Cloud Call Center: What It Is, How It Works, & Top Solutions

Cloud Call Center: What It Is, How It Works, & Top Solutions

Cloud call center solutions eliminate expensive on-premise hardware, lengthy installation processes, and the inflexibility that comes with traditional phone systems. Instead of being locked into a physical location, businesses can now deploy cloud-based call center technology that:

• Scales instantly

• Adapts to changing needs

• Empowers agents to deliver exceptional customer experiences from anywhere

Cloud contact center platforms are the future of customer service infrastructure. They let businesses meet customers wherever they are (phone, email, chat, social media) all from a unified platform that grows with your needs.

Below, we’ll cover everything you need to know about cloud call center software: what it is, how it works, why businesses are making the switch, and how to choose the right cloud-based call center solution for your organization.

What is a cloud-based contact center?

A cloud-based contact center is a customer service platform hosted entirely on the internet. Traditional call centers require physical phone systems and servers, but cloud contact centers deliver all communication tools (voice, chat, email, social media) through web-based applications that agents can access from anywhere with an internet connection.

It’s all about flexibility and scalability. Traditional contact centers lock you into fixed infrastructure that's expensive to modify and impossible to scale quickly. Cloud-based call center solutions operate on a pay-as-you-grow model, letting you add agents, channels, or features instantly without hardware purchases or lengthy installations.

Cloud contact center platforms also unify customer interactions across multiple channels. When a customer starts a conversation through chat and later calls, agents see the complete interaction history. 

Yeah, that’s something traditional systems simply can't match. Ever. This omnichannel approach transforms disconnected touchpoints into cohesive customer journeys that let you adapt your support strategy as customer preferences evolve.

Contact center vs call center: what’s the difference?

Call centers and contact centers aren’t just a matter of semantics. People use them interchangeably, but they’re not quite the same. And it’s all in the name.

Call centers traditionally handle voice-only interactions (call…makes sense), while contact centers manage multiple communication channels from a unified platform.

The big differences:

• Customer journey visibility: Contact centers provide a complete view of customer interactions across every touchpoint, while call centers only show phone conversation history.

• Channel flexibility: Modern customers expect to start a conversation on chat, follow up via email, and escalate to a phone call. Contact centers enable this fluid experience; traditional call centers force customers into a single communication mode.

• Agent efficiency: Contact center agents can handle multiple conversation types simultaneously (responding to emails while managing live chats) to maximize productivity compared to call center agents limited to one phone call at a time.

• Business intelligence: Cloud contact centers aggregate data from all customer touchpoints to provide insights into customer behavior patterns that call centers simply can’t capture through voice interactions alone.

• Future-proofing: Contact centers adapt naturally while call centers require complete infrastructure overhauls to meet changing customer expectations.

How do cloud call centers work?

Like all cloud-based services, cloud contact centers store data in distributed data servers instead of hard drives. Plus, call center cloud services allow businesses to build custom solutions through application programming interfaces (APIs) rather than adopting immutable hardware and software.

APIs are tools developers use to create software applications, providing the infrastructure for software components to interact. This means you don't have to build and deploy complex communication services yourself to get your call or contact center up and running.

Building with APIs also gives developers the flexibility to set up the channels and features they want and scale as needed. This means you can start with a cloud call center focused only on voice, and then add new channels—such as messaging and video—to meet your business needs.

Benefits of a cloud-based contact center

Freeing your contact center from on-premise technology is only the beginning. There are many other advantages to moving your contact center to the cloud. Let’s take a look at the top cloud contact center benefits.

1. Improve the customer experience

Many benefits of a cloud-based contact center come back to this all-important one: it improves the customer experience.

Long hold times, endless interactive voice response (IVR) menus, and impersonal interactions can create a negative experience, which directly impacts your business’ bottom line. In fact, 45% of customers say that an impersonal experience can lead them to abandon a brand for good.

The constraints of legacy call and contact center systems also make it difficult to keep up with evolving customer expectations, contributing to these frustrating interactions. However, with cloud call center software, you can give agents the tools to anticipate your customers’ needs and provide a top-notch experience.

2. Scale your contact center elastically

As your business needs evolve, so should your contact center. And a cloud-based contact center gives you the agility to scale your program (up or down) as your needs and use cases fluctuate.

Ready to connect with your customers in new ways, such as in-app chat? No problem. Since APIs work like building blocks, you can add new channels to your existing contact center. This means you’re in control of creating the customer experience you need to retain customers without worrying about hardware planning.

Additionally, cloud-based solutions are typically available on a pay-as-you-go model, meaning you can scale your program without the risk of subscription overcharges.

3. Iterate frequently

To provide a superior customer experience, businesses must experiment, gather customer feedback, track call center metrics, and evolve with customers’ needs.

However, businesses with complex legacy ecosystems can’t iterate quickly because it often takes months of meetings, expensive consultants, requests for proposals, and negotiations to make any changes.

With a flexible cloud call center, you can track vital metrics and use those insights to iterate and improve the customer experience frequently.

4. Expand global reach

As you expand your reach to multiple countries, a cloud call center provides an inventory of local numbers and reliability through global carrier connectivity. This allows you to skip the contract negotiations with carriers in every country where you do business.

And because APIs are cloud-based, you can get instant multiregional connectivity and on-demand phone numbers from a single platform. A cloud-based call center built on global infrastructure enables you to provide a local experience anywhere in the world, adding new country coverage without codebase changes or dealing with the quirks of international connectivity.

5. Increase reliability

Cloud-based contact centers aggregate the requirements of tens of thousands of customers, offering greater reliability than what most businesses can afford to implement independently.

Plus, cloud-based calling APIs connect calls through carriers worldwide using geographically distributed data centers. That means the phone system can optimally route calls to reduce latency and provide the highest-quality customer experience. This level of reliability is difficult to find in on-premise call centers.

6. Control costs

You might think that with all these benefits, cloud solutions must be the most costly contact center option, but the opposite is true. When implementing cloud call center services, a modest investment buys you a multichannel communications hub.

Plus, rather than enforcing a set of certified applications and relying solely on in-house developers for innovation, flexible cloud solutions enable knowledge sharing among developers. For example, Twilio draws on a vast pool of developers who build solutions and share the code through Twilio CodeExchange. Equipped with this knowledge, developers get a head start to build, integrate, and test with little impact on your operating budget.

7. Employ intelligent routing

When there’s a long queue of callers waiting to talk to someone, connecting them to the right agent as quickly as possible is a high priority. A cloud-based call center with intelligent routing allows you to do this.

There are 2 types of intelligent routing: attribute-based routing and priority-based routing. Attribute-based routing assesses the needs and context of each caller and connects them to the most qualified agent available. Priority-based routing, on the other hand, elevates the most urgent calls to the front of the queue. With both types of intelligent routing, you can meet customers’ needs quickly and provide a better experience overall.

In addition to benefiting customers, intelligent routing also increases agent productivity by ensuring they work on the right task at the right time.

8. Access call tracking and analytics

One of the most important features of a contact center is the ability to gather data about your customers. Do you know who’s calling you and why? Are they responding to a marketing campaign? Or are they unhappy about a product glitch?

A contact center built on APIs gives you access to the necessary call tracking data and analytics to help you keep track of incoming and outgoing calls. This allows you to measure the value of marketing spend, compile information about call times and agent performance, and more.

9. Control your roadmap

The above benefits have one underlying theme in common: when you implement a cloud-based contact center, you control your roadmap. You have the freedom to build the exact customer experience you want with the capabilities you need.

By avoiding a vendor’s limited roadmap or telecommunications hardware restrictions, you can start building your contact center with APIs immediately in the web languages you already use.

And if you have an existing on-premise solution, you don’t have to get rid of it to implement cloud contact center software. In fact, with the right solution, you can add new channels that integrate with your existing systems and create a single user interface.

How cloud call centers can improve CX

Customers are the lifeline of a business. Without them, you have no one to sell to! Therefore customer experience, or CX, should be at the forefront of your contact center business strategy. By employing cloud-based call centers, you create both happy agents and happy customers.

Robust availability

Cloud-based call centers can enable you to be more frequently–if not always–available for your customers.

Advanced features could allow you to employ virtual assistants to carry out basic tasks during non-business hours. For example, interactive voice response (IVR) can walk customers through self-help options until an agent is online to take over their more complex requests. 

Cloud-based call centers also allow you to employ agents globally on a remote and flexible basis. That means agents could be available at any time to help your customers. For example, if your primary customer base is located in the U.S. but you have agents working remotely in a time zone a few hours ahead, they can be online to help your customers during those U.S. off hours.  

Quick response times

Is there anything customers hate more than being on hold with elevator music? With a global, remote workforce–all thanks to cloud-based call centers–agents will be more frequently available to reply to customer queries. Whether it’s through email, chat, or phone calls, agents can use smart-routing or manual responses to get back to customers quickly.  

Quick resolution

By implementing automatic call distribution (ACD), agents can resolve customer queries faster. Sophisticated ACD software uses special skills-based routing to understand callers’ needs, prioritize tasks, and route them accordingly. This means queries will reach the right and best agents.

How to choose the right cloud call center solution

Most businesses start their cloud call center solution search by looking for the cheapest option. You wouldn’t do that for finding a dentist, would you? The same principles apply here. You tend to get what you pay for, and the cheapest options will almost always limit growth or force you into someone else's vision of customer service.’

Yuck.

Look for solutions that give you actual control over your customer experience, not just a pretty interface with limited customization options. The best cloud-based call center platforms let you build exactly what your customers need, when they need it, without requiring a computer science degree or a team of consultants.

Must-have features to consider:

1. API-first architecture: Can you integrate with your existing tools, or are you stuck with whatever the vendor decides to offer? Real flexibility means connecting to any CRM, analytics platform, or business tool your team actually uses.
2. Channel scalability: Adding chat support shouldn't require a different platform than your voice calls. Your cloud contact center should handle voice, messaging, video, and social media from one unified interface.
3. Developer-friendly customization: When you need to modify workflows, add features, or integrate new tools, can your team do it themselves? The best platforms provide both no-code options for quick changes and full API access for custom solutions.
4. Transparent pricing: Avoid platforms that hit you with surprise charges for basic features. Look for usage-based pricing that scales with your actual needs, not arbitrary seat limits or feature paywalls.

Build a scalable cloud call center with Twilio Flex

True to its name, Twilio Flex is a flexible cloud-based contact center solution that allows you to deliver a positive customer experience across channels from a single platform. This agile platform enables you to launch your cloud contact center in a matter of days, then adapt and scale as your needs evolve.

Already have a call center up and running? Flex enables you to augment your existing solution, adding new digital channels over time. Plus, you can create a unified agent desktop where agents can access all the necessary channels and integrations.

Flex also puts all the relevant customer information at agents’ fingertips, providing the context they need to deliver personalized service. Then, contact center supervisors can generate reports to track performance without using code.

Want to learn more about what you can build with Flex? Request an interactive demo today.