The holiday season is upon us, but as we bid farewell to 2022 with many, many mince pies, we also have one eye on the future.
As brands prepare to tackle new challenges in 2023, including the impact of inflation and cost-of-living increases in the UK, how can your business future-proof call centre operations and hit the ground running?
We spoke to Infinity’s CEO Warren Newbert about his contact centre predictions for 2023.
How do you think AI will transform contact centres in 2023?
Artificial intelligence (AI) is one of the latest technologies that has been applied to the call centre industry and has brought multiple benefits with it. In 2023, AI will no longer be a new concept, but it is however here to stay. This is because AI integration is so seamless that it sometimes goes unnoticed by customers—providing a plethora of behind-the-scenes benefits to call centres.
By supporting the analysis of conversations at scale, the infusion of AI into conversations has kindled a revolution to enhance agents’ efficiency, something that will be vital during the looming recession.
AI works to generate optimum responses based on a bank of existing customer conversation data, assimilated over time, and create patterns that can be addressed with more ease and speed in the future. AI allows call centres to provide a consistent, high-quality service to each customer by enabling better agent training and customer journeys – contributing to the overall perception of a brand.
As brands look to further develop their customer service experience in 2023, they look to AI-based tools such as Conversation Analytics to help them maintain accuracy and capitalise on opportunities in every conversation.
AI has found a place in call centres as it enables call agents to handle customer’s issues faster and more efficiently. We can only expect more significant contributions on the path of the digital transformation of contact centres in 2023.
How important do you think data will be in improving call centre operations?
Today’s data-driven world has caused a fundamental change in the way call centres drive adaptive management to improve their customer services and boost performance. By its sheer nature, a call centre churns out customer conversation data that can be analysed to drive insights into agent productivity and customer behaviours.
It’s undeniable that providing excellent customer experiences is more important than ever — yet it has never been more challenging as companies face a perfect storm of increasing call volumes, talent shortages, and rising customer expectations. In a period of continued uncertainty, consumers will actively seek out customer call centres for the reassurance only the human touch can provide. Our Moments That Matter survey found that 84% of customers are less likely to return to a brand after one poor call experience.
To stay ahead of their competition, all centre managers need to leverage customer data and monitor the impact process changes and training have metrics like first call resolution, average handling time, and agent idle time. These metrics will be at the epicentre of attention for call centre leaders who want to drive better experiences in 2023.
What impact do you think omnichannel communication and self-service options will have on the customer experience?
Omnichannel communications have grown in recent years, and today, it is the mark of supremacy that sets apart proactive brands from reactive competitors. The reality is that global consumers own more than one device, and they hate being confined to one touchpoint or communications channel when it comes to their customer journey.
As a society, we crave the freedom to interact with brands anywhere and everywhere we want, whether that be on social media, via live chat, over the phone or by texting.
Consumers are demanding ad enhanced personalised and consistent customer experience regardless of the channel they use—this is where omnichannel communication comes in. Omnichannel communication is all about standardising service delivery by centralising and optimising customer service data to deliver a seamless and consistent experience across devices and communication channels.
More call centres will adopt the omnichannel communication strategy in 2023 to meet customer demands and needs.
What role do you think IVR will play in managing concern around recession?
Interactive Voice Response has been one of the most common call centre automation trends for a long time now. In fact, in response to COVID-19, one in three companies adopted this technology for the first time. Meanwhile, 42% of organisations already using IVR increased its use.
However, in 2023, amid the looming recession, customers will be craving a more personalised and humanised customer experience. When it comes to money-related issues, as customers, we need the reassuring voice of a trained call agent to help us navigate our issues. Call centres will need to use IVR in a targeted manner over the next 12 months and allow call agents to play a crucial role in the customer journey.
How can data enhance training in the contact centre?
The call centre industry is one with high turnover, and therefore contact centre leaders need to prioritise employee development and engagement. This is where leaders will need to rely on data-driven training to help improve employee satisfaction and productivity. Contact centres can use Conversation Analytics to enable data driven training by gathering and analysing customer feedback and agent performance data at scale. This analysis helps CX leaders improve agent performance and boost business metrics.
In 2023, data driven training will be used to enhance overall employee experience for contact centres agents—and in doing so, improving overall CX because engaged and productive employees offer quality service.
Are you ready to tackle the challenges 2023 may bring? We can help you transform your business with call intelligence, book a demo with us today to find out more.
