For those who have worked in the call center industry for more than a few years, the changes each new year brings are both exciting and interesting. While short-term progress often seems to tick by without much change at all, the span of a year can bring big transformations to your contact center.

This is especially true when it comes to call center technology. Those who have managed or even worked in call centers for many years can tell newer employees that this is the single fastest-changing aspect of the field. Because technology is always updating and always improving, its impact on your call center is always evolving.

Here are some of the ways that call center technology and the call center itself are changing in the coming year – and how to be on the right side of these changes.

Quicker Response Times

For years, one of the biggest complaints many consumers have when it comes to calling contact centers is the long wait times they often must endure when doing so. No one likes to be kept waiting, especially when they have a concern or question that needs to be answered. Modern life really doesn’t allow for slowing down to wait on a call center to serve your needs, either.

This is why so many call centers have adopted new and improved ways to speed response times or even provide instantaneous responses to consumer inquiries. There are many ways to approach this problem and many ways that today’s contact centers are using technology to do exactly that. Just a few of the most successful include:

• Smarter routing – Who will your caller be connected with when they reach your contact center? When you use smart routing technology, the answer will always be, “the right agent”. This is because these programs use information you already have access to in order to route every call that comes into your center to the best-suited available agent for the job. It saves you and your callers time and stress.
  
  
• Better hold options. Being on hold is never fun, but there are ways to make it a little easier and a little less unpleasant for your consumers. Today’s best call center technology offers features that predict and alerts callers to projected wait times, let them know when their call should be answered, and if there are any other steps that can be taken to speed up the service they are receiving. Consumers are always grateful to shorten their wait times!
  
  
• Callback services – These days, most people don’t have time to sit around on hold for very long. If you can’t wait more than a few minutes, you may be offered the choice to receive a call back from your call center agent. This way, you can go on about your day without waiting on a phone line for someone to answer – and know that when they call you, you’re going to get right to the matter at hand.
  
  
• Automated email response – When your consumer emails you to let you know that they have a question or a concern, how long does it take for them to get a response? When you have an automated email response system in place, the answer may be “seconds”. Letting your consumers or clients know you’ve received their communication and are working on addressing their concern is both reassuring and promotes a positive customer experience -both of which are good for the customer and great for you!
  
  
• Chatbots and live agent chat availability – Voice is not the only way that call center agents serve consumers these days. Chatbots and live chat availability is another important channel of communication – one that is quickly becoming commonplace in many call centers. Whether used in place of voice exchanges or alongside them for clarification and additional resources, these chat options are making many consumers more comfortable with contacting centers and making the job of agents easier and more efficient.

These are just a few of the ways that call center technology is making the process of responding to customers faster and easier for call center agents!

Creating a Better Customer Experience

Customer service is important in the field of contact center work, but perhaps even more important is the customer experience your agents are providing. Customer experience refers to the overall emotional journey your caller takes from the moment they experience their question or concern to the resolution and follow-up provided by your agents. While it may seem strange to think of the process of serving a customer as an emotional journey, that’s exactly what these situations can be for your consumers – and using technology that helps you create a positive one will improve every other aspect of your company’s business.

Shorter wait and response times are just the beginning of offering a great customer experience. Give your consumers a reason to love contacting you. Offer them an experience in which you collect information and use it to their advantage. Solve problems quickly. Get to the heart of the matter right away. Address their concerns and offer workable solutions, all while addressing them in a familiar tone and with a reassurance that you can either help them or redirect them to someone else who can. All of this can be accomplished with the right call center technology.

Knowing who to partner with when it comes to the ever-changing world of call center technology can be tricky – especially when it seems like there are dozens of new options on the market every year. However, your best option in 2019 and every year is still to combine your efforts with the company that has been serving contact centers and other corporate clients since long before these new-for-2019 companies were even thought of. Let ChaseData help you prepare for the changes that are coming and the ones you’re already implementing by offering you the industry’s best tools and technology – all with expert support along the way!