TMCnews Featured Article

Today, the cloud-based contact center market is booming, while the premises-based sector is struggling to survive. Across the world, in contact centers of all different sizes, end users are adopting cloud-based solutions in order to prepare for the future and always be ready for when disaster strikes.

Over the last several years, The Great Recession has been driving cloud-based contact center solution adoption. Companies that needed contact center infrastructure but didn’t want to put up the capital to purchase it have been trying cloud-based solutions as a short-term alternative, and these managers discovered that the cloud-based business model offered more benefits than challenges.

In fact in 2008, the adoption rate of cloud-based contact center infrastructure solutions was only 2.2 percent. By the end of 2011, it had more than doubled to 5.9 percent. And by 2015, DMG estimates that a minimum of 18.1 percent of all contact center seats will be in the cloud.

Contact centers located in areas known for their risk of natural disaster understand the potential and are more prepared to spring into action to provide the continuity of service their customers expect. Typical small and medium businesses cannot afford the expense of geographically diverse communications systems.

But businesses that choose a robust cloud-based PBX (News - Alert) and contact center provider enjoy double benefits of disaster resiliency and lower costs than premised-based systems. 

Severe storms can affect any business, in any location, so providing reliable, customer care experiences has become a primary differentiator in this competitive market, and consumers expect no less than superior service regardless of the circumstances. In some cases, the expectation is even higher in adverse conditions, especially for organizations that provide communications in response to a disaster.

In most cases, consumers have no idea and don’t care where the call center they’ve reached is located – they just want their issue resolved.

Even in the most difficult circumstances, the risk of getting a negative reputation for poor service is becoming a concern for companies working to manage a competitive presence in the marketplace. According to the Stravity Group, 95 percent of business leaders see customer service as the next competitive battleground.

According to Gartner (News - Alert), by the end of this decade less than 10 percent of brands will be able to differentiate themselves through core product offerings.

Cloud-based contact solutions are emerging as a primary means for achieving the service customers expect as well as the disaster recovery and business continuity that today’s market requires. Cost plays a major factor as hosted solutions offer the geographical redundancy of systems on a pay-as-you-go basis. This means that when all systems are running smoothly, the cost of maintaining a disaster recovery plan and availability is low.  

Beyond cost savings, cloud-based contact center services ensure that, no matter what the circumstances, your company will be available for your customers. Consumers want the benefit of being able to interact with your company according to their own schedule. Cloud-based services make self-service IVR readily available and affordable for a growing number of customers who prefer to handle things themselves.

The redundancy offered by the cloud ensures that, in the event of a primary system failure, your customers won’t be left in the dark. In the event of a natural disaster, the cloud-based contact solution outshines the on-premises model. With much more flexible routing options and zero dependence on the availability of utilities in the physical contact center space, cloud systems make it possible to maintain availability for your customers regardless of the situation.

After all, downtime at your contact center is simply not an option. So if disaster strikes, the cloud gives you contact center the ability to quickly switch your operations to agents located anywhere in the world.

Want to learn more about what the cloud can do for your contact center in a disaster? Attend an upcoming webinar entitled, “Businesses Skirt Disaster with Cloud PBX and Contact Center” on Thursday, April 4 at 2:00 PM EST. In this webinar, Rob Townsend, sr. product manager of 8x8 (News - Alert) Virtual Contact Center, 8x8 Inc., and Josh Varela, sales engineer at 8x8 Inc., will discuss how a New York City company was able to provide normal services during Hurricane Sandy.

To register, click here!