How Can a Cloud ACD Help Your Contact Center?

Customers don’t want to wait on hold to speak with an agent, only to be transferred to a different agent. They don’t want to repeat their issue multiple times to different agents. They expect the agent who first picks up the call to resolve their problem quickly and accurately.

Unfortunately, far too many organizations struggle to meet this expectation. They may offer callers a menu of options, but those options seldom align with complex or nuanced issues. They may have a legacy automatic call distribution (ACD) system that simply routes calls based on agent availability. It’s highly unlikely that the most qualified agent will pick up the call.

As we noted in a recent post, modern automatic call distribution systems offer far more sophisticated functionality. In addition to traditional idle time-based routing, today’s cloud ACD platforms can distribute calls based on agent skills and other criteria. As such, a cloud ACD is an essential component of any customer experience (CX) strategy. 

The question is: Should you implement an ACD on premises or in the cloud?

Why Put Automatic Call Distribution in the Cloud?

An automatic call distribution system is software, and like most software it can be implemented on premises or in the cloud. An on-premises ACD gives organizations greater control over their environment, but there are significant downsides. The organization is responsible for buying and implementing the hardware needed to support the ACD, and for keeping both hardware and software up to date. Legacy ACDs are difficult to configure and often require vendor support for any changes.

A Cloud ACD, on the other hand, eliminates those capital investments and operational headaches. The vendor provides the infrastructure and keeps it up to date and secure. A cloud ACD is easy to configure, with drag-and-drop interfaces that empower users to make changes as needed. Cloud ACDs have the flexibility to meet changing business needs and can scale to support growing call volumes. They also enable a virtual contact center that enables agents to work from anywhere.

Other Benefits of a Cloud Automatic Call Distribution System

A key benefit of a cloud ACD is simple integration into the IT environment. Cloud ACDs can integrate with an organization’s communication and collaboration infrastructure, creating a seamless omnichannel experience that maximizes customer satisfaction. In fact, the “call” aspect of a cloud ACD is something of a misnomer because it can be used to route customer interactions across multiple communication channels.

A Cloud ACD boosts customer satisfaction by intelligently routing calls based on agent skills, reducing hold times, and streamlining communication across all channels.

Cloud ACDs can also integrate with key applications and data sources, including customer relationship management (CRM) systems, for more personalized interactions and highly intelligent routing. Integration with business intelligence (BI) systems enables organizations to analyze customer interactions and operational metrics to gain greater insights.

While many ACDs provide agents with call-management tools, best-in-class cloud ACDs feature a unified agent interface. Through one dashboard, agents can manage interactions across all communication channels. The dashboard can also integrate other applications, such as CRM, as well as knowledge bases, performance metrics and other components. A unified agent interface can increase efficiency, productivity and agent satisfaction by putting everything agents need at their fingertips.

Supervisors need a different set of capabilities to manage operations. Many cloud ACDs enable supervisors to participate in customer interactions, either discreetly by “whisper coaching” or by joining or even taking over the call. ACDs also offer a variety of reports and real-time data feeds to help supervisors make better decisions.

GDS Brings These Capabilities to Smaller Contact Centers

Many of the best cloud ACDs are designed for large enterprises. The GDS Metaswitch iACD solution provides enterprise-class ACD functionality for contact centers with fewer than 64 agents. Its advanced routing and queueing functions can be configured through an easy-to-use portal.

The agent dashboard provides contact center agents with a number of features to help maximize their performance. Information about the caller can be displayed as calls come in, giving the agent an opportunity to prepare for the call. Agents can wrap up interactions with notes and disposition codes, and then be placed back into the agent queue automatically after a configurable amount of time. Agents can also set their status using up to 30 customizable options, such as “at lunch” or “in a meeting.” A portal view shows key performance indicators (KPIs) so agents can monitor their performance against desired metrics.

Whisper, monitor and barge-in features enable supervisors to coach agents and assist in customer calls. Supervisors can also view the current status and performance of agents for a selected time period. An intuitive dashboard enables supervisors to administer call queues and access statistics on the contact center’s overall performance. Supervisors can also access standardized and ad hoc reports that track performance and trends and performance.

Learn More About Improving Your CX by Moving Your Automatic Call Distribution to the Cloud

Intelligent, data-driven routing is now an essential part of high-quality customer experiences. Cloud ACDs have advanced features that go well beyond traditional time-based routing, while providing all the benefits of a hosted solution. The GDS Metaswitch iACD solution delivers enterprise-class capabilities in a cost-efficient cloud-based service designed for smaller contact centers.

• Optimize customer and support services by effectively managing voice, chat, text messaging and email communications. Customizable communication flows route customers to the right agent regardless of communication channel.
• Track and monitor customer interactions with agent and web chat logs and optional call and screen recording.
• Tap contact center talent regardless of location through the “anywhere access” of the cloud. The solution also facilitates disaster recovery plans and emergency communications by enabling agents to work remotely if needed.
• Keep your IT department happy with no additional load on your infrastructure and no operational overhead. GDS hosted contact center services are easy to administer and backed by our 24x7x365 maintenance and support.
• Ensure the uptime and performance of your mission-critical contact center with geographic survivability and on-demand scalability.
• Empower contact center managers with powerful real-time metrics and historical reporting. Managers can analyze hold times, abandon rates and other call patterns and predict call volumes for more accurate scheduling.

The GDS Cloud Contact Center provides an array of features that help businesses boost customer satisfaction without capital investments or complex upgrades. GDS Cloud Contact Center services provide a cost efficient alternative to the legacy contact center, ensuring the flexible capability of world-class customer service on one platform. Ready to learn more about what we can do for your call center? Reach out to us and describe your current challenges and we’ll tell you more about how we can solve them.

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