For decades, the telephone has been the preferred method for customers reaching out to contact centres. It allows for an immediate answer and for the customer to engage with the live agent. The phone has also been a lifeline for many during the COVID-19 pandemic, with reports of increased customer satisfaction in the early stages of the pandemic, largely due to the need for interaction during the first lockdown as well as a spike in empathy and understanding for live agents working from home and the difficulties businesses and brands found themselves in as a result.
But since March last year, things have changed drastically. Working from home is now widely predicted to be the so-called ‘new normal’ and consumers have become far more digitally savvy. This means customer demands have changed and consumers are no longer as forgiving as they were some 12 months ago. In this exclusive interview, CX Today welcomes Richard Gregory, senior account executive at top Contact Centre as a Service (CCaaS) provider Odigo, to discuss whether voice will continue to thrive in the 2021 contact centre and whether businesses should be actively promoting alternative channels with their customers.
“I think the phone is still so prominent,” Gregory begins. “But if you look at the customer profile you’ll see that Gen Z and Millenials have a clear preference for digital channels so that’s going to have an impact too. And I suppose reason for interaction too. So if you’re complaining you will probably want to do that by phone call rather than social media, but then again, some may want that wider audience when making that complaint.”
Gregory makes a highly valid point. Millenials and Gen Z customers are prone to stereotypes due to their habits and behaviours in comparison with other generations, namely the desire to deviate from the norm. According to Pew Research Centre, millennials have surpassed Gen Z as being the most prominently represented generation in the modern workforce at approximately 53.5 million people. Research suggests they and Gen Zers prefer alternative channels that allow them to really think over their words as opposed to instantaneous voice options. That said, the pandemic has created a tsunami of anxious and stressed customers across an all demographics. Is this now, then surpassing the phone as customers’ preferred contact method? Gregory thinks not.
He adds: “The general perception is that voice isn’t going to go away but it also depends on what contact centre strategy an organisation has too.”
And what about the promotion of alternative channels to voice? Gregory believes customers should not be driven down a certain path and should be free to explore channels at their own accord. But the key is having an array of channels on offer to suit all consumer demographics.
Gregory says: “It should be a customer centric strategy rather than us or the organisation dictating how the customers interact with their business.
“What people don’t always understand is that a bad CX or customer journey could easily drive them to a different brand. Up to 75 per cent of consumers don’t like repeating themselves to agents.”
The Future for Contact Centres
Pre 2020, if businesses had been asked whether they had a working from home scheme or plan in mind for the majority of their staff, or even had ideas on introducing a hybrid workplace model, the answer for the majority would be a resounding no. But among the death and destruction of the COVID-19 pandemic, it has brought us some positives in workforce management in particular. But how will this be implemented as nations come out of the COVID-19 crisis?
Gregory says: “When it comes to the future and what we’ll be in the coming months, it comes down to whether agents have the tools to really manage a dip in CX levels. This will be in training, investment and agent support.
“But the real question has got to be how have the agents performed, and what are the customer satisfaction levels like over the last year?”
Gregory says he believes many companies will opt for the hybrid workplace model this year. This is of course great for live agents because it gives them the best of both worlds, but he says businesses must also make sure they provide the right tools and support to make sure their employees remain engaged still and motivated whether in the office or working remotely. This means making sure their technology is 100% future-proofed, like Odigo’s top-of-the-range CCaaS solution.
He explains: “Ours is a single omni-channel end-to-end CX platform, and first and foremost it enables these organisations to be agile and not be limited by hardware or tech that’s got to reside in a certain place.
“We’re very flexible and we can manage all channels securely so their customers’ and their data is protected. And we can open and connect to their existing platform.”
AI Integration
Gregory also explains that businesses should now be using AI to ascertain a high level of intelligence into customer conversations to establish what historical journeys consumers have been on.
He adds: “To be able to personalise the customer journey through automation is vital and will enable organisations to create better conversations rather than just interactions.
“We, as consumers, are far more likely to buy something if we’ve not only had more of a pleasurable experience but also if we feel like we’ve been able to get on with the agent and find some common ground or build up a rapport.
“So connecting the right agent to the right customer is really important. It’s about building up that profile to allow consumers – through AI – to express themselves naturally.”
To conclude, voice is most definitely here to stay and is unlikely to be pushed off the top spot anytime soon. But COVID has brought exciting new patterns and trends in the way customers choose to engage with businesses and brands. It’s all well and good for businesses to actively promote these alternative channels, but they must ensure they have the right workforce management tools in place to deliver the best possible CX.
