ISG Provider Lens™ Contact Center as a Service - CX - Global 2020 - Contact Center as a Service
Changing Contact Center dynamics and COVID-19 impact
The lockdown in several regions due to the pandemic has led to service disruptions across many industries. Every industry had its own set of challenges. The travel industry in particular is 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 high wait times.
- Many consumers have been asked to call after 48 hours.
With COVID-19, the buying/communication patterns of end users have taken a dramatic shift. Potentially, this change will be an irreversible phenomenon. The usage 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 has increased multifold. Only a few companies have succeeded in delivering an omnichannel experience, while many others continued with basic channels. In this crisis, brands are challenged to deliver the best customer experience and personalized experience to ensure that brand loyalty does not shift, and customer retention remains high.
Rapid rise of adoption 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 a workfrom-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 for contact centers. The omnichannel enablement has never been made easier, and enterprises that leverage technology to deliver a better customer experience will be able to clearly differentiate itself 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 that cloud contact centers bring to enterprises, more enterprises are moving to cloud platforms and are taking full advantage of the available technology stack, including artificial intelligence (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 quality and timely feedback which allows them to seek opportunities for training and improvement.
With all these functionalities embedded into one packed solution, the cloud contact center solution is highly suitable for enterprises that want to deliver a high-quality customer experience with its advanced technologies and ability to integrate seamlessly and talk to existing systems.
Evolving journey of cloud contact centers
Merger and acquisition (M&As) activities are continuing in this space as most of these solution providers are seeking to enhance their product portfolio and capabilities. Over the years, active consolidation has changed the cloud contact center space significantly. In early 2017, most of the acquisitions were aimed at enhancing as-a-service capabilities. With the rise of automation and AI in 2018 and 2019, the focus was broadly on acquiring AI capabilities. As employee engagement and experience became a critical part of customer experience, some acquisitions are now focused on enhancing capabilities around these aspects. Cloud contact centers are evolving over time and have increasingly become a complete packaged solution for customer/employee experience.
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