Why Choose Contact Centre as a Service?

Shoaib Hussain at Business Systems defines Contact Centre as a Service (CCaas).

CCaaS (Contact Centre as a Service) is a cloud-based call centre software solution that provides businesses with capabilities of running contact centre services via the cloud.

CCaaS solutions for contact centres are designed to be customer-centric. They are also designed to continue to evolve in order to fit the way people work. Lastly, they are designed to provide a great customer experience in an omnichannel world.

What are the Benefits of CCaaS?

There are many benefits to implementing a CCaaS model within the contact centre. One of the main benefits is that the distinct components that are combined to make a conventional contact centre are then delivered via the cloud from an independent software provider.

The cloud provider then handles all the upgrades and maintenance. In addition, businesses then pay through monthly subscriptions.

Some of the components which make a conventional contact centre and can be delivered via the cloud include:

• Automatic call distribution (ACD) (Skills-based routing engine)
• Outbound software/predictive dialer
• Computer telephony integration (CTI)
• PBX, advanced interactive voice response (IVR)

Contact centre channels including inbound calls, email, text, chat and social media Some more benefits are explained below:

CCaaS Platforms can Effortlessly Integrate With Artificial Intelligence Capabilities (AI):

The seamless integration capabilities between AI and CCaaS platforms means that there are greater possibilities of improving the customer journey and overall experience.

For example, AI technology allows for intelligent routing, ensuring that customers are passed to the most appropriate person or machine agent. In addition, AI functionality such as instant screen-pops can guide a call centre agent through the next best-step suggestions.

Cost-Effective

CCaaS is much more cost-effective compared to its on-premise counterparts as it allows organisations to purchase only the technology they need, therefore reducing the need for IT support and allows bespoke, fully customisable solutions.

Sometimes, when changes are required to customise on-premise contact centres this can end up becoming a lengthy process. However, with the flexibility that comes with cloud technology, contact centres administrators can change the set up quickly and easily from a browser-based service creation environment.

Scalable to Business Needs

In addition, the ability to upgrade CCaaS software means that, unlike legacy contact centre platforms, CCaaS is completely scalable. As a result, when organisations go through spikes in demand, their customer service is less likely to suffer as they can upscale/de-scale their contact centre accordingly.

For sectors such as the public sector, utilities and travel where crisis situations are more likely to happen, the scalability of a CCaaS platform is vital.

Cloud Native

Another benefit of cloud contact centre software is that it is cloud-native. This means the technology was developed to be run in the cloud. Therefore, users can take advantage of modern microservice technologies which have the scalability to empower contact centres to adapt to changing market conditions.

How Can the CCaaS Model Improve The Customer Experience?

Over the last few years, the customer journey has become increasingly complex. With the rise of omnichannel communications, customers now expect to contact organisations whenever they want, through whatever channel they choose.

The ability to address this challenge head-on is one of the key differentiators of CCaaS technology. Contact Centre as a Service lends itself to omnichannel capabilities. The technology allows customers and agents to communicate effortlessly across channels including webchat, instant messaging, phone and email.

Choosing the Right CCaaS Provider

Before deciding on a CCaaS provider, contact centres need to ensure they are getting all the features and support they need.

Some of the questions contact centres should consider before scouting a vendor include:

• Which features & functionality do they offer?
• Do they have customer references to demonstrate CCaaS model success?
• Where are their services nodes geographically located? (depending on where they are based, it can impact network resilience and availability)
• Where is their platform hosted? (e.g public cloud, private cloud or a data centre?)
• What are their Service Level Agreements? (SLAs)
• What are their support plan options?
• What size companies and number of agents can they scale to support? And how quickly?
• How do they comply with data privacy standards and regulations?