Embrace Cloud to plan Disaster Recovery for your Contact Center

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As per the research by MarketsandMarkets, the cloud contact center industry which was USD 5.43 Billion in 2016, is expected to reach USD 15.67 billion by 2021! This figure is not surprising at all and may actually go beyond the projection considering the numerous benefits offered by the cloud contact centers, like enhanced security, better scalability, prevention of historical and mission-critical data loss, etc.

A disaster might strike anytime disrupting the quality services you provide to your customers. Disasters can be anything, from natural calamities like earthquakes, cyclones, volcanoes, extreme climatic conditions, etc., to man-made disasters, such as power outages, fire outbreaks, short circuits, and other modern infrastructure failures. Like any other business, contact centers also require efficient disaster recovery mechanisms to ensure seamless business continuity in the face of adversity.

Today more and more contact centers are leveraging the cloud to avail its advantages and be prepared to recover from any disaster. This statement resonates with the survey conducted by the Aberdeen Group, which states that the key driver behind cloud initiatives for all kinds of businesses is disaster recovery or backup (66%) while increased costs come at a close second at 55%.

Moving your contact center to the cloud is not only efficient and cost-effective but also the best disaster management plan you can choose for your contact center.

Here are few scenarios where data recovery can be effortless if you migrate your contact center to the cloud.

Tackling Call Abandonment

One of the major challenges faced by contact centers is call abandonment, which gravely impacts business continuity. Two major scenarios of call abandonment are – improper call routing or agent allocation during a sudden surge in call volume and occurrence of a natural or man-made calamity, preventing agents from reporting to the physical location to take calls.

Contact centers can prepare themselves for these scenarios by embracing the cloud solutions. Cloud-based blended dialing software from companies like EVS7, Voicent, etc. can help your agents automatically follow up abandoned calls and ensure proper call routing. This is particularly helpful in tackling a sudden upsurge in call volume. Here, the calls will either be routed to customized recorded messages or will be directed to agents who are already engaged in outbound campaigns. The outbound campaign will then be paused automatically or by the agent to prioritize the live inbound call. Such an arrangement allows your agents to easily handle a mix of different call types. Cloud-based dynamic scripting tools, integrating CRM with screen pops, and intelligent call routing can facilitate better management of your contact center.

Automatic Call Distribution (ACD) Software act as a cloud-based Intelligent router, and perform the functions similar to cloud-based blended dialing software. You may choose any ACD software like Nextva VoIP, Aspect, inContact, Fie9, etc., to promptly distribute calls to specific agents even when the agents are working from locations other than your premises. Your agents can begin taking calls from wherever they are without being constrained by the physical barriers. Whether you have a single contact center, multisite call center operations, or distributed agents working from home, cloud ACD systems find the best agents available irrespective of their location.

Getting your Contact Center Up and Running Again

If a disaster strikes leaving your data center damaged, it could take days before your contact center is up and running again. A technical team is required to restore your systems and applications, which might require a significant amount of time leading to huge business downtime.

By leveraging cloud-based contact center software like Five9, Telax, NICE inContact, etc., you won’t have to wait for a technical assistance as even non-technical staff can easily deploy and make modifications to the ACD system in case a disaster strikes. Five9 also offers a blended call center facility, which eliminates the technology gap between the outbound dialers, CRM integration, CTI, as well as inbound ACD functionality, ensuring that your agents don’t have to toggle back and forth between inbound and outbound calls.

Loss of Historical and Mission-critical Data

Traditional contact centers are not equipped to handle sudden outage caused by natural or man-made disasters. Therefore, in case of a disruptive event, the entire business workflow gets severely impacted. This further leads to the loss of mission-critical and historical data, including confidential customer information.

Losing this data can prove detrimental to your business!

These kinds of disasters can be easily prevented by employing Hybrid cloud solutions which allow safeguarding your sensitive data on a private cloud and store less sensitive data in the public cloud.

CRM software serves as a data repository for storing customer information and can be tightly integrated into cloud-based contact centers. Adopting a cloud-based CRM software can trigger smooth call center transition.

If you have not yet moved to the cloud, there are numerous reasons why you should immediately migrate your contact center and safeguard it against any unforeseen disaster. Are you are already leveraging the cloud? Then do share your thoughts and insights.