Leading customer engagement company and cloud contact centre provider, Content Guru, recently released the findings of a new industry survey designed to explore what Customer Service will look like in 2029. The research was conducted with the help of the UK Contact Centre Forum to examine the top priorities of modern contact centres. What’s more, the study examines how contact centres will evolve by the time the decade is over.
When asked to determine where they’re investing most of their resources and efforts, over half of the contact centres in the survey said that they’re looking into new ways of improving contact channel choices for their clients. In other words, 50% of contact centres believe that investing in an omni-channel strategy for customer service is crucial to the future of their operations. Self-service solutions, web-chat, social media and email have been highlighted as primary channels.
While a focus on new channels is positive, there are some gaps in the contact centre roadmap too, such as a limitation in the number of environments suited to remote workers.
Creating a Flexible Workforce
Although more contact centres are hoping to embrace the omni-channel environment, Content Guru’s report indicates that ambition is being hampered by lack of technology. Only 41% of the contact centres in the UK assessed by the survey say that they can handle all the channels they need on a single UC platform.
Not only that, but only 27% of the contact centres evaluated also have the systems in place for utilising the benefits of home-based agents too. Although 82% of respondents said that they anticipate having some kind of model for remote working in place by 2029, many will need to move faster to remain as operationally effective as possible. This is particularly true in the context of the current COVID-19 environment.
Evaluating which investments in the contact centre need to be a priority in the next one to three years was a valuable component of the latest report. UK contact centres said that putting solutions in place for the integration of multiple channels to be essential (62%). Another major concern was the demand to invest in more intelligent routing systems (55%).
Being Ready to Adapt
According to the Deputy CEO of Content Guru, Martin Taylor, the contact centre is evolving at an incredible pace. The organisations that have already made the transition into a cloud-based platform are thriving. These companies are the ones that have the freedom to update and adapt operations at speed. With the help of the cloud, businesses can introduce new ways of working and enhanced channels at a moment’s notice.
Martin also highlighted the fact that companies in the cloud with fully-integrated solutions are also the ones with access to the most disruptive technology. With the power of flexibility behind them, these business have everything they need to improve their workforce scheduling strategies and their campaigns for automation. This means that it’s easier to create highly effective hubs for customer engagement that provide incredibly positive experiences.
Tools like Content Guru’s platform on the cloud, Storm, offer companies the limitless scalability and unmatched integration opportunities they need. With this AI-enhanced platform, Content Guru can ensure that today’s contact centres are equipped to meet the needs of their customers. The Storm service is used by hundreds of organisations around the landscape, including Asia-Pac, US, and Europe.
As a leader in cloud solutions, Content Guru has the power to supply essential tools for mission-critical customer engagement and experience offerings to hundreds of organisations worldwide, including the NHS, and UK Power networks.
Stepping into the Future
The latest report from Content Guru highlights how important it is for today’s businesses to have the right technology in place for growth. The current Coronavirus pandemic has also accelerated the need for new technology in the landscape. Countless contact centres across the UK have been forced to launch new operational models to preserve the safety of their employees.
The result is that more agents are now been asked to work from home, and businesses need to ensure that they can deliver their services through scalable and compliant cloud platforms. The businesses that thrive in this new environment are the ones that adapt to this new environment at pace, with confidence and security behind them.
