As soon as a company begins to branch out, the need for more hands on deck increases, which means more skilled, qualified and capable people to be the face of your business. Whilst this has always been the case, the way a call centre operates has changed a great deal over the years and is expected to change even more in the future.
These are some of the biggest changes we expect to see in the coming years.
Technology has been striving towards businesses being more automated for years and we expect that to amplify into 2019. The best guess is that there will be a much greater reliance on chat-bots and apps, as these tend to be the favoured means of communication among the younger generation.
Is this a problem for the call centre industry?
Well, research suggests not.
94% of marketing budgets are spent trying to coax people to call. Why? Because people still value a real conversation over a chat-bot or even an email. Which is why the call centre is still a massive part of business and not about to be overshadowed anytime soon.
Understandably, customers and businesses alike are becoming warier of identity theft. Whilst there has always been a significant threat, the problem is becoming much more prevalent, with 2016 reaching record levels of identity fraud.
This means there’s more pressure than ever for call centres to establish trusting relationships with their customers and employ stronger means of warding off potential threats. Maintaining actual human interaction rather than simply relying on automated processes will go a long way into doing that.
It’s fully expected that there will come a point where call centres will become fully transparent and we do mean that literally. Customers will, in the not too distant future, be able to see real time information about a call centre, from who is free to talk, to what their specific skill set is. This open relationship between customer and representative will allow for a much smoother journey from a customer having an issue, to that issue being resolved.
Once again technology advancements will have a huge impact on how the call centres operate, especially when it comes to emotional responses.
Gaging the emotional state of customers has always been a huge part of life working in a call centre, and we fully expect technology to take over that aspect of it too. Whilst this type of technology is by no means new, experts predict that the concept will advance exponentially, with every slight nuance of conversation picked up and analysed, further aiding how a representative responds.
These are just a few of the predictions experts have made about the direction in which call centres are heading, and whilst it can seem somewhat daunting, it’s exciting to realise that call centres are not about to be outdated by technology, but enhanced by it.