Making the choice to hire a contact center service is an easy one if you want to offer customers better service and engagement around the clock. It makes perfect sense. Serve your customers by getting their questions answered, and their problems solved.
After about 60 years in existence, contact centers have improved practices and have employed impressive technology solutions (cloud-based technology, call reporting and analytics, call monitoring, and recording). The industry has even undergone compliance requirements and regulations to protect the consumer, like the National Do Not Call Registry.
Now, after such an evolution, some are questioning if contact centers are at a crossroads. What kind of future will contact centers have when so much is changing in the world? For example, customers’ behaviors are always changing. Has the contact center caught up with the fast-changing consumer?
In addition to rapidly changing customer preferences and behaviors are the types of calls that are being handled at centers. Calls in many industries are getting more and more complex. This is happening because customers have the internet as a way to get the answers to simple problems.
Think about it. When was the last time you decided to “Google” the answer to a question you had about a product with the thought that it would be quicker than calling the company’s actual phone line? Companies that use call centers have employed other channels to better interact with customers like social media, email, and chatbots. Easy-to-answer and easy-to-address concerns are being handled on these channels, while the more complex situations are being saved for contact center interactions.
The other thing that may be putting call centers at a crossroads is a lack of customer patience.
People want answers and fixes now. They don’t want to wait long periods to express concern or lodge a complaint. How do you cater to your customers who want faster responses and solutions immediately from your business? Employing a chatbot or voicebot solution is one way you can offer reliable responses to your customers’ most common inquiries, during and after business hours. Another method may be to incorporate business texting. Over 78% of consumers say they prefer the ability to text a business – an ever-increasing statistic.
The truth is that every major technology solution, especially one that can improve customer experiences, like contact centers, will experience shifts and disruptions. However, it’s how you and your company react to those shifts and disruptions. Choose a flexible, adaptable, professional contact center.