Want To Lock In Your Call Center’s Success? These Are The Trends And Technologies You Must Know About
We’re sure you already know how important call centers have become to every industry. In a world that’s ironically being brought closer and farther at the same time, customers crave the human touch that can be supplied by having a voice at the other end of the line.
And for this reason, many business owners, even those who aren’t handling call centers, are investing in the latest communication technologies such as those provided by Freeje.
If you’re in the game to win it, you’re in the right place. Know about the latest trends that the biggest players in the industry have detected and the technologies you can use to respond to these.
What are the current industry trends?
Technologies respond to trends and not the other way around. So be in the know. These are the biggest trends this year:
Cloud solutions are becoming even more popular.
Because it’s flexible and easy to set up, more call centers are going to the cloud. With this comes added privacy and security benefits that help put customers at ease when it comes to their personal information.
It’s becoming an increasingly attractive option even for those who have already invested a lot in older technologies because of all the advanced features that normally come with the switch.
Customers want consistency.
People want the same consistency as in every bottle of coke.
Here’s what I mean. Have you ever experienced emailing and calling a company for your concern in hopes to get a response more quickly? If you have, then I’m sure you’re familiar with the feeling of having to repeat everything you’ve detailed to the agent over the phone.
Yes, it’s frustrating. And customers have had enough. More call centers are streamlining their communication over all channels so that when you pull one account, it would show its history with the company.
Customers want to try to resolve their issues on their own.
Of course, this isn’t always the case. Far more complicated issues would require the assistance of an agent on your end.
But for simpler concerns like knowing if their payment got through or how much they need to pay the next billing cycle, they don’t want to have to interact with someone because it will take longer.
And for call center owners, this good news. Because fewer people want to talk to an actual agent, the odds of the phone lines clogging up decreases.
What technologies can you use to respond to these trends?
In addressing customer demands and natural industry evolution, these technologies are a great way to keep up and crush the competition.
Interactive Voice Response (IVR)
Do you know how sometimes when you call a certain number, you hear a prerecorded message which guides you to resolve your issue? Usually, you’ll be asked to press a certain number depending on where you want to go, helping you to zero down on the issue.
This level of automation may not be new, but it sure is becoming more popular in use. People want to try to solve their concerns on their own. And this technology empowers them to do so.
Cloud-based call centers
This trend is slowly becoming the norm. Instead of maintaining and managing their own equipment, more and more are choosing to delegate this responsibility to third-party providers.
And in doing so, they’re able to recruit agents from all around the world and easily respond to scaling up or down without worrying about equipment capacity. Switching from sunk costs (through equipment investments) to operational costs is definitely the smarter and cheaper choice.
Predictive dialers
Just imagine the time saved when your agents don’t have to dial every number in their list and have it done for you. The efficiency of your agents will skyrocket because a great dialer would make sure that they’re always on a call.
The underlying trend right now is efficiency on both ends of the line – customers want to resolve their issues ASAP while call center owners want to maximize the time agents spend on calls. So this will surely maintain its usability for years to come.
Like the cloud, predictive dialers aren’t exactly new. But because there’s now a cloud version of this that can perform the task much better.
Text messaging outreach
Unless they’re expecting your call, customers don’t really like getting disturbed by a ringing phone, especially when you just want to confirm an appointment. So with this solution, customers will be able to answer you without ever having to talk to them.
And the great thing about this is the convenience. You can automate this to send a particular message based on certain events, so you don’t have to do anything manually.
If you want to sustain your success, you have to adapt. And knowing about the latest in the industry will help you achieve your business goals. The question now is, will you keep up or will you be left out? At the end of the day, that’s a hundred percent up to you.
