A robust quality assurance program is fundamental to delivering great customer service in the contact center. While powerful quality solutions were once only accessible to large, well-funded organizations, cloud technology offers on-demand capabilities for teams with leaner budgets and more agile workforces. By providing constant innovation, security, reliability, cost savings, scalability and ease of use, the cloud is becoming an ideal environment for quality management evolution.
#1 Constant Innovation
Prior to the advent of cloud computing, contact centers without a large IT staff and operating budget often struggled to keep up with the latest quality management developments. Traditional deployment processes were lengthy and disruptive, and they often resulted in lost productivity and employee downtime. Yet failures to update forced organizations to operate with inefficient and obsolete tools.
In contrast, cloud-based solutions are always connected and offer continuous delivery of new features. With industry demands constantly changing, these improvements boost employee engagement and quality assurance efficiency to offer users a competitive edge.
#2 Security
In a contact center environment, data security is paramount. Though a few well-publicized breaches have brought cloud security into question, cloud-computing data centers are often more secure than in-office storage. They hire the best IT security experts available, and many can support PCI- and HIPAA-compliant storage. Outsourcing security processes also allows organizations to take advantage of the economies of scale that third parties can offer so they can focus their resources on ensuring high-quality service to their customers.
#3 Reliability
When identifying coaching opportunities and reviewing best practices with agents, managers need up-to-date, accurate data to provide useful feedback. Cloud-based quality management solutions give managers constant insight into employee performance. Because they are always ready, these tools can also facilitate compliance with regulations or general best practices that require performance evaluations to be conducted within a specified time frame.
In addition, cloud-based solutions safeguard against data loss. Data stored in the cloud is routinely backed up, and data centers housing cloud servers are staffed and monitored 24 hours a day.
#4 Cost Savings
Previously, top-of-the-line quality management tools were not only expensive but also required additional staff to support updates and monitoring. Cloud-based solutions allow contact centers with less flexible resources to monitor efficiency and focus on quality assurance without worrying about a major upfront investment. Implementation is easy and inexpensive. The cloud also supports a pay-per-use model, turning what was formerly a capital expenditure into an operational expense for a more immediate ROI. In the long term, the cloud’s scalability limits waste associated with unused equipment and software, lowers IT staffing costs and helps facilitate multi-location operations and remote work.
#5 Scalability
Contact centers experience constant change and fluctuation due to seasonal downscaling and business growth. A quality management tool needs to be applicable no matter what stage the company is in, but traditional quality management solutions lack this flexibility -- during slow periods, some capacity will sit idle and build up unnecessary expenses. Cloud solutions allow businesses to pay only for the resources they’re using. As demand changes, the cloud’s capacity can scale up or down, creating an effortless and cost-efficient model.
#6 Ease of use
From innovation to security to scalability, cloud-based solutions make quality managers’ jobs easier. Paper-and-pencil spreadsheets can be cumbersome, and they make it difficult to share the latest metrics and data with large or remote teams. Tools in the cloud are preconfigured, can be deployed quickly, and provide turnkey forms for evaluation, coaching and calibration. Cloud solutions bring quality metrics to the entire group at once, boosting transparency and ensuring all employees are measuring their goals against the same set of data. The tools are also designed to integrate with other cloud WFO tools, simplifying administration, training and updates.
Cloud-based quality solutions will only become more effective, agile and powerful in the years to come. All signs indicate that the contact center industry will continue to migrate operations to the cloud to take advantage of the many opportunities it offers. Accessing this opportunity now can elevate the customer experience today and ensure a thriving future in contact centers of all sizes. To learn more, download the eBook, Fast Track Your Contact Center Quality Assurance Program with the Cloud