More Contact Centers Embrace WFH During COVID-19

The cloud contact center has been at the forefront of innovation regarding how call centers operate for some time now. The benefits of expanded service hours, lower costs, and better management were just some of the reasons cloud contact centers were a beneficial choice compared to their traditional on-premise predecessors.

However, today, with COVID-19 and a global pandemic continuing to shift just about everything, the need to go even more remote is taking over. For enterprises that use contact centers for their operations, they understand that cloud-based services - and more importantly, a work-from-home model - are the best way to ensure quality services are still being provided.

A new 2020 ISG Provider Lens Contact Center as a Service – CX Global Report has found that call centers are transitioning to remote work from home models now and realizing additional flexibility gains as well as cost savings and productivity benefits. It also means they can offer high customer service levels and provide assistance on expanded channels - such as voice, SMS, email, and social media.

For most enterprises, the need to cut down on hold times (which saw an increase since the pandemic and increased calls began) and a shift to non-voice communications with companies have made the move essential.

“During the pandemic, enterprises are challenged to deliver high-quality, personalized customer experience to maintain brand loyalty and keep their customers,” said Jan Erik Aase, director and global leader, ISG Provider Lens Research.

“With a range of benefits that cloud contact centers provide, more enterprises are moving to cloud platforms and are taking full advantage of the available technology stack.”

Compared to traditional contact centers, cloud-based solutions come with a multitude of technologies, including analytics, single-screen management, AI, and machine learning tools. They also provide call center managers with better tools to schedule agents, view their interactions with customers, and uncover areas needing improvement.

Edited by Maurice Nagle