What are the best cloud call center platforms in the market are dominating now?
In the age of cloud technology, cloud call center platforms are transforming into a massive lead-generating magnet. Unlike traditional call centers, the cloud-based call center is not just limited to handling phone calls. It has become a central hub for storing data on prospects and analyzing the performance of calls.
The reason behind cloud-based call centers getting powerful abilities is the advanced features and services offered by virtual cloud phone systems.
Today, companies are looking for cloud call center platforms that are affordable, reliable, and powerful because it determines the productivity of agents as well as the quality of customer service experience.
What is a good cloud-based contact center solution?
Many virtual cloud phone systems are well known for offering contact center solutions. They integrate all the necessary features and services that cloud call center platforms need.Â
Generally, a call center consists of a complete set of tools to handle inbound and outbound calls. However, when it is capable of handling multiple communication channels like SMS, social media, emails, chats, etc., it is referred to as a contact center. In short, contact centers are superior to call centers.
As people are spending more time on social media, emails, or chats rather than just on phone calls, a cloud-based contact center is in more demand than ever. That’s why cloud telephony service providers are competing against each other to deliver the best solutions for businesses and establish themselves as the best cloud call center platforms in the market. Well, this has proven to be a headache for companies as there are hundreds of options to select from.
What are the best cloud call center platforms in the market now? To make things easier for you, there are a few things that you need to consider that a good cloud-based contact center solution must include. Let’s have a look at them:
1.  Omnichannel support
Since contact centers support multiple communications channels, they need to have omnichannel capabilities. Omnichannel offers a seamless customer service experience across communications channels.
When contacting a contact center of a company, initially, customers will contact from one communication channel. During the interaction, even if the customers shift the conversation to a different channel, their interaction can seamlessly transition without losing any details. The information of all touchpoints throughout the customer’s journey is stored in the contact center and is available for every agent and department. This improves customer satisfaction.
2.  Data integrations
For any contact center, customer data is the key to their success. There are various third-party applications like CRM apps, helpdesks, and marketing software that contain valuable customer and prospects data.
Switching both the contact center software and third-party applications is time-consuming and confusing for agents while dealing with customers. To avoid such inconvenience, contact center software should have integration capability that allows you to integrate with CRM apps, helpdesks, and marketing software.
3.  Advanced features
Features are an integral part of any software. Contact center solutions should consist plethora of calling features that assist in handling inbound and outbound calls as well as other communication channels. Virtual cloud phone systems provide several advanced features for streamlining the workflow process. The best cloud call center platforms in the market essentially include features like:
- Intelligent call routing
- Automatic call distribution (ACD)
- Interactive Voice Response (IVR)
- Sales Dialer
- Click-to-call widget
- Call monitoring and more features.
4.  Sales automation
Contact center comes across hundreds of customers every day. That means agents have to manually perform the same task repetitively, which will get frustrating and time-consuming. Therefore, contact center software should have sales automation to remove all the manual labor.
Sales automation eliminates manual and repetitive tasks by automating them. Many software has in-build sales automation or integrates third-party sales automation tools. It assists agents to focus on closing deals, automate follow-ups, manage sales pipelines, train new recruits, and more.
5.  Technical support
Contact center providers need to provide excellent technical support. They should resolve all the technical and non-technical issues that arise on their contact center software. Their technical support line should be available 24*7 to assist you in handling your problems and doesn’t halt your business processes.
How does cloud contact center work?
Contact center providers provide contact center software to handle customers or prospects across multiple communication channels. They are responsible for overseeing all the technical setup, equipment installation, and service maintenance.
Unlike on-premise traditional call centers, there is no need to buy, install, or maintain additional hardware infrastructures. Instead, the contact center uses Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) technology to establish phone calls via the internet.
Contact center software asks you to connect all your channels such as social media, email, etc. Here each interaction is associated with an account then it is assigned to the appropriate agent to eliminate conflicts. The data in your CRM applications are synced with a contact center so that all necessary information is placed in the dashboard.
Since a cloud contact center only requires an internet connection, agents should have contact center software installed on their device (laptop, smartphone, desktop), workspace, headsets, and stable internet connection. Each agent has a login credential to log into the dashboard.
What are the main benefits of contact centers?
The main benefits of contact centers can be listed as follows:
1.  Cost considerations
Contact centers solely operate in the cloud, so companies do not have to separate budgets for additional hardware infrastructure or real estate. The software can be easily installed on existing devices like laptops, smartphones, or desktops that can connect to the internet.
Also, the calling rates are extremely cheaper than traditional call centers. Businesses can save around 60% of expenses by switching to the cloud.
2.  Remote working capability
Contact centers allow companies to operate from both home and the office. Everyone is always connected to the network regardless of their current location as long as they have internet.
Businesses can stay in touch with their teams no matter where they are working. It is designed to work on a number of devices and operating systems. They also offer real-time reporting to increase transparency for productivity and customer satisfaction.
3.  Fast installation and setup
Setting up a cloud contact center is simple. As hardware installation is not required, you can easily install the contact center software on your device after purchasing the product from cloud center providers. You can add workspaces and agents from the dashboard. These agents can use login credentials to access the dashboard.
4.  Enhanced agent productivity
Cloud contact centers can increase the productivity of the agents because of their advanced features and services. Since the manual tasks can be automated, agents can fully focus on converting the prospect into real customers.
Also, the sales dialer allows agents to make phone calls automatically so that agents can handle more phone calls without wasting any time. Automatic call distribution makes sure that all the agents get an equivalent number of calls.
5.  High reliability and uptime
Outage issues are more likely to happen with traditional phone systems than with cloud-based phone services. Bad weather, location issues, and network disruptions are all potential risks. These risks can be easily avoided using a contact center as it is cloud-based.
Also, if your devices lose internet connection, then the calls are forwarded to your local phone number. The contact center provides a monitor 24*7 to make sure the system is running smoothly. They also provide an enterprise service level agreement (SLA).
6.  Real-time analytics
One of the underappreciated benefits of cloud contact centers is the ease with which you can track every stage of your customer’s journey. You can view real-time dashboards and custom reports.
Agents and supervisors can analyze their work progress. It also aids in scheduling and optimizing work in real-time. Call center managers and directors can use these data to forecast trends, satisfaction scores, and more.
7.  Excellent customer satisfaction
A contact center’s objective is to help consumers with their queries anytime. With contact center software, customers can easily contact you from any communication channel of their choice.
Good customer service leaves a lasting experience on customers, which ultimately satisfies them. When a customer is satisfied, there are more chances of them returning to get your service.
Why contact centers are moving to the cloud?
Cloud technology has changed the way companies view contact centers. With the introduction of cloud-based contact centers, companies have become more dedicated to offering a great customer service experience, driving customer loyalty, and meeting customers’ expectations.
Today, contact centers follow a cloud-based software model called Contact Center as a Service (CCaaS). CCaaS has increased the engagement of customers in every possible way. To understand more, here are the 4 reasons because of which contact centers are moving to the cloud:
1.  Flawless scalability
The capacity to scale agents and tasks rapidly without the need for extra hardware is significant for companies. Contact centers allow enterprises to scale and manage spikes in call volume due to seasonal peaks, service disruptions, disasters, emergencies, or workload fluctuations.
2.  Simple management
Moving to the cloud reduces the need for on-premises infrastructures, such as servers, cables, hardware, and physical space. So there is no need to focus on maintaining and managing them in the office. This allows agents to concentrate more on handling customers. A cloud-based contact center also makes it easier for agents to manage calls by quickly deploying self-service tools for customers.
3.  Proper flexibility
When you move your contact center to the cloud, you gain financial and operational advantages. Sine contact center providers host and maintain infrastructure on their servers, companies can save money and expand services cheaply. On the other hand, agents can easily access the dashboard from any device and any location.
4.  Higher visibility
Contact centers give you total visibility into the customer journey by gathering data and analytics across communication channels, from the chatbot, IVR, etc. These customizable reports can help marketing teams, sales teams, and other units to improve the client experience.
This was the answer to the question – What are the best cloud call center platforms in the market?
FAQ
CCaaS stands for Contact Center as a Service.
Genesys provides contact center solutions for businesses of all types.
Cloud-based customer service is a process of providing customer support to their queries and gathering their information across multiple communication channels.
An on-premise contact center requires both software and hardware to run and manage a call center from a fixed location.
Customer relationship management (CRM) is one of the more common roles transferred to business process outsourcing (BPO), which is the practice of engaging third-party sources to run specific portions of a company.
Yes, cloud-based call centers use VoIP technology for handling inbound and outbound phone calls.
Cisco call center software includes multichannel contact managing, intelligent routing, and network-to-desktop CTI technologies to help agents and businesses manage their operations more effectively.
CXaaS is Customer Experience as a Service for planning, developing, and executing activities across the whole customer journey.
CPaaS stands for Communications Platform as a Service.
UCaaS focuses on improving and streamlining internal collaboration and communication, whereas CCaaS focuses on improving the customer experience and increasing customer satisfaction.
Genesys is a global pioneer in omnichannel customer experience and contact center solutions, with over ten thousand enterprises in over 100 countries relying on its services.
Cloud is responsible for improving customer experience by reducing costs, gathering valuable data, scaling agents, and improving flexibility.
Cloud-based solutions are useful for analyzing messages and voice recordings for tone and character and then routing those calls to the right agent.
The legacy contact center is also known as an on-premise contact center, in which all of the software and hardware needed to run and manage a call center is installed on the local premises.
Depending on the time, place, cost, and ease of access, different call centers use different types of phone systems as per their convenience. Among them, KrispCall, RingCentral, Talkdesk, and CallHippo are proven to be some best cloud call center platforms in the market right now.
According to Nextiva, it has over 99% uptime and no outages in 2019 or 2020. It provides a 24 hours customer support which guarantees to give companies technical support. So it looks quite promising.
Cucm is Cisco Unified Communications Manager, whereas UCCX stands for Unified Contact Center Express (UCCX) from Cisco.
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