Contact Centres Are Moving to Cloud

More contact centres are switching to cloud, due to legacy system limitations, changing customer behaviours and flexible business models.

These are the findings of a new report: The State of Customer Experience 2017, which confirms that 39% of UK contact centres have already migrated to the cloud and 57% are planning or actively considering a move within the next three years.

The study confirms that a cloud-based solution has become the preferred infrastructure choice for the majority of organisations today.

The study also suggests a cloud platform is best suited to help the contact centre align with the top three business priorities for UK business: improving profitability (63%), ensuring technology keeps pace with changing customer behaviours (67%) and security (37%).

Legacy systems and their limitations are a big roadblock when it comes to delivering and designing positive customer experiences across digital and voice channels.

Fewer than half of customer experience professionals (47%) are able to strongly agree that their contact centre ‘meets my needs as a customer’. And only 20% have a web self-service capability, while just 29% could strongly agree their contact centre has the ability to deliver seamless customer experiences across multiple channels.

Those who have already taken the plunge and migrated their contact centres to the cloud have seen benefits, citing the speed of deployment for new features (53%), cost savings from flexible licensing models (47%) and a reduction in maintenance costs alongside access to a more advanced feature set (45%).

Enda Kenneally, VP of Sales and Business Development, West, commented: “Company success now more than ever hinges on the customer experience. Yet, many contact centres are failing, not because they don’t understand their customers, but because legacy systems are unable to meet their needs.

“Today’s customers want to be able to communicate in the way that suits them best – be that through webchat, self-service, or just picking up the phone. Migrating to the cloud is not only the most cost-effective way of addressing these needs, it is also quickly becoming the most sensible strategic investment choice.”

Other benefits of cloud highlighted by those who have already made the move include improved customer experience and satisfaction, the ability to extend the contact centre across multiple locations, and the ability to meet the mobility and flexibility needs of those working remotely.

Key findings include:

39% of companies have already migrated their contact centres to the cloud
53% are planning to move their contact centres to the cloud within three years
65% say speed of deployment is the biggest benefit of cloud contact centres

To see the report, please visit www.westuc.com