April 2, 2015
Much like contact center managers who are looking to set their budgets, consultants are often asked about what is new, where training dollars should be spent, and what areas of technology should be evaluated. Daniela, a blogger for Fonolo, recently posted a useful blog entitled 10 Important Contact Center Statistics for 2015. She pulled together statistics from Gartner, Forrester, The Harris Poll, ICMI Research, DMG Consulting and ContactBabel to get a glimpse into the future of contact center. I have highlighted 5 contact center trends that demand your attention:
1) “By the end of 2014, more than 40% of the top companies will be using gamification…”
This is a very interesting statistic. Gamification is a hot topic in contact centers, as the statistic shows. Healthy competition among agents, as well as individual motivation, is a great way to give a boost to productivity, quality, and other key areas.
2) “44% of consumers with texting capabilities would prefer to press a button to initiate a text conversation immediately, rather than waiting on hold.”
This has ramifications for both web chat and SMS. One company that has an interesting take on the SMS side is WebText. They embrace the SMS trend and allow contact centers to detect customers that are calling via a mobile device and offers them an SMS chat instead of waiting on hold. The SMS chat works within the Finesse WebChat interface, making for a seamless agent and customer experience. Once callers know the SMS number, they can initiate chats directly.
3) “86% of today’s call centers are multi-channel, and 74% of customers are using three or more channels…”
This statistic probably comes as a shock to some smaller contact centers that are still getting their minds around multichannel. For those small centers using Cisco Unified Contact Center Express (UCCX), there is an opportunity to get started without a lot of new investment. In conjunction with the Cisco SocialMiner platform, UCCX has many channels built right in!
4) “39% of contact centers are either planning to implement or upgrade their chat features in the next 12 months.”
It is easy to see how some of these items tie together. Web chat is a popular channel in contact centers, and for those that have older systems or are looking to add chat, they should look at Cisco’s Finesse Agent Desktop chat solution.
5) “US consumers alone will own 257 million smartphones and 126 million tablets by 2016.”
As statistics indicate, businesses need to make sure they are adapting their customer service strategies to meet mobile demands. Many large companies are rolling out mobile applications that offer personalized service, with features like video chat and co-browsing, to let a customer service representative assist with what you are seeing. This is a trend that is already here and continues growing.
What Does It All Mean?
About Mindsight
Mindsight, a Chicago IT consultancy and services provider, is an extension of your team. Our culture is built on transparency and trust, and our team is made up of extraordinary people – the kinds of people you would hire. We’ve always prided ourselves in delivering the full spectrum of IT services and solutions, from design and implementation to support and management. Our highly-certified engineers and process-oriented excellence have certainly been key to our success. But what really sets us apart is our straightforward and honest approach to every conversation, whether it is for a local business or global enterprise. Our customers rely on our thought leadership, responsiveness, and dedication to solving their toughest technology challenges.
Daniela is a regular blogger on the fonolo.com website. She writes about contact center trends and technologies.
