How to build a cloud contact center business case

If modernizing your customer experience (CX) isn’t one of the top priorities for the leaders in your organization, it should be. Moving your business to the cloud is an all-round strategy to reduce costs and provide superior cross-organizational flexibility, allowing operations to adapt to the ever-changing needs and expectations of the customer.

Migrating a contact center to the cloud can drive your digital transformation program forward. But before making any decisions, you need to build a thorough business case to understand where to start, what to prioritize and how to properly research and evaluate your options so you can impress your stakeholders and set up your CX transformation for success. Read on to learn exactly how to do that.

Identify the business opportunity

Before building a case, consider the impact of moving to a cloud contact center for your business. Think about the benefits (e.g., cost savings, improved operational efficiency and scalability) and the requirements (e.g., the investment, resources and change management) of executing this project. This isn’t meant to scare or overwhelm you, but encourage you to properly scope the project so you’ll be prepared for any questions skeptical stakeholders may throw your way.

Don’t forget to document why you’re looking to replace your current solution. If you stick with the status quo, what would be the cost of doing nothing? What challenges, shortcomings or missed opportunities will your business experience by staying on-prem?

Determine CX maturity priorities

Deploying a digital transformation strategy will affect the channels, processes and people by which your customers interact with your brand. Therefore it’s important to innovate on the areas of your customer support program that are highest priority to your business.

Perform a maturity model assessment to evaluate your CX across nine core areas — such as knowledge management, quality assurance and channel options — and map your CX maturity into one of four stages: beginning, developing, maturing and optimizing. This assessment allows you to better understand your current state, identify which areas to improve and establish a CX strategy roadmap to reach your desired state.

Research and evaluate the cloud contact center market

The research and evaluation process will probably be the most intensive, requiring you to do proper due diligence to provide a recommendation to your stakeholders. Start by identifying alternative solutions to your current on-prem system and select several options that you think can help you attain your desired CX state and achieve your business goals.

Evaluate how these alternatives will deliver on your CX strategy and objectives. Create a request for proposal (RFP) to determine how well each vendor understands and can support your project. Be sure to account for the strategic and financial value of each solution; a cloud contact center that is adaptable, flexible and scalable prepares you for shifting customer demands. It’s also important to reference check each brand with their customer base or 3rd parties to get a sense of how well they deliver on promised results and their approach to partnering with customers.

Provide the right recommendation to stakeholders

Once you’ve identified your preferred cloud contact center solution, it’s time to share your CX business case to get all stakeholders on board. Your stakeholders can include the project manager and sponsors, which could be your chief executive officer (CEO), chief information officer (CIO) or chief technology officer (CTO). By establishing and getting sign-off on the project goal(s), criteria, and expected outcomes upfront, you can better allocate resources, strategize, and align internal teams to execute a successful implementation.

Delaying the modernization of your call center can impact various aspects of your brand, including revenue, customer loyalty and retention and more. A holistic CX approach with consistent and widespread efforts across the organization is the best way to digitally revolutionize your contact center and transport your business into the future.

To help save you time and effort, we created a buyer’s kit that includes the necessary tools to map out a business plan so CX leaders can successfully achieve their digital transformation. The kit includes a customizable cloud contact center RFP template, a white paper dedicated to cost-cutting strategies in the contact center, vendor analysis from analysts, and other resources to help you make the case for change. Get started by downloading the free kit: