The end of 2019 is closing in and we are starting to look back at how the communications landscape has changed. 2019 has been the year of strategic thinking with cloud communications and virtual agents providing better analytics, more social media conversations and more innovative ways to involve artificial intelligence.
As such, we have seen a number of trends that have helped companies to deliver a first-rate customer experience over the last year (we also have some predictions for 2020, but we’ll save those for another day). So, without further ado, here’s our…
Call Centre Trends of 2019
- Increased adoption of Cloud-Based Call Centres
- Cloud-based communication has become increasingly popular in call centres. Cloud-based communication allows businesses to take advantage of seamless team communications and collaboration. It also allows office-based contact centres to take on new locations, grow and contract workforces as demand increases.
- Artificial intelligence
- More businesses are using artificial intelligence (AI) applications to streamline call centre experiences for customers and agents with predictive analytics becoming more refined.
- Digital transformation
- Customers are no longer just looking for the cheapest price and are looking for a more rewarding experience. They want to build long-lasting relationships with companies and, therefore, require a more comprehensive and consistent experience. With the advances in technology such as omnichannel communications and machine-to-machine communication via the Internet, a forward-looking digital strategy is becoming essential for businesses who want to remain competitive.
- Better contact centre analytics
- Thanks to advances in call centre solutions, even smaller businesses are able to take advantage of call analytics to turn data into useful feedback with more call centres starting to rely heavily on analytics programmes to build dashboards and provide real-time updates on customer experiences.
- Omnichannel communications
- Omnichannel communication has continued to separate proactive businesses from their reactive counterparts during 2019. Businesses are recognising that, although a customer journey may begin on one channel, it is continued across, sometimes, many other channels. Unifying customer communications across channels has been helping businesses to resolve issues more quickly and identify better opportunities for future sales.
- More remote call centre agents
- With cloud-based communications and flexible call-centre software, more businesses are taking advantage of remote call centre agents. By using collaborative tools, contact-centre agents can maintain access to real-time analytics and customer context while working remotely.
- Two-way social media conversations
- By combining communications across channels into one stream, businesses are not only able to respond to feedback and have two-way conversations via social media channels, but provide a personalised experience with immediate access to the customer’s purchase and service history. As these conversations are usually in the public domain, it also lets other existing, and potential, customers see how the problem was solved and demonstrates to them the level of customer support you provide.
There you have it, these are some of the most important Call Centre trends that we’ve seen in 2019 that have helped businesses to not only grow but to stay ahead of the game and provide exceptional customer experiences. We expect these trends to continue throughout 2020, but we’ll be back with some of our predictions shortly.
If you haven’t yet taken advantage of some of the benefits of cloud-based call centre software and would like to know how to implement them for your business, please feel free to get in touch on 02921 111202 or sales@porthlas.com.
Kane is a leading, independent telecoms company based in South Wales. We understand that no two businesses are the same and use our knowledge and experience to deliver secure and reliable phone systems to help you provide your customers with an experience that is second to none.
