Whether to generate new leads or to provide customer support to existing customers, businesses use call center solutions. Thus, the demand and popularity of this software have increased like anything. There are three different models made available by the providers to let businesses or call centers use this software:
- Buy a licensed version of a call center solution
- Subscribe to monthly hosted call center solutions and
- Invest in call center software development
In this article, we will cover hosted call center solutions and its major advantages and disadvantages compared to buying a call center solution.
Major advantages of hosted call center solutions:
- More pocket friendly
One of the major advantages of using hosted call center solutions instead of buying call center software is cost effectiveness. Call center solutions are expensive. If you buy more advanced features in the software, it can be even more expensive. On the other hand, hosted call center solutions are cheaper comparatively. It is 10x times less expensive compared to buying the software.
Hosted call center solution users also do not need to invest anything in addition, such as hosting, server cost, technical upgrades, etc. They just need to pay monthly fees to use the software and enjoy all other services for free.
- No technical skills required
Call center solutions are easy to understand and use. If you buy a call center solution, you will need technical skills or need someone to handle technical aspects such as hosting, taking backup, maintenance, etc. However, when you use hosted call center solutions, all this is available for free from the provider. Thus, you do not need to invest anything in addition to the monthly fee.
- More scalable and flexible
Hosted call center solutions are more flexible than a license based call center software purchase. You can easily scale-up and scale-down the agent seats. For example, if you need to handle the holiday rush, you can increase agent seats for the time being and then scale down it once the holiday season is over. This is not possible with a purchased contact center system. Yes, you can scale-up the number of seats, but there is no option to scale-down.
Major disadvantages of hosted call center solutions
- You do not own the software
The service model charges you to use the features of a contact center solution. Thus, even after using it for many years, you do not own the software. You will need to invest in monthly fees regularly. On the other hand, if you buy a software solution for your customer care and sales campaigns, you will have ownership of the software. Also, once license cost is paid, you will not need to pay a monthly or annual fee for the software.
- You cannot define the roadmap
If you buy a call center system, you can define and execute the roadmap of future development of features. Of course, you will need to pay for additional development, but you can decide this. However, while using services, you cannot define the feature roadmap. You need to use what your provider offers.