What is Contact Center as a Service (CCaaS)?

Today's customers not only want a superior experience, they expect CCaaS to be your solution to deliver it. It doesn't matter if you have superior products or services with stellar prices if you can't assure your customers that your customer service will match the excellence of your products. That sentiment holds for all industries. Your company's contact center makes a first and lasting impression of the company. Your customers' experience tells them a lot about the kind of experience they can expect if they choose to do business with you. On the other hand, the earliest experience also makes it clear whom they don't want to do business with. When you use a contact center as a service (CCaaS), you're giving call center representatives the tools and resources that enhance the customer experience, make the call center representative's job a rewarding experience, and improve results.

What is a Contact Center as a Service or CCaaS?

CCaaS is an acronym for Contact Center as a Service, best defined and understood as a cloud-based software solution used by inbound and outbound teams to provide a better overall customer experience while hosting your environment in the cloud. The main purpose of CCaaS is to route contacts from all communication channels using a software application. Contact center software as a service vendor develops and maintains the software, which speaks to the "as a service" part of the definition. Essentially, CCaaS is a cloud-based phone system that allows you to make phone calls over the Internet. This has been revolutionizing the way contact centers respond to their customers.

Before the evolution of CCaaS, businesses have long used VoIP technology, which is an acronym for voice over internet protocol. VoIP also allows you to make phone calls over the Internet, but the software is hosted on the company's on-site equipment instead of using the cloud.

What to know about VoIP and CCaaS

VoIP essentially operates in a single mode. In simple terms, it allows you to make and receive phone calls over the Internet. It's a static phone system that has worked the same way for decades. This type of technology is unlikely to change much, if at all, in the future. Because it is a static phone solution, it lacks the flexibility on its own to respond to newer and more innovative software solutions and integrations and will limit your flexibility as a result.

CCaaS software allows you to view other business communications such as email, chat tools, web applications, CRM systems, online surveys, sales automation tools, and help desk software and places them on top of the Internet protocol, making it a multi-model phone solution. Contact center software as a service uses VoIP technology to power the voice function.

The importance of modernizing your Contact Center as a service

For a couple of decades, the first call centers emerged using VoIP software. Companies commonly downloaded and maintained their software solutions on their internal computers and servers. VoIP systems require a continual investment in people and upgrades.

The evolution of cloud-based services has opened the door for greater innovation and flexibility for the needs of modern contact centers. Today, CCaaS makes it possible for call center representatives to log into any Internet browser anywhere, anytime, and access your contact center software.

The market is changing and changing continuously. Customer needs are changing along with them. CCaaS offers the advantage of being able to change as fast as the times demand. At their core, traditional phone systems are unwieldy and expensive, and when you continue to use them, you risk bogging down your business.

Cloud-based phone systems using CCaaS software provide the agility and flexibility to meet today's competitive environment.

The importance of using a cloud-based phone system

If you reflect on some of your contact center experiences, chances are you can recall some good and bad experiences. Likely, your evaluation of the quality of the service has also influenced your perception of the company.

Excellence in customer experience is an essential component of contemporary business. In general, people don't like to listen to machines. They prefer to have an interactive experience where they can ask questions and get answers quickly.

Large call centers can make millions of connections every year. That means they can have the same or greater impact on your business than a massive advertising campaign. According to a Forrester report, customers report that online customer service tends to be inferior compared to in-person customer service. Either way, a bad customer service experience drives customers away.

In addition to giving you the ability to present your business in the best light possible, a cloud-based phone system also offers many other benefits. CCaaS makes it easy to scale the operation as the business grows. Seasonal businesses gain the advantage of being able to easily scale up or down as they go through different business cycles throughout the year.

A cloud-based phone system is very important for reducing maintenance costs because updates are faster and easier to implement.

CCaaS increases the efficiency of contact centers, which means you can save money on salaries by reducing the number of IT staff from other contact center employees without sacrificing the quality of service.

Unlike traditional phone systems, CCaaS gives you the flexibility to let your staff work from home instead of limiting your options to bringing everyone into the call center. This is an important consideration in light of the current need for social distancing due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Aircall makes it easy to combine your phone system with your CRM and help desk system. The benefits of this are improved call logging and results. As the leading app ecosystem for voice, Aircall speaks to all of your critical tools and workflows. Aircall also offers an open API where other technology providers can create an application through the Aircall platform.

One of your main goals is to positively impact the experience of your customers. Aircall can make that process significantly simpler, this system forms the cornerstone that crosses all touchpoints consistently and effectively for a foundation that supports excellence in contact center functionality.