Although we now know our expectations can be changed and flipped around in a moment’s notice, we think it’s interesting to see what patterns are expected to be on the rise today. Here are trends predicted to affect the contact center and customer experience.
Businesses want to leverage data culled from their contact center.
Guest author of Customer Think Tara Sporrer, also known as Vice President of Marketing and Sales Operations at goMoxie, shares plenty of predictions and detailed proposals for leveraging data from the contact center. “Analyzing chat, email, and other contact center data together can help you identify friction points in real-time.”
We at Cention believe so. However, one of the enhancements we’ve introduced to Cention Contact Center is the opportunity to view data stored in legacy systems, as we feel that the more information a business has on their customers, the higher chances for the business to succeed.
Digital customer support will continue to become incredibly important.
Forrester’s Principal Analyst, Ian Jacobs stated that digital customer service interactions will increase by 40%. The pandemic created a trend — an increased reliance on online shopping, digital financial services, and tele-health (virtual care) option — and that genie ain’t going back in the bottle.”
This data is extracted from Forrester’s study of their 2021 predictions and it’s definitely something we see as spot on. It has been a major priority for brands to have digital support and virtualizing customer support as the option to purchase goods and services is no longer limited to only in-person interactions. This is the key to why contact centers need to be able to attend to their customers by phone along with all the digital mediums, particularly social media to text, email, video and many more!
In addition to continuing to prioritize digital customer support, Forrester predicts that CX will include more emphasis on empathic approach in the future as the need to constantly connect with customers on a deeper level is a way for you to differentiate yourself from your competitor. With the anxiety, trauma and tension brought on by the pandemic, the demand for empathetic customer support has only intensified, and we certainly think this will continue.
Businesses will invest in technology that fits today’s agent’s needs.
Contact centers need a platform that offers real-time reviews and feedback to make agents perform their best at making sure customers are given a memorable customer experience. Ultimately, creating happy and loyal customers.
Without the proper contact center platform, a contact center wouldn’t be able to succeed in the modern, always-on, rapidly evolving world we live in today. Contact centers need to be able to harness the power of cloud technology. There really isn’t much time to waste here. Information Age stated, “The cloud is the powerhouse built to run business effectively and efficiently” and “the cloud is becoming so engrained in our society that even our washing machines are running on the cloud.” If your appliances are using this always-on, always available system, shouldn’t all contact centers be the same?
Contact centers must provide agents with extensive tools that help them to easily change their scripts so that each response is personalized. Agents should have the ability to view all incoming customer data and customer queries in a single platform. That includes the best combination of chatbots and human contact to ensure that customers gain the best experience when they need it. In 2021, contact centers will become more technologically sophisticated in order to satisfy the needs of the new, modern, time-crunched, demanding consumers.
As a contact center software provider, we want to constantly make sure agents have access to information at all times to ensure effective connections with customers. Although we cannot forecast the future with accuracy, we think these patterns are actual trends that will be debated from now on. Regardless of the challenges yet to be faced, we will continue to aim to evolve and improve our contact center all year long (and beyond).