Where are call centres heading in 2022?
What’s the first thing you’d glance at in a crystal ball if a fortune teller handed it to you? What are the winning lottery numbers, the next President of South Africa, and your future spouse’s identity? Boooooring. True visionaries would utilize it to address the most crucial issue of their lives: how will call centers evolve in 2022?
The call center, like many other areas of business, has changed dramatically in the last two years as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Contact center managers are seeking new tools and techniques to boost productivity and closure rates as call volumes rise in numerous industries.
This blog contains our top predictions for how the contact center will evolve in 2022, as well as advice on how to start planning your strategy now.
How have call centres changed over the years?
Previously, call centers were only capable of managing phone calls. This has altered as technology and consumer communication habits have developed. There are more methods to contact businesses than ever before, and many call centers manage a wide spectrum of client contacts as a result. Email, social media, webchat, and more options are available. “Contact centers” are the name given to these call centers.
Increased call volumes, a shift to remote work, a lack of relevant analytics, and employee fatigue will all be difficulties that contact centers will face in the future. Check out our top six predictions for the call center’s future below.
1. The call center experience will be held to higher standards than ever before.
Consumer data is being collected at a faster rate than ever before, and people want amazing experiences in return. People are considerably less inclined to do business with you if you fail to provide a seamless client journey. In fact, according to a recent survey, 74% of buyers are likely to buy based just on their experiences.
Consumer expectations are especially high when it comes to phone calls; according to our latest study, 59 percent of consumers will hang up after being put on hold for more than 10 minutes. The stakes are high: if you don’t get your consumers connected to a live person in this short amount of time, they’ll go to one of your competitors.
2. More call centers will invest in digital-to-call experiences that are seamless.
Companies today are collecting more data from their customers than ever before. The majority of consumers have accepted this since they demand tailored experiences in exchange. In reality, 71 percent of consumers assume firms already know why they’re calling, according to a recent study. You could be thinking to yourself, “How is that possible?” Do they want me to hire clairvoyants to work in my call center? Don’t worry; there are contact center solutions that can assist you in predicting caller intent and catering to it.
Before making a phone call to your company, call tracking systems automatically collect each customer’s digital journey. You’ll be able to discover which sponsored search phrase, banner ad, social media ad, or other marketing channel brought them to your site. You may also observe how they navigated your website before picking up the phone.
If someone phoned you from your “Limited Deals on a Trip to Seychelles” ad, for example, you might look up details on the campaign and be prepared to answer questions about it. You could look up someone’s billing information proactively if you’re a telecom customer service agent and they called from your billing website.
3. Call Centers Will Use Automated Quality Assurance to Improve Efficiency
Automation has improved the efficiency of practically every area of a company’s operations. Because call centers were generally considered cost centers with tightly managed and often limited budgets, they were slower to adopt automation than other company operations. As a result of this strategy, call centers are reliant on out-of-date on-premises equipment that can’t keep up with today’s data and automation expectations. In reality, half of call center managers believe their contact center technologies are insufficiently automated. In 2022, making use of automation could be the differentiator that puts you ahead of the pack.
Quality assurance is one of the most challenging and time-consuming operations in the modern contact center. To assess the quality of phone calls, your QA team (or a single person) must personally listen to them. Not only is this procedure time-consuming, but it is also prone to human mistakes. Furthermore, the normal QA team can only evaluate a tiny percentage of calls, resulting in inaccuracies – they may be catching your greatest agents on their worst days or vice versa.
Companies are leveraging conversation intelligence platforms like Invoca to automate and scale QA. Contact centers may utilize AI to automatically score each sales call with this solution. You can create your call score criteria, such as whether the agent used a suitable greeting, highlighted a current promotion, requested the sale, or mentioned a recommended upsell. This guarantees that you’re making proper decisions based on all of your calls, not just a few.
Agents also get real-time access to their scores, allowing them to monitor their progress. They’ll be able to identify which areas they’re nailing and which ones require a bit more attention. This provides them with visibility into their performance as well as the freedom to take the necessary steps to enhance it.
4. Call Transcriptions and Virtual Coaching will help call centers improve agent performance
Coaching is an important part of your contact center agents’ development. You may help agents find areas of improvement that would otherwise go unnoticed by using the steady hand of a seasoned manager. You may also give them methods to practice and keep track of their future calls to make sure they’re progressing.
However, when contact centers grow, the traditional practice of one-on-one agent mentoring becomes difficult to scale. Because contact centers increasingly rely on remote personnel scattered across time zones, it’s also difficult to provide a regular and timely response.
Managers of contact centers will increasingly use virtual coaching approaches in 2022. for Sales, which gives supervisors access to each agent’s call records and transcriptions. They can then tag the agent and remark on specific points from each call. The agent receives the feedback immediately, rather than having to wait for their next one-on-one, allowing them to alter their strategy on the fly.
5. Intent-Based Call Routing Will Improve Customer Satisfaction and Efficiency
Customers have more expectations than ever before, and many contact centers are failing to meet those expectations before the customer even gets an opportunity to talk with an agent. According to recent research, 79 percent of individuals who phone a company are diverted at least once. Furthermore, 53% say they have to explain their rationale for calling many representatives. You’re already setting callers up for a terrible experience if you don’t direct them to the correct agent on the first try. It will be more difficult for you to acquire their business and long-term loyalty as a result of this.
Cutting-edge call centers are dynamically routing each phone call to the appropriate agent to handle it in 2022 to exceed customer expectations. Some companies can track the webpage, ad, and other interactions that lead to each call and automatically route it to the best appropriate agent to handle it. Calls to customer service from a billing page, for example, are routed to sales, whereas calls to sales from a search ad announcing a new promotion are directed to customer service. To reduce churn, calls from a cancellation page can be forwarded to retention specialists. In 2022, we expect more call centers to employ intelligent call routing to cut hold times and transfers while also improving customer satisfaction.
6. The Norm Will Be Cloud-Based and Remote Contact Centers
According to a recent survey, 65 percent of respondents indicated they intended to work remotely full-time after the epidemic, and 31% said they desired a hybrid remote work environment. That’s 96 percent of those who want to work from home in some capacity. You’ll likely encounter significant turnover rates and recruiting issues in 2022 if you don’t cater to employees who desire a more flexible working environment.
It requires planning, preparation, and, most crucially, the correct cloud-based technologies to set up a remote call center. You’ll need a cloud-based call routing system, software to enable you to score conversations remotely, tools to assist agents to track their performance in real-time, and the correct agent coaching procedure in place.
Your staff will have everything they need to accomplish their jobs once your cloud-based infrastructure is in place, and you’ll have the information you need to help them grow. The advantages will only grow from there. Because you can recruit across time zones, you’ll have happier employees, fewer turnover expenses, and greater talent.