Adaptability is the key to survival for all businesses, and none more so than contact centres.
With consumer habits changing constantly, and the continuing influence of technology on customer-business interactions, looking to the future isn’t an option, it’s a necessity.
Here we’ll do just that. This article will examine a few trends that are already occurring in the contact centre industry, and some that you’re likely to see in the years to come.
Technological innovations will play a huge role in the future of contact centres.1. Increased personalisation
The likes of Spotify and Netflix long ago cottoned on to the fact that personalisation is the key to customer satisfaction, and this is a trend that’s branching out far beyond the entertainment industry.
There are numerous ways that contact centres can personalise the experiences their customers have. These include:
- Omni-channel approaches: Social media has revolutionised the way people talk to each other, and to businesses. These days, customers expect to be able to reach agents through the medium that’s most convenient to them, so establishing which platforms are favoured by your consumer base is a great way to show you understand their habits.
- Empathetic agents: Training your agents to understand a product or service is one thing, ensuring they get this information across in a manner that creates trust with a customer is quite another. Managing the quality of your staff’s service should remain an utmost priority for workforce leaders.
2. New technologies
We’ve already discussed the impact of social media, but there are plenty of other tech-based innovations that have a part to play in the future of contact centres.
Artificial Intelligence:
Many contact centres are already taking advantages of the benefits offered by artificial intelligence (AI), and its capabilities are only going to increase as the technology becomes more sophisticated.
A few examples of how AI can be used in contact centres include:
- Helping customers find useful information: In the digital age, consumers will often turn to the internet before picking up the phone. Virtual assistants can be used to direct these users to an FAQ page based on their query, or connect them with the best qualified agent.
- Taking the place of interactive voice response (IVR) processes: The machine learning capabilities of AI means that it can go beyond presenting a caller with a set of choices, as is seen with IVR. Instead bots can begin to understand statements and therefore provide a better level of customer experience.
Biometric security:
Customers are often asked to give out sensitive information when interacting with contact centres, so it’s imperative they trust you. As a result, It’s likely that simple identification questions such as full name, age and address will soon become a thing of the past.
Instead, voice biometrics will provide agents with a quick and efficient method of flagging suspicious behaviour that could denote fraud. This works through speech recognition, meaning that even the most advanced fraudsters would struggle to gain access to the information they need.
Voice biometrics can help contact centres protect their customers from fraudsters.3. Changing work patterns
It’s no secret that sitting at a desk all day isn’t great for your body, or your productivity. Well, even that could be set to change.
Computers and headsets are so ingrained into the stereotypical contact centre environment that it’s difficult to imagine life without them, but as speech-text technology keeps improving these items may be consigned to the history books. Agents will be free to move around the office, creating a more dynamic workplace and fewer manual administrative tasks.
Going a step beyond this, the numbers of remote workers are also likely to increase. Flexible work arrangements featured in the top five factors that make an employer attractive, according to PwC’s Millennials At Work survey. Therefore, finding techniques that enable staff to take greater control over both how and where they work is an important consideration for any contact centre manager.
Call Design’s ME Mobile App can help with this. Accessible from your agents’ smart devices, this piece of software allows employees to keep track of their schedules, apply for leave and swap shifts with colleagues to create timetables that work for them and you. They can do all of this while on the go, which also reduces the pressure on your workforce management team.
While the day-to-day takes up the majority of your time as a contact manager, it’s important to keep an eye on the horizon. Call Design has a raft of training and solutions that you can leverage to ensure your contact centre is prepared for anything the future might throw at you. For more information, get in touch with our team today.