When you think of a financial services contact center, what typically comes to mind is a room full of people sitting at desks with phones, computers, and headsets; however, that image is changing. Financial services contact centres are moving to the cloud.

Here’s a look at some of the top reasons financial services contact centres are making that move. Could it be the right move for your contact center?

Reason 1: A global healthcare crisis

At the beginning of 2020, a global healthcare crisis led to lockdown orders issued by governments around the world. Over 74% of contact centres closed their physical locations and gave employees the tools to work from home.

By moving to a cloud contact center model, organisations were able to continue to meet customers’ needs at a time of stress and uncertainty. Customers didn’t feel abandoned; on the contrary, they felt supported and that the company was there for them when they needed it most.

Reason 2: Cloud contact centres give agents the tools they need to do their jobs

Cloud contact center software gives employees the tools they need to meet customer needs. It offers an internal directory with a presence indicator, so agents can connect with their colleagues to answer customer questions in a single interaction.

There are also file sharing options as well as chat, and video conferencing, so agents no longer sit in a silo. Rather, they’re connected to the rest of the organisation and have the collaborative tools they need to meet customer expectations and perform their jobs at optimum levels.

Reason 3: Hybrid work environments

Though the global pandemic may have hastened the move to cloud contact centres, as pandemic restrictions ease, it is likely that many contact centres will maintain a hybrid approach, with some agents working remotely while others return to a physical contact center location.

Cloud contact center solutions enable agents to use the same work tools and processes regardless of whether their work environment is at home or in a formal office setting. This type of flexibility represents the reimagined workspace of the future—one with fewer physical boundaries and greater possibilities for agents.

There are a number of reasons to consider this approach, not the least of which is business continuity. Hybrid work environments offer contact centres a fallback position in the event that either on-site or remote work becomes impractical or infeasible for some reason. Other benefits of hybrid work environments for the contact center include the possibility of expanding talent acquisition to a more diverse workforce, expanding hours of operation with more flexibility in scheduling, and the ability to provide agents with more choices to enhance their work-life balance.

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Reason 4: Omnichannel flexibility

One of the biggest benefits of cloud contact centres is that they offer omnichannel flexibility. Omnichannel flexibility means that in addition to offering voice calls, customers can connect through social media channels, text messages, emails, and even video.

Customers want omnichannel flexibility when they reach out to their financial services institution. Seventy-eight percent of people who love texting wish they could regularly text businesses, while a Forrester report shows that 62% of business owners believe they’ll lose ground if they don’t offer social media customer service channels. By offering omnichannel support, financial services contact centres give customers the freedom to connect on their terms.

Reason 5: Cost savings

Operating a cloud contact center saves your organisation money. For a start, you save money on real estate. When agents work at home, you’re not spending money on that space. Moreover, cloud contact center software is less expensive than traditional on-premise contact centres because of the savings they convey in capital expenditures. According to the “Intelligent Customer Engagement: 2019-2020 Research Study” by Nemertes, the breakdown of operational costs for contact centres is as follows:

• Hybrid contact center as a service (CCaaS): $1,356 per agent per year
• Full CCaaS: $1,905 per agent per year
• On premises: $2,104 per agent per year

Reason 6: Cloud contact centres are highly scalable

Like almost every other industry, contact centres for financial services organisations experience fluctuations in customer call volumes. Because cloud contact center solutions require minimal on-site hardware and software, organisations have the flexibility to scale their lines and features up or down as the need arises in real time, with no need to pay for features they are not currently using.

Reason 7: Cloud contact centres offer self-service options

According to research, 50% of customers will hang up after just 45 to 95 seconds of being on hold.

Self-service options, on the other hand, are significantly faster. Imagine for a moment that you contact an insurance call center with a question about your claim. Would you want to wait on hold for 20 minutes for an agent to answer you, or would you rather use a chatbot that could respond to you in moments?

One of the benefits of financial services cloud contact centres is that if a chatbot can’t handle a particular interaction, it will pass it off to a human agent. That way, customers still get the help they need when they need it.

Reason 8: Attract better talent

When you reach out to a financial services call center, you want excellent customer service delivered quickly. Choosing cloud contact center technology allows financial services organisations to attract and retain better talent in their contact centres.

A Frost and Sullivan report shows that the retention rate for agents that work at home is 80%. Conversely, the retention rate for agents working in-house is 25%. Moreover, the average age of an agent that works from home is 38 years old, meaning they’re more mature and experienced than in-house agents, whose average age is 23.

You can cast a wider net when sourcing candidates, giving you a greater range of skills and talents to better serve your customers.

RingCentral: Powering your financial services contact center

RingCentral’s financial services contact center software enables financial services organisations to operate cloud contact centres. Cloud contact centres deliver better customer service thanks to omnichannel flexibility, create higher levels of job satisfaction among agents, and give agents the tools they need to meet customers’ needs. To learn more about RingCentral’s cloud contact center technology, request a demo.

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Font: https://www.ringcentral.com/us/en/blog/8-reasons-to-modernize-your-financial-services-contact-center/

By: Melissa Rother