As 2016 draws to a close, it’s time to look toward what’s next in contact center technology for 2017.

Workforce optimization, customer service tools, Voice of the Customer - these are all areas in which technology continues to change and improve.

We went through some of the leading surveys and studies on these topics to find the top predictionsfor 2017. You can get a quick picture of the trends with this infographic from the Contact Center Network Group.

More contact centers migrate to the cloud.

According to a 2016 survey of contact centers by 8x8 and the Contact Center Network Group, more than 75 percent of contact centers have recognized the value the cloud has for their industry.

25 percent of contact centers have fully deployed their cloud services already; 28 percent have partially migrated to the cloud; and 21 percent plan to migrate to the cloud within the next year.

This has implications for software solution providers, which will need to focus on their cloud offerings to ensure their security, ease-of-use, and ease-of-migration. Solutions like the Verint Media Recorder Workforce Management solution are available as cloud or on-premise solutions, and are a great way to start your enterprise’s migration to cloud services.

Organizations are overhauling customer service protocols to fit an omnichannel world.

Customer service is still king - it just looks a whole lot different than it did 15 or even 5 years ago.

Lots of organizations are taking a complete, 360-degree look at their customer service processes and protocols to make them fit the omnichannel world that we’re now living in.

That means ensuring that response times for customer service are quick and efficient, as well as that customers have multiple channels through which to contact you. And that doesn’t just mean email and phone anymore.

Customers want to be able to get in touch through channels from live chat to social media, and they want their questions acknowledged - and if possible, resolved - fast. In addition, the experience across all channels should be seamless, whether the mode of contact is text, chat, phone, or a web form.

Self-service options are also an important part of this new omnichannel customer service universe, and more contact centers will implement them over the next year. Self-service tools include speech-recognition IVR, web-based knowledge portals, robot-assisted channels, and virtual agents.

Workforce management and optimization software is still underutilized.

Despite the many workforce management tools available, more than half of contact centers - 58 percent, according to the 8x8 survey - are still reporting using spreadsheets to manage everything from scheduling to performance.

This is surprising, given how much easier these functions can be with a simple software solution. The Verint Media Recorder Workforce Optimization suite, for example, allows users to:

And much more. Getting these functions out of a manually updated spreadsheet, which is not only tedious to keep current but also highly prone to human error, and into a dedicated software system is going to become more prevalent this year as contact centers find themselves needing to produce more, and more accurate, data.

More contact centers are utilizing remote workers.

Remote workers have been a staple of the contact center workforce for several years, but their numbers have been steadily growing over the past year. This seems certain to continue, with 59 percent of businesses claiming to have work-at-home workers, according to that same 8x8 survey.

One reason for the continued growth in this area is that the technology to support these workers is getting better every year.

Take the cloud, for example. As more contact centers migrate their systems over to the cloud, there will be more and more opportunities for at-home workers. All they’ll have to do to “go to work” is log in to the system on their laptops and put on a company headset.

A major factor to consider when hiring remote workers is security. If your workers have access to sensitive customer information, like Social Security numbers or bank information, it’s vital that your phone and cloud services employ industry standard security measures that are totally up-to-date. This is something you must discuss with your software vendor when deciding which solution to purchase.

It appears as though many of the trends for 2017 will be continuations of 2016 trends - areas in which the technology is rapidly evolving, improving customer service and agent efficiency across the industry.

For more on specific trends for contact centers, read our post “4 Customer Engagement Trends for the Financial Services Industry.”

Wouldn’t it be nice if we could read minds? We’d always know what people were thinking and how they were feeling. We’d know how to respond to them in order to get the best possible outcome.

Unfortunately for those us living in reality and working in contact center customer service, we have to make do with more prosaic methods of learning how to deal with people: contact center customer service training. It’s important to invest in call agent training that emphasizes the significance of being empathetic with callers and their emotional responses, as it can aid in improving your call center’s metrics and reaching your business’ KPIs. Here are a few key concepts that your call center agents need to be aware of:

Agents need to empathize with the customer on the purpose of the call

It is necessary for agents to empathize with customers on the purpose of their call and any potential unfriendly attitudes.

Normally, customers contact call centers to either resolve an issue or to complete a task, such as troubleshooting technical issues or paying credit card bills, neither of which are enjoyable experiences. That’s the reason behind unpleasant call experiences. By having this understanding, agents can better aid customers by directly focusing on issue resolutions rather than attitude correction.

Don’t take the customer’s negative emotions personally

A common complaint that call agents bring up is the unpleasant or even uncooperative attitude that customers can have during calls.

During training, it’s essential to stress that agents don’t lose their composure because of the caller’s negative or confrontational tone - especially since it will only worsen the situation and create an even greater conflict. Clients are simply frustrated by the issue and not directly at the agent themselves.

Provide direction for both the customer and the call

Most unhappy callers just need a minute or two to get things off their chest before introducing their problem to the agent. However, it’s also critical that agents don’t allow them to go off topic or vent for too long, as they can aggravate themselves further and unnecessarily prolong the call duration.

Agents need to be trained in effectively managing difficult customer’s emotions and attention. One method is to interrupt them, but acknowledge their feelings and refocus them on the task at hand. For example, the agent can say: “I’m sorry to hear how frustrating this experience has been for you. However, I will work with you on resolving this. Please tell me what the issue is.”

Be positive and attentive throughout the entire call

As difficult as it may be, it’s essential that agents maintain a positive tone throughout the call. Not only will the caller pick up on this, but it can influence their feelings and create a more pleasant call experience.

Agents also need to be trained in attentive listening techniques, such as using verbal cues (“yes,” “ah,” “ok”) and avoiding interrupting the caller as they are explaining the issue. These techniques also benefit agents by building rapport with the caller. Making callers an active participant of the process shows them that they are being heard. In turn, they will generally become more cooperative.

Agent training is a vital part of running a successful contact center. For more on agent training, read our post “5 Ways to Make Your Contact Center Training More Efficient and Effective.”

Long gone are the days when the only way to reach a company’s customer service center was by picking up the phone and waiting - sometimes for as long as an hour, or even longer - for a service representative to help you with your problem.

Now that we have so many digital tools for instant communication, today’s customers expect to have their issues handled promptly and thoroughly - preferably without having to pick up the phone at all.

What does this mean for the traditional contact center? Are the new ways we communicate making them obsolete?

Contact centers that remain stuck in the old methods of customer service will not be able to compete.

In many ways, customer service standards of the 1990s and even early 2000s are no longer applicable.

The basic principles, of course, never change: Be courteous and polite. Be friendly. Handle a customer’s problems as efficiently as possible.

Timelines for responding to a customer’s problems, however, have changed drastically. In the past, when phone was the main means of communication, taking a day or two to get back to a customer whose issue needed additional attention was acceptable.

Today, customers expect to have their problems resolved very quickly, and acknowledged instantly. This is true across nearly every communication channel.

So if your contact center isn’t responding quickly to every comment and question you receive, you’re running the risk of obsolescence - not to mention very unhappy customers.

To stay relevant, contact centers must fully adapt to the omnichannel world that we now live in. That means giving your customers as many ways to contact you as possible and monitoring all those channels continuously.

This is no simple task, which is why many contact centers software to help them gather feedback. Two examples of this are Voice of the Customer Analytics  and Enterprise Feedback Management software.

And if you really want to make them happy, offer a self-service portal and allow them to resolve their own problems.

Despite the growth of self-service, contact centers have a huge opportunity to make themselves more important than ever.

There’s no doubt about it: self-service is the way that customer service is going, with more companies adding self-service options for their customers every year. In 2014, 76 percent of customers reported using self-service options, according to Forrester Research.

However, this doesn’t mean that there’s no need for live contact center agents anymore. In fact, quite the contrary is true. Well-trained, competent, and efficient contact center agents are more important to a company’s customer service success than ever before.

That’s because self-service has a limit.

While customers can solve minor or simple issues on their own using knowledge bases or interactive tools, complex issues will still require the help of a human support specialist. This means that the issues that these specialists have to deal with when customers do call will be more complex.

Contact centers that want to succeed in today’s market will have to do two things.

How do contact centers begin implementing these changes?

A great first step is to assess your knowledge base. Does it have the knowledge that your agents require in order to achieve first-call resolution on a regular basis? Is that information easy to find and access?

If your answer to both these questions is “yes,” then you may want to consider opening up at least part of that knowledge base to your customers.

As for the customer listening aspect, Enterprise Feedback Management software can help you make sense of all the information coming at you from all your different channels. To learn more about how you can better serve your customers in today’s service environment, read our post “Omnichannel Customer Service Should Span Both the Physical and Virtual Worlds.”

Advertising has gone a bit overboard in the high tech marketing environment of 2016 – to say the least. With the hottest SEO (search engine optimization) consultants vying for consumer attention, clients are developing an insatiable appetite for top positioning in the SERPs race (search engine results pages).

It’s been all about getting visitors to your website lately – finding them, luring them in. However, without a unique service or product to offer, and enough infectious passion to spread around, you’re going to have trouble coming up with loyal buyers, and creating a unique customer experience. If you aren’t deeply devoted to fulfilling customer expectations, you may just end up being one-off.

Imagine a used-car dealer whose inventory is ridiculously overpriced and who specializes in selling them (at exorbitant financing rates) to buyers with credit problems. He may keep his doors open by ripping off one person at a time, but without referrals and repeat business he’s eventually going to fail; with online reviews available for disgruntled users, it may be sooner rather than later.

Now that we’re on the same page (keeping clients once they’ve found us) let’s explore why it makes sense to use an integrated system to ensure the optimal experience your customer is looking for!

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP)

Considered to be a specialized category of business management software, ERP was originally used to pull together human resources, maintenance and accounting ‘under one roof.’ Today, these web-based solutions are generally a suite of applications with some very important added functions. They can now give you a real-time, leveraged picture of your business operations – by collecting, storing, managing and interpreting the data derived from product planning, manufacturing, market, inventory tracking, payment and delivery.

One powerful tool is Impact360, a system with enhanced analytical capabilities; it integrates customer data with your work processes – increasing the retention of your customers while boosting the productivity of your employees. The software you choose should provide a broad insight into your client’s needs and handle most aspects of enterprise workforce optimization. For a contact center, this might include training which is customized to each agent in accordance with your customer base.

Workforce Management (WFM)

Maintaining a productive workforce is vital to anticipating and fulfilling customer needs. There is much more pressure and responsibility put on the employees of the 21st century, and basic HR is not enough anymore. You can’t just expect to motivate your staff by merely posting compliance regulations on the wall of their break room and making payroll on time.

To stay competitive, you need to make certain your workers are properly trained, have a path to promotion in accordance with their performance, and are taking adequate leaves. The WFM module of a quality ERP system will handle many areas beyond the standard employer tasks; succession planning and talent management, learning and performance management, forecasting and budgeting of labor needs, tracking and analytics of absences and adherence to time and schedule activities. WFM might also include dispatching and mobile elements to streamline communications with field personnel.

Your people are your business, and when you stand behind them and provide them with tools for their success, you not only lift them up but increase the probability of return on your investment. The more staff you have to replace, the more money you lose from having to recruit and train new candidates. Heavy turnover is a red flag of instability to your customers, and it’s also disheartening for the remaining crew.

Enterprise Feedback Management (EFM)

Your EFM module should have the technology to set a point of reference (benchmark) for your company’s progress. Today’s customers interact via many different means; mobile, social media, chats, email, online reviews, etc. In fact, you may never see them in person – especially if you don’t have a brick and mortar location. When you’re not able to shake that buyer’s hand or have a real conversation with them, it’s crucial to be able to exhibit credibility for your brand.

Collecting all client feedback across the Internet and over telephone lines is a large piece of the big picture. But the ability to validate and monitor actions taken (in response to customer suggestions and comments) is imperative in order to comprehend which changes are building loyalty and satisfaction.

Customer Experience Surveys

Experience valuations allow you to compare those scores with your internal quality and scheduling scores. Not only will they give you an overview of performance, they can focus in on areas needing to be improved upon. When you can adequately assess your staff’s performance, it will lay the groundwork for a personalized coaching and training program which maintains consumer confidence.

The customer experience module should provide multimedia recording and archiving of calls, as well as evaluations. Search and retrieval functions give your staff access to available opportunities which enhance customer service, reduce liability and expedite resolutions. Its analytic functions should help you develop a strategy for boosting the longevity of your client relationships.

There are many options to choose from; want some help when looking for proper customer experience software? Take a look at the varieties of contact center solutions online. These solutions are made with the customer in mind.

 

 

Over the years, video has come to play an integral role in public safety operations. Public and private video surveillance has helped catch criminals and prosecute those who break the law on camera. And the demand for video is increasing, both from first responders and the people that they protect. Video is increasingly becoming an important tool for evidence collection and police accountability alike.

There are several different ways that video analytics can improve public safety.

If your public safety organization could benefit from upgrading its software and using analytics, then contact Kova today. Our public safety software solutions give government, public, and enterprise organizations the actionable security information they need to be effective in their emergency response, investigations, and analysis.

 

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