What if I told you the secret to improving customer experience is upgrading your cloud contact center?

It’s common knowledge that CX has become a key differentiator in our competitive market. Recent research from world-renowned CX expert Shep Hyken highlights just how important a positive customer experience is:

• 76% of consumers will go out of their way to do business with companies that provide better customer service
• 86% of customers are willing to switch brands if another company provides a better customer service experience
• 48% of consumers say customer service is more important than price

Delivering positive customer experiences lets you weather more storms, experience business continuity, and improve customer satisfaction. The outcome? Better customer retention and a boost in your bottom line.

As a contact center manager, delivering excellent service is the goal. But you can’t reach that goal with outdated, clunky tech. To improve your customer experience, it’s time to invest in a cloud contact center. Keep reading to learn more.

Upgrading to a Cloud Contact Center Boosts Your CX

New technology is a big — and daunting — investment. How do you get your organization on board? Let me help you build your business case.

Here are a few ways upgrading your cloud contact center boosts your CX.

• It improves agent productivity. Empower agents with tools to streamline their workflows and have remote accessibility, making them more efficient.
  • How this impacts your CX: Customers get help faster by streamlining work. Prompt resolutions = happy customers.
• It reduces hold times. Long wait times are a recipe for frustration. Cloud contact centers have tools like intelligent routing and queue management to minimize hold and handle times, which improves productivity.
  • How this impacts your CX: Customers today value speed above almost all else. Waiting on hold and being passed from one agent to the next leaves customers angry and dissatisfied. But, by reducing hold and handle times, you’ll keep customers engaged and happy with your service quality.
• It’s convenient. Queue callback features let customers request a return call when an agent is available.
  • How this impacts your CX: The bottom line is customers don’t want to spend their day trying to reach a customer service rep. Can you blame them? Queue callback supports convenience for your customers, letting them go on with their day without waiting on hold.
• It provides better insights for training. Real-time analytics provide insight into customer behavior, agent performance, and operational efficiency. Digging into this data helps you make more informed decisions, optimize processes, tailor experiences, and improve your agent training.
  • How this impacts your CX: Using analytics, a cloud contact center can personalize services by tracking trends and behavior to meet customer preferences. Plus, it can also help you locate performance gaps and adapt your agent training. And when your agents are better trained, they provide high-quality service.

7 Must-Have Features in a Cloud Contact Center

If you want to boost your customer experience, you need to ensure your cloud contact center has features to support that goal. Here are seven must-have features worth your time in a cloud contact center.

Cloud contact centers are the perfect solution for small businesses. Learn more in this blog post.

1. Omnichannel Capabilities

With omnichannel capabilities, your agents can view and respond to customer inquiries from a single dashboard. This gives them a holistic, real-time view of customer interactions. Agents can also switch between channels and access customer history while maintaining context the whole time. This creates a seamless customer journey and maintains customer engagement at every touchpoint.

2. Unified Customer Databases

Improve your service with a unified customer database. With cloud contact center software, you can create customer profiles from data compiled across channels and systems. Doing so gets rid of data silos. Instead, you gain a holistic view of the interaction history for greater customer satisfaction.

3. Advanced Routing and IVR

Call routing ensures customers reach the most suitable agent based on predetermined criteria such as skills, availability, and customer history. With call routing, you can amplify your agents’ strengths and get customers the help they need faster. Then, using  IVR systems with self-service tools, customers get answers without waiting on hold. Plus, they can guide callers to the best help, gather information, and answer FAQs.

4. Real-Time Monitoring

As a manager, everyone in your contact center needs help — usually at the same time. But unfortunately, you can’t be in multiple places at once. With real-time call monitoring, managers can track ongoing customer interactions and performance and then jump in to support agents as needed. And they can do so from one unified dashboard. How convenient is that? With a cloud contact center, you can use call monitoring to make immediate adjustments to optimize your efficiency and customer service.

5. Workforce Optimization (WFO) Tools

WFO tools help managers anticipate needs. You can forecast ahead to prepare your schedules, ensuring you have an appropriate number of agents with the right skills to handle shifting call volumes. Then, you can monitor quality throughout the day and gather key data for better training and support.

6. Integrations

Your cloud contact center solution should integrate with your existing systems and tools. Look for a platform that connects seamlessly with your email and marketing tools, billing platforms, and CRMs so you have consistent customer data across every touchpoint in the customer journey.

7. Robust Security Features

You collect a lot of customer data throughout the day. This means security is critical. Ensure your platform has robust customer data privacy and security measures. Look for data encryption, secure access controls, and a vendor with regular security audits to ensure compliance with industry standards.

5 Tips for Choosing the Right Cloud Contact Center for Your Business

So, you have buy-in from your organization and a budget to upgrade your contact center software. What’s next? You need to choose the right solution for your business. Here are five quick tips to guide you.

1. Define your requirements. Identify your team’s specific needs and goals before chatting with a vendor to ensure you prioritize essential features.
2. Prioritize scalability. Find a solution that can scale with your business so you always have a platform that fits.
3. Ensure the platform is reliable and secure. Prioritize a platform with robust security measures and guaranteed uptime.
4. Prioritize ease of integration. Look for a solution that integrates with your existing systems and workflows.
5. Consider vendor reputation and support. Choose a reputable vendor with a good track record and excellent customer support. Find someone who will partner with you and provide training and ongoing help.

The Top 5 Cloud Contact Center Solutions for 2024

Check out these top five solutions.

1. Zendesk. Zendesk prioritizes customer experiences. Known for its intuitive interface, scalability, and extensive integration options, it offers a cloud contact center solution that supports growing businesses.
2. NICE. NICE’s platform seeks to help organizations grow sustainably. It prioritizes security, helping teams scale and optimize operations.
3. Five9. Five9 focuses on equipping agents with the tools they need to provide the personalized assistance customers demand. Recognized for its reliability, scalability, and AI-powered features, Five9 provides enhanced customer engagement.
4. Genesys. Genesys offers advanced AI capabilities, omnichannel support, and scalability. It’s a good solution for enterprise-size companies because it unifies customer and agent experiences.
5. Broadvoice. Our GoContact platform is easy to use, manage, and afford while offering a comprehensive suite of features. You’ll receive omnichannel support, advanced analytics, and seamless integrations. With robust customization, GoContact is the ideal solution for small- and enterprise-size organizations.