What is CcaaS

What is CCaaS?

CCaaS stands for Contact Center as a Service, and essentially it’s a cloud-based version of traditional call center technology.

In the past, call centers used to rely on hard-wired systems, which required a physical PBX (Private Branch Exchange). These consisted of potentially thousands of yards of copper cabling, PSTN cables, Network carrier connections, and of course, desk phones and the associated hardware.

All this equipment required manual installation as an on-premise solution, with many upgrades, extensions, and troubleshooting that complicated everyday handling.

In contrast, cloud-based software can be accessed by any internet-enabled computer or mobile device. It also allows for extensive integrations with third-party software and solutions. CCaaS is that pillar technology that makes all of this possible.

virtual call center

Benefits

The benefits of CCaaS

 

A cloud-served contact center opens up a wide range of possibilities for enhanced customer service provision. Moving operations online brings a wealth of benefits to the speed and seamlessness of operations, as well as opening up advanced management and tracking features. 

Here are just a few of the biggest benefits of CCaaS:

Effortless setup

As a service accessed over the internet, CCaaS makes installation and consumption of cloud contact center services effortless. Unlike its on-prem counterparts, CCaaS can be installed with the bare minimum IT infrastructure and with the ease of a few mouse button clicks. For startups and small & medium businesses, this means less time spent setting up their contact center and more time solving customer problems.

Negligible upfront investment

Without the need to install cabling and with most contact centers already in possession of the computer equipment required, making the switch to CCaaS is an easily affordable transition. Gone are the days of significant initial capital investment in telephony hardware (like physical PBX, deskphones, physical cables, etc.) and its installation before you can start the contact center operations.

Easy scalability

Charged on a subscription model, a cloud-based service can be more easily budgeted for, and scaling up or down your operation has never been easier. Whether you need to add extensions to a shared contact list to accommodate a growing workforce, add more advanced features as your business develops, or deal with rising call volumes, CCaaS is exceptionally scalable. 

Over-the-air upgrades

CCaaS applications take the form of web and mobile applications, meaning they are updated over-the-air with the help of the internet. There is no manual installation process requiring disks, software downloads, or anything of that sort. Most CCaaS applications do let you schedule the upgrades so that downtime (if any) can be reduced to a bare minimum.

Lower maintenance costs

CCaaS has lower maintenance costs primarily because there is less hardware that can malfunction. Without as much cabling and telephony hardware to keep in operation, and with all server maintenance the responsibility of the CCaaS provider, there is hardly any maintenance work to do. There is absolutely no need for hiring or taking services of external service providers for regular maintenance or upkeep as well. This helps keep the cost to a bare minimum.

Advanced telephony features

CCaaS provides advanced telephony features that traditional on-prem telephony services cannot provide. It surpasses erstwhile technologies in terms of capabilities and augments the productivity of users. Some such features include: call routing, Interactive Voice Response (IVR), automatic call distribution, as well as new AI and Machine Learning-driven analytics. 

Monitoring and reporting

Every contact center manager and business leader needs to know how the operations are running, whether the CSAT is positive and healthy, whether the agents are meeting service level targets, etc. CCaaS gives insightful performance monitoring and reporting features that makes it easy to take informed decisions for the short-term and long-term.

CCaaS in call centers

CCaaS for contact center operations: What does it offer?

CCaaS brings to the table several benefits that no business can turn a blind eye to. It is the perfect technology to keep contact center operations running smoothly, especially during these times of mandated remote working. 


Cloud-based software is an ideal fit for this new reality, offering a range of benefits for call center agents:

Virtual phone numbers

You can locate your call center anywhere in the world without the need for a physical office, thanks to virtual phone numbers. You don’t need a SIM, a dedicated phone, or a desk phone to avail the benefits of virtual phone numbers.

Call routing

Call routing is what helps direct a caller to the right agent who can solve the issue quickly and in the ideal fashion. A CCaaS solution offers intelligent call routing based on preset rules or conditions like holiday calendar, business hours, call context (emergency calls, toll-free numbers), etc.

Business hour management

With a CCaaS solution, a business can define the working hours of its contact center. This ensures that all inbound calls that arrive after business hours are either directed to self-service or voicemail to be picked up by agents when the next workday begins.

Self-service

Self-service provides customers a quicker and convenient channel to find solutions to fundamental questions. It also lifts some burden off the agents since frequent calls asking for basic information can be avoided. Self-service options like IVR, voicebots, etc. all fall under this category.

Voicemail transcripts

Voicemail enables users to send their instructions or requests as voice notes to the contact center. The CCaaS system transcribes the voicemail so that agents can read through them to get the context of the issue than listen through a lengthy audio note. This helps in reverting to callers with the right resolution. 

Call analytics

Analytics helps find answers to difficult problems. In a contact center, call analytics helps the admins find the distribution of call density, recurring customer issues, average holding time, average time taken to resolve an issue, and so on. Call analytics helps find answers to all these questions. 

Difference between CCaaS and UCaaS

 

Although related to telephony, both CCaaS and UCaaS have different identities and technologies. 

UCaaS stands for Unified Communications as a Service. Essentially this means that all your communications are brought together into one cloud-based service platform.

It follows the trend for call centers to integrate omnichannel support, as customers turn to alternative forms of communication. In a UCaaS setup, voice calling, video conferencing, email, instant messaging, and social media all sit side by side in one piece of software.

This certainly changes the nature of a customer service agent’s role, as they help customers across an increasingly diverse range of channels. But it enables you to adapt based on individuals’ preferred means of communication, and potentially allows for a deeper connection between the sales and marketing strands of your business and the customer service team.

In a nutshell, UCaaS can be considered the bigger platform that makes CCaaS possible. CCaaS is the focused business offering that helps businesses run their contact center operations for customer support smoothly.

Pointers to find the right CCaaS vendor

 

The CCaaS market has a long list of reliable CCaaS vendors. Each vendor has its own USPs that makes the choice of a single vendor difficult. These choices might help you make a quick choice. 

 

Next steps

Introducing, Freshdesk Contact Center (formerly Freshcaller)

The CCaaS vendor you can count on for delivering delightful customer experiences

 

Freshdesk Contact Center is a CCaaS provider built by Freshworks, the makers of Freshdesk and Freshservice. As a dedicated CCaaS provider, Freshdesk Contact Center can help smoothen your contact center operations and ebale your agents to deliver top-notch customer experiences. 

Also, it supports businesses of all scales, including small and medium-scale enterprises to quickly launch and also scale their contact center operations without being slowed down by hardware requirements. 

Freshdesk contact center

Freshdesk Contact Center (formerly Freshcaller) 

A reliable CCaaS vendor for your business