Business Practices | | Published February 07, 2013

The Cloud Based Call Center Trend in Customer Support

Recall the last time you picked up the phone and called into a customer service line, or emailed a store or website’s customer support team. What did you envision was the environment the support department was working in during that exchange? Was it perhaps a big open office area with tons of people cramped in cubicles, reading scripts from a computer monitor? Or maybe you imagined the back of a warehouse somewhere with a few people at a table and some folders full of typed pages?

Soon, when people think of customer service, they’ll most likely think of someone working from their home office or even a cabin tucked away in the mountains somewhere. Why, you might ask, would that be; because the cloud revolution is changing everything, including the call center industry.

Coming Into the Office

When you think about it, there isn’t much reason why customer service agents come into the office. Occasionally you run into issues with certain proprietary computer programs that can’t be installed on home computer for security reasons. But, again, cloud computing is changing the game when it comes to business life, and that includes software.

So in the end you’re left with training purposes and a sense of camaraderie, which is fine. However, eventually this makes less financial sense, especially since training can be done virtually, as well. Your business can save quite a bit of money if there are fewer employees actually at a physical office.

The electric and water bills alone can make a big impact, but also think of amenities like snacks and office supplies. That stuff adds up quickly! If overhead is suddenly not a factor, then you can concentrate on spending money elsewhere – like providing even better customer support!

Small Businesses

Naturally, smaller businesses may flock to the cloud based call center option faster than larger businesses. For one, they’re more easily able to shift gears and adopt new strategies and technologies. Secondly, they stand to benefit the most as they’re usually looking for ways to cut out the fat. Having fewer mouths could be a game changer.

Also, many startups that use the cloud are aimed directly at small businesses. This means that when a small business decides to go cloud-based, they have plenty of more options to help them along the way. It may not make as much fiscal sense for a larger business to hop on the cloud right away. However, even large businesses have started to take notice of the trend. Any business, small or large, can benefit from cloud based customer service.

Eventually, I imagine we’re going to see a large shift to that way of thinking. Another benefit: running your call center from a cloud platform means you can hire who you want, wherever they are. It doesn’t matter if they live next door or on the moon; with new technology, you are able to get the best workers with the best experience possible, something that wasn’t possible even a few years ago.

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