Call Center Management Featured Article
Time to Wear Shades - The Future of the Call Center is Looking Bright
Preparing for the future – it’s something that every business must do if they hope to be competitive. The challenge is that we don’t always know what tomorrow will bring. Innovation today moves at such a fast pace, it’s easy to be torn between what’s good for the company now and what might lend value tomorrow. In call center management, the challenges are the same, yet we may have some insight into what’s coming.
Call center management solutions provider, Monet Software (News - Alert) recently posted a blog on the topic, looking ahead to the operation of the call center in 2020. While less than four years away, we know that technology moves at a pace that can quickly make that competitive advantage elusive if we’re not prepared for the changes to come. Let’s take a look at the predictions shared in this blog to be ready for the challenges and opportunities in 2020.
Call Center Agents
It wasn’t that long ago that the typical agent just needed good customer service skills and the ability to answer calls. In 2020, this role will no longer be siloed and the skilled agent must be able to easily move from one channel to another, answering emails, communicating via online chat and interacting on social media. This also means that customers will use self-service for basic information and only reach out to agents for more complex assistance. Call center management will have to empower these individuals to make decisions and deliver quick resolutions for customers.
Call Center Management
For those in the management role who tire of the daily operations, the future is looking bright. As agents have the opportunity to make decisions and get more involved with operations, management will need to take on a bigger picture role within the organization, focusing more on the strategic role the center plays. The goal will be to develop better integration between departments to deliver on customer service expectations. At the same time, the call center will have to migrate to a profit-generating, contact center focused on efficiency.
Customers
Customers have already had a significant impact on the changes that have occurred in the call center space in the last few years. They increasingly want more options for communication and the ability to switch from one channel to another if they want to find information or resolution faster. As millennials and subsequent generations become the primary customer base, the live call is likely to shift to webchat, requiring that agents are equipped to deliver the right experience on that channel. Given that many of them will be of the same generation, the outlook is positive.
Workforce Management and Analytics
As technology continues to take priority in the call center space, workforce management and analytics will take even more prominent roles. The focus will be on accurate forecasting, actionable business intelligence, skills-based routing, capturing important customer data and more. Workforce management is expected to keep up with more accurate resource planning, making it easier for agents to bid on shifts in such a way that does not have a negative impact on the customer experience.
As the industry continues to evolve, there are other roles that are likely to be impacted or even created that are not readily obvious today. For the companies that are willing to pay attention and make innovation a strategic focus moving forward, their call center management will be in a much better place to drive profitability.
Edited by Stefania Viscusi