A CCaaS provider is a company that provides contact center services for clients through its software and technology. This type of provider appeared in the early 2000s and has been gaining popularity ever since.
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The idea behind this concept is to allow companies to outsource their contact center, enabling management teams to focus on creating efficient interactions with customers rather than taking care of the whole process. A CCaaS provider offers all the resources needed to operate contact centers, including voice, chat support and possibly even being a bulk email service provider.
This post will explore everything you need to know about CCaaS, including why companies choose to use this type of service and how it can help your company to achieve its customer service goals.
I will also look at top providers of this type of service and the main features you should look out for when selecting one for your own company. Let's get started.
What Is A CCaaS?
A contact center as a service gives the business owner the ability to use someone else's "contact center" for their business or needs.
Company A can use Company B's number, and their agents will call company A customers on company A's behalf. This may be beneficial in instances where you're not allowed to share your customer's information with an outsourcer but still want to use a third party to interact with your customers.
Due to security reasons, you would then need someone that's well versed in compliance laws (such as HIPAA compliance) to ensure that your customer's personal information is safe, and since contracts/agreements are involved, a legal department may need to be involved as well.Top CCaaS Providers
Let's look at the top providers that provide CCaaS services. These companies come with a proven track record of providing a great customer experience over a period of time
1. Justcall.io
Best for getting all the functionality needed from one interface.
JustCall provides both interactive voice response and video chat capabilities to various customers in a multitude of industries. It allows business owners to add agents from their service with just a few clicks.
JustCall is known for its live chat system that supports 100+ CRM integrations. It features an outbound call center option with click-to-call, team collaboration features, reporting tools, and real-time visitor monitoring. This provider also offers KPI software dashboards that can measure the right analytical data.Key Features:
Starting at just $20 per month when billed annually, there are three plans available.
Standard
$20
user per month
Premium
$40
user per month
Enterprise
CUSTOM
Get in touch with them to request a custom quote
Best for combining video, phone, and messaging together.
RingCentral offers 24-hour support and is excellent for businesses that need to be up and running all the time.
Integrated solutions are available for CRMs, marketing automation platforms, and software tools. The cloud-based solution is easy to manage and scalable, which means you can grow with the company if needed.
With different products available to cater to your specific needs, you have both inbound and outbound choices, as well as digital engagement and support. This means that all your bases are covered; when it comes to CCaaS services, you don't have to make another software purchase as the company already has it all available.
Key Features
RingCentral prices vary based on the number of users involved.
Based on a range of two to twenty users, the pricing plans (paid annually) are as follows:
Essentials
$19.99
a month
Premium
$34.49
a month
Standard
$27.99
a month
Ultimate
$49.99
a month
Best for making use of an innovative solution that is updated as needed.
Talkdesk provides all the essential features that are expected from a CCaaS company, including real-time monitoring. The solution is designed to provide a high quality of service support to your customers.
With a self-service experience, you'll be able to provide your customers with the correct answers when they need them. From virtual agent assistance to ticketing system integrations, you can ensure that all of your customer's issues are managed in the best way possible.
Key Features
Talkdesk has four different pricing plans available, as follows:
CX Cloud Essentials
$75
per user per month
CX Cloud Elite
$125
per user per month
CX Cloud Elevate
$95
per user per month
Experience Clouds
You'll have to contact their sales teams for a custom quote on this package.
Other CCaaS not mentioned in this post, that you might want to look into, are Google Cloud Contact Center and GoToConnect.
What Are The Pros And Cons Of Using A CCaaS?
Let's now look at both the positive and negative sides of using a contact centre as a service for your business.
Pros Of CCaaS
The following are the advantages of making use of this service for your company.
You Can Ensure Customer Retention Goals Are Met
Instead of having customers calling in to the wrong number and ending up being transferred from one place to another, you can ensure that everyone is taken care of immediately when they call into your company.
Through the right automatic call distribution features, you ensure that you're not losing revenue by having people calling numbers that might be busy and ending up frustrated by the time it takes for them to get the answer they need.
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When you have a centralized phone line, all customers are routed to one place for contact center service. If the caller needs to speak with someone else at your company, that agent will transfer or route the customer to the appropriate department.
With the proper training, agents will know exactly who to transfer a call to, making the whole process more organized and efficient for everyone involved.
Experience Growth Without Hiring New Employees
If you want to grow your business but don't want to hire new employees, this is an ideal solution because it allows you to hire someone else's contact center service, and they will handle your call load. This way, you can grow your business without having to add staff in the process.
As a result, you’ll be able to focus on the key areas that make the most difference in providing exceptional customer service, while ensuring that your business keeps scaling.
Provide A More Professional Image For Your Company
Suppose you're a small business and don't have the ability or resources to staff an entire call center. In that case, CCaaS is an excellent solution because it will give you the voice of authority that many larger companies already possess.
Many customers prefer to deal with an established company such as yourself instead of a random person that may not be as knowledgeable about your product or service.
You also get an outside perspective when using another company's services since you will see how their agents handle calls from your customer base. This can be valuable information that allows you to adjust your company in different ways to suit the customer's needs better.
Access To A Larger Pool Of Potential Employees
When you have access to a larger candidate pool, this allows you to find the best people for your company. This can be particularly useful if you want someone with call center experience, making your job easier in finding them.
This opens up new avenues and possibilities when dealing with staffing issues while giving you access to some of the best workers in the industry.
Consistent Quality Service
Since you're using the same contact center service to handle all of your customers' calls, then it's much easier to give your clients a consistently higher level of consistent service. This way, every customer will be handled by professional people who know what they are doing and can use past experience in every interaction they have.
You also won't need to worry about hiring inexperienced employees to answer the phone and train them from scratch - instead, you hit the ground running from day one.
Offers Tax Benefits
One significant benefit that comes along with using an outsourced call center office is that it allows you access to many IRS tax breaks if you qualify for them. They will often offer different programs that will enable your business to save money when making payments; payments that can sometimes be substantial.
This is another reason why companies are now opting to use third-party services for handling their inbound calls. These services can save them a lot of money in the long run
Eliminates Many Overhead Costs
When you can eliminate a lot of expenses, you end up with more money in other areas. This could mean not requiring as much office space as before, enabling you to save money on rent. Having less office space needed makes it easier for companies to transition into this type of service which will often lower their monthly bills and improve cash flow.
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You might also do away with specific telephony subscriptions and costly equipment. Instead, this will be taken care of by experts who already have the right setup in place.
Cons Of Using CCaaS Providers In Your Company
While the benefits of using a contact center service often outweigh many of the cons associated with it, there are still some things that you may want to know about before making a final decision.
The Workers Aren't Your Employees
One major thing that companies need to understand when they begin using an outsourced call center company is that the agents are not their employees. They're bound by another contract which means how they act is not always in your company’s best interest.
This can be very frustrating because if they don't do what you ask them to, it reflects poorly on your business in front of customers. This might become very visible to customers whenever they call in looking for information.
It's essential to ensure that the right expectations are set from the beginning in order to ensure that the customer agents stay on track to help you achieve your company's goals.
Pricing Could Be Challenging To Estimate
Since so many factors can determine the cost of outsourcing services, it can often be hard to know exactly how much this service will cost you.
These types of services depend on a minimum fee per month, what carrier they use, and who provides them with their equipment. Basic items, such as headsets and telephony equipment, could change the price over time.
It helps to get quotes from different companies to determine which one offers the most transparent rates for what you need before locking into a contract with any one of them.
Unless you are clear in the contract that you sign, it could be the case that rising prices that happen due to sudden changes in events, can force you to get locked into higher prices than necessary.
Lack Of Flexibility
While having a fixed price for services can be great because it helps with calculating costs, working out an agreement with a fixed price also makes it harder to change things around in the future.
This is especially true if a CCaas’ fee structure has a minimum amount that you have to pay every month regardless of how little they are doing for your company. On the other hand, it could happen that companies may need more help than usual during busy times, but if this isn't accounted for (or just isn’t possible), things could go wrong very quickly, ending up hurting your bottom line as a business.
No Incentives To Stay Motivated
Unless the right conditions are put in place from the start, there could be no incentive for CCaaS to provide you with constant, star-level service.
This can be offset by providing incentives such as bonuses and commission, which will help keep their motivation and performance high. However, if this isn't possible, it's good to consider this whole idea ahead of time, so you can set realistic expectations and goals of what should be achieved.
Bottom Line
Companies who want to benefit from these CCaaS solutions must ensure that they take the time to understand what the pros and cons are before working with a specific provider.
Customer satisfaction is a significant factor in most businesses, as poor customer service can lead to a consumer backlash that significantly costs a company time, money, and other resources.
While there are ways to improve service levels, working with a contact center service provider means constantly monitoring to ensure positive interactions between agents and consumers are maintained.
Features To Look For When Choosing A CCaaS Solution
Before I conclude, I’m going to share with you the top features you should look out for (or even ask about) before choosing a CCaaS company that is just right for your business. While the following features might not all be crucial for your needs, some of them might be absolutely crucial.
It's critical to listen to the calls that your company outsources so you can assess how well customer agents handled things and to be able to see if anything needs improving.
If a problem arises, such as an agent not being at his/her desk or even someone calling in sick at the last minute, ensuring that another individual is available to pick up a call will ensure that essential customer service is still offered at all times.
Some agents may need specific equipment to do their jobs properly, and the last thing you want is having them use outdated or poor quality headsets because it might impact their call handling performance. Ensuring that the CCaaS company you choose provides its agents with the latest equipment to make their job easier is key.
This is a feature that many people forget about when choosing these services; however, it’s an extremely helpful feature if multiple callers on the line need to interact together regularly.
Although there are other ways to monitor how well your service providers are handling things, specifically built programs will offer insight into ensuring compliance and service levels are kept to a particular standard. Taking the time to analyze your sales funnel performance and customer service methodology can help you understand what worked well in the past so you can continue to use it in the future. This is especially useful for companies who have been around for years but feel stuck from a sales standpoint.
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The various data that needs to be stored when working with a telemarketing company should be accessible at any time. Data integrity should remain constant and intact, regardless of how large such data files might get over time.
It's always good to have multiple copies of your data saved off-site in case something were to happen to the main sources of information. This could range from a virus infecting one of the agent’s computers, an agent deleting something by accident, or even a fire taking over the physical building.
The whole point in choosing a solution is to make life easier for both the agent and the company, which means connecting to ensure quick data sharing in real-time. API integrations ensure that data is accessible quickly and accurately, as needed. Also, having the ability to patch together your sales data from various sources such as live chat and email marketing will help you understand how well the two methods complement one another when used together.
Technical issues can arise at any moment, and to ensure that they're taken care of quickly, having a provider with easy to reach technical support staff is essential.
This is an essential backend software to have. It allows you to collect information on consumers who call in so you can build accurate profiles on them. The more information you have, the better sales leads your team will have to follow up on later.
Conclusion
When you take the time to analyze your target market you’ll be able to discover who your best customers are. Through the use of the right CCaaS, you can listen to customer service calls and notice emerging patterns that need to be dealt with. This allows you to adjust the direction your business is heading in accordingly.
There are a lot of benefits to using a contact center as a service. One of the biggest best things a CCaaS can do for your business is provide you with the ability to deliver a high level of customer service at a reasonable rate.
The entire process can be done on your terms, making it perfect for those who lack resources or don't want to put in the time and effort required to run such an operation from scratch.
To recap, the best CCaaS providers to consider right now are :
Keep the above tips and factors in mind when conducting your research. Take note that the technology used by one CCaaS over another can significantly improve your company's ability to provide quality customer service and increase sales.
Comparing the pros and cons of each provider is ultimately something that has to be done before reaching a final decision.
Last Updated on August 19, 2023 by Hanson Cheng