What is CCaaS?

Contact Center as a Service

Contact Center as a Service (CCaaS) is an interactive voice response (IVR) software solution that companies can utilize to manage their contact center. With a CCaaS solution provider, such as Plum Voice, a business has the ability to customize its software needs and only purchase the technology that best suits its company. CCaaS solutions are flexible software options that enable contact centers to scale quickly and efficiently for company growth.

Cloud-Based CCaaS vs. On-Premise CCaaS

There are a few different options for implementing CCaaS software solutions. 

Cloud-Based CCaaS

With cloud-based solutions, a business only pays for what is needed. If they need more, the provider typically has other options - SMS texting, website/ social media messaging, outbound/inbound calls, etc. -  available. A business will pay less per month using a CCaaS provider than managing an on-premise system. In addition, they don’t need to wait months to install an on-premises CCaaS system because a cloud-based solution takes as little as a day to implement. The only hardware needed is an internet connection to the device(s). With the provider managing everything that a typical in-house IT staff would oversee, a business saves tremendously on operational costs and opens up its staff for other meaningful projects.

On-Premise CCaaS

Unlike cloud-based CCaaS solutions, a company will pay major upfront costs for an on-premise CCaaS system. This includes the hardware, infrastructure, server space, licenses and costs of hiring knowledgeable IT and live agents. This can cost a business up to $15,000 worth of upfront costs, not including labor, unlike a cloud-based CCaaS solution. A business will have low integration options with implementation taking up to several months.

CCaaS Features with Plum Voice

Interactive Voice Response Systems

IVR systems give incoming callers the ability to self-serve by getting the information they need quickly and easily. The caller can talk to a specific person in a designated department,  hear the store hours, get an update on order or shipping information, review account balances, pay a bill, etc. 

Plum Fuse is an intuitive drag-and-drop, low-code, Graphical User Interface (GUI) tool that allows developers and non-technical users to create and manage IVR systems, intelligent virtual agents (IVAs) and conversational AI solutions. Plum Fuse is available to businesses who want to automate mundane tasks such as appointment scheduling, card activations, payment processing, reminders, outbound/inbound calls and more.

Post-Call Analytics

Data collected from customer conversations is a valuable resource to have for any business. Through analyzing data, companies continuously monitor their voice applications, identify areas for improvement or optimization and deliver the best customer experience possible.  It’s a good way to assure compliance, customer satisfaction, agent availability and information security are performing at the highest level possible. 

 VoiceTrends is an advanced IVR call analytics tool designed to measure the performance of voice applications built with Plum Voice’s DEV, Fuse and Insight tools. It is exclusively available on the Plum Voice platform. The metrics created in VoiceTrends allow users to see how callers engage with the application. Then, users can make adjustments to continuously improve the caller experience, attain first-call resolution and improve call containment. All of this means that customers spend less time on hold resulting in a better customer experience and with lower costs to your business.

Easy-to-Use API Software Integrations

A modern CCaaS technology solution allows users to easily integrate their applications and databases with other third-party applications via APIs (application programming interfaces). This is simply the bridge between software components that allows them to send and receive data to each other based on the set of rules written by a software developer.

With the Plum Voice cloud platform, it’s easy to migrate to the cloud and integrate software and applications via APIs. Plum Voice gives users the ability to connect their CRM databases, billing and payments information, customer data and more to a cloud-based CCaaS system with IVR. The Plum Voice platform provides an extra layer of security with PCI-DSS, SOC2 and HIPAA compliance to protect sensitive data.