Beyond Dawlish
If you are a Unified Communication as a Service (UCaaS) provider, then you know that retaining customers is much more challenging than ever before!
And, as Brian Balfour, founder and CEO of Reforge as well as former VP Growth at HubSpot rightly said, "If your retention is poor then nothing else matters."
You need to take customer retention extremely seriously and reduce customer churn as much as possible.
In the last few years, the UCaaS global market size has registered impressive growth. The latest Fortune Business Insights report projected the global UCaaS market size to grow from USD 56.75 billion in 2024 to USD 215.53 billion by 2032.
However, another distressing reality is that the customer churn has also increased due to several reasons.
In this blog post, we will discuss the main reasons behind why UCaaS providers face high customer churn and how the right omnichannel contact centers can fix it.
Reasons Why UCaaS Providers Face High Customer Churn
UCaaS providers face considerable customer churn because of a wide range of reasons.
1. High Competition
Let's be honest; the competition in the UCaaS space has risen exponentially! The rise in the cutthroat competition can be attributed to the robust growth in the global market size.
More number of UCaaS providers have entered the burgeoning market and are vying for a slice of the market share using multiple strategies at their disposal. Some are waging price wars. Some are offering more value-added services.
Such strategies are luring customers to switch from one service provider to the other.
2. Rapidly Changing Tech Landscape
Tech advancements and the rapidly evolving (or rapidly changing) tech landscape is encouraging many customers to switch from one UCaaS provider to another.
In today's time, a majority of customers want nothing less than high-quality service from their service providers. In the present time of the rapidly evolving technology landscape, it's not uncommon to find that many customers are looking for AI-integrated UCaaS solutions.
Some service providers handpick highly sophisticated and cutting-edge tech solutions to provide the best service, while others manage with the existing tech stack. In such cases, customers of the latter type of service providers are more likely to switch to the former type of service providers.
3. Migration to Cloud-based UCaaS
As per a report by Gartner, more than 50 percent of an enterprise’s IT spending will shift to the cloud by 2025.
As per Omdia analyst Brent Kelly, 80 percent of respondents with an on-premise private branch exchange (PBX) system intend to migrate some users to cloud services.
In such a scenario, customers looking for cloud-based UCaaS will prefer to switch to providers that have a robust track record of offering high-quality hosted and cloud-based services.
4. Security Concerns
Would it surprise you to know that security concerns are one of the major reasons behind customer churn? It definitely shouldn't!
There are many unified communication-specific threats and guarding against those is one of the top priorities for many organizations.
The fear of data breaches as well as complications arising from regulatory issues is real among a lot of businesses. If they feel that their UCaaS provider is not able to meet security requirements, then they won't hesitate to switch to a different service provider at the drop of hat!
5. Billing and Payment Issues
This should come as no surprise! The way a UCaaS provider bills and accepts payment from its customers play a huge role in determining customer retention or churn. If it's good, then a majority of customers are more likely to stick with the service provider.
If the billing and payment issues are unnecessarily complex and convoluted, then most customers are more likely to switch to competitors after the completion of the next billing cycle.
That's why it's so important for UCaaS providers to streamline their billing and payment systems.
6. Lack of Bundled Solutions
As per a study by Masergy, almost two-thirds of IT leaders prefer bundled solutions (a combination of products and services). There are several reasons for that.
First, bundled solutions are easier to manage and integrate. Second, they are cost effective and much more efficient for issue resolutions. Third, they streamline billing. Fourth, they reduce hardware installations.
Last but not least, they facilitate access to technology and communication tools.
How the Right Contact Center Software can Reduce High Customer Churn?
If you aren't using reliable and sophisticated contact center software, you might be struggling with customer retention. You can change that by handpicking the right contact center software. Curious to know the ways a contact center software can reduce high customer churn? Here you go.
1. Cutting-edge Features
The right contact center software offers a wide range of cutting-edge features to UCaaS providers, using which they can serve their clients in an efficient and effective manner. Some of the sophisticated and advanced features of contact center software are:
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2. Streamlined Billing and Payment
As we have discussed earlier, billing and payment can either be a deal maker or a deal breaker. If a UCaaS provider is good at it, then it's well and good. If it's not the case, then it must leverage the right technology to streamline billing and payment. This is where the right contact center software can immensely help.
It can ensure that the billing and payment is well aligned with every client's needs. The multi-option billing such as prepaid and postpaid billing options can enable clients to choose the best billing plan. Whereas, multi-currency billing can enable service providers to bill their clients in their respective country's currency.
A sophisticated contact center software solution also comes integrated with various payment gateways such as Stripe, PayPal, CCAvenue, and more.
3. Cloud-based Options
Marc Benioff, the CEO of Salesforce, rightly said the cloud serves companies of all sizes. It's quite evident from the sheer number of businesses looking to migrate to cloud-based solutions in the coming few years. Many have already migrated to the cloud and are reaping enormous benefits.
The cloud is indeed for everyone. The cloud is a democracy. This is where a cloud-based contact center software can prove to be a game changer.
It would support remote working efficiently and would align with the cloud migration plans of all types and sizes of businesses.
4. Robust Security and Compliance
The right contact center software can play a massive role in blistering the security and compliance of UCaaS providers.
Protected with two-step verification, multi-factor authentication, robust encryption, control access, and more such security features, the right contact center software can eliminate a wide range of data security threats and malicious attacks on UCaaS providers.
Not just that, they can also empower them to comply with several regulatory standards such as General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS), California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), and more.
5. Omnichannel Communication
The right contact center software can help UCaaS providers to provide omnichannel support to their clients.
A sophisticated contact center software is nothing less than a cutting-edge omnichannel CX suite. When clients contact a UCaaS provider using their preferred channels, they get exceptional support and customer service experience.
In such cases, communication using multiple channels is not an issue for clients.
Taking Everything Into Consideration,
At a time when customer churn is becoming one of the worst nightmares for contemporary businesses and professional service providers, the need to use the right technology solutions is more than ever before!
If you are a UCaaS provider, then you must understand the power of the right contact center software to retain customers and reduce churn.
If you don't use one already, you must invest quality time and efforts to handpick the right contact center software for your business.
