satisfaction stays top of mind when updating other systems.

Virtual vs. Cloud Contact Center Software

For background, a contact center handles inbound and outbound calls for a business and serves customers over integrated digital service channels (e.g., text, webchat, email). These channels allow customers to engage with a business according to their preferences. These days, most companies are looking for cloud or virtual contact centers. The two are similar but not exactly the same.

Cloud contact centers use software solutions to power customer support efforts. Often browser based, this software provides a comprehensive set of communication capabilities so agents can respond to customer needs and inquiries as long as they have an internet connection.

Virtual contact centers, on the other hand, are cloud contact centers where agents work across different locations, not one office. That allows a business to run a distributed contact center, which improves customer experience by letting agents work across different regions and time zones.

Throughout this post, we’ll highlight the benefits of how cloud contact centers boost customer experiences through service reliability and scalability, reporting options, and support channels.

Benefits of Cloud Contact Center Solutions

Cloud contact centers offer business advantages that are missing in legacy, premises-based contact centers.

Flexible Organization

Since cloud contact centers rely less on a physical location, they are a more flexible option for organizations with employees working in different locations. They also offer greater flexibility to scale their contact center presence as they grow. Moreover, cloud contact centers make it easy for businesses to deploy their communication solutions with PSTN connections. This could include a collaboration platform or telecom APIs. For example, an agent can use Microsoft Teams to connect and support a customer. The software-based nature of these solutions make them easy to set up, configure, and manage.

Multi-channel Support

Today’s customers expect variety and immediacy. Having multiple communications options available makes it easy for customers to reach a business in their preferred manner. For example, a virtual contact center that leverages cloud-based communication tools can offer customers different channels or points of access to secure support. This includes phone calls, voice bots, mobile and interactive voice response on calls, online chat, video interactions, email, and even social media platforms. The business has control over their communication deployments, and the customer also has autonomy over how they interact. This combination mitigates frustrating roadblocks caused by differing time zones, web outages, technology accessibility, hearing and speaking impairments, etc.

Cutting-Edge Technology to Meet Evolving Needs

Cloud contact centers use skills-based routing and call monitoring, allowing customers to match with agents based on their needs and the agent’s expertise. Additionally, cloud contact center technologies, such as telecom APIs and PSTN-enabled collaboration platforms, give companies more options in staffing centers that cater to various geographies, time zones, countries, etc. This not only broadens a company’s support reach, but improves the customer experience ensuring that customers get fast, localized service whenever they need it. 

Depending on your communications provider, the latest contact center technologies support high network uptime and typically have disaster recovery solutions in place to mitigate downtime. These tools are automatically updated to ensure that they are in compliance and up-to-date with the latest security patches and other software updates.

Comprehensive Caller Data

Cloud contact centers act as a universal hub that use customer data to improve problem solving and support. For example, the insights and analytics on a user’s interactions with the business can help agents better serve future needs. With cloud tools, agents can see comprehensive caller data such as call history or length of call. Armed with this information, companies can analyze call trends to see if there are certain areas or times of day with higher call volume. Decision makers can then determine if they need to adjust staffing to better handle customer communications. 

Overall, cloud contact centers are a valuable component of a business’ customer experience toolbox.

Intrado Enables Cloud Contact Centers

Intrado partners with businesses to design their optimal contact center configuration. With guidance and partnership from Intrado, businesses can create the business’s ideal customer experience with industry-leading solutions provided by Microsoft and Cisco. Intrado has long-term partnerships with these global collaboration leaders and offers services to enhance contact center and communication deployments. 

Intrado also delivers a unique customer experience optimization through our Avoke solution, which analyzes your interactive voice response (IVR), holds, agents, transfers, and more in a single recording with the only solution that captures the entire customer journey from dial to hang up.

Further, the company’s Flowroute, OnSIP and Mosaicx solutions make Intrado a comprehensive contact center partner for any size business looking to optimize CX. 

Learn more about how Intrado can help your business create and deploy a modern contact center with cloud tools.