3 Tech Investment Trends in Contact Centres

The day-to-day running of your contact centre can take the lion’s share of your time. So how do you ensure that you’re matching daily operations with the strategic aims of your business? And how do you work out your priorities?

Luckily, ContactBabel has done some of the hard work for you! They are the leading analyst firm for the contact centre industry in the UK. So to use their own words, if you have a question on how the industry works, or where it’s heading, the chances are they have the answer.

Netcall have worked with the team for several years, with their latest collaberation being on the project ‘Strategic Directions’ chapter of its 2016 UK Decision-Makers’ Guide.

Around 200 contact centres took part in this research and together the two companies outlined the top three technology investment trends below.

• 47% CRM or agent desktop
• 39% Making omnichannel work
• 29% Back office integration

1. CRM or advisor desktop

Over half of contact centre leaders want contact with customers and agents to be easy. But research shows that agents waste 30% of their time struggling to manage multiple screens and processes.

Netcall’s advice? Create 360° customer view for the advisor.

Advisors with a holistic view of the customer solve more queries. They can see a full customer history and access relevant information within one screen. This means lower average handling time with greater first contact resolution.

Fact: 8 out of 10 contact centres do not have end-to-end visibility.

A Netcall survey cites 58% of customers saying that having to repeat information is their biggest irritation and 44% saying “each time I speak to a company, they don’t really know who I am”.

2. Making omnichannel work

Research shows that it disappoints customers when they have to repeat information. Companies that don’t have full customer history are also a source of frustration for today’s customers.

Tackle this by fixing broken journeys.

Having an omnichannel contact centre means integrating processes. But, consider that change doesn’t have to be a ‘big bang’. It’s often possible to find a way to integrate legacy systems with new solutions. One step at a time. Data shows that good customer experience and journeys improve revenue potential and results because happy customers come back and happy staff don’t leave.

3. Back office integration

This features in third place with 44% of respondents highlighting as a priority investment area. There’s an increase in interest to join up front and back office systems. With the end-to-end customer journey in mind.

Break down silos join up legacy systems.

The changing role of the advisor means that they work more with specialist back office functions to support customers. Find ways to help the whole team focus on the customer experience. For example, use SIP to deliver voice and chat. This will join the front and back office, ensure that contact transfers between staff include the full customer history and will drive down costs, improve morale and teamwork.