The contact centre as we know it is evolving, now more than ever. Frustrating self-service interactions and exhausting waiting times are becoming a thing of the past. Today’s consumers expect better, and if they can’t get the right experience from you, they’ll go elsewhere.
This is a trend that’s becoming increasingly obvious in 2020. Now that consumers can’t necessarily interact with brands face-to-face, they expect the digital connections they have to be better than ever. The contact centre is officially going to be the most essential part of the brand/consumer interaction going forward, and no business can afford to cut corners.
To learn more about how the contact centre is changing, I spoke with the Director of Strategic Communications for Contact Center Solutions at Cisco, Zack Taylor. Here’s what he had to say.
How Has the Contact Centre and CX Changed?
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Zack Taylor[/caption]
Zack told me that the contact centre is going through a major shift, driven by a range of factors. He noted that shopping malls are now almost empty, and most organisations are emphasizing digital vs. face-to-face interactions.
The massive shift to working from home has made a difference to the way that we operate in contact centres too, agents are evolving in this new remote landscape. On top of that, Zack believes that the contact centre is even more of a crucial component in today’s business landscape. It’s the place where customers go when they can’t solve their own problem with self-service solutions.
“This year, we saw a rapid acceleration towards the contact centre that we were eventually going to get anyway – one that’s digital and connected. From a customer experience perspective, expectations have changed drastically. Customers expect an unparalleled quality of service from every company.”
Your clients aren’t just comparing experiences that they have with your brand with interactions they had in the past. They’re comparing you to category leaders in any industry - the likes of Tesla, Apple, and other CX leaders.
The result is countless businesses jumping into action. “Companies are taking the contact centre more seriously. It’s the last thing between your business and a lost opportunity. In a world where customers want more, companies are delivering easier, more optimized experiences.”
What is the Hype Cycle and Super-Agents?
In a recent blog post, Zack Taylor described the impending arrival of the “hype cycle” and “super-agents”. I asked him to explain those concepts a little further.
He told me that in the past, most companies were obsessed with the idea of reducing costs in the contact centre and cutting expenses wherever possible. For example, businesses would move agents to overseas locations to reduce costs – but this wouldn’t improve service. Now, we’re seeing that customer experience is the only sustainable differentiator. Companies need to deliver excellent experiences to create hype.
The “super-agent,” according to Cisco, is the idea that we can use technology and innovations to move every agent in the contact centre up a notch, “so the rest of them, become like the best of them.” Part of this process involves automating things that would otherwise take up valuable employee time that could be used to focus on the customer, and giving agents support from more advanced features.