By: Abdullah M. Syed on October 5, 2021
4 min read
COVID-19 has accelerated digital transformation for a wide range of industries. With massive increase in remote work, contact centers are striving to achieve superior customer experience through technological innovations and initiatives.
Even before the pandemic, contact centers were growing increasingly digital.
The demand for sales and support has grown not only through traditional channels like call centers, but also through websites, apps, and social media. Companies have been tested on their digital readiness. Businesses are aggressively working towards improving customer interactions and gearing up for the new normal.
The pandemic has forced companies to digitally transform their place of work and be able to effectively operate from anywhere. Companies that adopt omnichannel technologies are continuously rethinking business models for the future by fast-tracking digital transformation to be ahead of their competition.
Companies with a distributed workforce are leveraging new technologies keeping customers in mind, to drive better outcomes for their business. To keep the employees safe from spreading diseases, companies have to offer them the ability to work from home. Many companies lacked the technology infrastructure to run the contact center business as usual.
But, this isn't the only thing that's on the mind of business leaders in the contact center industry. They were rethinking many facets right from current challenges and applying those lessons to emerge strongly in future crises. COVID-19 pandemic has put them in a place to build a solid strategy for operation and business continuity plans ranging from channels to technologies.
The Move To The Cloud
According to a survey on the impact of COVID-19 among 800 contact center decision-makers from around the world, it is understood that 70% of the contact centers will continue to have agents work from home indefinitely. Companies of all sizes are fast-tracking their move to the cloud.
In this new post-pandemic world, business uncertainty remains for the foreseeable future. An ideal contact center offers the business the ability to pivot quickly to scale up on the cloud and meet the fluctuation demand in the marketplace regardless of the on-premise functionalities. A contact center should offer capabilities like work from anywhere enablement, non-voice channel options for immediate customer satisfaction, and conversational AI chatbots.
As a result of the pandemic's continuous waves and increasing customer interaction channels, companies have started to accelerate their move to the cloud. Cloud technology solutions can make the transition a lot easier and more seamless while ensuring that businesses thrive in the post-COVID-19 era.
3 Steps to Transform your Contact Center
Despite all the different platform choices, the structural elements of a future contact center stack will remain the same. Technology stacks for contact centers are evolving towards cloud hosting, conversational AI, and omnichannel interaction. Your business can achieve a future-ready state through a multiple product and platform combination, based on business specific requirements.
Step #1 - Stabilization
Companies are shifting their response to the crisis while stabilizing their contact center operations. Using a cloud contact center platform enables agents in increasing the capacity while reducing call wait times. If you operate a contact center as part of your business, partner with a cloud contact center provider to design or review your BC/DR plan.
Our experts can help you with redundancy and continuously build into their platform to sharpen business resilience. We can also help you set up a parallel cloud contact center faster to operate simultaneously. Later, call transfer can be made based on the specific business processes or with an interactive voice response (IVR) option.
Step #2 - Optimization
Optimizing the contact center operation is more likely to reduce costs and do more with fewer agents. Companies should always be mindful of selecting technologies and having a plan to transform them into the platform.
Understanding the automation possibilities and interactions can help with data collection in the initial phase of cloud adoption. A well-blended approach can lead to end-to-end automation and customers will receive services from virtual assistants. Also, identify your future contact center stack to enable maximum reusability of the technology.
Step #3 - Transformation
Transformation is mainly about moving to a more flexible cloud-based platform that can evolve as your business evolves. The business must build a business case that takes into account the cost of operations, impact on customer experience, and other factors. Stacks should be modular, plug-and-play, and future-proof.
You should be able to reuse and extend components according to business requirements. There are many technologies, but very few offer contact centers with new possibilities -- opt for one that creates an impactful engagement and increases loyalty with a better customer experience.
THE BOTTOM LINE
COVID-19 outbreak has left a lasting impact on the future of work for contact centers. Organizational leaders have to work towards bridging the gaps in their contact center operations to be better prepared for the future by using sustainable technology for resource management, Workforce Engagement Management (WEM), and AI-backed solutions. Implementing effective strategies can help you deliver efficient customer experiences, effectively handle interactions, and foster long-term relationships with the customers.
A cloud based CX is the composable and future-proof solution, helping businesses to act smarter, respond faster, and stay ahead in providing an exceptional customer experience. For a truly unified cloud platform for contact centers empowering organizations of all sizes to provide improved customer experience with advancing technological capabilities like speech-enabled IVR, analytics, voice bots, and conversational AI contact us today.
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