Three Cloud Technology Trends to Invest in for a Better Contact Center Future
At the end of 2020, approximately 32% of organizations were running their contact centers using cloud technology. Over the next two years, this number is projected to rise substantially by 75%, meaning more than half of all organizations will be operating cloud-based contact centers by 2022.
Whether your contact center intends to return to the office or stay remote, the acceleration of digital transformation projects and shifts to cloud technology will continue.
Modern technology makes virtual work easier – fundamentally changing how your business operates. Additionally, it enhances the value you can deliver to customers, making it essential to stay up-to-date with the latest trends and maintain a competitive edge.
I’ve gathered a few emerging trends we’re seeing in cloud technology and digital transformation. Review these insights to inform your decision on the best technology for your contact center.
Trend #1: Stay Agile with Remote Workforce Management
There was a bumpy start to the pandemic, and workers were forced home without their desktop computers and hardwired phones. Despite these initial challenges, many contact center leaders successfully pivoted. According to Deloitte, 77% of service organizations are either adopting or accelerating their work-from-home programs, highlighting the importance of laying a strong foundation for effective remote management in your contact center. Remote work has numerous benefits for your employees and your company, allowing you to find and retain talent at a lower cost.
However, it’s nearly impossible to manage a virtual contact center without the right technology to support your team. Cloud technology is essential to a successful remote operation. As you and your IT team decide what’s best for the future of your contact center, find technology that aligns with evolving trends.
Your action items for supporting better remote work:
- Invest in accessible, secure cloud technology. If you haven’t already, prioritize cloud technology that keeps your data safe and is readily available to your team when they need it. Cloud contact center technology allows your team to route and deliver interactions to remote agents across any channel.
- Find technology that restores team performance and productivity. Invest in platforms that make collaboration and customer management easy. With remote work, you can’t rely on a conference room with a whiteboard or stop by an agent’s desk to talk through an issue. Therefore, it’s essential to find an omnichannel contact center platform that allows your employees to collaborate, access customer information, and view important metrics all in one place. Better collaboration tools are the future, and cloud technology enables you to drive agent engagement, performance, and productivity no matter where your agents work.
- Implement technology with targeted coaching and personalized remote training. Working from home can feel isolating. Without frequent feedback and training, your agents can feel insecure about their performance. Contact center agents need to feel empowered to handle customer needs from their home office. Look for cloud technology that allows you to coach agents remotely so you can give frequent, focused feedback.
>> Read Next: 4 Work from Home Best Practice Tips to Guide your Remote Team to Success
Trend #2: Prioritize Cybersecurity to Protect Your Data With Cloud Technology
In the early months of the pandemic, Chief Information Officers faced a massive responsibility: how to maintain the same level of data security while ensuring customers and employees were fully supported in a virtual environment? A report from McKinsey & Co. recognizes these challenges and provides CIOs with an action plan to navigate the COVID pandemic and anticipate future contact center needs.
As you can see, improving cybersecurity is near the top of organizational priority lists, just behind improving remote working capabilities. Ensuring your cloud technology is secure is essential. Over the past year, major data dumps and ransomware attacks affected companies as large as Microsoft and Twitch, even preventing populations in the U.S. from refueling vehicles for travel.
Be proactive about your cybersecurity. Here are a few suggestions to help your team get started with a more secure cloud technology solution.
Your action items for investing in secure cloud technology:
- Educate employees on cybersecurity risks. RiskIQ states that businesses around the world lose $17,700 every minute due to phishing attacks. Many of these breaches target a company’s employees, making it essential to set clear security policies for existing and new personnel. Additionally, with employees using home networks, be transparent about the need for these guidelines and why call center agents must adhere to them. Some ways to strengthen contact center platform security include implementing multi-factor authentication across all platforms, increasing security communications, and maintaining open lines with your security team, so employees know where to turn in the event of a breach.
- Collaborate with your IT team to strengthen key processes. As you improve security training and communications, your employees will need updated processes to follow the new precautions. Work with your IT team to establish procedures for onboarding and supporting employees as they adjust. For instance, create a process for the IT team to assist remote employees with installing and setting up new security tools.
Then, create a comprehensive new employee onboarding checklist. Identify what technology they will need, including any software required to keep their information secure on home devices, or determine if you will provide equipment for remote use. Set clear policies and make them easily accessible so your team can stay secure no matter where they’re located.
>> Learn More: See how Sharpen’s contact center platform keeps your data safe
Trend #3: Expand AI and Automation for Better Workforce Management
As permanent remote work continues to rise, it’s critical to maintain productivity without fueling the burnout fire. Solutions to this painful dichotomy do exist, though. Now, automation and AI are increasingly integrated into nearly every conversation about cloud technology. In fact, 79% of contact center leaders plan to invest in greater AI capabilities and automation in call centers over the next two years.
Watch Meagan Thai’s video to learn more about the value your cloud contact center brings to your business.
Customers expect faster, personal, and more accessible support. Automation can help you deliver on all three. It’s your golden ticket to keep up with cybersecurity updates, support remote workers, help customers, and engage your agents more effectively.
Automation has been used for years – it’s woven into your live chat, IVR, and in self-service tools. As the industry shifts and customer needs grow, more companies are turning to AI-driven solutions. At the same time, they also want to keep customer interactions feeling personal and human. It’s a tricky balance between contact center automation and a humanized customer experience.
Murph Krajewski, CMO at Sharpen, describes in Forbes how to find the balance between automation and empathy:
“When you get rid of the mundane tasks slowing your people down, you can help your customers faster (and more effectively). But over-automating isn’t the answer. When you hand off too many tasks to the bots, your employees may feel like they’re living in their own version of a science-fiction movie. It removes humanity from their roles and can make your team feel like an extension of a bot instead of making bots feel like an extension of your team.”
To follow Murph’s advice, consider a few areas where automation and AI can support your contact center platform moving forward.
Your action items for finding cloud technology with automation:
- Make your future more personal with cognitive technologies. Technologies like speech analytics and process automation offer a smoother customer experience that’s personal, faster, and intuitive. Even better, these tools allow your employees to handle more complex issues and automate simpler customer requests, warding off employee burnout.
- Ensure your cloud technology platform supports workflow automation. When you add up all the little tasks it takes to run your contact center operations, such as sending coaching reminders to agents, digging through call and chat transcripts, and data mining through reports, it feels like you should work overtime every day. Tools like speech analytics, intuitive reporting, and triggered coaching simplify your day-to-day work, allowing you to be more efficient and better serve your customers.
