The Immediate Future Of Contact centers: What Does 2021 Hold?

The COVID-19 health crisis has reshaped the business landscape and the world of work. In call centers, more employees than ever work remotely, while customer expectations have risen to their highest levels since Internet connectivity and the smartphone revolution first transformed everything.

It has been a difficult year, and yet the challenges have made it a game changer that has caused the industry to innovate at a breakneck pace, and there is no turning back.

As 2020 draws to a close and we say goodbye to a year of unexpected learnings and changes, it’s the perfect opportunity to step back and learn from the past, and then move forward with renewed confidence.

What Are The Lessons Learned From 2020?

1) Remote Work Is Here To Stay

The pandemic has finally ended the decades-long debate about telecommuting or working from home. Recent statistics from the Gallup poll report that nearly two-thirds of employees who have been working remotely during the pandemic would like to continue to do so. Therefore, this is a trend that is likely to continue.

2) Companies That Weren’t In The Cloud Are Now

Many customers say that organizations with on-premises infrastructure have often struggled to cope with the massive number of calls that have flooded their contact center in recent months. Agility and the ability to flexibly scale up and down with a guaranteed 99.9% uptime and total security means that there really is no better time than now to transition to the cloud.

3) Customer Demands Are Higher And More Complex

In a recent Calabrio survey, one of the key findings was that the pandemic has led to increased customer expectations, and 3 in 4 respondents believe this will continue long after this global health crisis subsides. COVID-19 has also revealed how agents are often the preferred choice for self-service solutions. Going forward, the real challenge is to strike a balance between keeping the CX customized while fostering self-service, in order to reduce operating costs typically associated with high call volumes and meet customer expectations.

The Immediate Future Of Contact centers: What Does 2021 Hold?

With these lessons in mind, the coming year promises to be a good balancing act between motivating the workforce and delivering optimal operational processes and even a better customer experience (CX).

Three Predictions For 2021:

1) The agent’s well-being will occupy a central place

As more call centers continue to telecommute through 2021, agent skill sets will change as front-line staff will increasingly need to self-manage and resolve issues independently. They will also need to overcome technical challenges and be adept at using cloud collaboration tools to become a new breed of “expert agents.”

In the meantime, contact centers will have access to a broader talent pool, as travel or physical disabilities will no longer be a barrier to recruitment in 2021. However, this means greater competition from companies for top talent, which means that flexible scheduling and engagement tools will be key to recruiting and retaining the best agents, wherever they are.

2) Analytics Adoption Will Continue To Accelerate, For Agents And Customers

The 2020 shift to remote work and reduced face-to-face contact has made it clear that knowing, rather than guessing or “trusting instinct,” will be critical to anticipating the needs of employees and customers to maintain their satisfaction and loyalty.

The latest analytics tools will be critical in gathering the internal and external insights needed to empower front-line personnel and drive competitive advantage, whether through desktop analytics, employee sentiment, and predictors of stress, or sophisticated innovation from Voice of the Customer (VoC). By using analytics in all forms to quickly analyze the sentiment of user interactions, call centers will gain the visibility they need to anticipate and predict customer requirements and raise their own profile within organizations.

3) Changes In Customer Journeys Will Keep Everyone On Their Toes

As more contact centers use real-time metrics to manage CX, looking at old data to make decisions will no longer be acceptable. The surges in e-commerce and the rapid adoption of digital services have changed customer behavior.

This move towards digital channels is likely to continue in the medium and long term, making it more important than ever for companies to continually rethink how they interact with customers. Meanwhile, the continued reluctance of users to visit brick-and-mortar stores will continue to drive demand for online purchases, and the sharp increase in order volumes and delivery delays will inevitably lead to more inquiries in contact centers.