The case for a cloud contact centre is strong and now UK-based consultancy and research firm, Aberdeen Group, has come up with some numbers to show the strength of that case. Here is what it found.
- Cloud contact centre leaders achieve significantly better results from the technology than followers
- One of the biggest differentiators between leaders and followers is effective use of omnichannel
- Lack of the right tools has a bigger impact on agent performance than rewards or compensation.
“Cloud-based contact centres outpace their on-premise counterparts when it comes to driving business success,” Aberdeen Group said. “Specifically, Aberdeen Group’s research shows that companies with cloud-based contact centres retain 57% more of their clientele year-over-year than their on-premise counterparts.
They also achieve 24% greater annual revenue growth (8.2% versus 6.6%).”
Cloud Contact Centre Leaders Versus Followers
Not content with this distinction between cloud and on-premise contact centre users, Aberdeen Group drilled down to look at how leaders in the use of cloud contact centres were achieving better results than the followers.
“We see that leaders – defined as the top 30% of businesses surveyed … realise drastically different results than followers.”
Specifically the survey sample reported year-on year changes in customer satisfaction of +12.6%, customer retention rate, +80%, first contact resolution rate of +4.6%, agent utilisation rate of +4.3%.
For other users of cloud contact centres, the “followers”, the figures were: customer satisfaction – 2.0%, customer retention rate, +40%, first contact resolution rate of -6.4%, agent utilisation rate of 1.3%.
Aberdeen group said that top-performing cloud technology users had achieved almost all the objectives driving investments in this area, but “achieving such strong results requires properly leveraging the capabilities of cloud technology.”
The Right Technology Boosts Customer Retention Rates
It identified the most import aspect of the technology to exploit as being omnichannel communications with customers. “Aberdeen research shows that contact centres taking an omnichannel approach enjoy 41% higher customer retention rates than contact centres using multiple channels in a disconnected manner (13.0% versus 9.2%).”
Aberdeen Group identified one of the roadblocks to achieving omnichannel capability as being a lack of the proper tools in the hands of agents, and, somewhat surprisingly, reported: “Companies surveyed indicated that technology is 88% more likely to influence the agent experience than compensation and rewards.”
“Our data indicates that, in a 300 seat contact centre, poor tools and processes can result in $1.57 million each year in unnecessary costs.”
Aberdeen Group’s research also put paid to the belief that anything in the cloud is less secure than on premises. “Data shows that hosting contact centre applications in the cloud does not increase the risk of security issues involving customer data,” it said. “In fact, on-premises contact centres are 31% more likely than cloud contact centres to experience data security issues.”
Perhaps the most important conclusion from Aberdeen’s research is the better tools and better technology do not of themselves deliver better results: it is how they are used that matters.
“Without the building blocks to drive success, cloud technology is nothing more than a different infrastructure,” Aberdeen said. “Using that infrastructure in a way that improves the customer experience while also controlling costs and improving productivity is how companies truly maximise results.”
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