When it comes to contact centers, “legacy” is a bad word
Among professional athletes and aspiring Ivy League university freshmen, “legacy” is a good thing. When talk turns to contact centers … not so much. A legacy contact center is, in this age of mainstream cloud computing, an anachronism. But, sadly, most of the contact centers in use today run on old technology that continues to persist in service. This is mostly because they were very expensive to install, and many enterprises are trying to milk the last bit of return on investment (ROI) from them.
Why is this a problem? These legacies can’t keep up with the communication needs of businesses serving savvy consumers who live in a smartphone-enabled omnichannel world. Cloud-based contact centers like Amazon Connect are the up-to-date alternatives to these “on-premises,” soon-to-be museum pieces, solutions.
Here are the top five reasons why keeping old technology on the job beyond its “sell-by” date actually costs money.
1. It’s an omnichannel world
You would think that everyone would be on the same page now. Telephone landlines are rapidly becoming a thing of the past. Digital technologies have permanently altered the world of communication. Omnichannel communication is the mainstream reality for consumers. Voice, text, web-based chat, email — these are just some of the channels that customers are using, and companies need to meet them there.
With a cloud-based contact center, adding the capability to communicate via SMS/MMS text or social messaging apps is as simple as adding the appropriate application programming interface (API). Holding on to an obsolete on-premises solution (old technology that limits avenues of contact) will eventually lead to lost sales as customers take their business to better-equipped competitors.
2. Give customers a better experience
The benefits of a cloud-based contact center all serve one overriding aim: giving customers the best service experiences possible. When customers reach out for product support or to place an order, it should make no difference if they call, text, or tweet. But it’s not enough to be omnichannel-capable.
Let’s say a customer texts the contact center, and then wants to continue the conversation via phone. That customer should be able to do that without the need to start their interaction again from the beginning. It’s essential to provide seamless customer contact between and across channels.
3. Scaling a cloud-based contact center is easy
Scaling legacy, on-premises contact center platforms is a complicated, expensive process involving additional hardware and phone lines. That’s why legacy contact centers are seldom scaled, something familiar to anyone who has ever called in and heard a message like, “We are experiencing heavier-than-usual call volumes.”
A cloud-based contact center, on the other hand, can be scaled up with ease when demand is high and scaled-down when traffic is low. Onboarding thousands of agents in response to seasonal demand or unforeseen circumstances is easy.
4. Effortless reliability
Cloud-based contact center platforms are designed to support the communication requirements of thousands of customers via highly distributed data centers located all over the world. Simply put, moving your contact-center out of the building and into the cloud increases system reliability immediately, so much so that the risk of outage drop to virtually zero. There is no hardware to maintain, no patches to run, no software to update.
5. Keep call-center costs under control
Usually, the latest and greatest technologies come with a price tag to match. However, that is not the case when it comes to cloud-based contact centers.
Take Amazon Connect as an example. Connect is a pay-as-you-go service. There are no up-front payments, long-term commitments, or minimum monthly fees. Firms pay for service time (how long the software in the cloud is working on a particular company’s data) and the calling minutes used. Both adjust month to month depending on use, so companies pay more when they’re busy and have more usage, but less during when they’re slower — which can be a real advantage to businesses with seasonal demand.
Amazon Connect even features a free service tier that companies can use for up to twelve months.
Step up your contact center game with CloudHesive
Don’t system decisions from the past hold your business back. Bring your contact center into the future with CloudHesive. Our Customer Connect platform, integrated into Amazon’s connect service, puts the contact center that powers the world’s largest retailer at your service.
Get rid of the customer service bottlenecks in your business. Learn more today by getting in touch with CloudHesive at 1-800-860-2040 or through our online contact form.
