2017 has been a year that saw many changes in the field of both technology and customer service. These various changes have caused a major shift in the dynamics of call centers in India as well as internationally.  There has been a modernization in call centers that have taken them from the monotonous world of answering calls to discovering new platforms and a new scope of customer service and other call center functions.

Let us now discuss what these trends of 2017 have been –

Takeover of Digitization

As more and more consumers have adopted the various digital platforms in their everyday life, their expectations from companies in terms of support also include these platforms. Whether it is website chat, social media or in-app chat support, customers want to support on all these platforms. To adjust to these demands of consumers, call center service providers have had to adopt new technologies and integrations with these digital platforms.

The Rise of Omnichannel

With today’s call centers offering multi-channel support services to their customers, there is a need for streamlining customer experience across these various channels. One of the issues that are faced by customers is that there was no clear documentation from customer interaction on one channel when the same customer contacted the company on a different channel. This led to the customer having to repeat the same issue, again and again, each time they used a different channel of communication.

In 2017, we say this much needed streamlining taking place that led to a better customer experience across all platforms. Customers no longer needed to repeat information as a centralized system was created where all customer data was updated and could be accessed by agents offering support on every single channel.

Understanding Benefits of Performance Tracking

Call centers this year took on various performance tracking and measurement solutions to keep a track of the performance of all their agents. Performance analytics has given the management much-needed insight that has helped them identify problem areas and take corrective actions to help increase the call center’s efficacy and agent performance.

Integration with Artificial Intelligence

2017 saw the beginning phase of the adoption of artificial intelligence in call center companies. AI assists with predictive analytics that helps enhance customer interactions. Services like call routing will get an added boost by artificial intelligence in the coming future. AI can also be helpful in streamlining customer data across multiple platforms which would reduce redundancy in support functions.

Emphasis on Customer Feedback

This year saw companies that offer BPO services in India focus more on customer feedback. Comprehensive customer satisfaction surveys we implemented to understand what the customers feel about the brand and the level of service and customer service they are receiving. These surveys were subjective and gave customers a chance to give feedback in detail about how customer service can be improved. Based on the feedback received, corrective steps were taken and changes were made to customer service strategies.

Conclusion:

All these trends have shown us that the call center sector has is adopting new technology at a steady pace, keeping customer expectations in mind and learning from their shortcomings to deliver a better customer service experience. Looking forward towards 2018, we can expect more technological advances as the trend of predictive customer support heats up, it would definitely get a mention in 2018’s call center trends next year.