Take the benefits of CCaaS to the next level. Discover the sustainable approach to digital transformation with SaaSCom.
The benefits of CCaaS (Contact Center as a Service) platforms have become increasingly evident in recent years. These cloud-based customer experience platforms ensure companies can adapt to rising customer expectations, and stay agile in an era of constant digital transformation.
While traditional contact center systems struggle to accommodate rising contact volumes, and changing preferences for communication channels, CCaaS platforms offer unlimited flexibility. They empower companies to meet their customers wherever they are, design highly personalized consumer journeys, and even reduce operational costs.
What’s more, the right solutions ensure companies can adapt to wider market trends, allowing them to unlock additional advantages from new technology, like generative AI, and sustainable initiatives.
Here’s your guide to unlocking the full benefits of CCaaS in 2024 and beyond.
The Core Benefits of CCaaS
CCaaS platforms have been around for some time now, offering companies a flexible way to manage contact center operations and teams in the cloud. However, the popularity of these tools has increased significantly in recent years. Now, for instance, the CCaaS market is currently accelerating towards a projected value of $23.95 billion by 2032.
Part of the reason for this is that the contact center landscape has shifted. Agents are now working remotely, or via hybrid models, rather than being chained to a desk, increasing the demand for flexible software that can enable productivity anywhere.
Additionally, consumers are demanding more flexible customer service experiences, increasing the need for a platform where teams can manage conversations across various channels, from chat, to social media, in one unified space. In the UK, there’s also the rising threat of the PSTN network switch-off to consider, which will undoubtedly push more phone systems into the cloud.
Fortunately, CCaaS offers a number of impressive benefits, such as:
1. Cost Savings
Just like consumers, companies are struggling to accomplish more with less in a complex economy. Compared to traditional contact center technologies, CCaaS solutions can be far more cost-effective. They eliminate the need for expensive on-premises hardware and software, and reduce the ongoing maintenance costs associated with such systems.
Plus, since many vendors offer pay-as-you-go subscription models, companies can easily adjust their costs according to their needs, scaling services up or down over time. As an added bonus, the efficiency and productivity enabled by CCaaS solutions reduces expenses too.
One report conducted by RingCentral found that CCaaS solutions with integrated UCaaS platforms could reduce call handling time by 20%, leading to a $10.8 million saving for one company.
2. Scalability and Flexibility
Scalability and flexibility are by far some of the biggest benefits of CCaaS. With a traditional contact center solution, adding seats and features to your ecosystem would be a time-consuming and complex process. With CCaaS, you can manage your entire ecosystem from a portal in the cloud, adding new numbers, and scaling operations for unexpected increases in contact volume.
CCaaS solutions also ensure companies can enable team members to work from home, or remotely. This not only improves the employee experience, and increases access to talent, it can also form a valuable part of an eco-friendly digital transformation process. Flexible work schedules reduce the amount of travel employees need to do each day.
3. Enhanced Customer Experiences
A great contact center solution is the key to delivering exceptional customer experiences. Fantastic customer experiences are what separate companies from their competitors, and pave the way for long-term revenue and growth. Studies even show that companies who focus on CX can achieve an up to 80% increase in their revenue.
CCaaS solutions can enhance customer experience in various ways. First, they empower companies to deliver support to customers on any channel, from social media, to phone and email. They also align all of these conversations in one environment, ensuring agents can preserve context, and deliver a personalized and consistent experience.
Plus, by giving companies access to advanced analytics, AI-powered tools, and reporting solutions, CCaaS solutions can help businesses map customer journeys, and make intelligent decisions about how to optimize future customer interactions.
4. Greater Productivity
Cloud-based contact center solutions can also have an impact on your company’s productivity and performance. Since they allow employees to access crucial resources from anywhere, they ensure even hybrid and remote workers can achieve their goals and targets, wherever they are.
Many CCaaS solutions can also automate repetitive tasks, like recording and transcribing calls, or assessing customer sentiment, which frees agents up to focus on delivering great experiences. CCaaS helps agents to work more efficiently, and can even reduce the number of interactions employees have with customers each day, through self-service technologies.
5. Better Security and Reliability
Although, initially, some companies had concerns about the security and reliability of the cloud, CCaaS vendors now invest heavily in infrastructure redundancy and protection. They implement intelligent tools to protect customer information, and offer uptime guarantees of up to 99.999%.
Some contact center leaders even invest in data centers that help to ensure ongoing reliability for contact centers, while reducing their carbon footprint. This means you can create the always-on customer service experience your audience craves, without harming the planet.
The Trends Enhancing the Benefits of CCaaS
All of the benefits of CCaaS mentioned above have helped to accelerate the adoption of cloud-based solutions for contact center management. However, now we’re entering a new era, where emerging trends are making the value of CCaaS even more significant.
Based on our market analysis, and our work with CCaaS leaders, here are some of the major trends that will make contact centers in the cloud more advantageous going forward.
1. Convergence of the Clouds
Increasingly, the cloud is emerging as the heart of any digital transformation strategy. Companies in all industries are moving various processes into the cloud, to boost agility, reduce their carbon footprint, and even enable hybrid work. To prevent companies from having to invest in numerous disconnected solutions, vendors are creating consolidated cloud solutions.
We’re seeing the rise of CCaaS platform integrated with unified communication platforms, and other software solutions, like CRM systems and workforce management tools. These unified platforms give companies more of the tools their teams need in one convenient landscape, allowing for greater productivity, and reduced operational costs.
2. The Rise of Generative AI
While AI tools have been a powerful part of some of the top CCaaS platforms for some time, they’re growing increasingly advanced. Today, generative AI solutions built into contact center systems are helping companies to accelerate response speeds (by up to 63%), resolve issues faster, and increase customer loyalty and satisfaction.
CCaaS platforms allow companies to rapidly tap into the benefits of generative AI bots for both customer self-service, and agent support or coaching. Plus, they come with access to a wide range of other powerful AI tools, such as analytical systems with sentiment analysis capabilities, or natural language processing apps that can instantly transcribe and translate conversations.
3. The Evolution of Omnichannel
As mentioned above, one of the core benefits of CCaaS is that it allows companies to connect with their customers on any channel they choose, without compromising on consistently excellent service. As the world evolves, consumers are demanding access to even more channels for customer experience. They want to reach companies through voice, video, social media, SMS, and more.
With CCaaS platforms, adding new channels to your contact center environment is a simple and streamlined experience. Plus, because the analytical tools built into your platform provide a holistic view of all channels, you can ensure that you have a clear insight into the full customer journey.
4. Continued Demand for Flexible Work
Although some companies are beginning to encourage employees back into office environments, many have retained a hybrid work approach. This strategy ensures staff members can access the flexibility they need to work inside and outside of the office, depending on their specific requirements. CCaaS ensures businesses can build and support these flexible workflows.
With the right CCaaS technology, employees can connect to a platform from any environment, on any device (from a smartphone or tablet to a computer), and still achieve their performance goals.
5. Rising Demand for Sustainability
Finally, CCaaS, and the overall transition to the cloud can be a powerful way for companies to achieve their sustainability goals. CCaaS solutions delivered by eco-conscious vendors can enable hybrid work (reducing the need for travel), and minimize the amount of electronic waste created by companies each year.
This is crucial at a time when ESG standards are evolving, and governments are pressuring companies to take a more responsible approach to the way they manage their carbon emissions. It’s also important when you consider the growing demand for sustainability from consumers and investors. Studies show up to 32% of customers would even pay more to buy something from an eco-conscious company or vendor.
Combining the Benefits of CCaaS with Sustainability
Today, CCaaS offers companies more than just an opportunity to reduce operational costs, and invest in the latest technology trends. It also gives them an opportunity to differentiate themselves from their competitors, with a comprehensive approach to designing more sustainable workflows.
For a closer insight into how a sustainable approach can enhance the benefits of CCaaS, let’s take a look at some specific case studies. Notably, while all of these case studies are backed by real customer stories, we’ve removed the names of the major companies involved for privacy purposes.
A Logistics Company Connects Global Teams
An international door-to-door logistics firm with a presence across the globe was looking for ways to enhance its approach to customer service. To do this, it needed not only the right technology for customer experience, but a platform that would allow it to unify employees wherever they were, ensuring they could share data and insights into crucial customer trends.
By leveraging a cloud-based contact center solution, designed to integrate with Microsoft Teams, the company was able to effectively align staff members in more than 100 countries. Not only did this lead to better knowledge sharing and engagement among teams, but it paved the way for a stronger hybrid work strategy, and led to significant CX improvements.
With a sustainable approach to CCaaS adoption, accessed through SaaSCom, this logistics company could have combined its CX wins with significant sustainability results. We estimated that a £150k transformation fund, delivered to the company to help offset its CO2 emissions, would have allowed the company to offset 500 tonnes of carbon emissions, per year.
An Insurance Organization Optimizes Customer Experiences
One of America’s largest insurance companies, focusing on vehicles, homes, and small businesses, wanted to invest in new technology that would empower the deliver of personalized services to more than 10 million households. The company needed a comprehensive platform that would offer access to automated processes, boosting team productivity, and eliminating inefficiencies.
With a cloud-based contact center, designed to work seamlessly with the Salesforce CRM the company was already using, the brand was able to boost team productivity by 40%. They created a streamlined, flexible contact center process, and empowered their agents to access intelligent insights for personalized customer service.
Working with SaaSCom on their migration into the cloud, this insurance company could have offset approximately 906 tonnes of CO2 per year, all without spending any extra money.
A Battery Innovator Stays Flexible with CCaaS
A leading battery company, powered by a distributor network of 300 wholesale warehouses, and over 200,000 dealers, needed to transform its digital communications strategy. It wanted a solution that would unify its employees, and also pave the way for a more flexible customer service strategy.
Combining a cloud contact center solution, with a unified communications system, and a CRM platform, the company was able to enhance its productivity, improve efficiency and strengthen its connections with customers.
Because this company did work with SaaSCom, it also accessed a £250,000 digital transformation fund, allowing it to offset 830 tonnes of CO2 per year.
Take the Benefits of CCaaS Even Further
The benefits of CCaaS are clear to many organizations already. Whether you’re looking for greater flexibility and agility, an opportunity to empower and unify your workforce, or simply the chance to improve customer experiences, CCaaS is a valuable investment.
However, with the right support, you can take the advantages of CCaaS even further. Contact SaaSCom to find out how we can help you unlock the true potential of a contact center transformation, by combining cutting-edge technology with carbon offsetting.
