7 Must-Have Features of a Hosted Contact Center

Yukti Verma

Author

Contact Center

February 3, 2021

7 mins read eye

Table of content

Phone lines ringing continuously. Your representatives are busy speaking to callers back-to-back. The caller queue is building and customers are waiting impatiently to connect with your agents.

This reads like a typical contact center scene.

But what if your agents are not able to handle the volume of calls? In this scenario, your customers might become agitated. They might warn your agents about giving poor reviews. Your agents may apologise but might have no actual solution to solve this crisis.

But who is at fault here? How can this be better managed?

You should note that your contact center is not just a place where customers clear their doubts but also a major touchpoint for you to showcase your brand as reliable.

Contact centers help you reach out to your customers, understand their problems and demands, and even allow you to fine-tune your products and services based on their requirements.

So how can a hosted contact center make a difference? Let us find out.

According to a study, the contact center market worth is estimated to be $72.3 billion by 2027.

What is a hosted contact center?

A hosted contact center, as the name refers to, is hosted or functions on the cloud. While traditional contact centers have their phone systems and databases maintained on-premise, a hosted contact center is maintained off-premise by a third-party service provider.

Hosted contact centers score over traditional contact centers as they provide centralised access to information along with being highly cost-effective.

Here, we have consolidated a few features your hosted contact center must have to earn a competitive edge.

1. Interactive voice response

Interactive Voice Responses (IVR) greet your callers with automatic greetings that are already programmed. They are the first system your customers may come in contact with and therefore these automated responses must be tailor-made to their requirements.

These cloud-based responses help your callers select their type of service by punching appropriate, designated numbers from the menu. The caller is automatically directed to the specific department they need to contact. This saves both the agents’ and the caller’s time.

Furthermore, hosted interactive voice responses are customised and developed by service providers in a way that they can handle calls with simple queries. For example, if a caller has issues with finding your website or product page, the IVR can guide them with the appropriate website link.

The customer will not need to wait to speak to an agent. This saves time and also helps your agents to focus on other complicated customer concerns that need their expertise. IVR is emerging as a self-help option that improves the degree of customer service offered to a great extent.

2. Automatic call distribution

This feature helps your contact center route calls efficiently. Automatic call distribution in a hosted contact center enables the automatic routing of calls based on demands and the number of customer calls. It helps in the systematic handling of calls.

A hosted contact center also allows you to modify the call distribution or routing of calls. A few ways you can route calls are based on performance, location, and idle time.

For example, a caller from France will prefer to converse in their native language than in English. This call can be directly routed to a French-speaking representative for better customer experience.

Say, if this call is attended by an English-speaking agent and then directed to a French-speaking agent, the time and effort invested by your agents are doubled. Cloud-based contact centers with automatic call distribution understand the location and comfort of the caller thereby eliminating this wastage of time.

3. Skill-based routing

Customer support representatives are categorised based on several criteria. A few are their skills, demographics, speaking capabilities, and expertise. When a caller connects to your hosted call center, IVR prompts the right type of questions to understand the caller’s requirements.

Your hosted contact center system then directs the call to the appropriate agent from the right department. For example, consider a caller contacting you for more information about your products and services. It will not be fair if he is connected to an agent resolving technical issues. Instead, he should be briefed about product updates and offered more information from your repository.

This approach helps improve the rates of the first-call resolution, boosts customer satisfaction, and eliminates chances of wasting the time of both the customers and your agents.

4. Call recording capabilities

A hosted contact center consists of several agents. These agents may differ widely based on their potential to attend calls and the approach they use to solve customer issues. However, your agents must use the quickest and best way to resolve customer issues.

To get a sneak peek into this, hosted contact centers come with call recording capabilities. All the calls are recorded in real-time and can be used to review the performances of your agents. This capability helps identify bottlenecks in the way your agents attend calls along with finding agents who need training and help to improve their performance.

Again, call recordings can be used to offer training to new agents. It helps them obtain a real-time experience of what to expect even before they hit the working floor.

5. Call tracking and monitoring

Tracking and monitoring the performance of your contact center is as important as setting up one. Issues may arise at any point time and it is needed that you stay on your heels. There may be instances when your agents leave calls unanswered or fail to satisfy customers repeatedly. Call tracking and monitoring capabilities help you identify these scenarios and find a workaround.

Moreover, this capability helps you recognise technical glitches at the right time. You may monitor calls for repeated issues. This will help you find the hiccup and rectify it promptly. Also, hosted contact centers with tracking and monitoring abilities enable you to gauge individual agent performances.

6. Ability to integrate with CRM

Access to relevant information is the key to the success of your contact center. Only if your agents are provided with the required information will they be able to resolve customer issues backed with the appropriate data.

Hosted contact centers allow the integration of your system with the CRM. This integration enables the agents to obtain all the necessary customer information on a single page.

For example, consider a situation where a customer has come with a technical issue. When referring to the CRM, your agent finds that this agent has been trying to resolve this issue for the last few months.

Your agent will be able to sense the mood of the customer, derive conversational history from the CRM, and start from where the customer left in the last call rather than asking for the same information again.

Integration with CRM helps your agents to offer contextual experiences, saves time, and equips your agents with the right information thereby boosting customer satisfaction.

7. Obtain analytical reports

Deriving reports from data is as important as generating them. When your hosted contact center comes with capabilities to offer interactive analytical reports, it helps you figure out the call volume at different periods, repeated callers or new callers, and the traffic from different locations.

This information can help you to make important staffing decisions, scheduling agents, and gauging the performance of your call center. For example, if you have a distributed contact center, a report at the end of the month can help you compare and understand the performances of your contact centers.

Again, you can also recognise issues that are location specific and work towards rectifying them. Furthermore, a hosted contact center can help you with reports that can be accessed centrally by stakeholders to improve accountability.

Parting Words

Hosted contact centers have become the norm. With the needs of customers increasing with time, you must scale the capabilities of your contact center based on shifting trends. Hosted contact centers enable you to be flexible and equip your contact center to deliver seamless customer experiences. Hopefully, the above-mentioned points offer a peek into a few of the features you should be including in your hosted contact center.

If you're interested in improving your business communication solution

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Yukti Verma

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Yukti is a content marketing enthusiast with a soft spot for Saas. She loves weaving complicated concepts into simple stories. When not at work, she is found reading books or watching movies.

IVR Systems: Making Banking Easier

Acefone Editor

Author

Contact Center

February 2, 2021

5 mins read eye

Table of content

In today’s time, it is difficult to imagine services without Internet connectivity or automation. Same is the case with banking services. With the advent of technology, most services in this sector have gone online or are facilitated via phones. It is at

With newer technology in place, the banking sector has updated various customer service aspects, including a gradual shift to Interactive Voice Response (IVR).

Switching to an IVR system offers a host of advantages, including smoother workflows amid employees. To begin with, the banking sector receives high call volume on a daily basis and agents spend a huge part of their day resolving customer queries. This not only limits their potential but also their skills as they have no time to spend on core tasks.

An IVR can easily resolve this problem by implementing FAQs or a step-by-step procedure that can help customers and free agents at the same time. Furthermore, you can do all this with the right IVR designing strategy and at a surprisingly economical rate.

But this is just one way an IVR can assist the banking sector. Given the industry’s demanding nature, it is advisable to switch to a more convenient, automated and reliable system.

Here are 5 use cases of IVR for the Banking Industry:

1) Fraud Detection

One of the most common issues faced by account holders globally is the likeliness of a fraud. There is nothing more a customer would like than having a system in place to keep such issues at bay.

Having an IVR can assist with the same. For instance, with an outbound IVR, banks can create awareness on possible frauds or suspicious transactions in accounts. Swift notifications, such as these, can not only prevent monetary fraud but also instill confidence in your clients. It ensures them that you are going the extra mile to keep their money and assets safe.

Additionally, unlike simple SMSs, IVR systems can immediately transfer the call to a live agent in case of any financial emergency.

2) Overdraft and Deposits

It is not a pleasant experience to tell your customers that they’ve overdrawn from their account. Neither your agent nor the customer looks forward to the conversation. An IVR can easily take this burden on and initiate automatic calls to customers to update them regarding their transactions.

An automated call eliminates the awkwardness and merely states the account’s details. A simple call with relevant updates can also help your customers avoid overhead charges that might usually get overlooked. In case of any discrepancies or query, the customer can immediately connect with a live agent.

Similarly, when your customers make a deposit, they need assurance that it is reflected in their account. Apart from an active SMS service, it is always a good idea to let them know their account status via an automated IVR call.

3) Loan Status and Approvals

When it comes to loan applications, customer queries are never-ending. Right from the application process to the approval time, EMI dates, interest rates and so much more. And one of the most pertinent queries? The loan approval status.

Instead of having your agents answer all these questions, employ an IVR solution. Your IVR can handle all manners of queries. Say, for instance, customers want more information on the new loan policy changes. In this case, combined with your IVR, a text-to-speech technology can give customer real-time updates.

4) Extended support during peak hours and extension of opening time

All banks face high call volume situations. Calls will pour in when a policy is revised, when new guidelines are put in place or if a feature on the website isn’t working. Such instances result in situations where the number of incoming calls is higher than the number of hands on the deck.

Having an automated response system in place can solve this problem. Firstly, if there are simple queries, they can always be answered or resolved by the IVR’s self-service feature. Secondly, for more complex queries, customers can easily be routed or transferred to the concerned expert who may answer all their queries in detail.

With an IVR system, the opening times of your bank and the availability of your services gets extended significantly. There are certain issues that need round the clock assistance, such as blocking cards after a customer has lost it. They can also be solved in easy steps. Your IVR menu can easily lead them to the correct option and allow them to block their card themselves. This way, seasonal breaks and holidays also won’t affect your business.

5) Service Information and Customer Feedback

In case you have a new product or service to offer to your customers, then there is no better way than an IVR to inform them about it.

Instead of your bank agents repeating the same features to various clients, an automated IVR call can contact your entire client base and give the same information. This will also eliminate the risk of your agent missing some noteworthy information.

Another important aspect of providing any service is customer feedback. Not only is it important to evaluate your employees’ performance but it is also a great way to improve your services.

That being said, it is not always easy to collect this data. Not all customers are willing to fill out elaborate forms or talk to an agent. Doing away with so many steps, an IVR feedback at the end of the call is a swift way to gather your customers’ response. All they have to do is press a button and there you have it, the easiest and quickest customer feedback registered.

To Sum It Up:

IVR systems with their plethora of advantages end up being one of those systems that you don’t know you need until you try it.

Having such an IVR system in place ensures smooth and swift functioning. Simplifying tasks, saving time, money and your agents’ energy. Not only saving on huge manpower and expenditure, but an IVR system also saves resources that can be deployed elsewhere for better use.

It also ensures customer satisfaction by employing skill-based routing, reduces wait times and presents multiple methods to resolve queries. Additionally, all customers’ can easily access all their bank-related data with a few simple clicks.

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Give us a call on

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Acefone Editor

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Acefone provides a broad range of cloud communication services to businesses of all sizes, which includes Hosted Phone Systems, Free Phone Numbers, and Cloud Contact Center Solutions. Being the UK's leading provider of VoIP service provider, we always strive to provide excellent customer service and high-quality custom solutions to our customers.

Deliver Happiness on a Plate: Cloud-Empowering Food Delivery

Acefone Editor

Author

Customer Service

6 mins read eye

Table of content

The food industry is forever growing. Customers aren’t just looking for the right restaurant to enjoy their meal but also to have the best experience. The responsibility of a restaurant entails the delivery of high quality and delicious food at the right time.

Undeniably, the food business has undergone a revolution. With people unable to visit restaurants in light of the COVID-19 pandemic, food delivery has become a significant part of their business. Customers have begun to prefer the comfort of their home, order their food, and spend time with their family rather than go out for meals. They no longer need to get dressed up or spend lots of time and money on travel.

Food delivery paves the way for a whole new experience for the customer and your outlet alike. The worst thing you can do is consider the delivery as a mere add-on and ignore it. Other than the quality of your food, you should be focusing on the core of your food delivery operations.

A report by Beambox says that 80% of the customers blame the restaurant in case something goes wrong—not the delivery company.

So how do you ensure an ace food delivery experience? We have consolidated a few ways right here. Check them out:

1. Focus on your menu

Ensure that you optimise your menu for delivery. Consider the food’s shelf life and the nature of ingredients used to cook the dish. A soggy burger means a guaranteed negative customer experience.

It’s okay to remove a few dishes from your curated delivery menu. After all, not all dishes are suitable to be consumed after some time. They may become soggy, lose the original taste, or become cold.

Politely inform your customers that the delivery of a few dishes may not be possible. Furthermore, check your stock and availability of dishes before you fix the menu for the day. Cancelling an order due to non-availability after its been placed is highly unprofessional.

You may consider the following aspects before zeroing down your menu for delivery.

At what time does the food meltdown or become soggy?
Does the dish require special packing?
What is the travel time? Can food survive this duration?
What is the margin to cover the delivery commission?

2. Understand the significance of packaging

Did you know that 20% of customers are ready to spend more on off-premise orders when compared to dine-in orders.

It’s worth noting that food packaging is a lot more than mere wrapping of food to keep it edible. Though the purpose of food packaging is to keep the food safe, fresh, hot, and best to consume after some time, its purpose has changed in leaps and bounds.

Customers eat with their eyes. This is not limited to tasty and appetising looking food but also the way it has been presented. Everybody loves to unwrap gifts, and food delivered in this way can be a real treat to both the customer’s heart and stomach.

Arrange and present your food in cartons or boxes to lock its freshness. Make sure to include your branding aspects like your logo and appropriate branding colours. This way your food acts as a reflection of your brand. Include your taglines with catchy phrases to attract customers.

A personalised note wishing people a bon appétit also goes a long way!

In the current digital world, this kind of appealing physical presentation can go viral across social media platforms and earn you a lot of attention.

You can take your branding a notch higher, as well as display your core values by using eco-friendly packaging. This will show your customers how much you care for the environment. The need of the hour is not just delivering food but creating a memorable experience.

3. Prioritise time

Your highest priority should be to be able to deliver on time or even faster. Especially when it comes to food, patience tends to wear thin. Ensure that you have a proactive in-house logistics team who take care of speedy food delivery.

If you are falling short of delivery persons, hiring additional delivery partners is the best idea. This will help you to maintain extra help for sudden requirements. Keep in mind that speedy delivery attracts happy customers and therefore, mostly positive reviews.

4. Treat your customers for loyalty

Who doesn’t love gifts? There’s no better way to show appreciation and bond with regular customers than to reward them for their loyalty. Coupling your orders with personalised perks can make a huge impact on your brand.

Offer a discount with delivery orders above a certain price.
Provide vouchers for in-house dining to repeated customers. This will encourage them to visit your outlet and experience more of your service.
Give a special gift to customers who share a positive review on social media. This can earn lots of appreciation online.
Refer-to-friend discounts can help you promote your brand at a minimum cost. This can also help you reward and make your existing customer base happy.

Include handwritten thank you notes or season’s greetings or offer a gift for sharing group meal photos on social media. Try giving out samples of a new dish as a free perk with deliveries.

Every brand is different. What works for someone else may not for you—and vice versa. You should try and test each one to know which suits best for your brand.

5. Maintain a strategic delivery roll out

Planning is key for food delivery operations. For your orders as well as in-house catering gigs, you need to figure out peak delivery hours and strike the right balance between the two.

Start from one region. Identify your requirements and peak hours. Then plan your workforce and menu based on customer demands. Also, be prepared to tackle any unexpected changes in order traffic.

Consider seasonal changes like holidays and occasions. Some of your branches may brim with diners and delivery orders for lunch and others for dinner. Identify these phase insights and strategise your delivery operations accordingly.

6. Maintain a dedicated medium

The traditional medium to order food was through the telephone. However, this left us exposed to errors. The person on the other end may note your order incorrectly or mess up the menu availability due to lack of real-time updates.

Today, mobile apps and websites are at the top. Customers simply need to visit the restaurant website or download the app to place orders, track orders, post reviews, and know more about the food being offered.

These mediums also help you stay connected with the customers. You may post recent updates about special freebies on offer, discounts, or a new dish you may have introduced.

Posting colourful and attractive photos of various dishes is a great way to attract customers and spread the positive word about your brand. When they get to see the look of their dish on your website or mobile app, they are motivated to place the order.

What’s next?

The food business has revolutionised hugely over the years. Though doorstep delivery has always been a part of the food business, the expectations from this medium have increased.

It has been proved, time and again, that food delivery is not limited to providing food in an edible condition. It reflects the brand value and helps spread the positive word.

With the aid of cloud-based communication tools, you can make the food delivery experience significantly more pleasant—both for the consumers as well as your staff. It’s a win-win situation.

To know more about cloud tools and how to use them effectively for your business needs, get in touch with our experts at 1888-859-0450 or [email protected].

If you're interested in improving your business communication solution

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How Will The Contact Center Work After Five Years?

Acefone Editor

Author

Contact Center Service

January 29, 2021

6 mins read eye

Table of content

Contact centers are essential for businesses because they bridge the gap between organisations and customers. And they have evolved tremendously—from stand-alone operational kiosks to multi-functional platforms through which customers can reach out to you.

However, the belief that contact centers are best accessible through phone lines is still prevalent.

It’s notable though, that contact centers have emerged successfully from tough competition. Now, you can access support through several channels, including social media, email, and chat across various business dimensions.

With this kind of phenomenal growth already, how much more is the contact center expected to grow in the next five years? Read on to know more.

1. Simplified communication through social media contact centers

The power of social media is irreplaceable. The amount of exposure this channel provides extends beyond imagination. When your contact center uses social media handles, customers can easily locate you.

They don’t need to remember various email IDs or telephone numbers. Customers can simply reach out to your agents through their own social media accounts. What’s more? They no longer have to wait in call queues or for email replies.

Social media contact centers are readily available across platforms. Potential clients can easily contact the business by posting their queries on the forum. Another huge advantage of open forums offer is that others belonging to this community can also access your replies––thereby clearing common doubts at once.

Conversely, if there is a delayed response from your end, another customer who may have experienced similar issues may share their advice. This boosts your brand’s positive reputation, engagement, and client loyalty this way.

Moreover, these social media contact centers provide an opportunity for your agents to join relevant discussions and integrate them with your center. Therefore, you can deliver an omnichannel customer engagement process.

There will, of course, be negative reviews as well. Your agents need to be prepared to handle such situations—under the public eye.

2. Improved self-service options

Customers long to have complete control over their experience with a brand. Conversations should aim to address customer needs rather than simply offering what you have.

This process will require a deep understanding of customer needs. The first step is to understand and value the buyers’ time and eliminate the need for them to wait endlessly in call queues. IVR systems empower callers to resolve their issues without human intervention.

Traditionally, this involved a frustrating process of endlessly punching on the keypad. However, these services have now transformed for the better with the introduction of the following techniques:

3. IVR combined with advanced speech recognition

This option eliminates the need for callers to select numbers or menus. Advanced speech recognition helps customers reach the solution simply by analysing their natural or regional language. The tool understands the customer’s query and then routes the call to the appropriate department, facilitating quicker resolution.

This next-gen IVR system with advanced speech recognition quickens and simplifies the process by eliminating agent intervention entirely. For example, if a caller needs more information about a product, they can simply talk to the system—have a hold on the interaction, and ask only for the information they need.

The system can interpret this accurately and direct the caller to website content, blogs, and additional information from the repository. This saves time and effort for both, the customer and the agent, and increases productivity and satisfaction.

4. NLP-based knowledge management

NLP stands for natural language processing. When you base your knowledge management on this process, it takes your IVR a step further.

Conventionally, IVR systems are restricted to mainstream languages. But this knowledge management technique enables clients to present their queries in their dialect across multiple channels—without limitations. So, they can go through the path they’re most comfortable with.

Integrating your contact center with neuro-linguistic programming will make your customer support quicker, simpler, and more accurate.

5. Focus on personalisation

Personalisation makes clients feel valued and engaged in any interaction. The recent adoption of Artificial Intelligence (AI) has made it possible to offer much-needed customisation and deliver enhanced support.

This trend will see a drastic spike in acceptance and also improve how it offers high-end personalisation. For example, AI chatbots have become the new norm. Incorporating these chatbots enables your brand to deliver contextual experiences.

In machine learning, the more technology interacts with customers, the more their competency improves. Essentially, these chatbots function on keywords.

When a customer presents their query in natural language, the chatbot searches for the concerned keyword in its knowledge repository and offers the best-suited resolution. If it is unable to find a suitable keyword, it automatically transfers the chat to a live agent.

This interaction is not limited to simply fetching the name of the customer but extends to providing recommendations based on their chat history, purchase behaviour, and browsing habits. When you can offer your customers something more than what they need, it makes you more valuable in their lives. This is where a chatbot turns out to be advantageous.

6. Benefitting from the capabilities of UCaaS

Unified Communication as a Service (UCaaS) helps improve the collaboration of internal workflows in an organisation. This not only helps your contact center, but also enhances inter-department coordination.

This report suggests that UCaaS was valued at USD 5492.02 million in 2019 and is expected to reach the value of USD 21572.39 million by 2025. This indicates a CAGR of 25.67% from 2020 to 2025.

Why is UCaaS so important?

Consider this: a customer calls your sales department for a technical issue. Your salesperson requests them to reach out to the contact center and provides the number. The already frustrated customer refuses to disconnect the call.

With UCaaS, your salesperson can simply direct the call to your contact center without asking the customer to call yet another number. This kind of inter-knit ecosystem helps in improved collaboration.

Furthermore, organisations strive to break down silos and work across departments. Integration with a CRM plays an important role in the smooth functioning of a contact center. With UCaaS, your agents will be able to see pop-ups about incoming calls with details like the caller’s profile and interaction history. This equips your agents to deal with customers in an informed manner.

Again, unified communication across your organisation will enable you to function as a complete unit, breakthrough barriers, and focus more on delivering the best of customer experiences.

Wrapping up

Customer expectations and demands keep changing with time. Organisations that stay at par with these shifting trends will earn a competitive edge in the industry. Contact centers are no exception to this.

You will have to update the capabilities of your contact centers with time and strive to emerge successfully. Hopefully, the aforementioned points will highlight a few trends and growing areas contact centers will focus on by the year 2025.

For any further queries on how to make your contact center cloud-empowered, don’t hesitate to contact our team at 1888-859-0450 .

If you're interested in improving your business communication solution

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The Complete Guide To 24/7 Support For Your Contact Center

Acefone Editor

Author

Contact Center

January 28, 2021

6 mins read eye

Table of content

The importance of contact centers goes far beyond answering customer calls. It is the focal point to attract consumers and build trust among your target audience. Even if your agents are unable to resolve issues spontaneously, the assurance that somebody is always available to help will result in happier customers.

Nurturing this satisfaction is possible only if your contact center is accessible 24/7 for customer convenience. Unconditional availability of services will have a positive impact on your brand. Furthermore, simple ways to reach out to your support staff and an understanding customer care agent team will add to the benefits.

So, what are the nuances of having a 24/7 contact center? Let’s check them out.

What is a 24/7 support contact center?

As the name suggests, in this system, clients can reach you 24 hours a day, every day—without any restrictions. The customers are free to contact these support kiosks at any time of the day or night, irrespective of the time zones, from across the globe.

Is 24/7 support important for your business?

Definitely. It plays an important role in showcasing your brand reliability and boosting customer satisfaction, while also reducing the average call waiting time. Round-the-clock availability enables people to contact you at their time of convenience, thereby evenly distributing the number of calls received.

This ensures that call waiting and queues are significantly minimised. The call waiting time is a key metric in determining customer satisfaction and your team’s performance. A 24/7 support center helps achieve highly on this metric.

Moreover, this is your chance to boost trust and earn loyal customers for the long run. The Customer Effort Score (CES) refers to the effort dedicated by your customers to contact you. When your services are not available, they try to contact you repeatedly, thereby increasing the CES. On the other hand, 24/7 availability reduces the effort required to reach your support agents, and therefore, reduces CES.

How can you ensure 24/7 availability of services?

There are several factors like technology, team size, and funds that need to be considered for your business to scale up to round-the-clock availability. Here are a few points to consider:

Provide options for self-service

Businesses have begun to understand the importance of 24/7 availability. Though your customers should be attended by agents, at times, self-service options can be the better choice. They can help manage your workforce while handling customers. However, there are a few aspects that need to be taken care of when enabling self-service.

Make sure that you maintain an updated knowledge base that is linked to these self-service options. Consider this: a customer requests a product page link and gets redirected to an old page. This will reflect the ignorance and incompetence on your part. Ensure that you have a dedicated team that keeps updating documents and information on this knowledge repository for seamless customer services.

Moreover, you should consider categorising solutions based on common content themes and FAQs. This will make it easier for agents and your system to find answers to customer issues based on keywords entirely.

Providing options to register customer feedback will leave a positive mark on users. Offer means to submit reviews and complaints about the self-service experience.

Chatbots are the leading trend in self-service. Though the knowledge base provides the required answer to the customers, chatbots help in initiating a two-way conversation. These bots learn from customer experiences and are trained to derive solutions from existing data. They can prompt contextual questions and provide human-like answers.

Furthermore, chatbots can engage customers and offer personalised answers to resolve all their queries.

In fact, 67% of service-related interactions can be effectively handled by customers in dedicated communities.

Setting up community forums is another great route to take. A community forum usually includes your customers who interact with each other about your products and services. The questions posed by new users are answered by older clients. Typically, unaddressed questions can be handled by your team. This platform will help build trust and reliability as answers from another customer reflects transparency and loyalty.

Expand your customer support team

If you have decided to provide round-the-clock services for your customers, expanding your team is an important requirement in addition to offering self-service options.

Adopt a shift-schedule and train your agents to handle customers from across the globe. You’ll require a team proficient in different languages and with an understanding of diverse cultures. When your agents begin to work in shifts, it helps distribute workload evenly, thereby helping provide quality service.

This further enables agents to get used to the work pattern and deal with a specific number of customers with high productivity. Proactive shift management helps keep track of the number of agents working in each shift, and better manage them.

Maintaining teams based on the sun model is another approach. Here, teams are established in different locations based on your geographical requirements. You should ensure a proper handoff of pending activities at the end of each day to avoid discrepancies in a distributed environment. This kind of set-up will help boost your global visibility and improve the average rate of resolution time.

How should you optimise your processes to deliver 24/7 support effectively?

Maintain an omnichannel helpdesk

Omnichannel presence is as important as offering 24/7 support. You cannot restrict the medium through which your customers prefer to contact you. You may receive a higher number of requests through your call center at some time or may get a few emails during some other.

You should maintain a consistent quality of service through all these channels alike. For example, having an up-to-date contact center while neglecting your social media channels will harm your brand image. It’s best to have a dedicated team for every support medium or, at least, maintain a proactive team that takes charge of all the support platforms diligently. Setting up SLAs that run round-the-clock will help ensure that all the support requests are taken care of.

Automate major process workflows

Assigning request tickets, and managing inter-team and inter-shift dependencies can become challenging in a distributed set-up. When you automate these workflows, important information is automatically passed on without any hiccups—ensuring uninterrupted workflows.

Tickets are assigned to the right agents based on their demography, expertise, and customer segments that results in the smooth functioning of processes and a higher rate of customer satisfaction.

Measure your team performance regularly

Tracking and monitoring play an important role in your contact center. You’re able to identify bottlenecks in processes and curb them promptly. You need to track the ticket volumes, your workforce capability to tackle them, and the level of proactiveness demonstrated by your team in resolving the issues.

Make sure that you offer consistent feedback to your team and also receive their views about the processes in place. They work on the frontline and are the first to sense any problem that may arise due to improper procedures. Be open to suggestions and improve your contact center system based on them.

Parting words

Round-the-clock availability of services has become a necessity rather than a luxury these days. Customers have begun to expect personalised and speedy delivery of services and support. Hopefully, the above-mentioned points will throw light on the importance of 24/7 support services and the different ways about its implementation for businesses.

You can take your contact center to the next level of performance by adopting the right cloud communication tools. Get in touch with us at 1888-859-0450 or [email protected] to get expert advice and get started.

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5 Movies That Teach You Lessons On Business And Leadership

Kritagya Pandey

Author

Business Communications

January 27, 2021

5 mins read eye

Table of content

Whether it is the transient ups and downs of Chris Gardner’s life, who makes efforts to protect his family from sliding into poverty and struggling between life and death or a compelling story of a young, impatient stockbroker with a desire to get rich and the harder lessons he learns.

Movies are entertaining, but when you take a closer look at them you will realise that they provide valuable life lessons too. A few of them can have a strong impact on your life and can leave you with important takeaways that can just change the way you see life.

Let’s go through some of the best movies of all time, which were a visual treat and a life-changing factor for people.

1. The Pursuit of Happyness (2006)

“You got a dream. You gotta protect it. People can’t do somethin’ themselves; they wanna tell you you can’t do it. If you want somethin’, go get it.”

Premise: Based on Chris Gardener’s story, The Pursuit of Happyness is a heartwarming tale of a hard-working father who rises above all the curveballs life throws at him. Not able to make enough money, Chris’ wife leaves him all alone with his son. The movie showcases Chris’s struggles and how he manages to become a stockbroker and make an honest living for his son.

The Lesson:

The movie is a lesson in how to deal with financial hurdles and cope with the adversities without giving up. We can look up to Chris’ sheer dedication and how he puts in the work to get the one paid job and a brokerage firm and care for his son. It begs attention that it doesn’t matter where or when you start, hard work and dedication always pays off.

2. The Social Network (2010)

“A million dollars isn’t cool. You know what’s cool? A billion dollars.”

Premise: The movie, based on Mark Zuckerburg’s life, shows us the process behind creating the world’s largest social media platform. Mark’s journey as a Harvard student; how he develops a social media network called Facebook and has to face struggles and lawsuits.

The lesson:

Packed with valuable business lessons, the movie goes on to teach us about angel investing, seed funding, and entrepreneurial lessons. You gain enough knowledge about venture capital financing when Mark and Severin bump heads and shake hands with noted PayPal billionaire Peter Thiel and others. Low funding and extreme challenges reveal the dark side of startup culture.

3. Wall Street (1987)

“Greed is good.”

Premise: Set in the backdrop of the largest and most famous stock market, Wall Street revolves around greed and trappings of an erratic system. Played by Michael Douglas, Gordon Gekko is the ultimate unprincipled corporate raider. What follows is Gekko’s unmitigated greed and the lessons learned by Charlie Sheen’s character, Bud Fox.

The Lesson:

Wall Street touches upon the common dilemma; we all must have faced in our lives, i.e. greed for money and power. It shows how people who get excessively consumed by the desire of money end up ruining their lives. Wall Street warns us about the perils of insider trading, although Charlie Sheen’s and Michael Douglas’s skillful performance will ground you too.

However, it carefully stresses how waking up each day for the sole purpose of earning money is an act of self-sabotage.

4. The Godfather (1972)

“I’m gonna make him an offer he can’t refuse.”

Premise: Whether you’re the head of the Corleone crime family or an IT team lead, this iconic movie will surely teach you great business lessons. Though Don Vito Corleone had never used Excel and Microsoft Project, the film revolves around his skills of delivering projects and getting results.

Lesson:

Of course, drawing parallelism between entrepreneurs and mobsters is a bit wild but worth noting too. The Godfather teaches you the art of communication, the value of unbiased opinions, and the power of soft skills. Moreover, the biggest takeaway from The Godfather is to realise that everything is a two-way street. People will stand up for you and help you only when you do the same for them.

5. Moneyball (2011)

“Many are called, few are chosen”

Premise: A true story about defying the norms and doing things your own way, Moneyball is the perfect example of why we need to get away with archaic, traditional practices. Based on Michael Lewis’s book of the same name Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game, the movie teaches you to work within a limited budget and shine through with it.

Lesson:

To quote Richard Branson, “Listen more than you talk. Nobody learned anything by hearing themselves speak.” Billy Beane listening to Peter Brand, who had just started his professional career, tells us how crucial it is to pay attention to what others have to say. The movie also showcases how important it is to understand and bridge the gap between perception and reality. http://loans-cash.net

The journey, from a downtrodden franchise to a winner, is an example of how constructive criticism can make you better.

Conclusion

Movies are fun, but if you dig deeper, you realise that they carry a sense of responsibility and understanding. They can teach, affirm your ideas and inspire you to ditch that comfort zone. The power of cinema and storytelling is definitely worth taking note of.

And when it comes to business or life lessons? Well, there are no shortages in the content either. Have we missed your favourite movie on leadership and business? Tell us in the comments below.

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Kritagya Pandey

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Kritagya Pandey is a creative and technical content writer, editor, and strategist. She has been writing on customer experience, customer service, artificial intelligence, cloud communication, and more. She invests her time researching the current business, market trends, and studying about social media strategies.

Virtual Numbers: The Perfect Virtual Assistants for your Business

Acefone Editor

Author

Uncategorized

January 25, 2021

6 mins read eye

Table of content

We’ve come a long way from being a society of phone operators, or even landlines—the so-called ‘dark ages’ when people were glued to their landlines and could not attend calls on the go. Virtual numbers, powered by the cloud, have been a game-changer for the business communication arena.

Perhaps the term seems ambiguous to you. Where and how can a number exist virtually? However, as complex as the term might seem, the working of a virtual number is rather simple and beneficial for all types of businesses.

A Brief Explanation

Virtual numbers are geographical numbers hosted on cloud servers with no physical presence. More commonly known as Direct Inward Dialling (DID) numbers, they redirect calls to a dedicated service number without being tied to a physical set-up.

In traditional telephony, the call recipient needs to be around their station to attend calls. If they’re away, there is no way to reach them in time.

However, virtual numbers do not require access to a cell tower or a specific device. Instead of relying on such infrastructures, these numbers make use of an Internet connection and cloud technology to intelligently route calls and voicemails. So, it is easier to reach people even if they’re on the move.

Not just that, with the help of IVR solutions, these numbers can easily be converted into virtual assistants to take care of all your communication needs.

So, How Does This Work?

A caller’s experience with a virtual number is identical to a usual phone call—albeit with background processes that go unnoticed. When a call lands on a virtual number, it automatically gets routed to a specific extension or multiple devices, depending on the configuration.

These numbers, then, can greet callers, inform them about the availability of agents, and even guide them during off-hours with FAQs. One can also schedule calls, add reminders and attend to multiple customers at the same time. Isn’t that everything a virtual assistant does?

Therefore, virtual numbers can act as virtual assistants and facilitate efficient remote working. The icing on the cake? These devices need not be in the same area, and one can even modify them.

So, you can receive calls on your office device in the morning, and the same call can be redirected to your personal number during off-hours.

The difference between working with traditional and virtual phone numbers also lies in the uniqueness offered by cloud technology. Instead of using local storage options, the cloud allows businesses to access, retrieve and control data from online servers—enabling better control over confidential information.

Businesses are also able to enjoy increased access to caller information with the help of online databases.

Who Needs to use Virtual Numbers?

Any business that relies on telephonic conversations will require a virtual number—namely, every business. And this solution is definitely a must-have if you require a social presence.

Accompanied by click-to-call technology, virtual numbers work best for paid ads. They let you closely track your paid campaign with features like scheduled reports, real-time monitoring, detailed call logs and recordings, and more.

SVTL VMN Calling

What are its Capabilities?

Whether you’re worried about expanding your operations to new locations or shifting to a remote work culture, virtual numbers have you covered. Here’s how.

For Businesses

Empower your business with virtual numbers, magnify your reach and improve credibility—all without burning a hole in your pocket. These numbers replace bulky and expensive hardware with minimal infrastructure. So, you don’t even need physical servers at your office; just use your cloud-compatible device.

Additionally, these numbers do not have a fixed geographical location, so you can establish a local presence for your business by using any area code.

According to Software Advice, customers are four times more likely to attend calls from a local virtual number than a number with unfamiliar digits. Thus, a virtual number can help you connect to a larger audience without much effort.

In addition to establishing a local presence for your business, the solution also helps customers get in touch with the right person quickly and saves time. How, you ask? The smart call routing feature directs calls to the best-suited agent or department according to time, type of query, agent preference, etc.

This way, virtual assistants never let you miss important calls and, hence, you do not lose business. With power-packed features such as an auto-attendant and holiday routing, you can even keep callers informed about your whereabouts and get back to them conveniently.

Overall, your customers can connect with appropriate agents instantly and effortlessly—saving you costs, offering higher accessibility and eliminating geographical restrictions.

For Marketing

Virtual numbers are capable of tracking marketing campaigns and ROIs for various channels. You can assign different numbers to various campaign and analyse the reports separately to design effective marketing strategies—from social media campaigns to online advertising.

When marketers use A/B testing to change their strategies in accordance with ongoing trends, they can use virtual numbers to track and monitor the performance. These numbers provide valuable insights about customer behaviour and preferences.

For Communication

Businesses that rely on call centres to manage their customer interactions can greatly benefit from this solution. These virtual assistants act as the first point of contact for, both, new and existing customers. And they provide callers with a human-like experience that makes support conversations an enhanced experience.

The technology streamlines call flows and organises high call traffic, automatically routing callers to the next best available agent during peak hours. This ensures timely issue resolution and higher customer satisfaction.

It also protects customer and agent identities by masking their contact numbers for the interaction. Moreover, businesses are able to exercise better control over their business processes and, thus, enjoy improved performance.

Although virtual numbers are offered primarily to businesses in India, they can be highly beneficial for individuals as well. Imagine having to give out your personal number on sites like Quikr and Olx, and dealing with all those spam calls. Scary, isn’t it?

Cloud telephony solutions combat this issue with ease.

Parting Words:

In the quest to stay ahead in a saturated market, business leaders often spend hefty sums of money and valuable time to find newer and easier ways to perform complex tasks. With the growing popularity and demand for the cloud, virtual numbers are also gaining popularity.

These solutions save time and money by eliminating the need for bulky hardware or additional agents, and allow you to always stay connected with your audience. Consequently, the credibility of your business is improved.

Virtual numbers also offer greater flexibility and easy scalability while increasing your revenue and streamlining your business processes.

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6 Ingredients For A CX Recipe Your Customers Will Love

Kritagya Pandey

Author

Operations

January 21, 2021

6 mins read eye

Table of content

‘Customer is king’ is undisputed even in this day and age. Needless to say, all the power rests within the hands of the customers. And this is a truth that businesses need to understand well. Customers are pillars of success and can make or break the future of any company.

Thus, businesses must deliver an experience that is a class apart. It is this experience that becomes the defining element of any business’ success.

While one may think it is easy to deliver a great customer experience(CX), many successful companies actually have a hard time dealing with it. As the radar of the customers starts to get bigger, the challenges also increase. Considerable shifts in buyer preferences and choices have led businesses to devise CX strategies that personally cater to their users.

Moreover, today’s customers have become increasingly digital and have clear expectations from the companies they do business with. They expect customised, hassle-free, and exceptional service each and every time.

So, how can you improve your customer experience strategies?

To devise an effective customer experience strategy, focus on the common problems that your customers face. Take an in-depth look to learn more about their issues and figure out how your product can help. When you start doing this, you begin inching closer to delivering unparalleled CX.

1) Know your customers in and out

It is imperative that businesses know their customers’ behaviours. In an ever-changing landscape, it is crucial to figure out the actual needs and demands of the customers.

How can we find these needs?

Feedback is always the best and safest way of knowing what’s working and what’s not working for your customers. Businesses must focus on extending multichannel support to collect customer feedback, that is via emails, social media handles, calls, SMSes, and chats. Other options, such as surveys also help to know what the customers really need.

Customer reviews are an important aspect while collecting feedback as they directly evaluate a company’s products and services. These reviews can further be forwarded to the concerned departments and will help in improving the services. Additionally, customer calls can be recorded and used to train new agents and deliver more engaging and satisfying service.

Don’t just stop there––put yourself in the customer’s shoes and analyse if your services are able to eliminate their pain points and make their lives easier.

2) Pay attention to negative feedback

Both positive and negative feedback offers an insight into the customers’ perspective. While the former motivates the employees, the latter helps the business identify bottlenecks and proactively resolve these issues. It also aids in identifying the strengths and leveraging them in a better fashion.

Your support and marketing team must address these responses effectively and take considerable action wherever required. This will also show the customers that their opinions are taken seriously.

Such an approach benefits the business in two ways––it makes the customer feel valued and improves the quality of customer service.

3) Improve the support efficiency

To emerge as the best in this competitive world, it is essential to work on how efficiently you service your clients. It is to be noted that several other companies provide services of almost the same standard as yours. Thus, efficiency becomes an essential differentiating factor that cannot be overlooked.

All this cannot be achieved without a proper CX strategy, a dedicated support team, and actionable goals. Customers should be segmented based on their feedback, analytics, and all other data available to the business.

Delays in any services should be minimised or avoided altogether. Follow up with calls and emails to gather additional feedback; reward employees that meet their targets on time. Develop a customer-centric culture across the company.

4) Increase the scope for innovation and creativity

As the popular saying goes: ‘keep your friends close and your enemies closer’. While racing to become the best, one should always be aware of what their competitors are doing.

Giants like Apple, Disney, Tesla are now looking for innovative ways to deepen their connections with existing customers rather than making new ones. In this regard, rich technology has been a real help to businesses––it ensures gratifying experiences for, both, customers and the company.

Keeping pace with the modern, technology-driven world is important if you want to stay ahead in the race. Not using the latest tools can hinder the growth of any business. Use these tools to devise new techniques to stay connected with your customers at all times. Make the most of platforms like WhatsApp to send follow-up messages, updates, and other information.

Omnichannel support will help build a strong relationship with the customers. And you can also use separate channels to manage grievances so that your clients don’t have to send out lengthy emails or wait in long queues to get heard. An innovative and creative approach is not only authentic and creative but also cost-effective.

5) Engage your customers on social media

Customers love getting social. Everyone is on social media––if you are not, then you are absolutely missing out on something that can take your company to new heights. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Linkedin, to name a few, have become synonymous to people’s voices.

Customers love taking to social media to write reviews and leave suggestions for businesses. It is these reviews and feedback that, then, influence others. Thus, social media is an effective tool to capture and easily engage with your target audience.

Another important factor is that the option of raising concerns via social media is always open. Customers can submit their issues over the various channels available to them, and the customer support executives can track them and resolve the error as soon as possible.

This is a very convenient and easy way to retain your customers. Social media customer support also helps to look at the problems on a bigger scale. Moreover, whenever a query is solved openly and promptly on such networks, people can see how well the business treats their customers and handles their issues.

6) Rewards your loyal customers

Prospective customers will want to do business with you only when they know that your products and services are of high quality. This is where loyal customers are an invaluable asset to the company––they become brand ambassadors and help with organic word of mouth promotion.

One way to ensure customer loyalty is by rewarding them for their engagement, bulk orders, hosting giveaways, and offering them discounts. This will be a good way to acknowledge customers that are truly invested in your brand and spread good word about your company.

To Wrap Up

Since the customer is the king and will always be one, it is important to retain and engage with them over and over. When an organisation makes customers their priority, it reflects in their actions and even in their numbers. It also speaks of how much they value their customer relationship, how they treat loyal clients, and how they resolve any and all issues.

More than anything, it is important to make an emotional connection with humans––this is where the winning points lie. Loyal customers play a big role in your success and are a part of your family. Thus, you must take good care of their emotional needs and win their loyalty and trust.

Are you looking forward to providing your customers with an excellent experience? Then connect with one of our experts today at 1888-859-0450 and enhance your business communications.

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The Pandemic Impact: A Look Into Virtual Numbers For Four Industries

Acefone Editor

Author

Contact Center

January 20, 2021

6 mins read eye

Table of content

Virtual numbers have various uses across multiple industries. There’s a long list of benefits associated with the service, including enhancing marketing strategies and helping your business bounce back from the impact of the pandemic.

Now, more than ever, businesses need to stand out from the crowd to ensure they capture customer attention. The COVID-19 crisis has encouraged customers to shop locally and they’re starting to build stronger connections with businesses that have links in their community.

This is where a virtual number comes in––it can help your business increase local connections. Since you can employ any area code, you can establish a local presence in any community and show consumers your willingness to work with them—regardless of your location.

And with many elements of daily life now becoming virtual, there are lots of opportunities to use cloud calling to connect with customers far and wide. This article will look at how a virtual phone number can aid four different industries.

The construction industry

Unfortunately, construction was one of the most adversely affected industries during the pandemic. As the work-from-home transition started, hands-on construction work remained at a halt.

Now, the industry is back up and running, but businesses are sure to be feeling the impact. A vanity number could help them put themselves back on the map and access more customers than ever before.

What’s better is that construction businesses can easily add a virtual number to their hosted phone system and allow clients from anywhere (nationally or even globally) to call and enquire about their services. Virtual numbers can also be used to share information about new offerings and updates to a wide audience via voice broadcasts.

They can employ local area codes to capture the local clientele or people who are apprehensive about multinational businesses.

These numbers are a fantastic way to broaden your customer base and help your business appear in important local Google searches in whichever area you want.

In contrast, clients who want the credibility of an established organisation will be happier with a global free phone number. This helps the business look as professional and well-established as possible, thereby increasing customer trust. Furthermore, it eliminates any barriers that customers may encounter while contacting the business.

The charity sector

Charities are seeing many more applications for their services following the pandemic. With people suffering from poor mental health or financial difficulties, many are relying on the services of non-profit organisations to support them through these difficult times.

Given this surge, charities could greatly benefit from connecting a free phone number to their hosted phone system. This allows those who are in need to easily get in touch. In fact, a free phone number will allow anyone, regardless of their location, to speak to the Charity at no personal cost.

Another option for charities would be a custom virtual number. Custom numbers are created specifically for marketing campaigns. This means that you can see exactly how many people have come through from each campaign to ensure everything is working as per plan. These numbers will help you identify areas that work so you can invest your marketing budget only in these areas and save any meaningless expenses.

Custom numbers can also be made memorable for customers. By creating a vanity number relevant to the charity, it is more likely that service users will remember the number for when they require it. Having an impactful number means that you receive more calls, even without investing more in marketing.

Import or export businesses

If you are in the business of imports and exports, a virtual number can help you connect with global customers at low cost. Quarantine measures and understaffed airports and seaports, owing to the pandemic, adversely affected goods transportation, so cost is a big factor for many at present.

The nature of the sector requires you to connect with consumers across the world daily—often leading to high call costs and lower profit margins. An international virtual number can work out to be highly cost-effective for, both, your business and your clients.

In fact, you can choose to have an international number in each country you deal with. Not only does this give you more of a presence everywhere, but it also makes it cheaper for the clients in said countries to connect with you.

No matter where you’re based, the client will call the international virtual number and straightaway get connected to you. With no delay at all, they’ll experience seamless service without even thinking about your location.

Since imports and exports require high-quality conversations throughout the process, you need a reliable service. This is why virtual numbers are a great solution—they’re easy on the pockets, sure, but they also have very high uptimes and good connections.

Toll Free numbers also remove any geographical limitations, so international clients might feel more comfortable with a business that appears to be operating across the world.

The retail and e-commerce sector

Retail and e-commerce have been impacted by the pandemic on quite a large scale. With the closure of many physical stores, companies relied on their websites to sell their products. This also means that their support service has had to adapt to meet the needs of customers and keep business moving during the pandemic.

Customers, too, have been placing more trust in businesses delivering their products online or via other channels. To increase their confidence, it is a good idea for your business to have a telephone line that directly connects clients with your team.

Virtual numbers can be a great way to connect with retail customers all over the world. Whether you are selling B2C or B2B, a virtual number that’s easy for customers to remember will always help your business give better service.

They are also more profitable to the business as virtual numbers are cost-effective and customers are more likely to call on them.

New customers may also be more inclined to shop with local businesses that can offer a sense of familiarity and trust. Having this local connection will help you reach customers looking to spend their money in their local area to support their local economy.

Another option for retailers to use virtual phone numbers is by employing a free phone number onto their hosted phone system. This gives retailers the ability to open up their products and services to businesses nationally—or globally.

This is due to the fact that free phone numbers have no charge for calls, as the name itself suggests. These numbers also remove your business’ geographical constraints, so customers from all areas will be more inclined to get in touch. And as a brand that does not charge its clients for support calls, you will appear to be more established and caring to your customers.

In addition, such a number adds a level of professionalism, too, so no matter how small your retail or e-commerce business is, you’ll be able to put your best foot forward!

Conclusion

Overall, virtual numbers can have a significant impact on businesses recovering from the pandemic. They can give your customers more reasons to contact you, tear down barriers for new and existing customers, and make your business more professional in its appearance.

Many customers are choosing to shop local post-pandemic, and virtual phone numbers will help you connect with these customers by giving you a presence in their local area.

If you’d like to find out more about virtual numbers and how they can benefit your business, call our team of experts today at 1888-859-0450 or send an email to [email protected].

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What If Harry Potter Lived In The World of Cloud Technologies?

Diksha Gusain

Author

Contact Center

January 19, 2021

9 mins read eye

Table of content

Hold up.

We know that in JK Rowling’s expansive universe, magic interferes with “muggle” technology—or as Arthur Weasley says, “eckeltricity”.

But, what if it didn’t?

What if Harry and his friends could integrate their magic with the benefits of modern technologies? Specifically, could certain tragedies have been prevented with better communication (courtesy the Cloud)? Would our young heroes have had a slightly easier life?

Let’s try to reimagine the wizarding world, but with the twist of having cloud communication at their disposal.

Introduction

It’s 1997 and we first enter Number 4, Privet Drive, where the Dursleys live (perfectly normally, thank you very much) with their young nephew, Harry. Thus began a cultural phenomenon that pulled in people of all ages.

It isn’t too much of a stretch to say that millennials grew up with Harry. As he discovered his wizarding heritage and the magical Hogwarts school, kids also waited desperately for their letter of admission. However, as much as we’re loathed to say it, we live in a totally different world today.

Everything is available at our fingertips, and smartphones have become a one-stop solution for virtually any need. We may lack magic, but the technology at our disposal would be no less of a miracle too, say, medieval people.

So, imagine if we could take the best parts of our muggle world and combine it with the Wizarding World’s magical abilities. Everything would be different, for sure.

But for the sake of this article, let’s look at a few distinct examples:

Spoiler alert: If you haven’t finished the books or movies, and are meaning to, come back here after you do! Although, you can also check out a 99-second recap by Jon Cozart, a.k.a. Paint.

1. Sirius Black could have lived

This was, unarguably, one of the saddest deaths in the series. After living without knowing his parents, Harry finally got to reunite with his godfather—only to be ripped apart again.

This is what happens: Baldy Voldy (possibly jealous of Sirius’ long black mane) plants a false vision in Harry’s head that Sirius is in captivity and being tortured by the former at the Department of Mysteries.

Without enough time to send an owl, Harry and other members of Dumbledore’s Army set off to rescue him and are ambushed by Deatheaters. In the ensuing fight, Bellatrix kills Sirius with one painful Avada Kedavra.

Cue the waterworks.

However, if our wizards could use Cloud technology, Harry would have placed a quick video call to Sirius, found him safe and sound, and never ventured outside the school grounds. Therefore, the Order of Phoenix would not have to come save them and Sirius would have lived.

Harry could’ve also CLI (Call Line Identification) route to find out where his godfather was. All he had to do was call Sirius and to find out the area code and see if the call was genuine or not.

2. Keep prophecies safe online

Sadly, delicate crystal balls are not really the best protection for dangerous prophecies. In fact, the whole Sirius ruse would’ve been unnecessary if the prophecies were stored in a better fashion.

Prophecies

Poor storage of very important prophecies. Still from Harry Potter and the Order of Phoenix (Warner Bros., 2007)

Better how? That’s easy—uploaded on a secure cloud server that is password-protected, with 256-bit end-to-end encryptions, multiple layers of firewalls and backup, and compliance of necessary protocols.

Voldy and his army of creepy wizards could have spent forever trying to access the prophecies. Without success.

3. Harry and Voldemort live stream collab

It took no time for the Ministry of Magic to change “the boy who lived” into “the boy who lied”. Well, not in these exact words—but worse.

Harry encountered the Dark Lord in the Goblet of Fire and announced his return to the world. However, the Minister of Magic, Cornelius Fudge, discredited him as an attention-seeking liar, and Dumbledore as an old fool.

His spiteful and cowardly words would have had no effect if Harry had irrefutable proof. Had Potter simply live-streamed Voldemort in full glory or used a video calling app (and recorded the call safely), no one could deny the truth.

Perhaps the good wizards would have used this extra time to better prepare themselves and fight the dark side.

4. Better audience access to the Wizard Games

Speaking of the Goblet of Fire, we can’t ignore the Quidditch cup and Triwizard Tournament. Just as our muggle sports are televised, live-streamed, promoted on social media and via marketing broadcast campaigns—why not extend the same courtesy to wizard sports?

The Triwizard Tournament Set Up

The Triwizard Tournament set-up. A still from Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Warner Bros., 2005)

Cloud technology would have made these events much more accessible for the average wizard. Despite the Hogwarts Castle being heavily guarded, people would’ve been able to watch the Triwizard tasks from their own cottages via live streaming. They would also have been able to chat and share polls, surveys, images, etc. simultaneously on the chat bar.

5. Faster (and better) communication

Give poor Hedwig some rest. Sending letters via owls in this day and age? That just doesn’t fly (pun intended).

Imagine how much happier Harry would’ve been without having to deal with the Dudleys hiding his letters from him. Even Dobby hid his letters once to prevent him from coming to school—which he did anyway.

So, instead of being miserable during his school breaks, Harry could have had a much better time if he was in constant touch with friends.

How would that be? Like every other teenager today—glued to his phone, he could be instant messaging Ron and Hermione all day. Or making video calls, group chats, sharing memes, and more. All he’d need is an Internet connection and a compatible device.

Better communication also reminds us of the depressing time in the Deathly Hallows when the trio hides from Voldemort, carrying a radio to hear any news of their loved ones. Quick updates via SMS or voice broadcasts, better remote connectivity, and secure phone connections are just some of the many benefits of cloud communications they could’ve availed.

6. Learning could be online and by using devices

When it comes to magic, there is a lot to learn. And with a murderous mega-villain on the loose, learning to defend yourself becomes all the more important and time-sensitive.

So why limit education to scrolls, quills, dungeons, and towers?

As Hogwarts fell to the dark forces, a lot of parents didn’t wish to send their kids to the castle—understandably. But instead of making their education suffer, why not employ e-learning?

They could’ve held video conference classes and practical exams with the help of UCaaS. With features like call recording, even absentees or those with personal difficulties would’ve been able to catch up real fast and prepare better. In fact, they could’ve given out refresher courses even for adults.

Similarly, Dumbledore’s Army could’ve had virtual training sessions as well. Their password-protected secure chat room would’ve been unbreachable for intruders like Malfoy and Umbridge. They would also have been able to keep track of progress, goals, availability, etc. via an easy-to-use online portal.

Dumbledore's Army

Dumbledore’s army training in the room of requirement. Still from Harry Potter and the Order of Phoenix (Warner Bros., 2007)

Another reason for wizards to switch to virtual education is because of the positive climate impact. Instead of cutting down forests for paper—for classes, exams, letters, etc.—they could have had all their assignments on their laptops.

This would reduce their reliance on non-biodegradable school supplies. In fact, the same could be implemented by the Ministry of Magic as well. After all, even though they have magic on their side, they live on the same planet as us.

7. Defeating Tom Riddle

Harry and Lord Volemort Final Battle

Harry and Lord Volemort’s final showdown. Still from Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Pt.2 (Warner Bros., 2011)

One of the biggest reasons Voldemort was so powerful and actually immortal was because he had split his soul to create seven Horcruxes. Therefore, our heroes had no hope of defeating him until they could destroy all the remnants of his soul—one of which resided in Harry himself.

Believe it or not, cloud technology could have helped our wizards in this endeavour as well.

Perhaps Professor Slughorn’s explanation of Horcruxes to a young Tom could’ve been recorded and preserved securely. That would have prevented him from distorting his memory out of guilt and fear. The wizards could’ve become aware of what they were dealing with early on, and learned how to defeat Voldy.

More specifically, when Regulus Black defected from the Death Eaters and replaced Salazar Slytherin’s locket (also a Horcrux) with a fake, he could have instantly informed the Order of the Phoenix.

This way, they would have realised the truth about Horcruxes much sooner—in the First Wizarding War itself, in fact. Professor Dumbledore wouldn’t have ventured into the cave of doom to attain the locket and weakened himself in the process. Even though his death was planned with Snape, we’d have suffered slightly less perhaps.

Conclusion

Even though the series ended a while ago, it lives on in our hearts. That’s what led to the Cursed Child, a play about Harry’s son, Albus Severus Potter (that’s no way to name a kid, Harry). Or even to the Fantastic Beasts series, which takes place in the same universe.

It’s interesting to see how our favourite wizards would have fared in the world of modern technology—with the same tools that make our everyday lives so much easier. In particular, we’ve seen how a lot of miscommunication could have been avoided with the use of cloud communication services.

Do you think this thought experiment was successful? What else do you think would’ve turned out differently? Comment down below and let’s continue this discussion!

Why limit good things to the wizards? Learn how cloud communication can transform your life and business operations as well. Get in touch with our experts at 1888-859-0450 or send an email to [email protected] to experience the magic of the cloud.

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Diksha Gusain

Author

Diksha is a junior content writer at Acefone. As a tech-lover, she aims to bridge the gap between tech articles and non-savvy readers. She’s equally interested in pop culture and worldly affairs. And in her free time, you can find her with her nose buried in a book or discovering new music for her chaotically diverse playlist.

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