Saying that technology has been revolutionising our lives and our behaviour as individuals and consumers may be stating the obvious, but it is nonetheless true, and businesses who fail to keep up with those changes are heading for disaster.
We have compiled some interesting predictions as to what contact centres may look like in ten years’ time.
Webchat will be the preferred method of customer support
Everybody hates being kept in a loop waiting for an operator to be available, and we don’t want to wait several days for a reply to an email either. Webchat, on the other hand, seems to tick all the right boxes. Waiting times are shortened; consumers don’t have to change devices to get in touch, and problems can be solved instantly. Some companies also offer to email the transcript of the chat, allowing you to keep a record of what has been agreed.
Satisfaction rate of this type of interaction is very high, not only for customers, but also for contact centre agents as it eliminates the need for small talk and allows them to consult colleagues without putting customers on hold or coming across as lacking expertise.
The contact centre business model will change
There is currently a great paradox in that customers seem to favour calling contact centres mostly when they have a complex issue, while the business model of call centres wasn’t designed to handle complexity. This leads to a poorer experience, as employees often don’t have an answer and need to put customers on hold while they find the information.
Call centres will undoubtedly need to address this structural issue in the future.
Contact centres will be cloud based
One of the greatest obstacles for contact centres is that their software and their back-office software aren’t always capable to talk to each other. This leads to communication breakdowns, unfulfilled promises and, inevitably, dissatisfied customers.
The development of cloud technology will offer unified communications, automation and simplification of internal business processes for greater efficiency.
Transparent contact centres
Call centre agents will be rated by customers for their knowledge, customers will have instant access to this information and will be able to choose the operator they want to talk to based on their “specialism”. This will increase first-call resolution and customer satisfaction.
If you have your own view about how contact centres will or should evolve, contact us.
