Q&A: Contact Center Industry Sales Expert Shares Insights on Call Center Innovation and Transitioning to the Cloud

Last month, we welcomed Brian Hays to the Bright Pattern team as the Senior Vice President of Global Sales and featured him in a Q&A discussion on his experience in the contact center space. Today, in this exclusive interview, we are giving you an insider’s look at  Hays’ view of the future of technology and innovation in the contact center industry.

Q1: With your vast experience in the space, can you anticipate how the role of technology will grow in contact centers in 2018?

Innovation has never been more important in the contact center space. With customers becoming more mobile and digital savvy, they expect companies to know who they are and to provide a personal experience. Blending AI, chatbots, and machine learning is key to providing a personal experience. Some industry experts believe that by 2022, over 70% of customer interactions will include these emerging technologies. Human agents will still be superior in understanding emotion and building relationships with customers, and that is why integrating this role into your AI plans is critical. This will not only increase customer satisfaction, but will increase agent satisfaction as well.

In implementing these new technologies, it will be very important to get feedback from your customers and have a comprehensive reporting system to analyze the effectiveness of these technologies.

Q2: In your opinion, what are some common concerns (pain points) that IT buyers experience before moving to the cloud?

In talking to many IT leaders, one of the most common myths is that they are giving up control if the contact center solution isn’t in their data center. With a modern developed cloud contact center solution, self-provisioning provides a very robust environment for companies to customize and run their contact center platform without the complexity of on-premise solution. In addition, there are many other advantages of a cloud-based offering around not having to maintain hardware and implement system upgrades. This frees up resources to work on other key areas within IT.

Another common concern is around data/network security. This has been heightened in the news around data/network breaches with major companies.

While there is a certain amount of emotion, and sometimes, politics at play, there is an opportunity to educate those in enterprise IT around the real issues and the real risks. The fact is that cloud platforms are typically more secure than traditional systems. Successful cloud companies have implemented strict security and monitoring solutions to protect against security threats.

Q3: What advice do you give to clients that are on the fence about transitioning to the cloud?

Cloud computing has come a long way in the last decade. Many companies are maintaining older solutions that today would be considered subpar in the contact center space. With the speed of innovation and the importance of customer experience in maintaining your competitive edge, why not consider a robust cloud omnichannel contact center solution? With the “pay as you go model,” this frees up capital for companies to invest in marketing and other needs to grow their business.

If this doesn’t convince you, take a look at what analysts are saying about the benefits in moving to a cloud-based contact center solution.

Q4: What benefits do your customers see when executing a successful migration to the cloud?

A cloud-based contact center offering has many advantages. Here are my top five:

1. Flexible Cost Structure – With cloud computing, companies cut out the high costs of hardware and upfront software license fees. This moves companies from a large capital expenditure to a “pay as you go” model, which helps companies manage cash flow. In addition, it helps companies that need to fluctuate their agent base due to seasonality.
2. Enterprise-Class Solution – A cloud offering provides an easier way to access enterprise-class solutions by taking the scare out of potentially huge premise IT deployment. It allows small companies to use sophisticated software at an affordable cost, giving them a competitive edge.
3. Security and Recovery – As mentioned, cloud computing can provide more security than typical premise-based solutions. Companies of all sizes (especially small-and medium-sized organizations) sometimes lack the required expertise and investment in protecting their data and having a robust disaster recovery environment that a cloud environment can offer.
4. System Maintenance and Updates – Having a cloud-based contact center solution frees up resources and capital in maintaining hardware and complex software updates. Companies that provide cloud-based solutions take care of this for you by including security updates. This helps companies focus their resources on growing their business, not maintaining hardware and software.
5. Virtualize Your Resources – With cloud computing, you can work anywhere/anytime you have an Internet connection—even from a laptop at home, which gives companies greater access to systems where and when they need it. 

We’re excited to have Brian as part of the team here at Bright Pattern. Stay tuned for part three of our interview with Brian where we will be discussing Bright Pattern’s game plan for 2018.