Remember when Ford (News - Alert) was all about quality being “job one”? Some new word has recently emerged about the future of the contact center, and for 2016, the new job one is engagement. Several new trends have emerged that suggest the future of the contact center next year, and a lot of those trends are focused on making contact with the customer and getting the most out of that contact, particularly for e-commerce users.
When it comes to e-commerce, a lot of buyers are first-time buyers, and thus aren't even sure what to expect. Some aren't confident in the brand, or the quality of the product, and are thus quick to exercise return options. Since returns are generally paid for by the e-commerce site itself, such can be very expensive, and thus building confidence seems to be the way to reduce costs. Inbound calls are also a major part of e-commerce's experience, and better than 75 percent of these revolve around a concern or an active complaint. Thus, a focus on engagement is on tap for 2016's contact center.
Tools like intelligent call routing will help get calls to those best suited to take said calls, increasing the chances of first-call resolution and giving the customer more confidence that his or her issue will be settled quickly. Service will also prove increasingly proactive, using tools like outbound interactive voice response (IVR) systems and mobile Web pages to better be ready for customer issues.
The e-commerce contact center will also need to bolster its omnichannel presence. Being ready to address concerns on online chat, by text message, and all the other channels that customers want to use will be all the more important. Just slapping a phone number on a Web page won't do the job any more; customers want more contact options at more times of the day. Indeed, a boost in mobile self-service options will likely also be a part of the picture as customers address some concerns directly, without a contact center's intervention.
Finally, getting information out of the customer experience will be all the more vital. Analytics tools will help provide actionable insights and means to improve businesses, and more contact centers will take this banner up. Plus, better social engagement will also be part of the equation as contact centers make better contact through social media, in both encouraging good reports and taking some of the teeth out of bad ones.
Whether addressing customer concerns on the plane the customer best enjoys, or deriving information about the customer to put to use elsewhere, it's all going to be about keeping the customer thinking, happy, and willing to shop with e-commerce sources. Addressing concerns before such become deal-breakers, and taking the results of information gathering to put to use later all are part of things, and the contact center will have to be front and center to be the calming presence that makes the customer feel safer and stronger shopping with said enterprise.
While right now people don't feel much compunction about shopping with Amazon or the major store chains, the smaller vendors will have to work harder to seem more stable and secure. Projecting that image of trust requires regular contact, and that will be the contact center's new job one.
Edited by Maurice Nagle