Digital transformation is imperative for business to thrive but, until this year, there were still several organisations that were laggards. The pandemic put a hard stop to that and has been a reality check for businesses reluctant to embrace digital transformation. Every business – if it wants to survive the current global shutdown – must be a digital business. Go digital, or go dark. Even beyond the pandemic, the way we work and engage with customers will be forever changed. This has enormous implications on operations, which can no longer rely on old manual processes or legacy systems – in particular, the systems that engage their most important asset – their company’s customers.
According to a leading analyst firm, 80 percent of contact centre seats are still tethered to aging, obsolete and inflexible on-premises platforms. Companies either need to move customer ops to the cloud or risk pandemic-driven extinction – that much is clear. But is navigating this migration just as clear? Organisations face worries over complexities and risks involved with moving customer operations and data to the cloud, even as they pursue aspirations that the grass is greener in the cloud, hearing tales of “happier customers”, “engaged workforce”, and “lower costs”. Moreover, the move to the cloud is only the beginning. From there, contact centres need to make sure they have the tools needed to secure operations and prepare for what lies ahead.
Turning these aspirations into reality
With the onset of the pandemic and an evolving new normal, achieving happier customers, an engaged workforce and lower costs for the contact centre. and the business overall, is more challenging. Customers have grown anxious, wanting answers faster. Call volume rose in many industries including retail, travel, financial services and healthcare. As call centre agents transition to work from home for the first time, VPNs and other new tool implementations are driving operating costs up for the contact centre.
With these changes for the new normal, migrating to the cloud is essential for organisations. Cloud contact centre solutions can help achieve these goals with these features:
- Self-service options and artificial intelligence (AI) / virtual agents allow customers to help themselves without the need for live support options
- Onboarding, coaching and engagement tools are available for agents, regardless of their location, including real-time coaching that leverages AI
- Business agility reaches new heights as the cloud offers hyper-flexible service customisation. With legacy on-premises solutions, changing settings and preferences is a time consuming process. With cloud solutions, changes happen overnight
With our new work-from-home normal, customer and internal data is stored in many different locations regardless of using an on-premises legacy solution with the help of a VPN or operating on a cloud-based solution. This makes security and fraud detection more important than ever. But for the organisations that have made it the cloud, what about security for the contact centre?
The security features and tools that every contact centre in the cloud should have include:
- Detection when an agent shows signs of unsafe conduct, like resetting their password repeatedly
- An advanced, multi-factored authentication process for an extra layer of digital and physical security
- Integration with identity providers to centralise security and provide seamless access for all agents, regardless of where they are located
Future proofing the contact centre for what lies ahead
Customer and workforce expectations are changing. Contact centre platforms need to change, too. Legacy on-premises software lacks business agility, support for today’s distributed workforce, self-service for customers and agents, and is expensive. Migrating to the cloud delivers better flexibility for the business, efficiency for agents, and support for customers. Moreover, with the right security tools in place, a cloud-based contact centre is the ideal way to keep business and customer information safe.
From the cloud, an organisation’s contact centre is prepared for whatever lies ahead. As the digital transformation continues to, for lack of a better word, transform the way we do business, new and innovative technology will continue to come into play. The best way to prepare for these transformations is to have the flexibility and security needed to adapt, and adapt quickly. A cloud-based contact centre is the perfect foundation to allow organisations to be nimble and competitive as the digital transformation continues to evolve the way we do business.
Guest Blog by Charanya (CK) Kannan, Chief Product Officer, Talkdesk
