2020 put enormous pressure on industries and organizations. The business disruption, government lockdowns and restrictions overwhelmed supply chains and forced the closure of many companies across the globe. But among the chaos was mass digital adoption, leapfrogging many companies into the digital era with gusto!
Contact centers learnt a lot over the past 18 months and within these lessons are a few we can take into the next few years.
Here are 4 emerging trends that will continue to pave the way for contact centers in 2021 and beyond:
- Hybrid working environments
The forced transition to working from home resulted in businesses creating hybrid environments. With increased flexibility, we’ll start to see more workers wanting to work from home or anywhere at any time they prefer.
As a result, workforce management and engagement solutions will need to help manage people and help them manage their schedules and workloads more efficiently.
- Increased flexibility
The power to work from anywhere with teams across the world has finally given businesses flexibility. This offers organizations the opportunity to expand their teams, grow their business, and, in many cases, become more cost-effective.
In addition, scheduling time for work provides more opportunities for people that only want to work part-time or casually or with more flexible schedules to accommodate other priorities.
This will let those with family responsibilities re-engage with the workforce as they have more access to remote working.
- Increased uptake of cloud software
Cloud solutions have become a primary priority for almost all companies after 2020. Business must protect their operations and ensure business continuity is not disrupted in times of crisis.
Cloud software offers businesses the opportunity for more accessible scaling, better customer service, and improved employee experiences.
- Automation
Businesses will continue to invest in automation to reduce costs and streamline processes as the years tick on. Contact centers that want to progress while still efficiently support their agents will need to invest in more integrated AI-based analytics solutions.
These solutions need to focus on seamless connecting and improving the employee experience, facilitating greater collaboration and flexibility with human and digital agents.
Using AI-based solutions that automate the qualitative analysis of call monitoring, with machine learning helping quantify these results, organizations will be able to put a numeric value on previously unquantifiable data sets such as agent behaviours or customer emotions.