Contact Centre Future Trends: 2023 and Beyond

Author: Simon Black | Date: 18/02/2022

No matter what industries businesses operate in, customer service is having to innovate and adapt. Contact centres have always faced high expectations from customers, but according to a Microsoft report, they have been steadily increasing.1 And to make matters worse, at the beginning of the COVID-19 outbreak, calls to contact centres that were classified as ‘difficult’ doubled.2

These factors alongside digital transformation and other call centre problems the industry has to contend with, have resulted in new trends emerging. And they’re having a significant impact on how contact centres operate. Call centre quality assurance helps leaders understand how these trends are set to impact contact centre management, identify best practices around how to improve customer service and understand how to maintain business continuity. 

In this article, we’re going to look at some of these trends in more detail and examine their impact on contact centres in 2023 and beyond.

Let’s dive straight into the first trend on our list.

Suggested reading: Learn more about the best practices for contact centre success in our recent blog post — 5 Best Strategies for Successful Contact Centre Management – Remotely or Otherwise

Increased use of cloud software

A trend we’re seeing emerge in a number of work environments, including contact centres, is operations moving to the cloud. Cloud-based contact centres have slowly become the majority, with 75% of all contact centres now operating in the cloud — 44% fully and 31% hybrid.3

While this trend has been visible for some time now, the shift towards remote working has undoubtedly seen it accelerate. The movement of contact centres to the cloud is also being driven by the wide range of benefits businesses can access as a result. Contact centres that are already utilising cloud-based solutions are profiting from:

  • Reduced costs
  • Greater security
  • Increased accessibility
  • Enhanced security
  • Improved scalability
  • Effortless data visualisation

Another important factor driving moves to the cloud is the increased visibility contact centres have about the customer journey. Cloud operating systems can simplify the collection and storage of data across communication channels, including call transcripts and chatbox conversations. This is helping to drive continuous improvements to customer experience strategies.

As we go forward, it seems likely that we’ll see more contact centres move their operations fully into the cloud. Those that already have are likely to gain a competitive advantage with modern communication features, a reduction in downtime and the seamless, rapid implementation of new technology.

Reinventing call scripting

Call scripting, a process designed to guide agents through customer interactions, has long been a staple of contact centres. In fact, scripting is already helping to reduce training time for agents, allowing them to become experts on each customer they deal with. However, the trend we’re now seeing is that software is redefining the process and delivery of scripting based on what customers are asking for. 

As technology develops and focus is increasingly placed on driving efficiency, call scripting is undergoing a transformation. Scripts can now be built using a library of system controls, allowing access to a single interface point, making it easier to follow processes, regardless of where information is housed.

This new approach is redefining scripting in contact centres. Software platforms are facilitating the seamless linking of multiple back-office applications and databases, providing agents with all the information they need for customer interactions on a single desktop. The result is rapid and comprehensive guidance, helping agents provide customers with relevant information and reduce call times by up to 40%.

This process also helps ensure that high rates of First Call Resolution (FCR) are achieved, as agents are given the support they need to resolve queries on first contact. As a result, customer satisfaction increases and agents have the capacity to deal with a higher volume of calls on a daily basis. Contact centres can be more productive and efficient, ensuring businesses are well-equipped to manage increased demand and expectations for customer service.

Recent advances in scripting are also helping to facilitate a seamless transition to hybrid working. Calls can be transferred between agents and locations while still retaining all the information gathered from the customer to that point, saving time and improving the customer experience.

New and dynamic call centre scripting tools can also provide a host of other features that are driving their adoption within contact centres, including:

  • Social media and email integration, with feeds linked to scripts for a consistent customer experience across channels.
  • On-demand screen pop-ups of appropriate scripts for incoming records, calls and media.

Next Best Action

A hugely significant trend for contact centres worldwide is Next Best Action (NBA) which has the potential to revolutionise contact centre efficiency, outcomes and best practices. NBA utilises AI, machine learning (ML) and pre-configured business rules to suggest to contact centre agents the next steps they should take when dealing with a specific customer.

Software now has the capacity to dynamically guide contact centre agents based on what a specific customer is asking for, before suggesting the next best action to take with that customer.

As a result, the future for contact centres looks set to revolve around their ability to analyse calls in real-time and achieve a deeper understanding of their customers. Improvements in both these areas are facilitating the prompting of actions to agents, so they know the direction they need to take with customers in real-time.

With NBA, contact centres can begin the process of transforming the service they provide by:

  • Delivering more personalised customer experiences with the help of suggestions that are tailored to customers and their specific needs.
  • Improving their FCR rates, which can be achieved with the help of the increased accuracy NBA provides as it guides agents through interactions.
  • Increasing productivity, as NBA helps agents resolve queries faster and subsequently deal with an increased number of calls each day.

Continued hybrid and remote working

As with most workspaces, contact centres have seen a considerable increase in home and hybrid working since the pandemic. Although there were inevitably some initial difficulties, contact centres have on the whole been able to thrive in this structure, which looks set to become the norm.

But it’s worth noting that as hybrid and remote working continues, contact centre managers and team leaders will need to deploy and rely on new tools and technology to make sure they can:

  • Proactively manage agent wellbeing
  • Monitor performance
  • Ensure the delivery of high-quality customer service

Fortunately, the latest trends in technology are making this much more achievable, which takes us into the next trend on our list.

Deployment of voice and speech analytics

Even with the increase on communication channels like email, social media and live chat, contact centres still deal with large volumes of customer calls. As a result, contact centres need to perform continuous analysis with the aim of improving call-handling processes. That is what’s driving the trend of the deployment of voice and speech analytics.

While speech and voice analytics may sound like similar pieces of software, they perform distinct functions:

  • Speech analytics: This software records conversations to analyse phonetics — picking up specific keywords and transcribing what is said. The vocabulary the system is programmed to recognise may be limited to a few words or the whole dictionary.
  • Voice analytics: Instead of picking out keywords, voice analytics evaluate vocal patterns, such as tone and pitch. It uses that data to assess the speaker’s emotional state, using cognitive technology to compare recordings with known voice patterns that signify emotions.

The deployment of this software is a growing trend in contact centres because of the benefits they provide, including:

  • Proactive agent monitoring: Makes it possible to monitor agents’ performance, emotions and state of mind even as they work from home. This allows managers to intervene early and provide support to agents when they’re struggling. 
  • Identification of actionable improvements: Contact centres can pinpoint where improvements can be implemented, including agent training needs and process changes that can drive efficiency.
  • Improved understanding of customers: Enhanced understanding of customers and what they want, helping agents resolve queries on first contact, increasing FCR.
  • Modelling of best practices: The ability to hear and read what the best-performing agents are saying and doing. Managers and team leaders can replicate these best practices across their teams.

Analytics and insights

Even with the help of new and innovative software, contact centres are always looking for ways to improve, and this includes:

  • Visualisation of how their operations are performing
  • Ensuring agents are fully equipped to meet customer expectations
  • Gaining a better understanding of their customers

Because of the goal to implement these improvements and make their operations more efficient, we’re seeing an increase in the use of analytics to access powerful and actionable insights. This trend is continuing to emerge as businesses understand the true value of analytics. 

In a contact centre environment, analytics and insights primarily provide value by providing an improved understanding of customer needs, and identifying improvement areas for agents.

As a result of the impact analytics and insights are already having on contact centres and the potential they have to continue driving improvements, this is a trend we expect to see throughout 2023 and beyond.

Increasing automation

Contact centre agents need a variety of skills and robust training to deliver exceptional customer service. Despite this, agents often find themselves undertaking mind-numbing and repetitive tasks. 

Dedicating a significant amount of their working hours to these tasks can reduce the time agents spend answering calls and resolving queries and negatively impact the level of service they’re providing to customers. Demotivated agents who are frustrated in their role are far less likely to satisfy customers with high-quality service.

As a result, to better support their human agents, we’re now seeing contact centres utilise automation by investing in Artificial Intelligence (AI) driven solutions that work collaboratively to improve the employee experience.

Automation is already providing contact centres with a variety of positive outcomes, including:

  • Allowing agents to focus on more strategic and complex tasks
  • Increased efficiency
  • More proactive customer service
  • Reductions in costs

Prepare for the future of contact centres

The trends we’ve looked at cover a range of contact centre functions and processes, But combined, it’s evident that the future of contact centres will be reliant on, and driven by, new and innovative technology and software solutions.

New trends in technology are not only creating more efficient processes and outcomes in contact centres — they’re also helping to manage employee wellbeing, facilitate a better understanding of customers and increase productivity. 

At Awaken, we use our years of knowledge and experience to ensure our customers can adapt to the ever-changing trends and technology influencing contact centres, helping you to build the contact centre of the future, today.

With the help of our products and the capabilities they can offer, our customers can benefit from the latest trends in contact centre technology, overcome issues, and access a whole host of outcomes, such as:

  • Insights that help you understand the entire customer journey
  • A complete picture of what’s driving volumes and sentiment
  • Proactive management of the customer journey
  • Agent guidance software that integrates with legacy systems
  • A better understanding of both your customers and agents

If you’d like to know more about the latest contact centre trends or want to find out how Awaken can help you deliver exceptional customer services outcomes on a consistent basis, get in touch with our team today.

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