PRESS RELEASE: The Cloud revolution is picking up pace in the contact centre industry, driven by legacy system limitations, changing customer behaviours and more flexible business models. These are the findings of a new report: The State of Customer Experience 2017, which confirms that 39% of UK contact centres have already migrated to the Cloud and 57% are planning or actively considering a move within the next three years.

The study confirms that a cloud-based solution has become the preferred infrastructure choice for the majority of organisations today. The study suggests a cloud platform is best-suited to help the contact centre align with the top three business priorities for UK business: improving profitability (63%), ensuring technology keeps pace with changing customer behaviours (67%) and security (37%).

Legacy systems and their limitations are a big roadblock when it comes to delivering and designing positive customer experiences across digital and voice channels. Fewer than half of customer experience professionals (47%) are able to strongly agree that their contact centre ‘meets my needs as a customer’. Only 20% have a web self-service capability, and just 29% could strongly agree their contact centre has the ability to deliver seamless customer experiences across multiple channels.

Those who have already made the plunge and migrated their contact centres to the cloud are reaping the rewards, citing the biggest benefits as speed of deployment for new features (53%), cost savings from flexible licensing models (47%) and a reduction in maintenance costs side-by-side with access to a more advanced feature set (45%).

Enda Kenneally, VP of Sales and Business Development, West, commented: “Company success now more than ever hinges on the customer experience. Yet many contact centres are failing, not because they don’t understand their customers, but because legacy systems are unable to meet their needs. Today’s customers want to be able to communicate in the way that suits them best – be that through web chat, self-service, or just picking up the phone. Migrating to the cloud is not only the most cost effective way of addressing these needs, it is also quickly becoming the most sensible strategic investment choice.”

Other benefits of cloud highlighted by those who have already made the move include improved customer experience and satisfaction, the ability to extend the contact centre across multiple locations, and the ability to meet the mobility and flexibility needs of those working remotely.

To find out more about the research and to download the full report, please click here.