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How the cloud makes work easier for contact center agents

Posted May 20, 2020 - Updated November 8, 2023
Cloud make work easier for contact center agents

In the contact center, cloud-based technology solutions can create huge benefits for brands, providing an enhanced level of personalization and seamlessness that is enabling a new generation of customer experience (CX).

At the same time, cloud-based solutions also create better experiences for the customer service agents on the frontline. By empowering them with omnichannel capabilities, enhanced processes and data-backed, real-time intelligence, cloud technology can make it easier for agents to do their jobs, which in turn can impact their job satisfaction and ultimately, the health of your business. However, a cloud solution is only a worthy investment if it generates sustained improvements to the ability of agents to do their jobs.

From streamlining access to customer data to increasing job flexibility, here are three ways that cloud-based platforms are making agents happier and more productive.

Centralizing customer information is a big win

This may sound hauntingly familiar to you and your agents: juggling multiple systems and looking across disparate platforms for the right set of information to solve a specific issue. This problem is often the reason why customers feel like they’re always on hold.

Cloud products in the contact center can be a very tactical solution to this historically frustrating and time consuming situation. Cloud-based systems centralize customer information and internal tools, all but eliminating the need for agents to flip between applications and multiple screens. This could even enable agents to field customer inquiries from any channel through one user interface, instead of going back and forth among platforms and applications like CRM and ticketing programs.

Easy access is a win-win for customers and agents.

On top of this, cloud products are usually created by specialized software companies focused on delivering user-friendly interfaces. That focus on developing smart, intuitive user interfaces (UI) can drive productivity and provide frictionless customer journeys.

A smiling woman speaking on a cellphone.

The Five9 Intelligent CX Platform guide

Your customers deserve the best. And when it comes to delivering personalized and seamless customer experiences (CX), a robust CCaaS (Contact Center as a Service) solution is paramount. Discover how TELUS International, together with Five9’s Intelligent CX Platform, drives efficiency and helps brands revolutionize customer engagement.

Download the guide

Boosting job variety with omnichannel support

Greater centralization also makes it easier for agents to train across multiple channels, instead of being constricted to only service delivery pillars, e.g. only voice, only chat, etc. That kind of variety can be rewarding for employees. Having the ability to serve customers through various channels, not just answer calls one after the other can help with an agent's overall engagement, satisfaction levels and well-being on the job.

There are other ways to use cloud-based technology to improve job quality, including using AI-informed tools like robotic process automation (RPA) to offload repetitive tasks onto bots, and give human agents more complex, fulfilling work. AI, RPA, bots and their ilk not only create new human/tech divisions of labor; they can also assist agents to deliver tech-informed CX by easily serving up insights driven by past interactions.

Cloud-based platforms are also good for reading and translating messages and voice recordings for tone, personality and other factors, then routing those calls to the most appropriate agent to handle a particular type of caller. By fielding repeat inquiries, agents can begin to develop a specialty and an invaluable bank of knowledge that will help them build authentic, ongoing relationships with customers.

Elsewhere in the contact center, managers and supervisors can use cloud-based systems to adapt and manage agent abilities, workflows and responsibilities. They can see real-time call center stats while monitoring intel such as call quality, customer sentiment and tone. In an ideal world, managers with access to this type of data can better coach agents on the spot, recognize high performers, and support career development opportunities thus continuously impacting employee engagement.

Lowering IT overhead and increasing resilience

Of all the benefits offered by cloud computing solutions — such as TELUS International’s CCaaS (Contact Center as a Service) Solution — helping companies scale quickly and with agility is at the top of the list. Its adaptability to support any size company - from smaller family-run businesses with more local work-from-home agents, to companies with hundreds of agents across multiple countries - is another big plus. This kind of flexibility helps make businesses more nimble.

There are also many IT benefits. More advanced back end systems, including application program interface (APIs), make it much easier to launch new communication channels, or to push needed updates and software upgrades without requiring agents to surrender their equipment. And because IT teams can refocus on larger-scale deployments, cloud-based call center platforms thus tend to push software, network maintenance and innovation costs lower. Smart brands send those savings right back into agent perks and benefits that further increase agent productivity, engagement and happiness.

The right cloud-based contact center technology creates a truly virtuous cycle that makes agents’ workplaces better so that they can continue the important work of making customers’ happier, which in turn engenders brand loyalty driving top line growth.


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