Contact centre cloud migration is a process fraught with complications. It requires communication with different departments, careful handling of information (customer information), preparation for the unexpected and attention to call quality. Migrating to the cloud reaps long-term rewards but is also fraught with complications. However, by working with the right partner and following the right tips, your cloud migration can be successful.
Here are five ways to facilitate contact centre cloud migration
Assess your current contact centre
Before venturing into a cloud migration project, you need to assess your contact centre in its current form. The purpose of the assessment is to determine which systems get priority when transferred to the cloud, the systems that will be left behind (assuming there are any and what systems will be added to increase the contact centre’s capabilities. When assessing the contact centre, take a look at the core systems (ACD and caller queue), management systems (workforce optimisation and quality management systems) and service applications (scripting and knowledgebase systems). You will need to identify the key parties using your communication systems as well as any relevant KPIs.
Looking at KPIs is especially important because it narrows down your list of potential cloud solutions to what is most relevant. You will not only know how your contact centre is performing but also identify any gaps in performance metrics – metrics which can be found in the cloud solution.
Go live before actually migrating
One way to smooth over your contact centre cloud migration is to have the system go live, before actually migrating over to it. You can use this opportunity to train your customer service agents, so they become more familiar with cloud software, by taking practice calls with other agents. Customer care agents will make errors while getting used to the new cloud platform, and it is better to make mistakes with each other than with real customers. Thus, going live before migrating makes for a smoother transition.
Going live before migration is also a great way to test your new platform under different scenarios. How will the new platform perform when nearing maximum capacity? Can the platform maintain high-quality calls when hundreds of agents are using it? The only way to know, for sure, is to stress test the new platform before actually migrating to it. By testing the platform, you can identify fallacies and shortcomings that would have otherwise been impossible to identify.
Call quality
Ensuring high call quality is paramount during contact centre cloud migration. Call quality varies depending on the Quality of Service (QoS). In such cases, contact centres have two choices: a private or public network.
A private network refers to the connection between you (the contact centre) and the underlying platform. A private network can prioritise voice over web browsing or streaming, ensuring high call quality at all times. Under a private network, you will have complete control over what the network prioritises. To accomplish this, the network needs to have the intelligence to give preference to voice packets over others. During moments of heavy traffic, Quality of Service configurations (QoS) will prioritise voice quality over others.
With a public network, you don’t have much control over what the channels prioritise, which means voice packets will have to compete for bandwidth space with video streaming and web browsing packets. However, public networks offer a tremendous volume of bandwidth at affordable prices. Private networks, on the other hand, offer less bandwidth for a higher price, but with QoS intelligence.
Develop an assessment model
An assessment model is one of the final steps in optimising your contact centre cloud migration strategy, it is a measuring stick to see if your business goals align with actual outcomes. Naturally, contact centres have to first establish quantitative goals and what they aim to achieve with their cloud-based platform. Assessment models consist of quantitative tiers or outcomes for business goals. An assessment model is useful in optimising your cloud migration strategy because you get a clear and precise idea of what you are hoping to achieve, which paves the way for an efficient migration.
Select the right cloud vendor and partner
Based on what you hope to achieve with your cloud platform, goals and assessment model, you need to select the right cloud vendor and partner. The right cloud vendor supports omnichannel communication, legacy apps, but also scalability in data. However, cloud migration is far more complicated and a competent, experienced partner is needed to facilitate this transition. With the right partner, you can avoid the pitfalls of shifting to the cloud.
How Blackchair helps optimise contact centre cloud migration
Blackchair is the ideal organisation to help contact centres migrate to a platform, given that we specialise not only in platform translation but also CX analysis, cloud audit and cloud compliance. Blackchair assists contact centres in achieving a smooth transition to a cloud platform, while also making it easier to read and interpret the various metrics that measure performance.
Cloud platforms have tremendous potential for contact centres, provided that the migration process is as efficient as possible. Thus, an efficient migration process can be accomplished with due diligence given to call quality, an assessment model, selecting the right vendor and choosing the right vendor.
On that note, is there anything else contact centres can do to optimise their shift to the cloud in your opinion?