Contact center trends are changing rapidly – every year the requirements for contact centers are becoming more and more stringent, and the competition in the industry is growing with great speed. Customers, in turn, have long been insufficient standard set of services of traditional telephony, because with the advent of new technologies, other communication channels business begins to quickly reorient to meet the needs of their customers.

So, what are the main call centers industry trends?

Development of contact centers

The following factors have significantly influenced the development of contact centers and can be considered key call center trends:

• Customers have become more demanding of goods and services. Competition in almost any industry is huge, and the consumer has a lot to choose from. If a person remains dissatisfied with the service, he does not just go to competitors, but also uses all available platforms (for example, social networks) to inform other potential customers – this applies to both negative and positive attitude to the brand, company. And here the company itself needs to be able to work competently with its customers in social networks, messengers, forums and so on.
• One channel of communication is not enough for customers to interact with a company (store, manufacturer, organization). Phone calls are not a thing of the past, but almost no one uses the phone alone to get a consultation, make an application, etc. Someone is quicker to do it in messenger. It is faster for someone to do it in a messenger, for someone more familiar and convenient – through social networks, directly on the site.
• The requirements for accessibility of goods and services have become as strict as possible. Accessibility means that a person can find out everything he or she is interested in here and now, and immediately make an application and receive confirmation that his or her order has been placed.

Features of the call center

It may seem that the call center is a thing of the past at the moment when contact centers began to appear. In fact, this is not the case. Now call centers are changing the way they interact with customers, offering not only traditional telephone communication, but also mass mailings, autodialer services, omnichannel implementation, and more. A modern call center can be as powerful as a contact center – it’s just that the tasks it faces are those that more often require a direct conversation between an operator and a customer. 

This also refers to the implementation of AI (Artificial Intelligence) to improve the productivity of human agents and meet customer expectations in the fields of personalized customer experiences, high levels of customer satisfaction, and handling contact center operations. AI-powered tools don’t only provide predictive analytics, they also help to reduce average handle time, improve operational efficiency and enhance self-service options to free customer service agents from resolving basic customer issues, which means contact center agents can work with complex issues more and use their emotional intelligence to handle vital customer interactions. 

What do I need to pay attention to?

Taking into account the trends of contact-center development, it is difficult to say what requirements to them will be set in 1 year. But now the following should be taken into account:

• Possibility to implement omnichannel approach to let clients choose preferred channels.
• Callback processing and callback speed.
• Big data processing with valuable insights.
• Ability to integrate and work with social media and its features.
• Usefulness to customer service customers.
• Customer relationships management
• Customer self-service with different channels, including IVR (Interactive Voice Response), AI-powered chatbots, and other AI-powered tools.

Omnicanality

This is the ability to combine different communication channels (telephony, messengers, website chats, social networks, e-mail, etc.) into a single system for seamless communication. The system collects data on customers, and if necessary, during a call the operator will be able to quickly get access to all customer requests, regardless of when and through what communication channel the person contacted the contact center. This helps to provide personalized experiences, fast contact resolution, automate repetitive tasks with the help of technological advancements, and handle personalized interactions through numerous channels throughout the entire customer journey. 

Intelligent callback

These are various solutions aimed at facilitating customer interactions. The simplest, most common option is a callback form on the website – a person specifies their phone number, the data is fed into the system and the call is generated automatically with the connection of a free operator. The name of the subscriber is also provided to the operator automatically – there is no need to manually track callback requests from the site.

Working with big data

The larger the client base, the more extensive, all-encompassing are the project tasks, the more difficult it will be to work with a huge amount of data. Specialized software helps to make such work easier, faster and more convenient.

Big data allows to identify potential issues, provide seamless experiences, handle customer conversations in a more efficient way, and analyze customer sentiments. 

Integration with social networks

Social networks are a huge world with its own laws and rules. Simply integrating a project, software, or solution with popular networks is half the battle. You need to make it as flexible as possible, so that both contact center operators, clients and customers can use all the opportunities for interaction (communication, confirmation of requests, status tracking, etc.).

Competent and friendly support

Support is no longer just a group of specialists who either answer standard questions or take requests to solve complex technical problems. They are specialists who have knowledge, can convey this knowledge to the client in the most accessible form and can resolve even a conflict situation with an inadequate subscriber in a friendly manner.

Conclusions

In all areas of business, progress dictates its own rules, and call centers are no exception. If you stop at what you have achieved, believing that customers are completely satisfied with the current state of affairs and services provided, and do not “look into the future”, it is very easy to get lost among competitors and simply leave the market forever.