Customer service is steadily improving as the years go by. Company-centric approach is nowhere to be found in this age; customer-centric approach is the new trend. Competent agents that have undergone comprehensive training, state-of-the art and advanced technology, and an omnichannel approach or the equivalent to be widely accessible to their customers, contact centers have vastly improved over the years in an effort to enhance the service that they provide to their customers.

As a result, more and more businesses are seeking to implement contact centers to serve their customers more and resolve issues swiftly and efficiently. In fact, 98% of firms assessed by Forrester insisted that contact centers are very important in achieving their priorities by improving their CX. Furthermore, this also includes increasing use of data insights (87%) and improving products and services (83%).

But, with that being said, the sky is the limit; there are still a ton of improvements needed to be done for the contact center to deliver its role close to perfection.

“As such, how can contact centers improve to become a more vital key to achieving business goals?” 

Let us start this off by pondering on this question: “will AI be the primary key for improvement?”

According to many businesses, it appear so. To be precise, 64% of the respondents arranged by Forrester stated that they are planning to increase their investments in AI for their contact centers in the following years to come. 

But, quite frankly, although this is true, this is not enough to improve the capabilities of a contact center. In the following sections, we will assess and discuss what contact centers offers to businesses in achieving their goals. We will also know how a contact center improving a business’s customer experience generate more revenue. 

To emphasize, contact centers: 

improve a business’s CX – contact centers are an integral part of businesses that provides support to their customers. With that being said, the more capable a contact center’s agents are in providing an excellent customer experience, the more loyal their customers will be. Additionally, it does not only keep your existing customers loyal, but it also puts you in a good spot wherein you can attract new customers hearing your business’s competent CX, thereby gaining an edge over your competitors.

provide useful data insights for businesses – the data being mentioned here is customer data. Customer data is any information from customers – either personal, demographic, or relating to behavior – that is collected by businesses to acquire better customer understanding, communication, and engagement. Contact centers specifically are abundant with customer data. By instilling a contact center in a business, customer data will be efficiently collected to provide the business a blueprint on how to improve customer understanding, communication, and engagement, as stated above.

help businesses grow revenue – as I have mentioned above, contact centers can improve customer loyalty. And, when businesses increase their loyal customer base, then they can expect to generate more revenue. In the Forrester study, 82% of their respondents confirmed that their respective contact centers improved their ability to generate more revenue.
have a huge impact on innovation – whatever upgrades businesses do in order to better provide an excellent CX, contact centers are a big key to achieving this business goal. Contact centers have a huge impact when it comes to innovating a business for the better, indeed. 

These are just some of what contact centers offer to businesses.

“But, it is not going to be a smooth sailing. Businesses can be met with quite a few challenges when the contact centers themselves experience some hurdles.” 
As such, contact centers can still run into some problems that can compromise a business’s ability to serve excellent CX and service. As a result, contact centers can stop a business’s growth just as much as it can improve it when improperly implemented.

The Challenges

The challenges include the following:

stress it puts to agents -  the omnichannel approach, as many now already know, is a strategy most businesses want for their contact centers. This involves integrating almost any type of communication channels – from email to social media – to better reach out to customers, therefore providing a more excellent CX. But, doing so puts quite a bit of stress to agents, as they have to be trained to handle every channel (in which calls can quickly pile up), which is quite difficult to accomplish without determination and a strong will to learn. As a result, more competent agents are sought out by businesses.

continuous look for competent agents  - basing from the statements above, it can lead into a negative effect wherein the business will have a hard time keeping their respective agents due to the constant pressure of providing an excellent CX, all to push the contact center in becoming an effective key to achieving business goals. Additionally, businesses will also have a hard time looking for replacements or hiring new ones from fresh positions, altogether, because of the constant pressure to meet customers demands.

lack of tools and technology – as communication channels become more complex over time, so are the tools and technology required for its operation and maintenance. As a result, some businesses can unprepared to instill the needed tools and technology to help bolster their communication channels.

Conclusion

The idea of a contact center being one of the main keys to achieving business goals is certainly a welcomed one, since it contact centers are known to deliver quality CX to please customers. However, without proper implementation and management, it can instead create challenges for business.

Your business does not have to experience that; contact Tegsoft for the best communication platform to make you happy.
References:

https://www.niceincontact.com/-/media/niceincontact/resources/white-papers/2019/11/0002006_en_forrester_ai_infused_contact_center.ashx?rev=4d9a2e12a72349c08d6af909347aa6e6