Six Call Center Trends in a Post Covid World

Call center trends in a post covid world

1. New tech touchpoints

Thanks to the advent of new technology, channels like live video chats, mobile texts, and in-app conversations will continue to be popularly used in 2021. This, coupled with customers with short attention span, rapid delivery will become important.

2. High call volumes are here to stay for the foreseeable future

According to a study by Ozonetel, where 150 million calls across six diverse industry verticals were analyzed, high call volumes are likely to continue to be more pronounced especially for the healthcare/pharma, eCommerce, and food delivery industries. Inbound/ outbound call unpredictability is likely to continue as Covid-related services and announcements roll out globally.

Also Read: State of the Customer Experience. What did 2020 change?

3. More proactive and predictive customer journeys

Post pandemic, for 60% of consumers, customer experience has become pivotal in determining loyalty. Customers are highly tuned in and nothing goes unnoticed. Consistent customer experience will become crucial. Inconsistencies will lead to distrust, leading them to switch to competitive offerings.

So, contact centers can’t afford to be siloed anymore. According to digital marketing and Customer Experience leader, Sue Duris, “Alignment to the customer only works when every team is rowing in the same direction.” In 2021, call centers will, therefore, need to concertedly employ a more “unified” approach around business operations to provide more integrated, proactive, and predictive CX.

Also Read: How Integrated Call Centers Help Drive the Customer Experience

4. Empathy takes center stage

A truly fantastic customer journey is not possible without empathy and human connections, no matter how streamlined & robust the technology. According to Customer Success Manager, Sara Ostin, “We’ve had to become really great at reading the room and understanding the environment that our customers operate in in order to provide true value”. So, a one-size-fits-all approach needs to be replaced with a deeper understanding of customer needs.

5. Need to optimize for employee engagement

Great agent experience = superior customer experience! With employees working from home, possibly permanently, it’ll be imperative for employers to ensure adequate employee engagement and emotional connection for them to be 100% productive. This will likely need to become a core part of an organization’s strategic roadmap.

Mike Akoi, from Reflective Keynotes Inc. aptly puts it – “Work-from-home employee engagement will be one of the biggest contact center challenges for 2021.” As a result, orgs will need to increase communications and appreciate work-from-home agents. Coaching will need to go virtual and engaging with a two-way dialogue for agents’ personal development so work from home staff doesn’t feel ignored.

6. Employee retention will be key

Simply put, agent attrition is expensive. According to digital marketing guru, Matt Wujciak employee replacement cost is about one-third of that employee’s salary. Not to mention the huge time sink related to training, onboarding, and customer relationship-building. As a result, organizations should do whatever they can to reduce agent burnout.

Also Watch: The Key Role Contact Centers play in a Post Covid World.