I recently presented at the CCA’s annual Convention in Glasgow, Scotland, and one of the key themes was “The Digital Game,” with sessions examining how organizations are responding to demand for digital customer services as part of the ongoing transition from call to contact centers. The future of customer engagement was illustrated using examples of newer channel usage, including videochat and social media, with a focus on how to best engage through the new channels.
I had the pleasure of sharing a session with Melanie Howard, Chair, Future Foundation, and we used our looking glass to predict what customer care will look like in 2020. Melanie addressed the themes of responding to clients in a more personalized manner, and contact centers powered by robots with minimal human interactions. I primarily focused on where NelsonHall sees digital channel usage changing over the next five years and how business process outsourcers in the customer management services (CMS) market can assist companies in utilizing digital channels.
The high tech and telecommunications sectors are the trailblazers when it comes to digital channel usage, and in my most recent report on CMS in the high tech sector, I identified the following shifts in channel usage between now and 2020:
- Voice/IVR usage decreasing from 87% to 65%
- Email decreasing from 23% to 15%
- Webchat increasing from 17% to 33%
- Social media increasing from 5% to 15%
- Video chat increasing from 1% to 10%.
NelsonHall research shows that voice interactions are increasingly being deflected to non-voice channels, primarily webchat, with complex interactions tending to remain in the voice channel. We also found that some companies are adopting a “pure digital” model for customer service. For companies whose products necessarily require a fairly advanced level of technological proficiency, they assume that all of their customers can be satisfied through email, chat or other digital channels. No voice channel whatsoever is being used. Needless to say, this is a harbinger of things to come, albeit over a long period of time. It speaks to the importance of contact centers becoming capable of delivering customer service in practically any channel as we make the inevitable transition from voice to digital.
Videochat still has obstacles in terms of the quality of customer/agent interaction, though it has proven to be of benefit in reducing truck rolls and providing installation support. NelsonHall research shows that some high-tech companies are welcoming videochat because the business case is clearly demonstrable. When using videochat to address customer inquiries, they are much more effective in reducing the rate of returns compared to the traditional voice channel. This is a watershed finding, because it clears the way for many implementations of videochat in the high-tech sector, and certainly other verticals will quickly see the benefits of video in their industries as well.
Stay tuned as NelsonHall continues to reveal evidence of how the adoption of digital channels is increasing and creating new ways to enhance the customer experience. Visit our website at http://research.nelson-hall.com/
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