The Ins and Outs of Cloud-Based Call Center Phone Systems

Don’t think that a call center has to be an office full of agents with headsets sitting in cubicles. Modern advancements give businesses greater agility than ever with cloud technology.

Cloud-based call center phone systems offer more than traditional call centers could begin to imagine. For that reason, many more companies are embracing the cloud, with the market growing at an aggressive 18% rate.

Learn how a cloud-based call center helps you deliver peak customer support and service.

Key Takeaways:

• A cloud-based call center is online software that lets you operate a full-service remote contact center from anywhere in the world over the internet.
• Cloud call centers offer a better customer experience and boost agent productivity. 
• With a cloud call center, you can save money, grow more quickly, and compete more effectively.
• Cloud-based call centers are superior to traditional on-premise call centers.
• Choose a provider with outstanding support and security as your cloud-based call center vendor.

What Is a Cloud-Based Call Center?

A cloud-based call center is an online software as a service that your company uses to make and receive inbound and outbound calls. Teams of any size can set up full call center functionality without costly and time-consuming installation.

Cloud call centers also open the door to communicating through additional channels in the same service, including email, SMS, web chat, and video conferencing. You can also bring in additional productivity features that complement your call center as a service software.

How Does a Cloud-Based Call Center Work?

Your cloud-based call center provider hosts the necessary hardware and software at secure sites. The essential hardware includes multiple data servers and physical network connections. 

The provider then licenses the software for your use through a subscription. You pay a monthly or yearly fee, just as you would for a traditional phone line, but in this case, you get call center capabilities and advanced features. 

What Are the Benefits of Using a Cloud-Based Call Center? 

A cloud call center offers the following advantages.

Improve the Customer Experience 

Cloud-based call center software has state-of-the-art components that help your call center run as smoothly as possible. Customers experience shorter hold times and faster resolutions because your agents have the information and assistance they need at their fingertips.

Automation permits your customers to access convenient self-service tools. They can also use whatever channel they prefer to contact you with if you enable omnichannel connections.

Reduce Your Overhead

First of all, a cloud-based call center uses Voice over Internet Protocol for your calling, which costs much less than traditional landlines. Also, you no longer have to buy or lease office space for teams because CCaaS allows agents to work remotely. 

Furthermore, there’s no need to invest in physical infrastructure to install cloud call centers. Your existing internet connection is all you require to get started. 

Set Up and Scale in No Time

Because you don’t have to worry about installing physical components, your cloud-based call center is ready to go in days, not weeks or months. You also get top-tier support for onboarding and migrating from another system if necessary.

In addition to that, you can scale your operation quickly if you experience rapid growth. With the pay-as-you-go model, you don’t have to worry about overcharges.

Expand Your Reach Globally

Internet telephony makes global expansion much easier. You can hire agents in different time zones and countries to serve customers in their area.

You’re also able to set up more cost-effective international calling. Plus, you can get local numbers in different areas without needing to negotiate contracts with carriers in each location.

Enjoy Better Performance and Continuity

Multiple data servers in distinct locations mean that your cloud-based call center is less likely to be out of commission. If your provider suffers an outage in one spot, it shifts the load to another server until it can resolve the issue.

Likewise, a power or internet outage at your locations is less likely to slow your team down. Because no one has to be in a specific office, workers can use another internet service and connect in different locations to maintain call center access.

Utilize Advanced Tracking and Analytics

You won’t sacrifice your ability to manage your team or your customers with a remote-capable cloud-based call center. Call tracking gathers critical data about customers easily. 

Additionally, your system integrates with your favorite customer relationship management software for data collection. Interaction analytics tell you the sentiment on calls and lets you know how well your team is performing.

How Does a Cloud-Based Call Center Compare to a Traditional PBX?

A cloud-based call center outperforms traditional on-premise private branch exchanges in all important ways. For example, on-premise systems have a higher cost to install and maintain.

It’s also more difficult to add advanced features to analog systems, and you’ll lack remote work flexibility. Plus, you won’t be able to upgrade your call center to an omnichannel contact center easily.

What Is the Difference Between a Call Center and a Contact Center?

Communications professionals often use the terms “call center” and “contact center” interchangeably. However, a call center technically only has agents that handle phone calls.

A full-service contact center lets agents communicate with customers across all media. Furthermore, the best contact centers have omnichannel performance. 

That means conversations from different channels don’t get siloed. Instead, your software lets you organize all interactions together for a seamless experience for customers and agents alike.

Plus, modern contact centers employ artificial intelligence for improved automated service. This feature saves you even more money because you don’t have to invest in human agents for low-level queries.

Intermedia’s cloud-based call center software has full contact center functionality. You can use it simply as a call center, but you have easy access to omnichannel contact center features from your dashboard whenever you’re ready to use them.

How Do You Choose the Right Cloud-Based Call Center Provider?

The contact center as a service market is rapidly growing, giving you lots of choices for a cloud-based call center provider. As you compare vendors, consider the following factors:

• Unified communications integrations
• Advanced analytics capabilities
• 99.999% uptime
• Award-winning customer support

Intermedia delivers industry-leading service in all of these areas for a worry-free cloud-based call center experience.

Talk to Intermedia About Implementing a World-Class Cloud-Based Call Center 

Are you ready to learn more about how Intermedia’s cloud-based call center can upgrade the experience for your agents and customers? Contact our team to find out more!