The study finds almost one in two senior CX professionals expect to see a rise in new customer channels supported by technology such as voice assistants and AR services in the next decade. Much of this change has been accelerated in the last couple of years by the Covid-19 pandemic; 90% expect working from home to be a permanent part of CX delivery models in the future, and 78% expect advisors to have the ability to determine where they want to work.
In remote environments operational challenges have remained, and the research reveals engaging and motivating employees is seen as the most pressing, closely followed by keeping up with the latest contact center technology and deploying it at scale.
A bespoke approach to quality customer delivery
Contact center management expects onshore, nearshore and offshore contact centers to grow in the future – showcasing the need for a tailored approach across different businesses in order to maximize quality delivery. Businesses choosing to improve customer experience may need to adapt the approach, all while ensuring the security of customer data, access to talent, resilience of operation and cost base are considered.
The research indicates that any customer experience management approach must address operational challenges of the future, around managing employee attrition, integrating disparate channels and systems, managing compliance, and engaging and motivating employees (all areas estimated by one in two to be more challenging in the future).
The future
Respondents that have engaged in transformation projects are seeing benefits, with positive impacts identified on security of data/ customers (77%), customer experience (78%), access to talent (77%), resilience of operations (77%), and cost base (77%).