Tag Archives: cloud-based-call-centers

Is this the End of the On-Premise Call Center?

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Is this the End of On-Premise for the Call Center?The 2017 edition of the Magic Quadrant report for cloud-based contact centers was released by Gartner last week. That’s a good reason to revisit a long running theme on the Fonolo blog: the cloudification of the call center.

Compared to other enterprise software, the transition to cloud has been a difficult road for the call center. There were some good reasons for this: the lack of sufficient or reliable bandwidth for voice, the real-time demands of call handling, the mission-critical nature of many call centers. But there was also some foot-dragging by industry incumbents who had a comfortable market position and a stream of maintenance revenue to protect.

Since none of that seems to be a barrier anymore, it certainly feels like the on-premise call center is soon to be extinct. Continue reading →

6 Call Center Practices You Can STOP Doing Today

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6 Call Center Practices You Can STOP Doing TodaySo, you’re working on auto-pilot eh? (Yes, I’m Canadian.) I get it; we all tend to get comfortable with the rhythm of our day-to-day tasks and fail to watch areas that may require change. Unfortunately, your repetitive actions will produce the same results. If you keep practicing the same strategies without considering change it will only end in the demise of your center.

The best way of deciding how to improve contact center performance is to step back and look at it from a 360-degree view. After all, innovations and consumer behaviors evolve in scope and sophistication, so it’s worth reconsidering your tactics to potentially take your service to the next level. Continue reading →

Call Center Cloudification Update

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Call Center Cloudification UpdateMost people don’t realize the impressive scale of the contact center industry. It accounts for one in every 25 jobs in the US! By some estimation, there are 14,000 call centers in the United States and over 120,000 worldwide.

It’s a growing industry as well. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2.6 million people had the occupation “Customer Service Representatives” in 2015. That number is up 17% over the past 5 years and 27% over the last 15.

For the last few years, this industry has been undergoing an extraordinary transformation. In the early 2000’s, running a call center through a cloud service was dismissed as impractical. A few years later, it was viewed as “just for the smallest call centers”, but by 2008 that argument was dead and the migration was in full swing. Between 2008 and 2012, the cloud market grew by some 224%.  Just between August 2014 and August 2015, total number of cloud seats jumped 49.9% (both data points from DMG).

What explains this remarkable shift? And what comes next? Continue reading →

The Call Center’s Great Cloud Migration Continues

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The Call Center's Great Cloud Migration ContinuesThe call center experience is a universal part of modern life to the point where anyone you stop on the street can tell you about the last few (usually poor) interactions they’ve had. Most people don’t realize the impressive scale of the contact center industry. It accounts for one in every 25 jobs in the US! (Harris Interactive)

This behemoth of an industry which, for decades prior, had seen little change, is undergoing an extraordinary transformation. In the early 2000’s, running a call center through a cloud service was dismissed as impractical. A few years later, it was viewed as “just for the smallest call centers”. But by 2008 many naysayers had eaten their words and the migration was in full swing. Between 2008 and 2012, the cloud market grew by some 224%. By the end of 2013, more than 62% of organizations were using some type of cloud-based contact center solution as part of their operation. (Both data points from DMG.)

Let’s look at what is fueling that growth. Continue reading →

Trends that will Drive the Contact Center In 2015

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Trends that will Drive the Contact Center In 2015Customer service has always been a competitive battleground for businesses. That’s why call centers are constantly on the lookout to create more effective strategies using the latest trends.

A new year presents a new opportunity for call center managers to boost their game! So what trends seem to be the most relevant? We’ve already identified the Top 10 Call Center Trends for 2015 in our latest whitepaper, but there are four areas that we see making the biggest impact. Continue reading →

4 Call Center Benchmarks You Should Pay Attention To

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4 Call Center Benchmarks You Should Pay Attention ToIt is becoming increasingly clear that benchmarking is essential for contact centers. Although measuring and understanding metrics is a major challenge for call center managers, many benefit from looking at industry standards and benchmarks to help track their success.

Here are 5 call center benchmarks from Dimension Data’s 2013/14 Global Contact Centre Benchmarking that I found interesting. For more thoughts and information on call center metrics, watch today’s live online roundtable, The Future of Call Center Metrics, at 4:00 PM ET. Continue reading →

6 Resources to Help With Selecting a Cloud Call Center

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6 Resources to Help With Selecting a Cloud Call CenterThe migration to the cloud is the most dramatic trend in the contact center industry today. According to DMG Consulting, the cloud market grew by some 224% from 2008 to 2012. Furthermore, they estimate that as of September 2013, more than 62% of organizations are using some type of cloud-based contact center solution as part of their operation.

Thinking about moving your call center to the cloud? Weighing the pros and cons? Trying to pick a vendor? Here are six great (and free!) resources we’ve put together from around the web. Continue reading →

Call-Back Solutions for the Call Center

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Call-Back Solutions for the Call Center I’ve written about the benefits of call-backs before – how they improve the customer experience while lowering call center costs. Today I’m happy to announce that our new Solutions page shows you how to easily add call-backs to your website, mobile application, or IVR/ACD.

In-Call Rescue is our flagship product- it allows your customers to “press 1 to get a call-back from the next available agent”.

Mobile Rescue is a drop-in component for mobile applications, giving your customers the ability to request a call-back from a live agent, directly from your mobile app.

Web Rescue integrates with your website to give customers a click-to-call “widget” that they can use to fast-track your IVR in order to get a call-back from a live representative.

Continue reading →

Top 5 Takeaways from this Google Hangout: 2013 Call Center Trends

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At the end of 2012, Fonolo hosted a Google Hangout with industry experts to discuss upcoming call center trends for 2013. This fabulous panel was eager to share their expertise and thoughts on 5 hot topics to watch for; cloud-based call centers, mobile customer service, social media, visual IVR and virtual queuing.

The discussion, at times, was heated and while we went over our expected time allowance, the content and conversation is intriguing. To save you some time, we extracted key takeaways from each trend to help prepare your customer service strategy.

Continue reading →