7 Contact Center Trends In The Cloud To Improve The Customer Experience

Until now, almost all companies have realized that the customer experience (CX) is a differentiating factor. Although great efforts and resources have been invested in CX and there have been great gains, according to the “Customer Experience Index of 2017” of Forrester (CX IndexTM), the quality of CX has stabilized or declined for most industries and companies last year.

Today, customers are getting used to improved experiences and want better and better service. Companies need to keep up with these expectations so as not to be left behind. According to studies from various consultancies, there are 7 contact center trends in the cloud to improve the customer experience in 2018: 

1.- Rapid Growth Of Artificial Intelligence (AI)

In the years prior to 2018, AI has been the solution to almost any problem, and for good reason. Chatbots, process automation and virtual assistants have transformed the experience and expectations of the client, and have improved for the roles of the customer service agents. The real growth in the future will be to use AI to invent new ways to interact with the customer, reinvent business processes and create new markets for products and services.

2.- More Investment In Digital Transformation

Now there are higher expectations of the client and companies need to be up to the task. Digital transformation is the key to this happening, but it is not happening fast enough.

According to Forrester, up to 60% of executives believe they are falling behind with their digital transformation initiatives. The trend in 2018 will be that the digital transformation goes from being just an IT or CIO problem to being the responsibility of the entire organization. The digital transformation will be seen as the only thing that will keep the company alive.

3.- Moving To The Cloud Will Be Safer

The cloud will become even friendlier for companies in 2018. We all know that moving to the cloud offers a way to avoid capital investment in volatile technology and focus on core competencies. And it allows companies such as masvoz to offer an innovative service, with instantaneous updates and provide integrations with other corporate systems (CRM, ERP or Salesforce).

All call centers that use the masvoz Cloud Contact Center solution enjoy the latest and most advanced version of their products, including data, configuration, user administration and individual agent functionality. In addition, each company, department and user has the same version.

The cloud will continue to be a dominant force in the digital transformation of all companies.

4.- Personalization Of The Self-service

Personalization will be key for companies that seek to keep up with customer expectations. The customer is the king and wants to have a self-service experience that is highly relevant.

Companies that know what product a customer has hired will learn which channels a customer prefers and will attend them without having to ask. Organizations that take the customer experience seriously through customization will create loyal customers.

5.- Improvement Of The Experience Of The Agents

The experience of employees in customer service is changing rapidly, so companies must find ways to ensure that their agents are well motivated and rewarded for taking on new responsibilities. As the combined AI becomes more prevalent, the role of the agent or customer service representative will change.

It is known that higher levels of participation of employees and agents improve the customer experience.

6.- Automation

Automation will allow agents to focus on helping customers, improve quality by decreasing manual data entry errors, reducing reprocessing and decreasing complaints. The reduction of manual tasks allows a better approach in listening to the client, feeling empathy and providing a frictionless experience.

7.- Proliferation Of Omnichannel

It is not a novelty that consumers like to interact in the channel they choose. And that channel can change on a whim and in a second. A conversation initiated on a messaging platform can migrate to a call that can be sent to an email and returned to a message.

But companies must do a better job of offering a true omnichannel experience. According to Dimension Data, only 8% of organizations claim to have all their channels connected, and up to 70% say that none or very few of their channels are connected.

And new channels come into operation all the time. Video-chat is beginning to be adopted. The exchange of screens, virtual assistants and messages integrated into the application will continue to increase in 2018.

How can a company stay up to date in this regard? Having a simplified configuration of multiple channels so that call center managers can enable an omnichannel communication style. In practice, this means that a conversation must be able to continue when changing the channel. It means adding a message or content channel to an existing communication. And finally, the context of the conversation must be maintained at all times.

In conclusion, 2018 is going to be a great year of disruption for contact centers. The technology that is being brought online and the challenging attitudes of business leaders will lead to great developments. In masvoz we are very aware and we are well prepared for what will come because the expectations of customers will not stop growing.