Cost and convenience might be the tiebreakers in premise vs. hosted call centers

Call center technology should be at the core of your customer resource management. It consists of the hardware, software and skilled people to screen, refer and handle customer inquiries, complaints and (if you do it right) future business.

Among other things, the best call center technology gives the customer the most hassle-free experience. The person who answers the call knows about the customer’s purchase history and preferences and can quickly handle the problem or instantly target the account manager or salesperson without delay.

Call centers are either premise-based or can be hosted off site. When evaluating premise vs. hosted call centers consider the following:

On premise call centers:

• are best for small, collocated businesses. On-premise call centers provide robust and direct call routing and handling.
• bugs and problems can be fixed and addressed quickly through onsite personnel.
• store and handle all company data internally. With reliable backup on the premises, company proprietary data can be safeguarded with minimal risk.
• involve a big investment up front that pays off over time.
• rely on locally installed and maintained servers and software. They require initial capital investment and hiring IT people to troubleshoot and tweak the software.
• require continual investment of money and internal IT resources to keep up with the technology and market.

Hosted call centers:

• are subscription based. The provider handles everything.
• are low cost. Monthly subscriptions come nowhere near purchase costs of server hardware.
• involve no software licensing costs. The provider keeps up with software tweaks and patches.
• allow more seamless call routing to off-site workers. Home-office and traveling workers stay in contact with clients as if the call were being handled in-house.
• move the work and drudgery away from the enterprise. IT management no longer is a focus of the company’s core business plan. It is merely a fixed cost.
• provide a fast start for small business start-ups. Hosted call center services, like any other cloud-based service, tend to “level the playing field” for small businesses, which lack the expertise and resources to purchase, install and maintain state-of-the-art hardware and software applications.

Your solution may well be a compromise or “hybrid” cloud approach. No matter where you base your call center, you need to manage your customers with an integrated and automated system that keeps customer relations at the center of your plans for increased sales and growth. Contact us and learn about our products and services that focus on optimizing your customer communication and engagement.