Customer Experience Trends for 2018 in the Contact Center

As 2017 winds down, businesses and contact center professionals are beginning to look ahead to the coming year. This article delves into the evolving landscape of the contact center and highlights key trends to expect in 2018.

The Role of the Contact Center Agent Will Continue to Evolve

Businesses will continue to invest in self-service and automation solutions. This focus is driven by the desire to empower customers to handle routine and straightforward interactions. Consequently, complex and high-value customer interactions will increasingly occur within the contact center, requiring more advanced technical and interpersonal skills from contact center agents.

With this in mind, recruitment criteria for contact center agents will change. Businesses must re-train and up-skill their existing agents, enabling them to make more informed decisions independently and to adapt to new digital interaction channels. The aim is not only to streamline operations but also to improve customer satisfaction and retention.

The Push to Self-Service Will Reshape Contact Center Metrics

As more customer interactions move through self-service channels, traditional metrics such as average handle time (AHT) become less relevant. Dealing primarily with complex and prolonged issues, businesses are increasingly turning away from AHT and adopting alternative metrics like First Contact Resolution (FCR) and Net Promoter Score (NPS).

FCR measures the success of the customer support process by assessing whether the first contact resolves the customer's issue. NPS indicates the strength of the relationship between the business and its customers. By focusing on these customer-centric metrics, businesses can better assess the value and effectiveness of their contact center operations.

Businesses Will Focus on Optimizing the Customer Journey Across All Channels

Organizations are increasingly recognizing the importance of customer journeys in the digital era. This leads to a deeper examination of which journeys can be managed effectively through self-service versus those that require human intervention.

In 2018, we anticipate a greater emphasis on creating customer personas and segmenting customer bases. Understanding diverse customer behaviors and preferences is crucial. For example, younger millennial customers might prefer visual-based interactions, while baby boomers might favor face-to-face or traditional interactions. By optimizing the entire journey, from initial contact through to resolutions, businesses can enhance customer satisfaction and loyalty.

Greater Emphasis on Aligning and Integrating Channels

The primary frustration for customers is often the need to start their interaction anew with a human operator after engaging in a lengthy online process. To address this, businesses in 2018 will place a greater focus on channel alignment and integration, creating smoother and more efficient interactions.

Technologies like Real-Time Speech Analytics (RTSA) will play a crucial role. RTSA can listen in on conversations and retrieve relevant information to help agents, making the interaction more efficient and customer-friendly. Solutions like Microsoft Teams and Presence functionality in Skype for Business facilitate information sharing and problem-solving in a secure environment, improving both customer and agent experiences.

As contact centers adapt to these trends, they will enhance their ability to provide tailored, seamless, and efficient service to customers, ultimately driving higher satisfaction and loyalty.