Hosted voice platforms can make it easier for businesses to communicate externally with customers, internally with employees, free up many different types of resources, and improve the quality of the service you deliver.
In this article we address seven areas your business can experience improved process optimization thanks to a cloud-based voice solution vs. a traditional onsite PBX.
1. Easier to Add New Agents and Employees
The goal of any phone system is to make it easier for customers to get in touch and for you to help them when they do. Hosted solutions make this a little easier by simplifying the processes and making it more affordable to add new agents when it’s time to meet growing demand.
Hosted platforms have fewer infrastructure and installation requirements, making them easier to deploy and scale at a low cost. When customer demand spikes, you can add agents quickly for the additional capacity, and then scale down when the need is over, saving money over the long-term as well.
Hosted voice and data also simplify the process of adding prompts, analytics, and other tools to address customer needs and route them appropriately, speeding up call resolution.
2. Easier to Support Multi-Regional Teams
On-site solutions significantly restrict where talent can live and work. The pool of people you have to choose from must be near your sites or have access to reliable transportation. That also means they’re stuck in the commute for long times, which can lead to frustration and higher turnover.
Hosted solutions instead allow your teams to operate anywhere they have a connection. Not only can you take advantage of the boom in remote work and remote call centers, but individuals can work from multiple locations so that you always have backups and teams ready to adapt to today’s demands.
Your business can quickly become a global powerhouse with teams across the world in a wide range of settings and situations. By using a cloud-based unified communications solution, your remote and office workers can use the same system to interact with customers and each other. Hosted voice and data tools enable deeper levels of collaboration by supporting your team, however you build it.
3. Easier to Overcome Service Interruptions
When an on-site installed solution goes down, everything goes with it. That’s true if you’ve got a hardware issue, software bug, or the power goes out at your site. It can also be incredibly expensive to build redundancies on your site.
Hosted solutions come with built-in data redundancies and backups across multiple locations, so your team only ever needs a connection to keep running. Platforms run multiple data centers and servers to ensure that both your customer data and access to the service stay up in the event of a local disaster.
RingCentral even notes on its service status page that using hosted voice and data tools and digital services are the best way to avoid disruptions and “provide the best possible experience” for your customers. With their support of remote teams and multi-site deployments, you can respond to and get around a power or connectivity loss at any of your locations.
4. Easier to Address Customer Issues Faster
Call routing features are more flexible when hosted, especially with larger enterprises, because it’s easier to configure systems to route calls without geographic restrictions. You can send a customer to the best agent, regardless of where they are located. Not only is this based on the problem that the customer has, but you can also simplify providing service in multiple languages.
A single phone number can support all languages spoken in a region or all the products that you offer, even if you’re sending calls to distinct locations that specialize in one area. Plus, systems and prompts are generally easier to update and configure based on the dynamic workforce you have at any given moment.
Call routing is especially important if there are certain calls you must always answer. Hosted voice and data solutions can be trained to recognize these numbers or customers to handle them immediately. Or, during a crisis or emergency, your business can stay connected to customers.
5. Easier to Add Features Without Disruption
Upgrading your hosted solution is often as simple as installing the latest update or adding a module. There’s no infrastructure rip-and-replace, no IT teams going to every station to adjust phones or connections, and less downtime as you change things over. This is especially important when your customers start demanding new channels of support, such as chat.
Moving to hosted voice and video makes it easier for you to adopt industry best practices for customer service, too. For 2020, we’ve identified six core technologies to consider, and all are made easier when you embrace omni-channel support and hosted solutions. Plus, hosted solutions are more likely to offer new capabilities including remote management, chat/SMS, interactive voice recognition, video conferencing, or even social media support, all without you having to do the development or detailed building.
Add modules and features as your needs grow, and incorporate what works best for you, all without having to create it yourself.
6. Easier to Enable IT Teams to Focus On Other Projects
Hosted voice solutions ease the burden on your IT team and their resources because you’re working with less hardware and fewer installations per agent, even as you scale. Plus, hosted system software is designed to work across a wider range of computers and phones, making every installation and update simpler.
Hosted solutions also provide streamlined and simplified user interfaces, so training and use of the program itself is much easier. This can further reduce IT’s workload by minimizing the number of helpdesk requests, password resets, and other issues common with complex software.
Give IT more time to work on protecting and growing your network, or even improving your existing customer offerings, instead of getting stuck trying to figure out how to make things work when either your system or your hardware becomes outdated.
7. Easier to Collect & Utilize Your Data & Metrics
Hosted solutions use digital voice tools and platforms, making it significantly easier for you to track, monitor, record, and analyze every call. Digital voice is designed with transcripts and data capture in mind, so major platforms have integrated options to capture general call details like time and agent, as well as advanced options for customer sentiment, how common was the question asked, and much more.
Get smarter with a smarter system.
Hosted Solutions Often Offer More Than Traditional Voice Systems
We all want to provide better service. Hosted makes it easier by reducing barriers and increasing the tools we have available to help whoever needs it.
Moving to a hosted system makes it easier for you to meet customers wherever they are on the channels they prefer through omni-channel functionality. Deliver higher quality service and improve satisfaction by being more flexible and better able to support the latest customer demand.
Converged Technology Professionals understands that adopting hosted solutions and unified communications is different for every company. You’ve got questions that are unique to your business and you want help that adequately reflects your budget as well as current capabilities. Our experts can help you discover the right hosted solution for you today, that’ll grow with you tomorrow, and it starts with a no-obligation chat.
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Suellen Meyers: December 21, 2023
