Co-sponsored research by Verint and Five9 has revealed inefficiencies and opportunities within modern contact centers.
The report set out to understand the way in which organizations are meeting rising customer expectations, with a particular focus on their adoption and effective implementation of the latest AI and CX technologies.
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One of the biggest obstacles to positive customer experiences was shown by just under half of the 250 contact center leaders surveyed, listing managing a growing number of customer interactions as one of their top three business challenges.
Larger companies revealed that they are three times more likely to store engagement data in multiple silos. As a result of engaging customers on at least four channels, it makes the collation of data in a single hub more difficult.
Verint’s Celia Fleischaker, Chief Marketing Officer, responded to these data storage challenges: “Increased customer interaction volume and the proliferation of channels has created a massive amount of engagement data, transforming the contact center from a main source for company and product information into a goldmine of insights into consumer needs, behaviors, and customer experience challenges.
Organizational leaders need to find ways to unify and harness this data so they can deliver a more personalized and connected customer experience.
According to Verint and Five9, organizations should be striving to create a unified hub to bring all their data together.
Using this data, companies should then look to draw insights to improve their customer service experiences.
The research showed that this may not always be a straightforward step, particularly for contact center leaders from smaller organizations.
They revealed they sometimes struggle to gain meaningful insights from their engagement data.
Lacking finances could explain the source of difficulty for many of these companies, as 46 percent of smaller companies cite a limited budget as a major business challenge. Furthermore, 87 percent have the data in a single hub but reported that they do not have the funds to utilize it.
Some smaller companies with limited budgets are investing in text and speech analytics which helps to keep them better informed and generate more revenue.
Verint and Five9 believe that intelligent use of engagement data can improve customer experiences and “ultimately deliver better return on investment”.
Dan Burkland, President of Five9, spoke about this issue: “Contact centers have a unique opportunity to position themselves as a valuable data resource within the broader organization.
“Having disparate data systems and siloing information that could improve business operations leads to tremendous inefficiency.
“Enterprises cannot afford to delay integrating modern applications. Integrating AI and automation offers agents relief from the volume of incoming calls, providing them with the information they need to offer a joyful experience.
Effective management and visibility of engagement data can transform your contact centre customer experience and make a big impact across the entire customer journey.
The research also showed that a number of organizations were aware of the changes they needed to make to meet customer demand, and they are in the process of adapting their operations to achieve this.
Regarding omnichannel engagement, for example, many organizations are recognizing the importance of channels beyond email and phone, such as social media, live chat, and private messaging, because consumers want to engage on their channel of choice.
Furthermore, nearly 90 percent of respondents are already working to ease the pressure on agents by leveraging AI-powered chatbots to assist agents.
Finally, many companies have implemented purpose-built bots across workforce management, performance management, and knowledge management solutions to gain efficiency without losing quality.
