Contact center: new trends, between omnichannel and customer experience

The
remote work and smartworking
are increasingly popular and employed by multiple entities. Several companies geared up to adopt this solution at the beginning of the pandemic and in the following months recognized its benefits, so much so that
in 2021, the work-from-home model has become a real standard in the customer service universe
.

Research published by the influential media outlet Forbes has shown that remote workers can also be 35-40% more productive than their office-based colleagues, and that this mode provides that Flexibility to reduce turnover, ensure business continuity to deal with any emergencies and expand the hours of activity through the follow-the-sun approach.

In recent decades, companies have been doing their best to try to remotely solve their customers’ problems, with the intent of increasing the overall effectiveness of the organization. After the pandemic, the data are even more glaring:
84 percent of employers
, according to a report by the World Economic Forum,
are planning to digitize their processes
and the intent would be to move 44% of their employees to remote work.

Remote assistance reached a major peak in 2021
and is steadily rising. New automation tools are facilitating contact centers, which are now using IoT solutions, video-assistance systems, and artificial intelligence-based communications.
Omnichannel systems such as XCALLY
represent a valuable ally for all companies in improving their customer service and meeting customer needs.

The
end consumer has undergone a significant transformation
in recent years, consider their time increasingly valuable and aim to solve their problems very quickly. Even autonomously if it is more convenient, practical and quick. Perhaps with the support of mobile devices, phone calls, chats. It is precisely for this reason that the omnichannel solutions prove successful.

Agents and contact center operators move between interaction channels without interruption, thus being able to meet any request and need. According to Statista research, the use of IVR systems has increased by 7% since the pandemic, video has increased from 29% to 48%, and live chat from 35% to 54%.

Contact center operators will have to focus more and more on the

knowledge of the customer
and it will be very important to successfully assist the consumer who encounters a specific problem. In fact, personalized and relevant interaction helps to improve the long-term relationship with customers: by analyzing customer type and behavior in detail, it will be possible to optimize the customer journey, ensuring an increasingly comprehensive experience.

The most functional contact centers are those that leverage artificial intelligence to streamline internal processes, thus removing the burden of repetitive actions to professional figures. The latter will be able to employ their skills in more strategic and complex actions that cannot be performed in an automated manner.

This strategy makes it possible to
Reduce the service costs of a call center and improve the scalability of business processes.
Accenture pointed out in one of its studies that up to 70 percent of time can be saved by integrating artificial intelligence-based systems. According to 84 percent of business leadership, artificial intelligence is the key to achieving contact center growth goals.