Do You Have a Business Continuity Plan?
These are troubling times and your customers have worries and lots of questions, but so do your employees. Businesses are overwhelmed with calls about everything from financial concerns to operational changes to what the future might hold. Meanwhile, all the responsibility falls on business leaders like you to take care of both your customers and employees while simultaneously keeping your business alive.
That’s not exactly an easy task – especially during times of societal crisis when you likely have the same questions and concerns as everyone else. So, what can you do?
While you may not have control over natural disasters or global emergencies, you can control how well you’re supporting your customers and employees with a business continuity plan. Taking steps such as implementing systems and protocols that can support remote working, establishing flexible and integrated communications, and identifying technology needs can help you respond to potential disruption in a timely and effective manner.
The Importance of Your Contact Center
The backbone of a healthy business is made of both customers and employees, so in times of crisis it’s your priority to support the health and happiness of both these groups of people. An effective business continuity plan will therefore prioritize customer service AND the well-being of your contact center staff.
One of the best ways to do this is to move your contact center to the cloud. A cloud contact center enables customers to continue reaching out to your business regardless of circumstances, while also ensuring your employees can continue working safely and without interruption from anywhere.
A large number of contact centers are still on-premise and cannot support remote work or changing circumstances. But a cloud-based contact center can empower any size business with an agile team that can safely and easily adapt to a sudden change or emergency situations. Your agents can work remotely from safe locations with full and secure access to your contact center. This provides seamless continuity in customer service without interruption or loss of capabilities so you can get your customers the support they need.
While you could potentially outsource your call center operations as a contingency plan, moving to a cloud-based contact center solution is a far better option. With outsourcing, you face challenges such as probable loss of current employees, the additional expense of outsourced staff, disconnect between your business and customer service procedures, loss of knowledgeable staff who can get answers to your customers quickly, loss of operational control, decline in customer experience quality, the introduction of disparate systems into your business… The list goes on.
Not to mention you’re trading the health and well-being of your current employees at the expense of the outsourced ones.
Considering all of this, it’s clear that outsourcing isn’t really a viable option. But with a cloud contact center like Talkdesk, you can simply transition your own agents between the office and home, quickly and easily overcoming any challenges without having to upend your entire customer service process.
The Business Building Features of a Cloud Contact Center
In addition to supporting remote work and mobile-enabling your agents so you can meet every customer need in every circumstance, a cloud-based contact center gives you the added benefits of:
- A modern, intuitive agent UX that enables fast ramp, more efficiency, and cost savings
- Application integration, including: omnichannel apps like email, messaging, and chat; AI-infused apps with real-time data, knowledge bases, and chatbots; and pre-built integrations like Salesforce, Zendesk, ServiceNow, Slack, and more
- Access to a constant stream of new innovative features
- A consistently updated platform – no aging systems or need to constantly replace hardware
- Robust management tools like real-time dashboards, historical reporting, and advanced call and desktop recording
- Workforce management tools like remote quality management and coaching
In short, a cloud contact center solution will provide flexible options to expedite customer care and enable business continuity and agent safety.
Keep Your Business Thriving with a Cloud Contact Center
As hard as unexpected emergencies and natural disasters can be on a business, the impact of maintaining continuity and safety for your employees and customers can be greater. The better prepared you are, the more likely you are to adapt quickly in changing circumstances and thrive in the midst of it all. This translates directly to your customers and employees.
Is it time for your company to develop business continuity and implement a cloud contact center? If you need help keeping your business running, ensuring the safety of your customers and staff, and being there for your community—anytime, anywhere, through any channel, using any device, regardless of circumstances—give us a call at (781) 235-5520 or contact us here today.