Organisations that do not incorporate digital customer engagement channels into their engagement strategies within the next two years are likely to see their customers jump ship to competitors that do.
That was the warning from Dimension Data in its annual Global Contact Centre Benchmarking Report.
Organisations that fail to enfold web chat, social media, SMS, smart phones and mobile applications, and video into their customer engagement strategies will fall prey to those who are employing these technologies.
The report is based on a survey of more than 900 organisations in 72 countries across Asia Pacific, Australia, the Americas, Middle East and Africa, and Europe participated.
Results from the report show non-voice traffic (digital) is set to rise in 87% of contact centres within the next two years, and voice traffic (talking to a customer centre agent on the telephone) will drop in 42% of contact centres during the same period. Based upon information gathered by Dimension Data gathered over the last 10 years, contact centres will manage more digital interactions than voice in the next 24 months.
“This represents the biggest change in the contact centre business in 30 years, and has profound implications for the way organisations deploy technology to deliver and manage customer service,” says Adam Foster, group executive for communications, Dimension Data.
According to the report, by the end of 2016, customers will commonly be using up to seven different digital channels, in addition to the telephone.
“But,” said Foster, “that’s not to say that contact centres are dead, and customer service agents will become redundant. That’s definitely not the case. The reality is that their scope has been broadened, and the types of interactions that are happening via the telephone where an agent is required, are becoming more complex and more critical.
“Organisations will need to focus on getting their staff highly skilled and putting systems in place to enable them to answer customer enquiries immediately. Because voice is often the channel of last resort, this is where the moment of truth really happens. If agents can’t resolve the customer’s call, it will reflect badly on the organisation, and could lead to the search for an alternative supplier.”
The report also states that around 74% of contact centres are predicting the overall number of transactions to increase, largely fuelled by digital, which is having a significant impact on customer satisfaction that is of some concern.
Of the 901 research participants polled, 75% companies recognise that service is a differentiator, yet customer satisfaction is down for the fourth consecutive year.
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