Welcome to From the Community, where we highlight questions from our community members. Join us each Friday as we dive into the featured inquiry.
This week’s question comes from Keenan W., who asks whether or not virtual call center software would be a good, cost-effective option for his on-premise call center. While contact centers remain an important channel for providing customer support, today’s call centers are nothing like their predecessors. The look, feel and functionality of modern call centers has changed to accommodate geographically dispersed agents providing multi-channel support.
Finding a top call center solution to manage a company’s unique needs can increase customer support while reducing costs. However, it’s hard to find the right solution—one that’s cost-effective and offers all of the features you need. Here, we uncover whether a less expensive virtual call center software solution can meet the needs of an on-premise contact center.
Call Center or Virtual Call Center Software: What are the Differences?
To uncover whether a virtual call center software would be well suited for Keenan’s on-premise call center, it’s important to understand how traditional call center software and virtual call center software stack up.
Traditional call center software optimizes customer support processes by integrating with CRM solutions, tracking call analytics, recording communications, providing access to a knowledge base and facilitating support processes through multiple channels (social media platforms, email, etc.). Call center software will often provide interactive voice response (IVR) capabilities, which automates routing inquiries, and real-time reporting.
For the most part, virtual call center software performs the same functions as its traditional counterpart; this software connects service agents to CRM solutions and provides tools for monitoring calls and tracking performance. To manage remote agents, however, virtual call center software must provide added flexibility, so that any individual with internet access can access the tools needed to provide excellent customer support. Many top virtual call center solutions will also provide a separate set of administrative tools uniquely designed to manage remote agents.
Virtual Call Center Software for the On-Premise Contact Center?
Virtual call centers save money by eliminating the costs associated with renting (or buying) and maintaining an on-premise call center. While some virtual call center software solutions are similarly less expensive, it can also be more expensive to provide the added flexibility virtual call centers need.
If reducing costs is your top priority, switching to a virtual call center could be a good option. Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) business phone systems can also help a company save on long-term costs. However, if you’re already set on an on-premise call center, don’t make finding virtual call center software a priority. Instead, choose your solution based on its functionality and price, whether the software is intended for traditional contact centers or virtual call centers. In fact, these days many software solutions claim to handle the needs of both virtual and on-premise call centers, without making a distinction between the two.
Finding the Right Call Center Software
It can be hard to find call center software that’s both comprehensive and budget friendly. 8×8, Inc. provides some of the best call center and business communication solutions on the market. Their call center software handles the needs of both traditional and virtual contact centers, offering extensive features such as skills-based routing, CRM, real-time monitoring and IVR.
Genesys also offers a contact center suite that’s both robust and built to handle the needs of various contact centers. The solution features multi-channel support tools, IVR, self-service and a number of reporting and analytics functions. Genesys software can be deployed on the cloud or as a SaaS solution that presents fewer up-front costs.
Want more information? Choosing the best call center software for your company can make a huge difference in how your contact center functions. To browse in-depth reviews of call center products, read top call center articles and gain access to our free Top 10 Call Center software report, be sure to visit our call center resource page.