Cloud queueing: What every contact center needs to know

If a contact center is not resilient, it can become obsolete during an outage. Unplanned outages can cost a business up to $300,000 a year, and, on average, an organization can face around 22 in a given year. These could be because of a data breach, foul weather, human error, or software updates and patches. (digitalization, 2023) Regardless of the cause, downtime could jeopardize a call center’s ability to make or receive calls, effectively cutting off businesses’ main line of communication with their customers. 

To weather the storm, businesses must deploy a best-in-class cloud queuing solution, enabling the contact center to remain operational during outages by automatically expand their call capacity, directing calls to available agents and appropriate departments or even to an alternate call center. Such a solution prevents dips in productivity, lost revenue, and degraded customer experience (CX).

What are the benefits of cloud queueing?

During outages, a company will typically see its inbound call volume rise due to people calling to report an outage or request a status update. However, by layering a cloud queuing solution over-the-top (OTT) of current infrastructure, brands can increase the agility of their contact center, protecting them from inevitable outages. With a cloud queuing solution, inbound calls get passed through a cloud workflow before being sent to the call center. When capacity reaches its limit, calls automatically get put into a digital waiting room for the next available agent. 

Businesses can also set up a generative AI-based interactive response system to provide status updates, explain ongoing situations to customers, and provide call-back options for faster, more reliable response times. Plus, a cloud queueing solution can redirect calls to available locations and departments to ensure no customer inquiries get overlooked.

Moreover, because the contact center is an essential aspect of CX, it must remain open even during disruptions. Cloud queuing technology empowers organizations to uphold CX in the face of faults to service, safeguarding customer satisfaction and dissuading them from going to competitors. 

Communication automation and advantageous of OTT deployment 

Automation is a critical component of any cloud queuing solution. Innovative contact centers will leverage automated communications technology to provide real-time status updates with pre-recorded messages to keep customers informed even during disruptions. Automation can also increase employee satisfaction and improve workforce engagement. With AI handling simple customer service requests that don’t require human assistance, contact center agents gain more availability to work on other value-added and revenue-generating tasks. (Time Doctor, 2023) 

Likewise, utilizing a low-effort cloud queuing solution that doesn’t require a rip-and-replace of current infrastructure will save money and minimize installation delays. Layering a first-class cloud queuing solution OTT of your existing call center helps companies maintain control of security and technology while increasing connectivity and up-time. 

Implementing cloud queuing into your current business infrastructure is very simple 

IntelePeer SmartQueuing is one such solution that doesn’t require any rip-and-replace processes, easily layering OTT of your existing contact center infrastructure. Connect with IntelePeer today to learn how SmartQueuing can help you increase call center agility, optimize legacy networks, and instantly start growing your ROI at an affordable rate.