For large organizations, “hybrid” means a messy buzz of many different work locations and schedules. Some employees are in the office, some work remotely, while others straddle both locations working flexible or irregular shift patterns. It’s frequently assumed that managing this model of working comes at the expense of service or support levels.

But, does prioritizing the employee experience (EX) by enabling hybrid and remote work inevitably lead to a decline in the customer experience (CX)?

Not at all. The same cloud-based contact center technologies that enable hybrid working also help to achieve operational excellence and significantly improve customer experience. The link between EX and CX is strengthened by cloud-based contact center platforms that are helping organizations adapt to the future of work—a future predicted by Arthur C. Clarke in 1964 when he noted that “men will no longer commute; they will communicate.”

Why adapting is important: the specter of agent attrition

Agent attrition remains one of the biggest issues within the contact center. Attrition rates are significantly higher in the contact center industry than in other sectors, ranging between an estimated 26% to 85%.

The expectations for remote and hybrid work options has only made this worse. Contact centers that are unable to meet the demand for new working patterns are coming to grips with the harsh reality that their agents can and will go elsewhere. The statistics are now well known, but many employees would actively look for a new role if they couldn’t get remote or hybrid work schedules.

Three-fifths of workers would look for a new job if their current employer didn’t offer remote work options.

Faced with the ongoing and ever-present risk of agent attrition, contact centers must adopt cloud-based contact center solutions to support both remote and hybrid forms of working so that they can attract and retain new and next-gen talent.

Failing to adapt is an expensive and time-consuming problem. The cost of recruiting and training new contact center agents is significant, with many employees taking more than six months to become fully trained. Not only does this impact a contact center’s bottom line, but it also leads to a “brain drain” that can send first contact resolution and customer satisfaction levels plummeting.

From adaptation to operational excellence

Cloud-based contact center solutions, such as 8x8 Contact Center, help contact centers to avoid the risks of agent attrition and adapt to a changing work landscape. They have also given contact center teams new tools and capabilities that help them find new efficiencies, drive operational excellence, and significantly enhance customer experience.

Two areas where many hybrid contact centers have capitalized on their new capabilities have been product integrations and automation.

Integrate and customize with ease

Cloud-based contact centers are incredibly powerful because they allow organizations to build bespoke environments tailored to their needs. For example, while an on-premises contact center may have only limited channels and capabilities, cloud-based contact centers focus on enabling native-feeling integrations. If your organization wants to adapt to changes in its market, it can add a new social channel, for example, or integrate its CRM to give agents better insight into customers’ details and case histories. Doing this prevents customers from having to repeat information or continually validate their identity, which greatly improves customer experience and satisfaction scores (CSAT).

When cloud-based contact centers are on the same platform as the organization’s unified communications solution, the benefits are even greater. Metrigy research reports that customer ratings improve by 26.5%, operational costs drop by 18%, revenue increases by 22.6%, and employee productivity improves by 23.1%.

Accelerate automation

By transitioning to a cloud-based contact center solution, organizations also get to take advantage of innovative best-in-class AI technologies that enhance the customer experience in a variety of ways.

Many on-premises contact centers, because integrations are more complex or they don’t get regular innovation updates, lag when it comes to AI and automation.

Stay ahead of the competition

According to Metrigy research, 42% of organizations still use on-premises architecture and two-thirds of contact center seats remain on-premises.

The need for cloud-based solutions brought on by hybrid working has accelerated many contact centers’ abilities. Get up to speed and explore 8x8’s contact center solution and read how other organizations are achieving success here.