Many business sectors have bought AI services without having a legitimate use for them — some are still struggling to know exactly what to do with these novel tools. That’s not the case with your industry, though. AI is just one of many contact center trends that are shaping the way things work.
Because AI gets so much airtime, I’d like to zoom out and focus on the full picture to give you a wider view of the changes happening all around.
1. Robocalls are not slowing down
The vast majority of Americans don’t answer calls from numbers they don’t know. I know I don’t. Yet U.S. consumers still receive around 4 billion robocalls per month, according to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). That equals roughly one call every two business days for each person in the U.S., even if most of these calls go unanswered.
The sheer existence (and persistence) of robocalls can affect your contact center in a few different ways. Robocalls can decrease contact rates of customers who are hesitant to answer unknown numbers. And two, the mere association with robocall activity can cause legitimate calls from contact centers to be blocked or flagged.
If you’re having trouble with your company lines being flagged or blocked and want to uphold a more positive caller ID, there are a few strategies to consider:
- Authentication protocols: Enhancing the legitimacy of outgoing calls becomes more accessible with solid authentication protocols. Techniques like STIR/SHAKEN use digital certificates to add an extra layer of security by verifying caller IDs and guarding against the trickery of spoofed numbers.
- Monitoring and analytics: Keeping a close eye on call data and using analytics can be a helpful way to spot any unusual patterns and irregularities in call behavior.
- Caller reputation services: These services evaluate a caller’s trustworthiness, helping to build and maintain a good reputation. Integrating them into your communication setup adds an extra layer of protection to avoid being wrongfully labeled as spam.
SEE: Does caller ID mean much in a world where robocalls and spoofing exist?
2. More businesses want omnichannel capabilities
An omnichannel contact center allows customers to connect on their preferred channels, allowing them to transition from one channel to another while maintaining a consistent level of service regardless of where they initiate contact.
For contact centers, this means breaking down the barriers between different customer support channels and adopting technologies that enable seamless handoffs between agents. This can also include using social media platforms like Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok as alternative support channels.
For some time now, omnichannel contact centers have been widely used in retail, healthcare, education, and other industries that provide a mix of in-person and online services. Other verticals are seeing the benefits and jumping on board.
In real estate, for example, omnichannel contact centers can help agents manage inquiries from potential buyers across phone, email, and chat, offering consistent updates and support throughout the process.
Hospitality is another example. Many hotels now use omnichannel systems to streamline guest communication, from booking and check-in to service requests, providing a seamless experience across apps, phone, and on-site interactions.
If you’re looking to get your company into this terrain quickly, investigating omnichannel contact center software and CPaaS platforms are a good place to start.
SEE: Discover how CPaaS works and how it can help you wow your customers.
3. Contact center automation threatens customer empathy
When a customer calls your contact center with a problem or complaint, they most likely aren’t thrilled to be making the call. If your agents are testy or hostile with them, your company’s reputation can take a serious hit.
This is nothing new, but as contact centers increasingly automate customer service — in the form of chatbots, visual IVRs, and so on — it gets harder and harder to really show care to your customers.
Don’t get me wrong, there are many good use cases for AI chat bots. And if you deploy this service thoughtfully, you really will wow customers that solve problems faster than they could by speaking to a human.
That said, I have seen some recent musings on LinkedIn and in tech blogs about the trouble companies are having maintaining their brands “caring” reputation and customer service automation.
If you are trying to build brand loyalty by providing excellent customer service, a contact center is definitely the way to go. Advances like conversational IVR automate processes that remove a human agent from the equation. That’s great for call center metrics, but is it really elevating the contact center experience for customers?
The basic trend right now is to automate everything in contact centers. I expect companies who focus on empathy will temper that impulse, deliver excellent service at key moments in the buyer journey, and win a high-degree of loyalty from customers.
4. Lower costs boost data-driven decisions
Data collection in contact centers is becoming more accessible and affordable due to advancements in AI, automated speech recognition, cloud computing, and automation. Tools now capture and analyze vast amounts of customer data from various interactions in real time, without the need for expensive hardware or complex integration. This reduces the cost of data management while making insights available faster.
With better access to data, contact centers can make more informed decisions about staffing, customer service strategies, and overall operations. Detailed analytics help predict trends, identify areas for improvement, and enhance the customer experience, all based on accurate, up-to-date information.
This is a trend I would really lean into. Has your vendor released any new data or call center analytics features you aren’t using? Can you use Chat GPT for sentiment analysis? The insights you need to make smart decisions are in the data, and it’s never been easier or less expensive to go find them.
5. Contact center retention is still a struggle
Agents face demanding workloads, dealing with frustrated customers and balancing performance metrics like average handling time and resolution rates. This pressure often leads to burnout and high turnover.
SEE: Discover more causes of agent burnout and how to avoid them.
This is not a new trend, but I think it’s been exacerbated by the surveillance-style monitoring that some employers use. Today, this may include intrusive software that tracks every mouse movement, keypress, or time spent on each task.
The (in my opinion) excessive focus on minute details and constant surveillance can create a sense of distrust, making agents feel undervalued and overwhelmed, which ultimately affects their performance and job satisfaction.
To boost employee retention and avoid attrition, contact centers can implement the following strategies:
- End micromanagement: Contact centers must acknowledge that the majority of their workers don’t like being micromanaged. By trusting workers more and watching them less, they can feel more comfortable to do their jobs well.
- Set realistic goals: Make goals that people can actually reach. If investors demand impossible EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization) goals, don’t have the contact center employees bear the burden.
- Allow flexible work times: Let workers have some say in their schedule, like when they take breaks or go to meetings. Companies with sound operations should be ready and able to adopt this practice.
- Invest in quality technology: Your employees will prefer working for a company with sturdy hardware, friendly softphone software, and amicable VoIP systems. Choose your VoIP provider wisely so the people helping your brand are comfortable doing so.
You need to invest in your workers and supervisors if you want them to stay. A well trained manager can address problems like call avoidance without micromanaging. At a certain point, no amount of surveillance technology is going to help, and it’s almost guaranteed to make the problem worse.
6. AI is growing self-service options
One of the AI trends for contact centers is self-service automation — which has technically existed for years, but generative AI is taking it to a new level.
In contact centers, self-service automation uses technology to allow customers to find information and resolve their issues independently. This included visual IVR, blog posts, online knowledge bases, pre-recorded messages for call centers, and online FAQs.
SEE: Discover five effective ways to use visual IVR in your call center.
Now, however, features like AI-driven chatbots and AI-searching tools can scan your knowledge base and give customized answers a lot faster.
Here are some tips to incorporate this trend into your business:
- Watch out for advancements in customizable AI tools: Open-source projects like Quivr allow organizations to launch a “second brain” fed with knowledge that customers appreciate.
- Connect with AI-driven chatbot vendors: Large Language Models have helped chatbots move away from pre-programmed output and provide a more human-like experience for customers.
- Tell the market you’re adopting AI: If you’re a contact center vendor or a company adopting AI-centered self-service automation, let the market know you’re using the latest tech. If there’s anything to fine-tune, the consumers will understand it, and investors will find it interesting that you’re ahead in the race.
7. AI customer sentiment analysis tools are more accessible
Contact centers have been using AI to analyze customer sentiments for almost a decade already. Now, with the general advancement of AI and Large Language Models (LLMs), two underlying tendencies have emerged in sentiment analysis.
The first is availability. Just a few years ago, implementing AIs to evaluate feelings could have required heavy investments on infrastructure and risky contracts with unproven products. Today, companies deliver AI in microservices, meaning contact centers can leverage them through easy-to-integrate APIs.
The second tendency that has emerged is how evaluating feelings has become omnichannel as opposed to being restricted to tone of voice. These days, almost any form of communication can be measured by an AI for sentiments.
Contact centers can respond to this trend by integrating microservices and A/B testing their outcomes.
8. CRM integration is table stakes
Imagine you’re a customer service agent at your favorite store. You’re helping a customer on the phone, and they have a question about their recent purchase. To answer their question, you need to dig through a bunch of different systems to find the information they need. This is time-consuming and frustrating for both you and the customer.
With a contact center CRM integration, all customer information is in one place — and you can access it right from your contact center screen without having to switch between different systems. This makes it much easier for you to help customers quickly and efficiently.
Even a few years ago, customers might have put up with a little bit of friction, but expectations have changed. The average person expects that a customer service rep can view an email they sent last year, find a ticket someone else at their company submitted, and so on.
SEE: Does off-the-shelf call center CRM integration actually work?
In healthcare, for example, integrated CRM systems allow contact center agents to view patient records, appointment schedules, and previous communications, enhancing their ability to assist patients effectively. This means when a patient calls with a question about their treatment or appointment, the agent can provide accurate information quickly, improving the overall patient experience.
Some companies fail to fully integrate their CRM with all communication channels, leading to fragmented customer data and inconsistent service. While they could have gotten away with this a few years back, it’s not going to be good enough to retain customer loyalty moving forward.
