Cloud call center
Transform customer engagement with flexible, scalable cloud technology that connects your team from anywhere while reducing costs and boosting efficiency.
What is cloud-based call center?
A cloud-based call center is a customer service and sales solution hosted offsite by a provider and accessed via the internet, offering a unified platform for agents to handle customer interactions across multiple channels, including voice, email, chat, and social media. It utilizes software to manage these interactions, provides real-time analytics, and leverages features like Automatic Call Distribution (ACD), Interactive Voice Response (IVR), and predictive dialers to improve efficiency and customer satisfaction.
For on-premises contact centers, traditional business phone systems rely on phones wired into the building. These systems, both those that use SIP trunking and those that don't, make all of their connections through the company's physical contact center and its on-site hardware. With the growth of cloud connectivity, however, this is no longer the average or best option for customer communications.
Instead, cloud contact center software features connectivity made entirely on a cloud-hosted platform. Every process works through an internet connection, allowing agents and management to use the system from any connected device. Rather than relying on their own equipment, businesses get access to the systems their vendors operate and maintain in the cloud.
For an outbound contact center, this means leveraging predictive dialers, call analytics, and CRM integrations for faster, more efficient lead generation and customer engagement. Whether handling inbound customer service calls or conducting outbound sales campaigns, cloud-based systems provide the flexibility and tools needed to succeed.
What is call center software?
Call center software encompasses the tools that make connecting with your customers possible. These tools can range from simple call distribution and call transfer to interactive voice response (IVR), AI receptionists, intelligent routing, and predictive dialers.
With increasing customer demands for multiple communication channels and greater connectivity in today’s digital world, you can’t run a successful operation without the right cloud-based call center software.
For both inbound and outbound call centers, the solution you use can mean the difference between excellent customer satisfaction and missed goals. To make sure you see team and customer success, you have to equip your contact center with the right resources.
After comparing cloud-based call center software with on-premise solutions, let’s talk about the difference between a call center and a contact center.
What is the difference between a call center and a contact center?
So far, we’ve been using the terms “call center” and “contact center” interchangeably, but it’s important to know the differences between them.
What does a call center solution do?
Call centers (and cloud call center software) are designed to connect agents and customers over the phone. For an inbound call center, for example, this means taking customer calls and working toward total customer satisfaction. In an outbound call center, however, you won’t see any inbound calls. Instead, a sales team uses the customer data on your center’s software to find leads they can convert to customers. Though they have different goals, both teams conduct all of their work over one channel - the phone!
What does contact center software do?
Contact centers, in contrast, use multiple channels for lead and customer engagement. To improve customer experiences, omnichannel contact center software allows agents to interact with customers through whichever channel they prefer. One person may prefer a live chat with sales while another may choose to use a mobile app or social media to get in touch.
Either way, expanding your capabilities allows you to increase customer satisfaction with everyday interactions. Best of all, you can still own your phone game, using features such as automatic call distribution, smart queuing, and dialers to offer excellent phone service.
How to Choose Your Cloud-Based Contact Center Software
Now that you know the basics of cloud contact center solutions, it's time for the most important question: how do you find the right option for your business? To choose the right cloud-based contact center software, assess your business needs (channels, features, scalability, budget), evaluate vendor capabilities (integrations, analytics, support, uptime), and test the platform (trial period, user reviews) before making a decision. Your software provides the framework for your customer service, so you need to choose a solution that offers everything you need, like RingCX.
Key considerations include omnichannel support, seamless CRM integration, robust reporting, scalability for future growth, data security, and responsive customer support. In this section, we'll go over the benefits of using a cloud platform and the critical factors you should evaluate when choosing your technology.
1. Review the needs of your business
Start by understanding your specific requirements across communication channels, essential features, growth projections, and budget constraints. Define which channels are essential for your customers—such as voice, chat, email, or social media—identify critical features like automatic call distribution (ACD), AI assistance, or interactive voice response (IVR), and ensure the solution can scale with your future growth while fitting within your budget.
2. Assess each vendor capabilities
Once you've defined your needs, thoroughly assess potential vendors on their technical capabilities, reliability, and support quality. Look for seamless integrations with your existing business applications, robust reporting and real-time analytics, high uptime guarantees, responsive customer support, and strong data security measures including compliance certifications like HIPAA, PCI-DSS, or SOC 2.
3. Test and validate as much as possible
Before committing to a solution, take the time to test the platform and gather real-world feedback from similar businesses. Utilize free trials to get hands-on experience, read reviews and ask vendors for references, and evaluate the user-friendliness of the interface to ensure quick adoption and higher efficiency for your agents.
Benefits of cloud contact center platforms
1. Perfect Your Customer Experiences
For both cloud-based call centers and contact centers, the customer experience is your top priority. Cloud connectivity keeps your contact center connected to every other area of your business, creating a knowledge base of each customer's information that your agents can access to meet expectations. With a cloud solution, you can enrich your service for greater satisfaction.
Customer relationship management (CRM) integration is available for any top solution providing cloud capabilities. Seamlessly integrating with your CRM tool gives you and your agents more control over your customer data center, allowing you to fully personalize your customer service.
As you compare product after product, you should also look for a solution that offers custom call center options. From your agent's desk software to content management and communication features, you should have the ability to adjust your platform to meet your specific needs. Availability is always important for contact centers, so look for an option with excellent uptime so you can guarantee business continuity in every circumstance.
2. Empower Your Agents
To perfect your customer experience, you first need to give your agents the tools they need to do great things. With a cloud solution, you can provide employees with resources that an on-premise option can't offer. Three of the most important tools include company-wide connectivity, integrations with top apps, and workforce optimization.
First, search for cloud contact center software that offers both customer/lead channels and internal collaboration tools. Accessing an internal resource library or an expert on a new product should be quick and easy. This is especially important for a virtual call center that has agents spread across long distances. Whenever an agent needs help, information, or advice from management, make sure the rest of your team is within easy reach.
We mentioned CRM integration above, but that is just the tip of the iceberg for most cloud solutions. Every contact center has a range of tools that simplify and strengthen its work. Maintain your processes and productivity by choosing a software option that seamlessly integrates with these third-party apps. Some platforms only offer a select list of integrations, so be sure to find an option that allows custom integrations with every tool you use.
Once you've equipped your agents, further optimize your contact center with workforce optimization tools, such as workforce management. You should have the option to scale up or down on demand, offer conflict-free scheduling, and achieve maximum efficiency throughout your contact center. When your employees are happy and productive, you can continue making gains in satisfaction and sales.
3. Boost Efficiency and Productivity
Cloud-based systems deliver measurable improvements in contact center performance. Real-world results show that companies adopting cloud workforce management systems have improved their answer speeds from over a minute per call to just 32 seconds, while increasing answer rates from 92% to 97%.
Your contact center is one part of a bigger picture. Though you focus on customer happiness, your business has the larger goal of making money. Providing excellent results increases revenue, but it also helps your business maintain positive investor relations. To keep everyone happy, your contact center solution should help you cut costs while also supporting your customer service efforts through all current and future demands.
Cloud platforms already lower costs by eliminating the need for extensive hardware and the price of continuous upkeep. Scaling, adding new features, and maintaining your system are also more cost-effective with a cloud-based solution. And savings are just the beginning—you can also use your new tools to increase your results.
The right software solutions stay on the cutting edge of technology without neglecting the basics. You don't want omnichannel capabilities with poor call quality or real-time analytics without historical reporting. Instead, look for a reasonably priced option that optimizes your customer relationships with a wide range of helpful features.
Improve interactions with call recording and agent coaching. Minimize frustrations with call-backs and smart queueing. When your system's benefits are reflected in your customer stories and satisfaction, you're sure to see improvements in revenue and sales as well.
4. Increase Your Availability and Business Continuity
Customers expect faster service than ever, so your contact center needs to remain poised to deliver at any and all times. Moving your call center to the cloud dramatically increases the consistency and reliability of your availability, a necessity for today's customer service environment.
What is availability in call centers?
Availability refers to your ability to connect with customers whenever they call or message. For contact centers, this involves two factors: your agents' availability to take communication and your system's ability to receive it, also known as uptime.
Moving to a cloud platform ensures your contact center is live at all times, even when you have a power outage or lose service in your area. Since your system is hosted online, agents can connect with customers from any location, at any time.
Cloud technology offers significantly more versatility than local deployments. You can station your team anywhere, which is invaluable during disasters or local failures. If your primary office experiences a power outage or connectivity issue, your remote team can continue working through the same systems without interruption.
You can even deploy hybrid cloud platforms that combine public and private cloud services, giving you flexibility and control. Every provider has its own uptime guarantee, so look for an option with near-constant capabilities. RingCentral, for example, offers 99.999% availability, so your teams can stay connected everywhere, from any device.
5. Expand Your Talent Pool
Working in a call center is fast-paced, stressful, and competitive, especially if your team handles sales or leads. Training new team members is expensive, and finding good, reliable workers can be equally challenging and costly.
When you use cloud-based systems, you can hire from a much wider talent pool. Traditional on-premise systems limit you to local candidates who can work from a single office location. But cloud technology allows you to recruit from anywhere, giving you access to better and more experienced talent across broader geographic areas.
Look for solutions that support remote work capabilities, including robust collaboration tools, mobile access, and seamless communication features. This flexibility not only helps you find the best talent but also improves employee satisfaction and retention by offering work-from-home options.
6. Get Enterprise-Grade Security
One of the biggest advantages of using a cloud provider is that your security concerns and efforts are streamlined. While you remain responsible for the security and privacy of your personal data and that of your clients, you don't have to worry about the incurred costs of boosting security infrastructure.
When a cloud provider rolls out new security updates and protocols, you benefit immediately, and so do your clients. Major providers like Amazon Web Services and other trusted names in cloud computing continuously improve their security measures, meaning your platforms and data benefit from these enhancements without additional investment.
Look for providers that offer enterprise-grade security features, including data encryption, compliance certifications (such as HIPAA, PCI-DSS, and SOC 2), multi-factor authentication, and regular security audits. Your cloud contact center solution should provide transparent security protocols and regular updates to protect sensitive customer information.
7. Partner with Trusted, Innovative Providers
As cloud computing continues to evolve, major technology companies are investing heavily in cloud-based tools and software for contact centers. Industry leaders like Amazon Web Services and other established providers are launching innovative services that bring new capabilities to the market.
Choose a provider with a proven track record and strong reputation in the industry. Established providers typically offer more reliable service, better support, and continuous innovation. Look for solutions that are backed by major technology companies or well-established cloud service providers.
This trend toward industry leader involvement means you can expect ongoing innovation and new deployment options for call center technology. As competition increases, you'll benefit from better features, more competitive pricing, and cutting-edge capabilities that keep your contact center ahead of the curve.