The gleaming lattice of interconnection that is the hallmark of the 21st century has quickly woven disparate markets from around the world into a tight global community. Connectivity of this scale can thrust SMBs from relative obscurity into the public eye in a moment’s glance. Because of this, today’s SMB needs to be prepared to come online with customer service and sales support incredibly fast. Fortunately for the businesses lucky enough to gain mass appeal, the virtual call center allows for almost instantaneous setup at virtually no capital investment.
The virtual call center market is tightly connected and continues to revolve around the SMB. In 2010 SMBs accounted for 75 percent of the market share for hosted call centers. As Contactual’s (News - Alert) VP of Global Sales Wendell Black points out, “SMBs fit that model best, because they have flexibility that you don’t see if you went to the enterprise level.
We’re all familiar with the stories that drive SMBs success and virtual call center need. A small toy shop or custom shoemaker picks up accolades from a national television program or celebrity, and next thing they know they’ve got more orders to fill than they can keep up with. On top of the need to produce, they’re also responsible for managing incoming requests, returns and customer service. Hosted solutions help because they grant these SMBs access to call center technologies that were prohibitively expensive only a decade ago. Hosted options also allow SMB the flexibility to hire staff for either a centralized customer service operation or utilizing home agents.
The virtual option offers SMBs the opportunity to leverage multi-channel solutions without having to buy multiple point technologies and hire systems integrators to build infrastructure. Cloud computing is already a US $40.7 billion market, and is expected to explode to 241 Billion by 2020.
The expansion of the hosted call center market shows that with SMBs behind them, virtual call centers will be the preferred platform for customer interaction in the very near future.
Want to learn more about the latest in communications and technology? Then be sure to attend ITEXPO West 2011, taking place Sept. 13-15, 2011, in Austin, Texas. ITEXPO (News - Alert) offers an educational program to help corporate decision makers select the right IP-based voice, video, fax and unified communications solutions to improve their operations. It's also where service providers learn how to profitably roll out the services their subscribers are clamoring for – and where resellers can learn about new growth opportunities. To register, click here.
Chris DiMarco is a Managing Editor for TMCnet. He holds a master's degree in journalism from Quinnipiac University. Prior to joining TMC (News - Alert) Chris worked with e-commerce provider Suresource as a contact center representative and development analyst. To read more of his articles, please visit his columnist page. Follow him on Twitter (News - Alert) @cpdimarco.
Edited by Juliana Kenny