Emerging 2015 Contact Centre trends
As we set in motion new plans for 2015 with much anticipation, industry experts are considering a few trends for contact centres.
The emerging buzzwords include omnichannel, gamification, mobile engagement, biometrics and the like.
Increasing focus on customer experience, reducing cost-to-serve, and multi-channel services have gained prominence.
And the Customer Experience continues to become a core focus.
In light of these forces shaping the future of the contact centre industry, we present the Firstsource views on the contact centre trends to watch out for in 2015.
Top 5 Emerging 2015 Contact Centre Trends
1. The Rise of Omnichannel
The meteoric growth of smartphones and mobile apps has brought about a sea change in the way consumers conduct business with an enterprise.
While a multi-channel environment made it easier for the customer to get in touch with businesses anywhere, an omnichannel experience enhances the customer journey and serves as a differentiator.
Omni-channel ensures a consistent, high-quality customer experience regardless of how and where a customer chooses to interact.
It ensures that data and context from initial contact carries over to subsequent channels, reducing customer effort, improving the customer interaction, and enabling the business to improve the customer journey.
2015 will be the year of transition from multi-channel to omnichannel with a renewed focus on ‘how’ to implement rather than ‘why’.
2. Cloud will Gain Prominence
The cloud model has seen unprecedented demand and growth in the contact centre market over the past few years.
Contact Centre Software as a Service (CCSaaS) is growing as a preferred model due to its speed, scalability, flexibility, reliability and low investment.
Though many companies have dabbled with deploying some applications on the cloud, it is only now that the cloud-based model is poised for an explosive takeoff – a clear sign of market maturity.
3. Workforce Optimisation will be the Differentiator
With the contact centre becoming the ‘face’ of the organisation and the first touch-point for the customer, it has a significant impact on the customer’s perception of your business.
Unsurprisingly, the workforce, which is the mainstay of any contact centre, accounts for two-thirds of the operational costs.
In such a scenario a well-implemented Workforce Optimisation (WFO) program can significantly bring down cost-to-serve and improve productivity.
4. Gamification for Enhanced Productivity
Considering the increased focus on agent productivity, gamification is a growing trend, which keeps employees engaged and in turn delivers a great customer experience.
According to analysts, companies that incorporate gamification within the contact centre environment, enjoy more gains in agent productivity.
They also retain more of their high-performing agents year-over-year as they are more likely to foster employee engagement in the contact centre.
5. Greater Integration between the Contact Centre and Marketing Efforts
As contact centres move into an omnichannel environment, marketing will play a greater role in interacting with customers.
The fact that the contact centre can be a great marketing tool will ensure that companies look at delivering consistent messages across all the touchpoints and align customer service calls with marketing goals.
2015 will see contact centres contributing not just for customer service efforts of organisations, but also for their marketing efforts.
Companies will adopt new marketing technologies to enable a personalised cross-channel experience.
So did the 2015 trends come to fruition?
What’s your experience?
Recommended further reading: 9 Predictions of the Future of Customer Service (written by Blake Morgan, 2019)
Find suppliers of the latest contact centre technology including cloud technology, gamification and more in the CX Directory >>>
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