A report by NICE inContact says 70% of businesses have their entire contact center technology in the cloud or are planning to partially move next year.
The Customer Experience (CX) Transformation Benchmark study shows businesses are benefiting from having their contact center in the cloud. They are experiencing customer satisfaction (CSAT) that is 18% higher than those with on-premises services.
Growth of the Cloud Contact Center
The growth is being driven by the customer-centric culture digital technology has made possible. Consumers now want personalized services and real-time access to the resources they need to solve their problems. And this is not only taking place with large enterprises.
Small businesses also have to provide quality service if they want repeat customers. The good news is there are more affordable tools than ever to make this possible. The challenge comes in making sense of all the data these tools generate to deliver great customer service.
This is exactly what Paul Jarman, NICE in Contact CEO, explains in the press release for the report.
Jarman says, “From social media messaging, to text, to chatbots, the customer relationship takes place across a wide and diverse range of channels in addition to voice.”
The study says companies want to provide true omnichannel experience for their customers. They want to bring together voice and digital as well as agent-assisted and self-service channels with seamless integration.
Businesses Anticipate Further Investments
To raise their customer satisfaction game, 52% of the firms surveyed are looking towards improving their overall website. While 42% are planning on continuing with their customer satisfaction measurement programs.
implementing new customer service training schemes factored high among the 38% of businesses surveyed. And 38% are eyeing towards upgrading communications technology such as chat, text and e-mails.
The study further points that 40% of business are very likely to invest in four or more channels to improve the customer service experience.
These businesses are more likely to now offer eight of the 11 channels including communicating with customers on social media, chat, SMS / text, video, mobile apps, and others than those with on-premises services. Incidentally more US businesses are investing in online chat compared to 2017.
On agent-assisted interactions, the majority expect an increase (49%) or at the same level (34%) of resources. Those in the US are especially likely to expect an increase of 55%.
This need for more agent-assisted resources stems from the overall increase in customers interacting with their organization. This is creating more agent-assisted experiences. And it is prompting 36% to report they plan to add staff to customer support positions in the coming year.
Dealing with the Omnichannel Conundrum
Despite customer demand, investment plans for omnichannel functionality are lacking, the report notes.
Key findings also point to the need for companies to provide true omnichannel experiences that seamlessly blend voice and digital as well as agent-assisted and self-service channels. Only 25% of businesses are likely to invest in new services that allow channels of communication to work together seamlessly.
Jarman adds, “As more customers embrace multiple digital channels to communicate and engage, it becomes increasingly important for businesses to be able to quickly adapt and integrate digital channels into a seamless omnichannel customer experience.
The Survey
The NICE inContact Customer Experience (CX) Transformation Benchmark was carried out in the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia. Over 900 contact center decision-makers make up the participants in the survey.
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