Top Contact Center Trends to Watch Out for in 2020

The year 2020 is a watershed for contact center trends as more & more call center firms are showing interest in adopting the best of tools, technologies, & services

The contact center trends and activities are undergoing tremendous changes in the past few years. We are at the juncture of contact center trends where new technologies, practices, teams, and operations' measures will be more accountable and necessary to succeed.

Customers' mindset, buying trends, and expectations have evolved over the past few years. Thus, to build a robust network of call center support systems, you need to acquaint yourself with the contact center trends for 2020.

Focal Points of Contact Center Trends For 2020

The common problem with a traditional call center facility is its limited locus. However, with cloud communication tools, robust database, analytical tools, project management software, expert call center partner, etc., you can extend the reach of your company and cater to the larger global networks. Here are the 6 major contact center trends that will help you in 2020 -

• Increased Cloud Adoption

  Microsoft recently said that the coming years will be the "Cloud" age for the international business and market. Cloud efficiently solves the issues related to database, security, flexibility, and usage. Thus, building or moving the team to cloud will take the center stage and help companies solve the issues of time-to-market, customer engagement, turnaround, etc. As an important call center technology trends, migrating the services to the cloud will instantly solve maximum business problems. The cloud tools collate data from universally accessible locations, and upon specific user-ids and logins, the user will have instant access to the customer information and data. Thus, it reduces the monotony and paves the path for better processes and engagement operations.

  According to a recent estimate - "Over 50% of the call center firms will move to the cloud this year". That says a lot about the usability and practicality of cloud adoption. Some contact center trends related to cloud adoption are -

  • If you are new to cloud and fear that the migration or implementation would not be proper or secure, then the best option for you is to leverage the global expertise by creating a virtual team or outsourcing call center services to an expert. The remote team works in tandem with their client and adjusts the working hours so that the client's business does not lag. Also, since almost every offshore team uses cloud communication tools., the engagement will never be an issue.
  • If you decide to implement any cloud-based platform, then, you can avail the real-time messaging tools or apps, or any teamwork tool to consolidate the customers' communications under a single comprehensive platform.
  • A powerful, yet simple cloud-based tool will drastically save the man-hours you put in the work and cut the overhead costs. You will not face any drags or communication gap between the teams as you will have all the data in the dashboard of the tool.

• Customer Engagement through Social Channels

  Social media helps in brand building by penetrating the targeted market. If you are using LinkedIn Twitter, or any other social media, you can create your own page. By consistently updating and educating your customer about your services/products, you can take the brand exposure to the next level.

  Such is the power of social channels that the market, audience, stakeholders, government, and almost every breathing human is present here. What you need, is a strategy that can take your brand into the likeminded masses.

  Taking into account the contact center activities, when you have more customers, you will get more engagements. The increased engagement will then be the task of the call center executives to optimize so that the highest volume of leads can be churned out.

  This or the coming year, the social media-shy companies, which amounts to almost 30% of the global firms, will adopt the major contact center trends and move to the social channels, like Facebook, LinkedIn, etc.

• Inclination Towards Collaborative and Productive Tools

  Collaborative tools, like project management software and communication tools, are universal. This means, irrespective of your geographic location, you can engage with your peers and customers instantly. All you have to do is leverage the data present in front of you and contact.

  One of the major contact center trends this year is a productive tool that can support an agent to control errors or damages because of simple human mistakes. Called as recall technology, it can provide direct help to the agents without interrupting their core works. With recall technology, the agents will -

  • Stop receiving error messages
  • Save time by quickly fixing the error messages
  • Keep conversations flowing without affecting customer engagement

  The recall management tool has been the talk of the town recently and has found its place in the contact center technology trends for 2020.

• Adoption of AI & Analytics

  With the adoption of artificial intelligence and analytical tools in your organization, you will get the leeway to better control and handle the everyday operation of your call center facility. Leveraging AI and analytics is not new; however, its adoption rate has accelerated the last year and emerged as the top contact center trends to watch in 2020.

  1. Increased Adoption of Chatbots

     According to a study by Gartner, the researcher predicted that over 85% of the chats, which is the preliminary contact will not be done by humans. The chatbots will conveniently replace the humans through its AI enabled responses and will learn on its own with age. The chatbots will be, for most cases, the first choice of communication for the customers. Also, these chatbots will sieve out the responses based on the exclusiveness and willingness of the customers. Thus, as a business owner, you will have a healthy list of prospective or qualified clients whom you can approach directly via your call center employees.

  2. Analytical Tools for Project Management, Marketing, and Sales Will Flourish

     One cannot refute that analysis of a business is critical not only for its sustenance but growth as well. You need to know what you do, how you do, and what options you have.

     With a solid CRM, and other call center analytics tool, you will have a myriad of options to expand your business. You can also substantiate the changes to your stakeholders or executives with hard facts. Here is a list of different analytical approaches you can adopt in your business -

     • Predictive Analytics - Predictive analytics gives an in-depth understanding of the overall processes of a company. From back-end operations to the front-end client interaction, you can gain an understanding of the business and make necessary changes for future growth. It allows you to learn from past mistakes and improve later. Moreover, through predictive analytics, you can review the call volume, responses, agent's performance, customer satisfaction, etc.
     • Speech Analytics - Speech analytics has piped up as a recent contact center trends and the rate of adoption is increasing exponentially. With this at your facility, you can monitor the calls, improve the process, streamline your contact center operations, and create a customized sales script based on the customer responses.
     • Text Analytics - Since, most of the communications, social media engagements, emails, or chats follow a pattern, you can leverage the text analytics to review the messages you send to your customers. You can also change the messages, if necessary, based on the responses.
     • Cross-channel Analytics - This is the newest contact center trends in the call center analytics. By leveraging this, you can come to a conclusion on the channels to focus more.
     • Self-service Analytics - Self-service has emerged as the leading contact center trends for 2020, considering that you have proper website traffic. By leveraging the self-service option, you can reverse the requirement gathering process. Here, the customer comes to you, fills the form, provide contact information, and in some cases, engage in survey questions. The pre-requisite here is to have a good performing website.
     • Desktop Analytics - If you are monitoring the calls, you can benefit massively from desktop analytics. The desktop of an agent is laden with data, sales-scripts, multiple open tabs, etc. The focus here is to monitor the activities of the agents, and if the productivity is less, then, train them to optimize their work.

  Many companies who have already made their mark in the international market leverage various speeches, texts, and other analytics to solve customer engagement & interaction problems. It can help reduce repeat calls by 50%.

  With AI-enabled tools and analytics software, you can dynamically analyze customer needs & issues based on their requirements and prioritize them. You will get a head start to delve into your project with confidence and execute the necessary changes.

  With the increased usage of analytics in every customer support activity, you can get the best of your customer support staff. Also, the tools will assist you in resolving the customers' queries and doubts in the very first call. Thus, it suffices to predict that in the year 2020, AI and Analytics will play a larger role than ever and lead the other contact center trends.

• Reliance on Advanced Self-service Features Will Increase

  Other than the analytical part of the self-service mentioned in the above para, the trends of searching have also changed among the customers. They look for FAQs, social or any interactive forums, and online help when they open a company website. They want convenience over any other thing as they have a plethora of options to browse. They will contact the first company they find appropriate.

  Hence, a self-service menu and options will go a long way in keeping the customer in the loop. You must find an inbound approach to lure and entice your customers with pre-written content and online support.

• Hiring Virtual or Distributed Teams Will be Trending

  Today, organizations are rarely local, at least not in the diverse IT and related industry. To keep up with the market momentum, you need to optimize costs and gain hard-to-reach skills while maintaining productivity.

  One of the major call center trends to watch out in 2020 is the emerging virtual teams. Now, ideas and projects can be combined with team members more easily, regardless of location. Cloud collaboration is changing the way teams interact online or remotely and helps in building subcultures in remote locations.

  No matter where you are, getting the best people is a challenge. Especially the management personnel and retention of these talents. An appropriate outsourcing partner can build, promote, and deploy talented teams on demand and can focus on your project.

  • Account managers can use their easy-to-access talent pool and tailor the right service for your projects
  • Intelligent resource allocation can significantly reduce working hours while meeting project schedules

  With collaborative tools at your disposal, you can handle unpredictable project spikes and introduce flexibility to cater to your larger needs. Thus, be on the lookout for these interesting contact center technology trends in 2020.

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Outsource Call Center Services to Outsource2india

Businesses that outsource their call center service requirements, and open to adopting emerging contact center trends and customer engagement models have an upper hand in controlling their teams. With Outsource2india as your service partner, you can maintain direct control over the call center operations and start the improvement process in your company. We excel in different types of call center services, including inbound & outbound call center services, technical support, email support, telemarketing, etc.

O2I is one of India's leading call center service providers and has successfully provided BPO and KPO services to several global companies for the past 25 years. With five global distribution centers, we focus on customer requirements, services, turnaround, and timelines, to make a long-term relationship with our clients. Also, you do not have to worry about overheads or layoffs or any budget constraints. We have flexible call center service models for businesses of all types and size. Get in touch with us to get the quote for the service perfect to your growing firm.