Customer expectations and options are growing exponentially every day, and competition, saving time, and saving money are front of mind. The following predictions are how I expect to see the future of contact centres, with emerging capabilities creating happy contact centre agents and customers.
Prediction 1: Robotic Process Automation (RPA)
Many contact centres rely on legacy systems that can be slow to navigate and require agents to complete multiple steps for even basic tasks. These time demands don’t work well with impatient callers.
Robotic process automation is an exciting technology that continues the use of bots and AI. RPA simplifies the building, deployment, and management of software robots to work with digital systems and software. Contact centres can benefit from RPA through streamlined workflows.
It begins on the first day, as robots can guide agents through training modules, perhaps with an emphasis on procedures, typical next steps, etc. Robots can also help agents record key details from each call and provide real-time information to improve customer satisfaction.
RPA benefits include:
- Less human error, reduced wait times, and more reliable service
- The freedom for agents to focus on more complex calls or follow up individually with customers
- Higher agent engagement and satisfaction
Key takeaways:
- The move away from time- and step-intensive legacy systems benefits both agents and customers.
- Streamlined workflows improve agent and customer satisfaction.
Prediction 2: Agent experience will grow in importance
Simply put, happy agents = happy customers. It’s essential to arm contact centre agents with the tools they need to do their job at the highest level, no matter where they’re located.
With the right solution, agents can stay in one interface and avoid “swivel chairing” or toggling between tools. New hires are easily onboarded and ramped up. Managers can uncover best (and worst) practices to drive better training and continuous improvement.
Additionally, virtual assistants can take simple, monotonous interactions off agents’ hands, sentiment analysis highlights when customers are not happy, and agent capacity modeling can keep agents busy but not overloaded.
Key takeaway:
- When agents can perform at their best, customers benefit from better issue resolution.
Prediction 3: The contact centre as a profit centre
As the contact centre becomes a more embedded part of every organization, it will transition from a cost centre to a profit centre.
Businesses are increasingly using AI and analytics to search through contact centre data and find needles in the haystack, like key industry trends they need to respond to, competitor actions, fraud issues, top performing agent traits, training needs for newer agents, and so on.
Key takeaway:
- The contact centre can be a source of important business insights.
Prediction 4: Augmenting the contact centre with APIs
Communications APIs (application programming interfaces) give your business the ability to embed voice calls, text messages, and other communications capabilities into an application or product. For the contact centre, this means ultra-extendability and customization. Your contact centre can enjoy almost unlimited integrations with third-party systems and ensure that customers and delivery partners are able to achieve their business goals.
For example, look at how notification responses are handled, including in-app support requests that flow to a virtual assistant and then into the contact centre agent flow for live support if needed.
Key takeaway:
- The entire communication journey can be captured and analyzed in one place.
Prediction 5: The future with 5G
5G — the fifth-generation technology standard for cellular networks — is opening new possibilities for contact centres. 5G enables a wealth of benefits, including enhanced speed, low latency, increased reliability, higher call quality, and more efficient connections with remote workers.
It’s likely that most of your customers have 5G-ready devices. As a result, you have the ability to offer immersive VR and AR self-service options and to make broader use of video in customer interactions.
Key takeaway:
- 5G can enable higher call quality, more remote agents, and better customer service.
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Contact centre managers can get the tools to stay ahead of current and future needs today. The cloud-based Vonage Contact Centre brings the features and capabilities you need to keep pace with the rapidly evolving customer service landscape.