The COVID-19 pandemic challenged enterprise organizations to reimagine how they manage operations and deliver customer service. As companies shifted from an on-site operation to a distributed work model, organizations that had not already migrated to the cloud were forced to accelerate their transition. This proved especially true for customer support departments and call center teams that were still tethered to legacy and on-premise technologies.
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Topics:
customer service,
cloud customer support,
cloud call center,
customer service team,
hybrid cloud,
voice platform
Today, 70% of enterprises either have a digital transformation strategy in place or are actively working on one. Nearly half say improving customer experience and customer satisfaction were the leading influences driving the focus and effort. In fact, 72% of enterprises expect digital transformation to create closer relationships with customers. However a new report revealed that digital transformation projects are stalling due to a “hesitancy gap”, as enterprises struggle to navigate the risks and complexity associated with turning innovation from concept to reality.
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Topics:
customer service,
call center,
crm integration,
cloud call center,
self-service,
cloud,
customer service team,
cloud call center solution,
artificial intelligence,
telephony CRM integration,
voice platform,
digitaltransformation,
intelligent routing
After dealing with outdated systems that no longer meet current customer expectations and business demands, 62% of today’s customer service centers have plans to move to the cloud within the next 18 months. However, migrating to the cloud is not as simple as flipping a switch, especially if an enterprise has already invested in an on-premise telephony infrastructure. Whether an enterprise is simply in need of basic functionality or is ready to take the leap to a fully hosted cloud contact center platform, here are a few deployment options to consider:
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Topics:
customer service,
cloud security,
call center,
cloud based solution,
cloud customer support,
remote agents,
cloud call center,
cloud,
customer service team,
cloud call center solution,
telephony CRM integration,
voice platform
As remote work becomes the new norm due to COVID-19, it has only served to exacerbate the inefficiency that comes with non-integrated systems and on-premise technologies. According to a recent survey, only 10% of employees are able to establish a complete view of the relationship between their company and customer without toggling between several different platforms. Not surprisingly, many CIOs are turning to a few key providers to streamline operations to improve employee productivity and the overall customer experience. Among those at the top of the list? Microsoft.
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Topics:
customer service,
call center,
cloud customer support,
remote agents,
cloud call center,
omnichannel,
customer service team,
cloud call center solution,
telephony CRM integration,
voice platform,
Microsoft Dynamics,
COVID19,
Microsoft Teams
Praised for its superior scalability, reliability, and cost savings, cloud is quickly taking shape in the contact center industry, with more than 50% of businesses actively investing in cloud contact center solutions, and 76% planning to do so within the next eighteen months (Call Center IQ survey, “Cloud Contact Center Technology: Not ‘If’ But ‘How’”). And as businesses continue utilizing cloud contact center solutions, more data highlighting its merits has unfolded, further supporting the ongoing migration.
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Topics:
call center,
contact center,
cloud call center,
cloud contact center
The rise of the Internet and expansion of communication channels have given today’s consumers far greater power to explore alternative product/service options, putting customer experience at the forefront of purchasing decisions. In fact by 2020, customer experience is expected to overtake price and product as a brand’s competitive differentiator. And according to Dimension Data’s 2015 Global Contact Centre Benchmarking report, which surveyed 901 contact centers across 72 countries, 75% of contact centers recognize service as a competitive differentiator (up 18% over the past two years), and 57% say they can relate improving customer experience levels to revenue and profit growth. But despite the growing effort towards improving customer service to better meet rising consumer expectations, customer satisfaction levels have decreased for the fourth year in a row—which begs the question, where are businesses missing the mark when it comes to their service delivery?
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Topics:
customer service,
cloud based contact center,
cloud call center,
customer satisfaction,
customer experience,
cloud computing
The contact center space is changing. So what should one expect in 2015?
Continued Implementation of Self-Service: Recent studies have shown 67% ofcustomers prefer self-service over speaking to a live representative, which has its benefits when considering self-service interactions are 200-300% less expensive than those handled by a live agent. While the use of live agents is not expected to decrease, the importance and extended use of self-service is likely to be a continued theme next yar.
Growing Deployment of Cloud Infrastructures: By 2015, cloud computing spending is projected to reach 155 billion, compared to 46.4 billion in 2008. And according to DMG Consulting, cloud-based infrastructure is the fastest growing area for the call center industry, predicted to almost double between 2013 and 2015. When compared to premise-based solutions, contact centers based in the cloud have experienced 27% reduction in annual contact center costs and a 35% improvement in uptime. Offering superior reliability, scalability, and cost-savings, cloud adoption shows no signs of slowing down anytime soon and likely to continue its successes in 2014 well into 2015 and beyond.
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Topics:
customer service,
cloud security,
cloud based contact center,
call center,
multichannel contact center,
contact center,
contact center solution,
remote agents,
cloud call center,
scalability,
WebRTC,
reliability,
big data,
cloud contact center,
customer experience,
self-service,
customer relationship,
at-home agents,
multichannel communications,
saas integrations,
security,
virtual agents,
personalizing customer service
The contact center space is not what it once was. Previously based on a single communication channel (the telephone), it has since evolved into a far more complex and multichannel enterprise responsible for managing the majority (if not all) of a business’ customer relationships. No small feat by any definition. However, with the growing advancements in technology and the increasing number of potential customer touch points, the ability to gain greater insight into what makes each consumer tick has never been more within reach. And yet, with the exponential amount of client data – Big data to be specific – traveling through today’s contact centers, comes the exponentially difficult task of wrapping your hands around it all and putting it to good use. After all, with 90% of the world’s data created in the last two years (KPMG) the potential is huge but so is the undertaking.
While many companies have discovered ways to collect and even organize their big data, turning it into actionable intelligence has proven to be quiet the challenge. According to a recent study conducted by both Salesforce and Forrester, 76% of companies express a lack of real-time analytics and unified reporting as one of the key hurdles facing customer service managers. And yet most consider such access to actionable data a key stepping stone to delivering any form of world-class customer service in the future. Among those few businesses able to manage their data (perhaps only in part), 74% fail to gain access to the results for up to four weeks!
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Topics:
call center,
contact center,
cloud call center,
big data,
edge computing