What is a cloud-based call center solution and why do you need it?

Call center is the best solution for setting up a customer service department, but what if we say that there are two different types of call center.

17:42 21 February 2023

We all have the experience of interacting with the call center, mostly as customers who call to call centers for getting service or additional information. But for business owners, a call center is the best solution to set up the customer service department that will be responsible for such aspects of customer service as customer retention, customer satisfaction, customer experience management, and building customer loyalty. But when it comes to setting up a call center, the main question is to choose between cloud-based call center solution and on-premises call center solution that will cover all your business needs and requirements. 

It is absolutely clear that you can’t set up a call center by using simple technologies. For highly competitive industries, such as banking, healthcare insurance, real estate and mortgage agencies it is vital to be a few steps ahead of competitors to find new customers and retain current customers too. 

So what modern technologies are used to set up call centers? What benefits and features can be offered by modern call center solutions? Let’s deal with it.

Cloud based call center vs On-premise call center

On premise call center solution is a type of call center where all the infrastructure is purchased, set up, maintained and located by the call center owner. This means that if you want to purchase an on-premise call center solution you’ll have to purchase all hardware and pay for setting it up before your call center will be all set. This also means that you need a place to store all the hardware such as servers. As you could guess, to set up an on premise call center you need to spend a lot of money just to get it configured. 

On the other hand, a cloud-based call center is much more effortless to set up and maintain. All the infrastructure of a cloud-based call center is located in the cloud, so it is also a more secure solution even though some people may doubt it. Furthermore, you don’t need to pay for setting up a cloud call center - all the work will be completed by the vendor. Such solutions are sold as subscription-based software tools that can contain different feature packages, as well as the price may differ based on how many accounts you need for your employees. 

So as it follows from what is written above, a cloud-based call center is the cheapest solution that doesn’t need any huge investments and can be configured in 24 hours. 

What features does the cloud call center have?

Now you know that a cloud-based call center is a better on-premise solution, but you still can’t imagine what is the capability of such a software tool. Modern cloud call centers can not only receive or send calls, but control and perform many other processes that are related to customer service, sales, or other aspects of your business. 

Call monitoring

Call monitoring is the feature that allows you to listen to live calls between call center agents and customers. There are three main types of call monitoring - barging-in, whispering, and hidden mode.

Barging-in means a mode when both customer and agent are allowed to hear you. This mode is great for situations when conversation is escalating.

Hidden mode means no one hears you. This mode is perfect if you just want to track your agents' performance and control the quality of their work.

Whispering is the mode where only the agent hears you. This mode is perfect if you want to help an agent deal with a difficult customer without call escalation 

or call transfer. 

Live dashboards

You have to keep all processes under control, right? So you can’t do it without specific data and call center metrics that allow you to keep your finger on the pulse of everything that happens in your call center. Life dashboards include all the information and data you need to understand if everything goes on OK or if you need to change something. Such crucial call center metrics as average handle time, average waiting time, call abandonment rate, volume of inbound calls, and so on can be included in such dashboards. Moreover, live dashboards are updated almost every second so you receive the actual information about call center performance to get enough data for making decisions.

Outbound dialers

Outbound dialers are specific tools for cold calling and these tools can totally automate all the process of cold calling and help you handle huge contact lists in a few hours, not in a few weeks. Auto dialers can perform over 100 dials per hour, while manually you can’t perform more than 30. Moreover, auto dialers can boost your conversion rate up to 2.5 times. Such tools can also redial calls that were unsuccessful automatically. 

Omnichannel communication

People are no longer communicating by phone only. Most of us use chats and social media, emails and other digital communication channels on a daily basis, and you as a business owner can’t ignore the fact that most of your customers can prefer digital communication channels. Omnichannel communication allows call center software to manage all the communication channels, including web chat, social media, emails, and so on in an all-in-one interface, as well as allow customers to switch between communication channels without losing progress of the conversation. Outbound communication is also omnichannel, so you can send your follow up emails from the same tool where you handle inbound calls. 

Conclusion

As you can see, a cloud-based call center solution is the best solution for any business - small or large - but where to get the finest solution? We can offer our VoIP Contact Center software as a cloud solution that includes all needed features and all the functionalities of the best software tool on the market. Check the link to learn more!