When asked to identify where they are currently investing the bulk of their effort and resources, 50% of UK contact centres identified improving contact channel choice for customers – web chat, email, self-service and social media – as being their primary business focus.
However, the report reveals that these ambitions to boost the effectiveness of customer-facing operations and upscale the customer experience are being hampered by a significant technology challenge. Just 41% of UK contact centres admit being able to handle all contact channels on one single unified platform.
Similarly, just 27% of contact centres have the systems in place that make it easy to utilise home-based agents as part of the workforce mix – and while 82% say they anticipate having some form of remote-workforce model in place by 2029, many will need to move faster to remain operationally effective in the current climate.
Evaluating which technology investments will be prioritised in the next one to three years, UK contact centres identified putting in place solutions to integrate multiple channels for seamless omni-channel capabilities (62%) as their number one priority, followed by intelligent routing systems (55%).
“The contact centre as we know it is clearly evolving fast, and those organisations that have already moved to a cloud-based and fully integrated platform are finding it easier to adapt their operations at speed – introducing new channels and ways of working in response to the uptick in customer demand for ease of engagement in any channel they choose,” says Martin Taylor, Deputy CEO, Content Guru.
Taylor recently appeared on Comms Business Live where he spoke about the future of Customer Experience. You can see what he had to say below.
“These organisations are also taking advantage of intelligent routing technologies to maximise their workforce scheduling and automation capabilities – creating highly effective customer engagement hubs that deliver truly positive experiences.”
“The current coronavirus pandemic has seen many UK contact centres having to initiate new operational models that preserve the safety of employees at breakneck speed – with the result that more and more agents are being asked to work from home. Those organisations that have their services delivered via compliant and scalable cloud platforms are typically adapting to this new business-as-usual reality at pace, in safety and with confidence.”