The Current Situation
We’ve seen an incredible amount of efforts from organisations embracing technology such as video collaboration to mobilise their workplace and keep the business moving. Each day presents new challenges for so many. There is a huge demand for critical sectors such as health and emergency management services, critical government infrastructure organisations, local authorities, supermarkets and other retailers, online deliveries, insurance, and banking to operate as efficiently as possible while keeping their staff safe. As the pandemic rapidly unfolds, there are more and more concerned businesses that are wondering how they’re going to serve their customers and protect their staff over the next few months.
Challenges for an On-Premises Contact Centre
Working from home has become a mandatory part of your business continuity plan during the widespread impact of COVID-19. A physical phone tied to a desk in an office is no longer functional. To enable contact centre agents to work from home has become a huge challenge. It will require numerous endeavours including operation from various teams such as telephony, security, VPN, maintenance support and network IT. Add to that the process of onboarding remote agents, which may take days, and you’re looking at tremendous potential for lost productivity. Contact centres can be bulky, awkward setups that don’t respond well to agile demands.
Helping Contact Centres Transition to Remote Working
To get the best response from your contact centre, your agents should be equipped with the right tools and technology that allow them to work from anywhere. This is where RingCentral can help. All you need is a softphone, laptop and an internet connection and you are all set. It’s easy and secure to set up and run from the cloud. No VPN connection is required.
The cloud delivery model means you can quickly scale your contact centre up or down as needed. Just by using the software, you can scale from literally a handful of agents to thousands (and back again) without downtime. In contrast, a traditional PBX system needs a significant installation resource.
RingCentral Contact Centre is a cloud-based contact centre as a service (CCaaS), which delivers all the benefits of cloud-based software and storage. For example, agents can log into the system and work from anywhere – including from home. The fully integrated nature of the system means you can manage multichannel customer interactions holistically and connectivity to other cloud-based applications is much easier. The service capabilities of working in the cloud mean companies can move faster on projects or on unpredictable events, and you can test out concepts without any lengthy procurement and any big upfront costs for changes and upgrades.
Quickly Set Up to Increase Efficiency and Reduce Cost
Making the switch to a cloud-based contact centre means you can successfully set up within fewer hours instead of having to wait for weeks or months from installation to onboarding. You can start to help customers straight away, and the system’s integration with your CRM applications means agents have immediate access to customer contact history during calls. One intuitive interface for agents connects voice, email, chat, webchat, and more, ensuring you meet the individual expectations of customers who contact you via multiple channels. Agents can quickly access their back-office resources as well via video, messaging, and teams. Supervisors and management have direct access to coach, assist and monitor live. Your team can stay agile, fully productive and connected to customers and the rest of the business.
The move to working from home has brought scale to the forefront in a way never before seen. RingCentral Contact Centre is an innovative cloud-based platform, designed to give companies of all sizes a flexible and scalable environment where they can connect with customers and improve customer experience on the channel of their choice, integrate with existing CRM systems, and manage agents on the move.
For more information about managing a cloud-based contact centre, or how cloud contact centre can help remote working, visit our remote work resource centre.
Originally published Apr 02, 2020, updated Jan 16, 2023
