Introduction

Businesses know that providing exemplary customer service greatly impacts growth and how the business is viewed in the public eye. By providing a positive experience, businesses can increase customer satisfaction, loyalty, and advocacy. A report by Hubspot further indicates that trust in businesses has eroded as 81% of customers trust advice from family and friends over business advice on a product or service.

This reinforces the urgency for businesses to reinvent customer experiences in order to drive loyalty because on average, a loyal customer is 10 times more valuable than their first purchase. According to Bain & Company, it is estimated that an increase in customer retention by just 5% can amount to at least a 25% increase in profit. This is because loyal customers are more likely to spend more on your brand compared to new customers. It is therefore imperative that businesses invest a significant percentage of their budget in customer service.

For decades, businesses have used call centers as a way of improving their customer service. Previously, small businesses that lack the funds to invest in sophisticated, on-premise call center systems risk reaching a communications tipping point and losing out to the competition. However, thanks to cloud call centers, small businesses can remain competitive and do not have to suffer anymore.

What is a Cloud Call Center?

A cloud call center is a unified, multi-channel communication service that is hosted off-premise in a cloud. Cloud call centers allow agents to make, receive calls and other digital interactions such as SMS, USSD and WhatsApp through their computers, via an internet connection. All calls are transmitted via Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) technology between the business and cloud server.

Since a cloud call center operates entirely over the internet, it eliminates the need for conventional telephone systems like handsets. All the team needs is internet connection, computers, workstations and they are ready to roll. Small businesses stand to benefit the most from cloud call centers because it puts them in a position to compete with the big dogs when it comes to customer service.

Choosing a cloud call center can be a challenge because there are many cloud telephony providers to choose from. It is therefore important to choose a provider that is reliable, and offers the services and features that your business needs, at an affordable price.

Meet Mteja.io

Mteja.io is a cloud telephony service provider based in Nairobi, Kenya, that enables African businesses to streamline their business communication and take customer experience to the next level. At Mteja, we believe in making life easier through our plug-and-play platform that allows businesses to set up without the need for tech experts.

Problem worth solving

Mteja realizes that a common challenge for most African businesses is the availability of robust, scalable, easy-to-use customer engagement solutions that leverage the same mobile communication platforms that their consumers use. A unique set of factors contribute to these problems, among them:

Mteja has made life easier for African businesses by providing an affordable, multi-channel solution that serves over 10 African countries, without the hassle of integrating with multiple Telcos falling on your business.

Top Benefits of Mteja’s Cloud Call Center

Cloud call centers have a wealth of features specifically designed to help businesses of any size thrive in the customer experience economy. According to a report by MarketsandMarkets, cloud telephony was valued at USD 4.19 Billion in 2017 and is expected to reach USD 9.50 Billion by 2023, which indicates that more businesses are realizing the significance of investing in a cloud call center.

Here are some of the benefits of Mteja’s cloud call center:

Cost Saving: According to Tech.co, small businesses that move to cloud call centers can expect to see 40% savings for these reasons: With a cloud call center, there is no need to invest in expensive hardware/equipment. Businesses can save on upfront costs required for such systems and maintenance fees.

In addition, they can also save on staffing costs because unlike traditional phone systems that require businesses to have a receptionist to transfer calls and PBX experts for maintenance purposes, virtual call centers do not require all that. Saving money is therefore a significant reason why your business needs a cloud call center.

Scalability: This is one of the many benefits of cloud telephony. Cloud call centers allow SMEs to easily and cost-effectively scale up or down according to their business needs. For example, a business that starts small can pay for one user or agent for starters, and keep adding more as demand increases. Businesses can also add temporary agents when they need extra bandwidth, especially during peak seasons, and remove them when things slow down. This pay-as-you-go model allows business owners to pay for what they use instead of paying for an entire package that may not be used at all.

Easy set-up: Cloud call centers are easy to execute without any hardware requirements or significant infrastructure changes. Setting up happens with the click of a mouse and in under 3 minutes, you can have your cloud call center up and running. With Mteja’s drag and drop capability, you can set up and customize your cloud call center without any technical expertise. In addition, it allows for easy configuration with an intuitive, easy-to-use interface that is simple to navigate.

Mobility: Consumers expect a prompt reply when they have inquiries, and being away from your workstation is no excuse for missing their calls. Small businesses can leverage cloud call center systems to provide prompt responses to their customers no matter where they are. All they need is a working internet connection and they can answer calls even when they are out of the office. The system allows for calls to be transferred to the agent's mobile numbers, thus making it easier to attend to customer queries even when the agent is not at their desk.

The solution is also perfect for companies looking to optimize their operations by hiring distributed teams because it makes it easy to manage multiple, geographically distributed agents in real-time.

Boosts Agent Productivity: Using outdated, sluggish tools saps agents’ efficiency and productivity. However, a virtual call center puts the agents in the driver’s seat by providing them with an easy-to-use, optimized dashboard that saves them hours, thus boosting their productivity. With Mteja’s dashboard, agents can anticipate customer needs, place outbound calls faster and minimize misdials by using the click-to-call functionality. Overall, a cloud call center enables agents to attend to more calls and improves both their productivity and customer satisfaction.

Here are some of the features offered by Mteja’s cloud call center system, that make it possible for businesses to offer great customer experience:

These are just a few of the features and advantages of a virtual call center that your business could benefit from. A cloud call center not only helps you improve your business operations, but also automates repetitive processes, thus ensuring maximum output and minimum error.

If you are looking for a competitively priced, customer-centric cloud telephony provider with excellent service quality, here at Mteja, we have a proven track record, serving over 200 customers in 10 African countries. Working with household names such as Kemri, Transparency International, Life Bank, Mwezi Solar, among others, you can be assured that Mteja is a solid, reliable and affordable cloud call center solution for your business.

Conclusion

As discussed, the benefits are unmatched. Hence, we can rightfully conclude that cloud contact centers are the future of the call center industry.

If you’re ready to move your business to an omnichannel virtual call center, reach out to us at info@mteja.io. Great experiences don’t just happen. Create them with Mteja’s solution.