Are You Up-to-Speed on the Latest Call Center Tech Trends?

The tech­nol­ogy employed in call cen­ters is a bit like a sand dune – it is con­stantly shift­ing to adapt to cus­tomer pref­er­ences and habits. It may seem that just when your call cen­ter and team have become com­pe­tent in one type of call cen­ter tech trend, the dune has again shifted, and you must re-adapt. When it comes to stay­ing cur­rent with the lat­est tech­nol­ogy and trends in cus­tomer sup­port, ensur­ing that your call cen­ter and team are well-trained on the lat­est tech trends is vital. Your com­pe­ti­tion, after all, is pay­ing atten­tion to call cen­ter tech trends and cus­tomer behav­ior. Are you?

To make sure you’re stay­ing abreast of the lat­est trends, we’ve com­piled five of the worth­while call cen­ter tech trends to con­sider employing.

Call Cen­ter Tech Trend #1: The multi-channel con­tact center

Cus­tomers inter­act with the world through many modes: online, their phones, their tablets, and in the store. In fact, a study by Genesys found that 77% of cus­tomers use more than one chan­nel when using cus­tomer ser­vice. If you think that your call cen­ter alone is suf­fi­cient enough to han­dle cus­tomer sup­port, think again. Cus­tomers expect to be able to email a com­pany, use live chat, use a company’s app – and pick up the phone when they need assis­tance from a com­pany. Is your com­pany set up to work with cus­tomers through multi-channels?

Call Cen­ter Tech Trend #2: Mon­i­tor­ing customer’s emotions

Voice mon­i­tor­ing tech­nol­ogy allows com­pa­nies to mon­i­tor cus­tomers and pri­or­i­tize which cus­tomers receive ser­vice first based on the tone of their voice. Voice mon­i­tor­ing tech­nol­ogy picks up on a caller’s pitch, tone, and how quickly they speak, ensur­ing that those who are more upset can speak to a cus­tomer rep­re­sen­ta­tive sooner. Use of this tech­nol­ogy has shown to have a pos­i­tive impact on call cen­ter key per­for­mance indi­ca­tors (KPIs).

Call Cen­ter Tech Trend #3: Let­ting the cus­tomer choose the com­mu­ni­ca­tion method

Cus­tomers are used to being in con­trol, and the way that cus­tomers inter­act with cus­tomer ser­vice agents is no excep­tion. The whole notion of cus­tomers pick­ing up the phone, nav­i­gat­ing through a phone sys­tem, and wait­ing to speak to a cus­tomer ser­vice rep is quickly dis­si­pat­ing, as the call cen­ter tech trend of cus­tomers choos­ing how an agent con­tacts him or her is becom­ing the norm. With browser-based con­tact (WebRTC), cus­tomers can quickly fill out a form online and decide how to be con­tacted by a cus­tomer ser­vice rep, and at what time. From the customer’s stand­point, this may seem very straight­for­ward, but for call cen­ters, use of this tech­nol­ogy requires a mas­sive restruc­tur­ing in tech­nol­ogy and cus­tomer sup­port training.

Call Cen­ter Tech Trend #4: Using big data to bet­ter under­stand customers

Advances in big data are allow­ing com­pa­nies to sort through mas­sive amounts of cus­tomer infor­ma­tion, spot trends, and respond accord­ingly. For exam­ple, if cus­tomers between a cer­tain age and income range tend to inter­act with a com­pany pri­mar­ily through the web, a com­pany can use this infor­ma­tion to max­i­mize cus­tomer sup­port via the web, send pro­mo­tional offers, and fore­cast how to best work within a customer’s behav­ior set. Cap­tur­ing a 360 degree, holis­tic view of cus­tomer behav­ior is a pow­er­ful way to offer cus­tomer ser­vice, and the use of met­rics and big data makes this possible.

Call Cen­ter Tech Trend #5: Vir­tual Assistants

The use of vir­tual assis­tants is tak­ing off as a way to bridge the gap between the inter­net and the call cen­ter. Vir­tual assis­tants on a web­site can inter­act with a web surfer, cap­ture infor­ma­tion, guide a cus­tomer to help options, and con­nect users with a cus­tomer ser­vice rep via live chat, email, or give cus­tomers a num­ber to call. As with other call cen­ter tech trends, vir­tual assis­tants give the cus­tomer more con­trol, while simul­ta­ne­ously cap­tur­ing vital infor­ma­tion that can help your com­pany build a pro­file of your customer.

Meet your cus­tomers where they’re at

The over­ar­ch­ing shift in cus­tomer ser­vice and with call cen­ter tech trends is to meet the cus­tomer where he or she is at, on a vari­ety of plat­forms, and at the customer’s con­ve­nience. For­tu­nately, there are a whole host of new tech­nolo­gies that can help your com­pany shift with the sand dune and offer world-class cus­tomer support.