What is Contact Center as a Service (CCaaS)?

Contact center as a service (CCaaS) is a customer experience solution that provides the capabilities required to route inbound customer interactions to call center agents. When selecting a CCaaS provider, it is crucial to research and evaluate providers based on features, pricing, scalability, security, and integration capabilities. Cloud-based CCaaS solutions let businesses only buy necessary tech and reduce reliance on in-house IT.

Because CCaaS platforms are highly customizable, businesses can modify the solution to meet their evolving needs and requirements over time.

Key features of CCaaS solutions

CCaaS providers offer a range of features designed to enhance the customer experience, streamline operations, and increase efficiency. From omnichannel communication to advanced analytics, here are some of the key features to be aware of when exploring CCaaS solutions: CCaaS platforms excel in managing various communication channels such as calls, messaging apps, bots, social media, SMS, and emails, providing efficient and seamless customer service across multiple channels. 

• Automatic contact distributor (ACD) – Automatic call distribution, or ACD, is a skills-based routing engine that manages a universal queue for messaging, social, voice, self-service artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot interactions, provides a consolidated omnichannel agent desktop with customer context, and includes a drag-and-drop application for designing contact flows. Contact center agents are assigned skills based on their training and expertise. The ACD then routes interactions to them to ensure optimal customer experiences.
• Interactive voice response (IVR) – Interactive voice response is an interactive menu that lets callers choose the type of help they want, such as by saying options out loud or pressing a number. Callers frequently will opt for self-service for basic issues such as paying a bill or account queries, and the IVR system facilitates that option. When the IVR system is integrated with the ACD, companies gain additional functionality and efficiencies as they share data between them, such as data collected in the IVR system being shared with the ACD.
• Outbound software/predictive dialer – Contact centers can handle inbound customer interactions (inbound call center) and provide agents the outbound software, called a predictive dialer, needed to conduct proactive outreach to customers (outbound call center). Modern predictive dialers can help sales and contact center agents achieve a higher connect rate and eliminate the awkward pause common among outbound contact center software solutions.
• Workforce management – Contact center platforms offer tools and capabilities for workforce management, including schedule optimizers, analytics on team hours and traffic volumes, and easily deployable add-ons that enhance the platform. Supervisors can use these tools for coaching, incentives, and tracking call center training progress.

What does it mean to have cloud contact center software?

Contact center as a service (CcaaS) means that the software itself operates in the cloud without on-premise hardware to manage. Unified communications, including Unified Communications as a Service (UCaaS), enhance cloud-based communication solutions by integrating internal communication, collaboration, video conferencing, team messaging, and workflow automation tools. True CCaaS solutions are cloud-native – meaning they were developed to be run in the cloud, take advantage of modern microservice technologies, have elastic scalability, are architected to empower users to adapt to rapidly changing market conditions, and more.

The advantages of CCaaS solutions

Businesses that transition from on-premise systems to CCaaS solutions experience numerous advantages, including the following:

• More agility. CCaaS platforms have characteristics such as easy integrations and nearly unlimited scalability that enable businesses to react quickly and effectively to disruptions and changing business conditions.

• Enhanced contact center performance. CCaaS solutions capture and analyze agent interactions, generating valuable contact center analytics and insights in real-time to shape effective training strategies and enhance overall performance.

• Improved customer journey. CCaaS solutions improve customer experience throughout the entire customer lifecycle, from initial engagement to post-purchase interactions, by enabling effective customer journey management and customization.

• Improved customer satisfaction. Advanced technology and enhanced customer experiences directly impact customer satisfaction. With CCaaS solutions, meeting customer expectations such as seamless omnichannel customer service and exceptional self-service experiences can be a reality.

• Exceptional customer service. CCaaS solutions deliver exceptional customer service through AI technologies, intuitive desktop views, and turn-by-turn guidance, ensuring efficient and high-quality customer interactions every time.

• Budget friendlier. Because the CCaaS vendor hosts the software, much of the user’s IT overhead - hardware, software, and database management - is reduced or completely eliminated. Additionally, CCaaS pricing is typically based on what is actually used, which is more cost-effective than purchasing inflexible software licenses for businesses whose volume tends to widely fluctuate.