Elevating the Contact Center with the Cloud

In the past, the contact center has been viewed as a cost center that was simply focused on resolving customer problems. However, with features like analytics, many brands have discovered that the contact center is actually on the front lines of managing and cultivating customer relationships. In fact, customers will seek out brands that have a better customer experience. Most customers are even willing to pay more for something if they know that they’ll get better, more personalized customer service. So if brands think that the contact center isn’t important, they’re wrong.

The contact center has never been more important, and it is time for brands to look to the benefits of the cloud to get contact centers the right tools to deliver the right experience. The Calabrio ONE cloud platform gives contact centers:

Scalability to Accommodate Demand

Many contact centers, particularly in seasonal industries, need an influx of agents during certain times of the year. For example, retail brands need extra help for the holidays and travel companies need extra agents on hand to handle added volume during the busy summertime season. While these contact centers operate on a larger scale during specific periods, for the majority of the year, many are smaller departments that often struggle to justify the need for enterprise software. With the Calabrio ONE cloud platform, contact centers can scale quickly and easily, without sacrificing technology. Every contact center, regardless of size, has access to the same platform. Since the cloud offers such a flexible delivery model, contact centers can scale to accommodate demand, so they can offer a great customer experience while bucking the cost center stigma.

Insights Anytime and Anywhere

Most people know that I’m a data guy and, at least when it comes to customer experience, I think that data is the compass brands need in order to navigate their way to success. Calabrio’s comprehensive contact center analytics technology gives brands unparalleled insight into what customers want. Customers are saying what they want, what they don’t, and telling companies what they should change. It’s important that brands incorporate that information into future strategies. With Calabrio ONE now available the cloud, those insights are even easier to get to without the IT investment. Speech-to-text transcription takes quite a bit of computing power, but in the cloud this computing power is no longer your responsibility.

Agent Flexibility

If I were to ask someone to visualize the inside of a contact center, that person would likely describe rows of cubicles and robot-like agents reading from scripts. In the past, that was partially true, but the cloud is giving agents a new level of flexibility. Calabrio ONE in the cloud can be accessed by agents from any location, allowing agents to work remotely, in a way that best suits their needs. Here you can read our complete guide on how to manage workforce remotely. With this newfound freedom and flexibility, brands can engage agents and create a better agent experience by giving them the advantages that are often offered to other departments. When agents are more engaged, they are more likely to create better relationships with customers.

As brands strive to adapt nimbler strategies and tactics to ensure a positive customer experience, it places increased importance on the contact center. As customer loyalty increases and brands better the customer experience, the contact center will take its rightful place as a hub of customer engagement.

The cloud is here, and it is changing the contact center. To find out why, download the 2016 CCIQ Cloud Report.

Matt Matsui

Matt Matsui, Chief Product Officer, oversees Calabrio’s companywide product efforts. Matt joined Calabrio with more than 25 years of experience leading product and marketing organizations for a broad range of companies, including ACNielsen, Cognos, Andersen Consulting, and numerous early-stage analytics firms. Through this experience, Matt developed a keen sense for growing markets with a heavy emphasis on big data, AI/ML, and applied analytics. Matt’s proficiency is bringing to market scalable and flexible enterprise SaaS solutions that leverage the power of analytics in simple and powerful ways. He holds undergraduate degrees from the University of Maryland, a master’s degree from Northwestern University, and a master’s degree in Applied Psychology from the University of Southern California.