Is SaaS Complaint Management the Right Fit for our New Normal?

Aptean Respond’s Sandeep Kang looks at how a cloud deployment can increase the resilience of a complaints management system.

While the long-term economic effects of the coronavirus pandemic are yet to be seen, we’re unlikely to return to business as usual any time soon. Many businesses, still struggling to come to terms with these unprecedented circumstances, are looking for a new way forward. The pandemic has tested processes and procedures to their limits, exposing areas where organizations need to adapt and be more agile.

This is particularly true for businesses using case or complaint management solutions. The business downturn has been matched by an upturn in customer interactions, with the global pandemic causing uncertainty for customers searching for answers and reassurance. This year’s turmoil is pushing businesses towards cloud-based systems, which help to maximize an organization’s process flexibility.

Inflexible Systems

Organizations have seen an increase in the number of customer interactions they’re receiving through multiple channels including web, email and social. When combined with staff shortages that are increasingly commonplace during the crisis, keeping up can be challenging. The need to facilitate remote working has exposed even more issues within many systems and processes.

These inflexible systems are unable to adapt to changing customer requirements and business needs. The organizations that are best able to weather the rapid change of the last few months are those with complaint management systems deployed in the cloud via Software-as-a-Service (SaaS).

What about a cloud system makes it so adaptable? It creates a flexible environment for you and your employees. Instead of an on-premise solution, SaaS adapts its environment to where your employees are, giving them the ability to access data and information from their own devices. The cloud enables your organization to adapt to any disruptions to come, with data security and backups easily done remotely. 

Scalable and Flexible

With the ability to scale to meet business requirements, SaaS deployments ensure solution capacity isn’t outpaced by market demands. They’re flexible too, giving users access to systems wherever they have an internet connection, an ideal solution for remote workers. When working within a SaaS system, remote workers can access customer information from their homes or offices, while still having key security built-in for sensitive information and data.

Cost-Effective

SaaS deployments offer lower upfront costs compared to traditional software models and the ROI is rapid. This, combined with less IT expenditure, makes for a lower total cost of ownership, generating tangible cost efficiencies without compromising performance. Along with lower upfront costs, SaaS models allow you to have the most up-to-date software. As updates are released, cloud users benefit from the newest technology.

Increased Resilience

The system resilience that’s achievable with a SaaS deployment is considerably more robust when compared to on-premise alternatives. With a SaaS case and complaint management system, maintenance, updates and upgrades are managed by the vendor. The vendor is also responsible for firefighting any issues that occur, ensuring optimum levels of system availability. Unforeseen and unplanned downtime is minimized, along with the associated costs and negative impact on customer service.

By preparing systems to deal with the unexpected — especially those systems that deal with customer complaints or other key interactions — businesses can be more prepared for any future crisis. The increased resilience, flexibility and cost-effectiveness that SaaS deployments offer make it the ideal choice to help businesses hit the ground running as we slowly but surely emerge from the shadow of the pandemic.

To learn more about Aptean Respond’s scalable, flexible and resilient SaaS complaint management solution contact us.