We are at a crossroads when it comes to how organizations are beginning to handle customer interactions and service. I will go so far as to say that the way we handle these interactions now (chat, email, texting and voice) will actually start to be the old way in about a year from now... that's right I said a year. This scares a lot of companies as well whom have done customer service one way for decades. Companies that embrace these changes will thrive when it comes to customer interaction and engagement.
The Real Shift is in the Consumer
Looking out one to five years we have to look at what customers will be doing and what technology will they be using. Smartphones and tablet sales are taking over the desktop and laptop. Right now about 45% Americans own a tablet. As competition grows, prices recede and the use of tablets grows in the workplace this number will skyrocket. You will begin to see most companies move away from 1800 numbers and to more internet friendly types of communications like social media, click-to-call and video chatting face to face with new technologies like WebRTC. All driven by the wants of the consumer
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The Contact Center Shift
The contact center leaders of progressive firms are beginning to experiment with agents having their own tablet at their desktop. They have a keyboard to type but are able to take this tablet with then when they go to training or have the tablet as a backup from home if they are using mobile or at home agents or for overflow.
Soon there will be "studios" where video associates will be taking video calls. At first agents will be a booths or cubicles but I see many forward thinking companies, including my own, will try making the video call an experience. We are experimenting with different backgrounds and "stages"
Desktops are going away. PBX's are going away; certain cloud based technologies (even though they are relatively new) will be going away.
Real Time communication through the browser with APP's on tablets will be the new form of communication. Routing calls in your call center through cookie based internet data will be the way "calls" will become routed. It’s the call center meets video, meets big data all in one.
Please Put Your IVR's Away!
IVRs as we know them will also go the way of the dinosaur in the next five years. Why do I say that?
From a customer service standpoint APP's are taking the place of IVR's. If you want information without talking to an agent you will pull up an APP and get that information on your phone or tablet. If you want an account balance, how many points you have, basic questions like this, APP's are quickly taking the place of the IVR. When the traditional IVR is still needed and wanted, the IVR experience is expanded by providing visually guided menus on your website or on your customer’s Smartphone. This provides your customers with a convenient menu driven interface to your IVR. Screaming at a machine though your phone will become an activity you will do less and less.
Get the Make Up Out
For some companies which are still hiding their 1800 numbers deep on their web site (why are you doing that) there is another channel that they really need to start to pay attention to, that of Social Media. To be forced to use some online help screen or IVR that tells me to unplug something, wait 10 seconds and plug it back in is extremely frustrating. With more and more consumers moving to social media to vent these frustrations these will be begin to become a thing of the past.
Social Media will be taking on a much bigger scale and a larger % of most companies CRM budget as well. With more and more customers using this channel you will see many voice agents being cross trained to handle these types of interactions. It will become vital to have your antenna always listening to the pulse of your customers to make sure that when issues arise you are there to handle that opportunity. This is a HUGE shift in how things are done now. Now longer will it be good enough to be reactive to a customer service call that comes in, you now will need to be proactive and take care of these opportunities as early as possible in what I call "the viral cycle".
WebRTC Yellow Pages
I predict that you will see, whether Facebook or another unknown company steps into the realm of becoming the "phone book" of the next generation of the internet. A one stop site where you will be able to video chat with a person, restaurant, company.... directly from their "page" on the site. Not only will you be able to view them but through WebRTC technology, you will be able to be routed to the correct person as well. This site will provide the portal for this to happen. Video chat will become a mainstream channel in the next five years.
Companies Need to Get Back to the Future!
The companies that will be successful are the ones who will embrace these new techniques.
The minimal move for many centers of now must be to allow your customers to have a multi-channel approach in communicating with you. As more and more companies move to this approach customers will be getting "trained" in communicating in multiple ways. If customer service is not being offering through different channels, that company will be in for a rude awakening in a couple years when customers will be clamoring for these new technologies/techniques.
REALLY NO CHOICE HERE!!! Organizations must change the way they handle service or customers will move to a company who is!
Thomas Laird is a customer service and contact center consultant and operations professional with over 25 year of experience. Thomas is currently the CEO of Expivia Interaction Marketing Group, Inc. A 100% onshore multichannel contact center.
