According to Market Research Future (MRFR), the Cloud-based contact center market is projected to surpass $45.5 Billion by 2030 with a compound annual growth rate of 24.8%. Research also confirms that call center migration to the cloud is a top-of-mind goal for many businesses. But where did it all begin? Let’s take a closer look at the evolution of cloud contact centers starting in pre-digital times.
Call Centers Before Everything Was Digital
Call centers have been a crucial part of customer service since day one. According to records, the earliest call center was implemented by The Birmingham Press and Mail over half a century ago in 1965. This system used the revolutionary GEC PABX 4 Automatic Call Distributor (ACD) technology to filter incoming calls and assign them to available agents. ACD technology ended up replacing human operators in many large-scale companies, as it could offer a much more flexible automated system that could handle more calls.
The 1970s was when ACD really started to pick up. Once call centers started giving companies a unique and distinctive edge, companies pressed to link up with phone operators, while others established their own phonebanks. After seeing a ton of demand, ADC technology achieved the capability of differentiating between different call types and connecting people to specific agents. This improvement cut down call waiting times and broadened call center capacity, leading to the possibility of toll-free calling.
Call centers started making a substantial global impact in the 1990s. Companies with different locations were finally able to route calls between each other through phone lines. Customers could also now place orders from catalogs, update their personal account information, and so much more.
Call Centers ➜ Contact Centers
The transformation of call centers to contact centers depended on the need for companies to adhere to ever-increasing customer expectations and stay caught up with the advances in tech. Call centers were still on the rise and in increasingly high demand in the early 2000s. However, phones still remained the main form of communication despite the digital age taking over.
Mobile devices changed everything. Call centers were not able expand fast enough to meet the needs of customers, who started experiencing long hold times and endless automated menus. Luckily, the digital age was about to take over. The ability to stay connected grew from just phone calls to texts, emails, social media, mobile apps, and live chats. Call centers began expanding their capabilities to handle these new channels and expectations, encouraging customers to use them to their benefit. This is when call centers became central points of contact.
The Shift to the Cloud
For contact centers, moving data to the Cloud made a lot more sense when compared to physical servers, especially in terms of cost and efficiency. The shift to cloud communications presented customers with numerous ways to contact brands if they had a question or concern. It also allowed for quick and easy integrations with third-party applications such as CRM, ERP, as well as a multitude of applications such as WhatsApp Business and Facebook Messenger. Gartner predicts at least 50% of all contact centers worldwide will be in the Cloud by the end of 2022.
The Impact of COVID-19
The Covid-19 pandemic has led to a mounting rise in call volumes for most contact centers, especially those providing travel-related and medical information. In the beginning stages of the pandemic, call volume to contact centers climbed 300% in just days. After two years of pandemic life, that number has sky-rocketed to over 800%.
On top of this system shock, the volume increase hit just as contact centers were required to start practicing social distancing requirements. The pandemic forced about 90% of the global contact center agents to work from home as a result of social distancing mandates. Most contact centers were extremely unprepared for the significant shift of remote work and struggled to ensure that their agents were set up with the proper technology and secure VoIP infrastructure in their homes. This ultimately led to higher hold times and endless transferring that we’ve all experienced since the pandemic began.
Wrapping Up
Today, most customer service issues can be handled via phone calls, online chat, email response, and social media outlets. Next-generation cloud contact centers are undoubtedly the future of customer service, and it’s no surprise that it’s a rising trend for customer service teams. COVID-19 raised customer expectations and put a strain on support availability, thus making CCaaS (Contact Center as a Service) even more prominent. Contact centers have become an irreplaceable part of almost every major business, and they will surely continue to evolve to meet customer trends and changes in the future.
Sources
(1) Genesys
(2) Hiver
(4) RingCentral