ISG Provider Lens™ Contact Center - Customer Experience Services - Global 2020 - AI & Analytics
Changing Contact Center Dynamics and Covid Impact
The lockdown in several regions due to the pandemic has led to service disruptions across many industries. Every industry has had its own set of challenges. The travel industry, in particular, has been experiencing high call volumes because of the sudden restrictions on movement. Insurance is also reeling under the effects with higher claim settlements, while retail has faced a dip in call volumes. The impact of the pandemic thus varies significantly from industry to industry.
The contact center space is facing the following challenges:
- Many companies have experienced more than 20 minutes in wait/resolution time — a significant increase from 18 seconds.
- Some have warned its consumers of long wait times.
- Many consumers have been asked to call after 48 hours.
The COVID-19 crisis has brought a dramatic shift in the buying/communication patterns of end users, and this change is likely to be irreversible. The use of non-voice channels has increased, and consumers have turned toward digital channels in this social distancing era.
Expectations of an improved customer experience and a seamless shift between channels have increased multifold. Only a few companies have succeeded in delivering an omnichannel experience, while many others are continuing with basic channels. Brands are challenged to deliver the best customer experience with more personalization to ensure that brand loyalty does not shift and customer retention remains high.
Trends that are shaping the contact center industry post COVID-19
With the rise of new working models and technologies, companies are still adapting and evaluating new ways of working. “Pandemic-accelerated digital transformation” may sound cliched, but enterprises have been accelerating their digital transformation journey. As most companies are trying to figure out their optimal ways of working, the following global trends highlight the future of the contact center industry and the direction it is taking.
Shift in operating model: The pandemic has forced organizations to opt for completely new working models that would allow nearly all agents to work remotely. Traditionally, contact center agents have been working from secure facilities and were seated with hundreds of other agents with immediate access to their supervisors. However, with the new work-from-home facility, the dynamics have shifted with a complete change in environment. Many organizations are rethinking their geographic or facility expansion strategy. At the same time, there are concerns about connectivity issues and background noise that must still be addressed by most organizations. Significant investments have already been made to resolve some of these challenges, allowing many organizations to reap numerous benefits such as cost savings, access to talent, flexibility and higher productivity. There are going to be challenges in adapting to this model. However, with technology evolving rapidly to support the work-from-home setup, a healthy mix of brick-and-mortar and remote working models is expected to emerge.
Beefing up security: As contact center employees are moving away from secure facilities and desktops, some agents are following the bring-your-own-device (BYOD) model. As a result, security has taken precedence. Several technologies are evolving and are being embraced to support the work-from-home facility. Companies are adopting facial recognition, auto screen lock, voice biometrics and robust use of VPN, screen monitoring, data discovery tools and other technologies to strengthen security controls. Artificial intelligence (AI) is a game changer and will be highly leveraged to bring the latest security solutions to agents. Bearing in mind that the contact center industry has been prone to breaches, and with the sudden shift to the work-from-home model, systems have become more vulnerable than ever. Enterprises should thus take utmost care while addressing security concerns and provide frequent and extensive training for agents to make them aware of security breaches and the importance of following protocols.
Evolution of cloud contact centers: During a crisis, enterprises face a new set of challenges, especially while delivering highly personalized services seamlessly across channels. They are forced to rethink their technology strategy. Even legacy-heavy enterprises are making cloud platforms a priority. Those that have already adopted cloud contact centers have quickly implemented the work-from-home setup and are ensuring minimal disruption while making this transition. With the benefits of remote working, there is a push to adopt this setup on a long-term basis. Some of the benefits include productivity gains from employees, cost optimization and flexibility to tap into a larger pool of talent. Thus, to enable better business outcomes, contact centers are looking to accelerate their move to cloud solutions.
Technological advancements have significantly changed the way customer service is being delivered. Cloud contact center solutions are embedded with a multitude of technologies and deliver considerable business benefits to contact centers. Omnichannel enablement has been made considerably easier, and enterprises that leverage technology to deliver a better customer experience will be able to clearly differentiate themselves in this space. Analytics and single-screen management functionalities have enabled agents to deliver highly personalized services, thus ensuring high customer satisfaction. With a range of benefits offered by cloud contact centers, more enterprises are moving to cloud platforms and are taking full advantage of the available technology stack, including AI and machine learning (ML) for redefining personalization. These solutions also come with a suite of workforce management capabilities that empower supervisors with information about their teams, making them more effective in terms of managing agents, coaching them and providing live training. With workforce management, agents are fed with timely, high-quality feedback that allows them to seek opportunities for training and improvement.
With such functionalities embedded into one package, the cloud contact center solution is highly suitable for enterprises that want to deliver a high-quality customer experience, thanks to its advanced technologies and ability to integrate seamlessly and talk to existing systems.
Channel proliferation increasing exponentially: With the announcement of lockdowns across the world and the immediate requirement for a remote working practice, none of the industries were prepared to embrace this sudden change. Call volumes, wait times and call abandonment rates increased significantly. Bandwidth challenges in the home environment have resulted in frustration among customers; long waiting hours culminated in calls getting disconnected while talking to advisors. This has induced a significant shift to asynchronous channels such as emails, social and async messaging wherein customers can communicate their issue and receive a response later without the need to wait. Some software vendors are reporting a 300 percent increase in the use of these channels vs. the traditional voice system.
In the past, millennials have led in the adoption of digital channels. This in turn has resulted in immense pressure on omnichannel connectivity and seamless experiences. However, the pandemic has proved that channel adoption is generation agnostic. Every member of a household is being forced to turn to digital channels, such as for buying essential items. With this change in end-user behavior, enterprises are now required to ensure that their customers have enough choices and are not limited to voice channels.
Rise of intelligent contact centers: Automation has seen a sharp spike in use during the pandemic. When agents were being shifted to the remote working setup, many enterprises leveraged chatbots to serve their customers for basic query resolution. Digitally native entities, especially fintech and insurtech companies, experienced minimal or no disruption due to their early adoption of flexible working models, cloud technologies and automation. Companies that adopted automation and leaned on conversational AI or bots to resolve numerous level 1 and level 2 queries had a great advantage. With automation becoming a necessity, most contact centers are actively looking to scale this capability and turn to newer technologies such as conversational AI, digital/virtual assistants, chatbots, etc. As bots are maturing and becoming smarter, to provide a more humanlike experience, agents will become more specialized to handle complex queries.
Analytics to drive empathetic conversations: An exceptional customer experience is enabled by true employee experience. If the agent is not empowered with information, it is nearly impossible to start the call without asking for basic information like names and phone numbers. With AI and analytics, an agent can now get complete background information to have more relevant, contextual, proactive and meaningful conversations with end users. Speech analytics, text analytics, sentiment analytics, customer behavior prediction, persona-based interactions, etc. are enabling more meaningful conversations.
Talent management and development as the next essential step: Agents are being pushed to adapt to new ways of working. They will be required to unlearn certain protocols that were more appropriate for the brick-and-mortar environment and pick up new protocols that are suitable for a remote working arrangement. This has become essential as companies are seeking to accelerate digital adoption. With the rapid implementation of automation, agents must keenly look into reskilling for handling more sophisticated calls or queries. With newer skills, they will play an important role in retaining customers. Investing in training and agent development programs, including security training and education, will be highly critical for their development. Gamification in recent times has gained popularity. Employees are highly engaged and maintain a healthy competition, which affects their productivity and motivation levels. With the shift to the work-from-home model, the adoption of robust collaboration tools is on the rise to enable peer interactions and agent-supervisor interactions.
Enterprises have identified that long-term remote working could lead to fatigue and lower motivation levels. Keeping employees engaged will be a challenge for most companies. Investments are being made in programs to address this concern. They are leveraging external agencies to ensure agent well-being and create a brick-and-mortar-type environment to keep active conversations going.
Revisiting BCP: Organizations did not have a business continuity plan (BCP) that was pandemic proof. It has become essential for them to revisit their existing BCPs that can enable nearly a 100 percent secure work-from-home environment and adapt to emergency situations such as the current pandemic.
Companies are looking at long-term business resiliency plans. The COVID-19 crisis will bring several “new normal” practices to this industry, especially because companies have been fairly conservative in providing the work-from-home option. They are now reevaluating numerous options, one of which involves revisiting and improving existing BCPs to address such situations with priority. In the case of outsourced engagements, companies should work with their service providers to ensure business resiliency.
Access to the full report requires a subscription to ISG Research. Please contact us for subscription inquiries.