Future-Proofing the Business of Tomorrow

Colin Gill of Akixi shares his advice for making sure that your contact centre communication stack is ready for anything.

There are plenty of factors changing the world of work these days: The widespread roll-out of 5G promises an environment that’s increasingly mobile and connected; the rise of artificial intelligence could make interactions between people in a business more contextual and relevant; even the cloud has opened the door for a rapidly growing remote workforce.

The ever-evolving nature of the business landscape draws into focus the importance of being prepared in any industry.

Simply waiting until your industry forces you to evolve isn’t enough any more. Companies need to examine the benefits of new technology now, not just to stay ahead of the competition, but also to protect themselves.

The workplace isn’t just evolving to make companies more efficient and productive. We’re also investing more time and money into things like the cloud because of the positive impact it can have when it comes to defending business longevity and growth.

What Does the Business of Tomorrow Need?

For years, the cloud has represented an exciting opportunity for businesses, and companies today are now realizing that allowing employees to work from home through the cloud can make them more productive and efficient, while also increasing staff morale.

However, cloud technology isn’t just the key to maintaining and retaining your talent. It also gives businesses more opportunities to future-proof their technology stack. With cloud solutions, businesses of all sizes now have the freedom to analyse their contact centres and make instant changes to improve outcomes.

For instance, with call recording plug-in and analytics tools, you might be able to see trends in the customer experience journey which you can use to improve customer satisfaction and enhance employee training in the years to come.

Cloud’s benefits from a remote working perspective also make it essential in times of crisis. Only recently, many companies have seen first-hand how valuable cloud technology can be in helping to reduce the impact of the COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak.

In infected areas without the cloud, entire businesses would be forced to shut down to prevent the contagion from spreading. However, with a cloud environment embedded in your business, you can ensure that your team members have the freedom to work from home when disaster strikes.

Preparing your business for anything, whether it’s an epidemic, a flash flood, or a major outage, no longer just means having backups in place. Companies also need a strategy that will enable their team to continue working efficiently, no matter what happens.

Preparing for Potential Disasters: It Starts Now

As threats like coronavirus continue to push companies around the globe to reconsider the depth and value of their disaster-recovery plans, now is the perfect time to ask yourself if your business is truly future-proofed. If you aren’t already putting tools in place that allow your team the flexibility to work remotely, now could be the ideal time to start.

Tools like Akixi Presence can give supervisors and team leaders the freedom to monitor their workers wherever they are, and make sure that work is still happening efficiently in any environment. The more you test your remote working strategies, the more prepared you’ll be when a time arrives when you need to rely on them.

Start working on improving your disaster-management plan today by listing possible issues and emergencies that your business could face. Epidemics like coronavirus are just one potential disaster for today’s businesses.

Other problems could include everything from political unrest and cyberattacks to earthquakes and office fires. Knowing what kind of emergencies your company is likely to face will help you to put the right plans in place.

Think about:

• What kind of critical assets do your employees need? How can you provide your team with the tools that they rely on every day? This includes more than just business phone systems. It may also mean thinking about call recording, integrations with CRM tools, collaboration apps, and more.
• Which teams can work from a distance? Some of your employees may be more suited to working remotely than others. For instance, contact centre employees are well suited to remote working in an environment where cloud-based call and contact centre reporting and analytics are available.
• Monitoring performance: How are you going to make sure that things are working smoothly when your supervisors and managers can’t look over an employee’s shoulder? Do you need a solution in place for monitoring real-time data, as well as something that allows you to keep historical logs for analysis and compliance purposes?

Monitor Consistently, Not Just When Things Go Wrong

One of the biggest mistakes that businesses make when it comes to disaster planning is that they wait until something goes wrong before they begin analysing processes and performance. However, when crises occur, it’s important to have a baseline in place so that you know how much any changes might be affecting you.

For instance, if a disaster strikes and forces your contact centre to work remotely for a couple of weeks, it’s impossible to know whether you’re still delivering the kind of sensational customer experiences that your clients are looking for if you don’t already have historical reporting benchmarks in place.

A comprehensive call and contact centre analytics solution, like those offered by Akixi, will ensure that you have the right strategy in place to continue delivering the meaningful conversations that customers expect.

Being able to see how your contact processes are working and how you can optimize them in any situation is crucial for delivering a game-changing experience in the modern world.

When disaster strikes and emotions are running high, your ability to continue delivering the kind of service that your customers have come to love and expect could be what stops you from crumbling where other businesses would break down.

With the right consistent logging and analytics software, you’ll be able to respond immediately to real-time data, even when your team members are working remotely. This means that supervisors and managers can protect and support customer interactions, even when people can’t come into the office.

What’s more, because Akixi software ensures that every interaction is logged accurately and safely, you can easily diagnose potential issues and help to get rid of them before future communications occur.

Handling Emergencies: Preparedness Can’t Wait

Preparing for emergencies should be something that a business does regularly, like a fire drill in your office. The worst thing you can do is wait until disaster strikes to start thinking about how everyone can be properly equipped, empowered, and supported.

With the right monitoring and analytics strategy in place, you can ensure that you’re delivering excellent service and running a successful business, regardless of whether your team is in the office or working remotely.