Why Some Enterprises Have Yet to Adopt the Cloud
After decades in the cloud contact center software and telecom space, one of the most surprising things we’ve seen is that cloud computing is still perceived as a new concept for many who manage and operate customer care operations. Unlike sales and marketing, where CRM and automation solutions are predominantly cloud-based, contact centers largely haven’t made the transition yet. After discussions with several contact center analysts over the past month, the market data is clear – only about 18% of contact centers today as we enter 2020 are in the cloud. This reflects a 3% increase from last year. While this does illustrate an upward trend, it begs the question: why is this transition taking so long?
Embrace vs Stay the Path
Sometimes it takes a fresh perspective to initiate change. For each premises-based customer care deployment there are likely legacy approaches, processes, infrastructure and staffing that enterprises have deemed efficient and historically measured performance by. However, what may have been efficient in the past is not necessarily right for today. The customer care world is changing. Think about it – if you can’t adapt your contact center in real-time as customer needs change, and if you pay for capacity that you don’t use, struggle to meet SLAs and uptime, or cannot get a holistic view of your contact center operation is that still considered efficient or even competitive in today’s market? Enter the cloud!
Care is the New Sales
As the customer experience is increasingly becoming a clear competitive differentiator, more executives have become interested in the contact center’s role. Specifically, enterprises are looking at how the contact center can be more agile. Agents have, to some extent, become the face of the enterprise and brand. In fact, they may be the only interaction a customer has with a company. As a result, enterprises are looking to truly empower agents and provide them with the tools and resources they need to deliver improved customer experiences. However, to do this in a legacy premise environment becomes an overwhelming challenge and budget dilemma due to the interconnections and integrations required to make this work. There may be substantial custom code and intensive development activities required to accomplish this.
What the Cloud Delivers Today
The cloud delivers empowerment – of the consumer, agent and customer care organizations. Your agents need to be able to understand what a customer may have done prior to calling by phone, such as texting or chat, regardless of who handled the prior interaction. Too often legacy enterprise customer care solutions silo communication channels. This creates too many communication dead-ends for consumers, who then vent their frustration of having to constantly repeat themselves. Unfortunately, when this happens agents typically feel disengaged, because they are constantly scolded by customers who are upset that they don’t have the content or context from their previous interactions with a company. It is critical to empower and arm your agents with context and tools to fulfill their role and delight the customer. This is the power of modern and agile cloud contact center solutions.
Those who manage operational expenses are wondering how to lower costs associated with the contact center. Contact center executives are seeking ways to give agents the content and context of all customer interactions. Achieving these enterprise goals sets the path towards accelerated cloud adoption and exceptional customer service experiences. Welcome to 2020 and beyond!