Does your retail business use cloud communications to drive business growth and cut costs? If you’re still using call centre and legacy phone systems, you may be hampering your customer and employee experience. Cloud-based Unified Communications as a Service (UCaaS) and Contact Centre as a Service (CCaaS) are making these systems obsolete.
Retailers who are using cloud communications have top and bottom line payoffs including:
When retailers turn to unified communications they bring their customer experience to the forefront of all touch points – regardless of location. According to a report by the Aberdeen Group, this seamless technology also has a direct impact on customer retention with customer engagement strategies achieving 89% retention versus 33% for those with weak strategies.
5 benefits of cloud communications for the retail industry
While retail growth happens when you can get shoppers to buy and love your products, it’s also important they become repeat, loyal shoppers. Forward-thinking retailers are increasingly turning to unified communications as the solution to help improve shoppers experience at every touch point, including in store and online. The benefits of cloud communications for the retail industry include the following.
1. Improves customer’s experience
When retailers use cloud communications they’re able to serve customers more efficiently and effectively. The cloud-based platform seamlessly unifies communications between stores and call centres. If a customer calls a local store, the call can be routed to a contact centre agent who can answer questions about product features, store policies and inventory. This intelligent call routing can go a step further by having calls routed to agents with expertise in the areas related to your customer’s queries or concerns. Our cloud communications solution also provides system analytics to track the performance and speed of each agent so best practices and further training or retraining can be provided.
2. Your IT personnel can prioritise higher-level business initiatives
Do your IT personnel get caught up with security and routine software updates, communications systems issues and phone system problems? Our unified communications platform can be integrated with other software without the need for IT team assistance. This easy to use communications solution frees up your IT personnel time to focus on other, higher value priorities. Your cloud provider also deals with any modifications, routine software and security updates.
3. Reduce operational costs
Retailers who have switched to our unified communications solution have reported monthly phone charges reduced by 30% to 40%. And with no initial investment or lease cost required for the phone system, cloud based telephony pays for itself very quickly. Our unified communications solution easily and seamlessly integrates storage, conferencing and video, resulting in further price reductions. The flexible, scalable nature of cloud communications makes it a perfect fit for the retail industry where workforces shift locations and change in size.
4. Boosts business growth
If your retail business has plans to expand geographically with more locations, a cloud communications platform makes it easy. Because on-premise systems operate independently, new phones, locations and hardware capacity can become expensive. When retailers use unified communications they get real-time access to business insights through platform analytics. This insight into customer and employee behavior helps retailers streamline their processes and increase efficiencies.
5. Improve internal communications
When retailers use cloud communications, they’re bringing multiple communications technologies on to one platform. Say goodbye to managing multiple vendors, troubleshooting complex problems, and lengthy time to resolution. While the cost of communicating drops, your efficiency rises.
How your retail business can get the best cloud communications in Australia
Did you know that your customer’s experience is now a retail differentiator and source of competitive advantage? Retailers that are using cloud communication technology win more new business, have improved customer service, and build loyal relationships with existing customers. The benefits of cloud communications for retailers go much further though.
Your employees have access to the tools required to easily communicate with each other and deliver outstanding customer service. And with cloud communications being a cost effective option, retail businesses improve their bottom line.
These 8 questions will help you evaluate unified communications systems for your retail business:
If your business is still storing information and data on-site, it may be time to consider moving to the cloud. While the cloud is often used to store data off-site, it can also be used for synchronised file access between multiple remote users and locations. Arrow’s Virtual Private Server Solutions easily and efficiently move your on-premises servers to a secure, reliable virtual server environment. Say goodbye to hardware failures and replacement cost as you easily add new servers and users, expand storage and add resources.
How your business can get the best speed and bandwidth in Australia
Is it time that your medium or large business switched to a better Internet Service Provider? Arrow offers enterprise grade capabilities at the right price with our Fibre1000 Broadband Solution The flexible nature of this Internet solution means that it is easily tailored to meet all your business and connectivity requirements. You can dedicate the 1000 mbps entirely to the Internet or split this across cloud, voice, data or Internet services. With the flexibility of being to add, upgrade or downgrade your products with 1000mbps bandwidth your business gets a future proof, scalable Internet solution.
Arrow Fibre Broadband Ethernet connections have been designed for medium and large businesses that need fast, reliable, high capacity bandwidth at a competitive price. When your business is in a building where fibre is currently available, our business grade service level agreement offers seamless operation with 99.95% uptime and the added bonus of being flexible and scalable. If your business doesn’t have fibre in the building, don’t worry – we can still help you. Our wide range of business Internet plans can be tailored to suit your business now and in the future.
Since 2002, Arrow has been delivering the right business Internet solutions for thousands of medium and large Australian businesses. As one of Australia’s largest privately owned telecommunications companies our IT solutions, communication tools and technologies are scalable and future proof.
Call our locally based, friendly customer service team today to find out how we can deliver the best business Internet solution for your business.
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- Will the cloud communications solution alleviate your current communication system challenges?
- Does the unified communication system improve customer experience as well as replacing existing telephone?
- Will the solution give your retail business greater insights in the contact centre and across all locations?
- Is the cloud communications solution scalable, flexible and adaptable for your retail needs now and in the future?
- Will the solution be easy to implement across your entire retail footprint?
- Is the unified communication solution reliable without requiring expensive Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS) or other networking technologies?
- Does the cloud communications provider have a proven track record of quality, reliable services with a dependable service level agreement?
- Can the cloud communications provider give you 3rd party validated evidence of security, call quality, regulatory and compliance requirements and data privacy standards?
Since 2002, Arrow has been delivering unified communications solutions for the retail industry 8×8 powers over a million business users worldwide and is the only provider of truly unified communications. The suite of 8×8 products seamlessly weaves together messaging, meetings, cloud telephony, and contact centre solutions with a data analytics platform to help retail businesses communicate at the speed of employee and customer expectations.
Arrow is one of Australia’s largest privately owned telecommunications companies our IT solutions, communication tools and technologies are scalable and future proof. Call our locally based, friendly customer service team to find out how we can deliver the best cloud communications solution for your retail business.
