Some things never change. Companies that put their customers front and centre continue to thrive in a competitive market and, to this end, contact centres remain an indispensable touchpoint. But in our technology-filled world, where do your customers want to find you and what do they want to hear when they do?
In a recent article, Cisco looked more closely at five major trends influencing the contact centres of today and tomorrow. We’ve pulled the highlights out for you here, but we also encourage you to take a look at Cisco’s blog if you would like to learn more.
1. The Experience Economy
Nicholas Webb, a prominent futurist, has said that we are currently in the midst of an “experience economy” that is making customer experience, whether they’re interacting with you digitally or in person, a make-or-break contributor to company success. But what shapes customer experience?
Cisco identified three factors:
- Data: Today, many businesses are blessed with a wealth of data on their customers. Analyzing it can give you valuable insights into how people are experiencing your brand, and what you can do to increase loyalty and retention.
- Agents: Whether your agent is an AI bot or a real person, they need to connect with customers in real and meaningful ways in order to create value.
- Channels: Taking an omnichannel approach makes it possible to optimize your workforce and enable customers to interact with you on their terms and in their own time.
Taken together, each of these components interact to create better experiences for your customers.
2. Hybrid Infrastructures
As much as contact centres may want to transition to cloud-based infrastructures, the reality is that most simply cannot for one simple reason—disruption. Contact centres can be some of the most interconnected parts of modern enterprises. A complete cloud shift would mean not only swapping technologies, but also adjusting processes and responsibilities, re-training teams, and redefining customer interactions.
Adopting hybrid solutions is one of the ways contact centres are striking a balance, integrating cloud services with their on-premise deployments to gradually cloud-enable their operations.
3. Artificial Intelligence
In one survey, contact centre agents reported spending more than 15% of their time in a single shift simply looking for relevant information. Artificial intelligence and machine learning technologies have the potential to help agents in real-time by searching for information, predicting what people will do next, and taking over mundane tasks so agents can spend time on what really matters—giving customers the one-on-one personalized service they want.
4. Cloud-Based Analytics
Agents aren’t the only ones hampered by information overload. For analysts responsible for combing through data and discerning key trends, the volume of data can be just as overwhelming. Using cloud-based analytics tools can make it possible to effectively and efficiently compute these vast amounts of valuable data.
5. Remove Silos
Enabling your agents to stay connected to everything else going on in your organization through a unified communications solution can increase customer profit margins by more than 60%. Agents who are integrated with everything else going on in your organization will be able to access the information and experts they need more quickly, and they will be able to do their jobs more effectively.
Are you ready to take the plunge? Contact us today to learn how Activo can help you maximize your success in the IoT!
Read more from Activo:
