Most businesses have been looking cheerfully at the cloud-based contact center as a way to trim expenses while continuing to provide a top-notch contact center experience that keeps shoppers interested in coming back for more. On many fronts, the cloud contact center market has delivered, and as a result, many more firms are interested in buying into this comparatively new technology. It's reached a point, in fact, that substantial growth is now forecast for this entire market.
In 2015, the cloud contact center market reached a point around $4.51 billion, and was poised to reach $14.37 billion before 2020's close. That's a compound annual growth rate of 26.08 percent, and by any standard, a major hike upward.
Easily one of the biggest reasons for this upward trend is the nature of the cloud contact center; with a cloud-based system, customers no longer need to establish a physical call center on premises, instead routing these through a third party who does most of the necessary upkeep itself. That simplifies things for the customer, and that simplicity can mean a better focus. Plus, since customers only pay for what's used in a certain time frame, it can be scaled upward or downward as needed.
Throw in the fact that businesses are increasingly operating on a worldwide basis, and often with a mobile workforce that may need to access services remotely, and the end result is a marked need for a contact center that includes systems like workforce optimization, call routing, call recording, and other such options.
However, the market may well come with some restraints, as some grow concerned about putting that much potentially valuable customer data onto a cloud-based environment. Issues of data security remain a significant challenge for the market, as do the overall integration levels. With improved customer service coming into play, though, spurring modernization in current operations may require businesses to bite the bullet around some of these concerns lest competitors get an edge in the market.
The cloud contact center market in general is likely to only rise; while there are concerns and limiting factors here, it's important to note that these have to be measured against the growing need for the best contact center experience. Customers increasingly demand such an experience as part of an omnichannel approach, and failing to provide only opens the doors for competitors to deliver what other businesses won't.
That's good news for those who do, and even better news for the companies supplying this particular arms race. It's also sound conditions for businesses working in the cloud contact center space, and those gains should be welcome news for their bottom lines.