When you are in the call center business, keeping costs in line matters a lot. But, investing in good technology can make you more popular which means better agent retention as well as being more attractive to clients!
The beauty of a cloud system for call centers, or for any type of data retrieval business is that you are not dependent on a single server for all of your needs. Clouds operate with multiple servers in a group. If your call volume suddenly goes up, or if your server suddenly has technical difficulties, a cloud system can handle it seamlessly.
Your clients don’t want to hear that you had technical difficulties on Tuesday. They don’t want to hear about how your technician is working on it. They want to know the following:
(1) You have state-of-the art equipment and systems
(2) You pick the best agents and then invest in regular coaching & monitoring
(3) You retain your employees longer than the other guys
(4) You don’t have breakdowns
Sure, it might cost more to migrate to a cloud, but the advantages could help to retain existing clients and get more clients which is the only way your international call center operation will grow!
Cloud systems are virtual.
It is not necessarily more expensive to invest in a cloud system. It might be less expensive than your in-house on-site system. Consider the security issues. If there is a problem in your building, or with the electricity or cables, your system could experience technical difficulties. Cloud systems are housed in data centers which have high security and redundant sources of electricity, data cables (not sure what the technical term is for that since I’m an admin guy, not a technical guy,) and redundant everything else that they could possibly need. Your data center is safe from most natural disasters, civil unrest, and power outages. Additionally, data centers typically have multiple system engineers on staff twenty-four hours a day! You get infrastructure and service all in one reasonable monthly fee.
Integrating your cloud
It is not difficult to integrate your cloud with social media platforms such as Facebook, chat, email, etc. Customer records can easily be updated and queries can easily be made with a cloud system.
What is bad about a cloud?
For my personal website I opted against a cloud. The reason may surprise you. I am personally in the online directory business. If my directory has faster queries, more people will want to use my site. We learned that there is a speed difference in a query from a server and a cloud system simply because the query would have to interact with a gateway, and then with a database server in a cloud, while on my server it would only go through one server. Interesting! The speed difference is only a fraction of a second, or slightly over a second in the worst case scenario. But, for me, that could mean losing 4% of my market share which has a large value to me! The tiny margins in life can sometimes make the difference.
Just remember: if you are not crazy about migrating your system into a cloud, every cloud has a silver lining!
For many small businesses out there, having a cloud based contact center is very important especially if you’re starting out. It does create a professional image. A great one that I like to use is MightyCall in comparing other cloud based contact centers that I’ve tried out. I can’t afford a physical server so having a cloud based contact center really is helpful for people who run small businesses like myself.