Call Centre Solutions: Tech Trends of 2020/2021

Call centre solutions are performance-focused, designed to achieve specific goals: optimise response times, use data to understand customer concerns and needs better, and improve customer experience, in combination with competitive pricing to gain (and keep) a foothold across the market. 

But recognising the importance of call centre technology is not enough. To stay ahead of the curve, you must stay updated with the newest advances and emerging trends that are shaping the future of the call centre. 

Among these emerging trends that have greatly contributed to many of the advancements in the call centre industry is voice over internet protocol (VoIP) technology. 

Call Centre Technology: How Is VoIP Advancing Call Centres?

Whether you are running an inbound, outbound, or blended call centre, the bottom line remains the same when it comes to call centre tech. Every call centre requires a call management system, which includes two crucial components: 

• Automatic Call Distribution to make sure phones and agents are always working
• Interactive Voice Response (for inbound calls) so that every caller can select where to be routed

VoIP is a technology- and bandwidth-efficient platform for managing hundreds or thousands of calls every day. Use one system for data transfer, networking, and voice calls without the redundant costs of wiring for both internet and landline phones. 

VoIP can also improve efficiency for agents, who can retain access to all computer- and cloud-based information while managing a full call schedule.

VoIP has the added advancements of accommodating security measures like a VPN, firewall, and malware protection as part of its regular updates and best practices.

Top 8 Call Centre Tech Trends

The top call centre trends we are currently watching are detailed below to help you remain at the top of your call-centre game.

1. Voice Biometrics

Voice biometrics (also known as voice recognition or voice authentication) is a technology that’s focused on data security by making a customer’s voice a password. 

This option is incredibly valuable when developing an omnichannel service platform. Voice biometrics allows your customer to use any phone or voice-based media to access their account.

2. Omnichannel Support

Your customers are increasingly moving away from relying on their phones and reaching out to your call centre services through a variety of other channels: email, social media, and more. 

Forward-looking call centre tech responds to omnichannel opportunities. Regardless of how customers contact you, their experience will be as consistent as possible, which allows for continuity of branding as well as increasing customer satisfaction and loyalty.

Approaching your solutions for your call centre as integrated, omnichannel opportunities are also key for reducing wait times and improving response effectiveness. 

Research shows that effective use of omnichannel engagement translates to 89 per cent customer retention. In contrast, companies still locked in more traditional methods retain only about 1 in 3 customers (33 per cent).

3. Artificial Intelligence

Artificial Intelligent (also known as AI) supports your call centre by helping you understand why your customers are contacting you. 

It does this by gathering information collected from multiple channels of communication and analysing it to get a clearer sense of what customers want (as distinct from what you think they want). 

According to a recent Frost & Sullivan Global Research report, 64 per cent of companies expect to apply some form of AI application in the next two years. 

An added benefit of AI is that it can “learn” from human agents and eventually take over the role of answering incoming Frequently Answered Questions (FAQs). AI can also deploy pre-recorded messages in response to real-time situations either as a stand-alone tool or to channel calls to appropriate human agents. 

Companies that have increased their use of AI-based solutions report the following results:

• 69 per cent increase in agent satisfaction
• 68 per cent increase in operational efficiencies
• 66 per cent increase in agent productivity
• 61 per cent increase in customer satisfaction

The numbers speak for themselves: AI works.

4. Smart Analytics

One of the critical trends in the call centre industry, smart analytics, takes the data gathered from AI to give you a fuller picture of how your customers are interacting with your online goods and services. 

More powerful still is how smart analytics can reveal how you can provide better service and enhanced customer experience for your customer base. 

When paired with a system-wide commitment to follow up communications with clients, analytics can spot trends and preferences as they are emerging.

5. Proactive Marketing

Make the most of your call centre system by using the data you gathered from AI and smart analytics for proactive marketing and predictive customer engagement. Both will allow you to anticipate the best action for individual customers rather than reacting to situations when they happen or even after the fact. 

Solutions that adapt quickly allow human agents to access real-time information and tailor their support in ways that matter most to customers. 

6. Customer Mapping

Integrated with your proactive marketing, the process of customer mapping details the common touchpoints and potential problems that impact the overall customer experience when people reach to your company. 

Mapping helps your call centre step into your customer’s shoes for a moment. You can better understand what customers are experiencing through your website and social media channels or when they try to engage with your service department, for instance. 

7. Advanced Digital Channel

Recognising the importance of customer experience and customer mapping, the need for a consistent and comprehensive experience is crucial to the long-term growth of your business. 

Every department in your company needs to be connected so that information and insights can be shared as seamlessly as possible. This is where advanced digital channels like VoIP fit into the picture: it makes communication within and outside your business more efficient and cost-effective.

8. Cloud Communications

Allowing for flexibility and easy scalability, cloud-based call centre communications is a cost-effective way to serve customers from anywhere around the globe. And you can do so without burning a substantial chunk of your marketing budget on traditional communications infrastructure. 

Cloud-based call centre solutions allow your company to use the best remote human agents regardless of where they live and work. They can interact with customers that same way as your locally based agents can, usually at a fraction of the cost. 

How to Improve Customer Service with Technology

The bottom line is that technology can boost your customer service, grow your customer loyalty, and increase your company’s profitability. 

Here are a few ways that new technologies like VoIP can improve customer service and ensure that your investment translates into happier clients, robust sales, and an impressive return-on-investment that makes your company more responsive and agile.

1. Analyse Data through Insights

In business, data is only data until you convert it to insights that will, in turn, convert your marketing strategy into something that’s tailored specifically for your customers and your market. 

Insights allow you to become a reliable and easy-to-do-business-with company and will set you apart from the crowd of competitors. Using even the most relatively basic analytical tools, you can create target marketing strategies based on such variables as purchasing history, demographics, and geographic/seasonal variations in demand.

2. Speed Up Communication

One of the most important benefits of using technology effectively as part of your call centre is how it speeds up communications with your customers. Gone are the days of waiting on hold to speak with a human agent. 

Live chat or chatbots embedded in your company website allow you to help customers when they need it and wherever they are.

3. Use Real-Time Messaging

More companies now are building real-time messaging into their call centre. Customers can message directly using their cell phones and, within minutes, have any questions answered, appointments booked, or purchases completed. 

Again, the more channels you make available within your call centre platform, the more convenient for your customers and more efficient for your business. 

According to a recent Salesforce survey of call centre trends, 90 per cent of customers expect an immediate response. Nothing is more rapid than real-time messaging. 

4. Optimise Self-Service

One of the easiest and most effective solutions for call centres is to optimise advanced self-service channels (also known as self-assist tools) across your company. 

This option allows a customer the opportunity to solve their problem quickly without any additional effort from your team. Studies show that more customers favour self-service options, including FAQs and tutorials, as first options rather than more traditional human-facilitated support.

An immediate benefit of self-service solutions: your agents have more time to work on more complex, labour-intensive problems that make each customer feel as though they are the most important call in the queue.  

5. Increase Work Efficiency

In the end, technology for call centres is about improving efficiencies. When implemented strategically, these trends taken individually and collectively will streamline internal processes, help deliver a consistent message (reduce rework), and decrease costs.

Revolutionise Your Call Centre Solutions with VoIP

Competition in call centres is only going to increase in the coming years. At VoIPTech Solutions, we dedicate ourselves to making sure our clients make the most out of every dollar invested and every sales opportunity that arises. 

And while the temptation might be to buy the shiniest system available, the reality is that you need call centre solutions designed for your company’s specific needs and that align with your marketing strategies. 

Let us help build exactly the set of solutions that meet (and exceed) the needs of your company now and into the future. 

Contact us today via our website at https://cms.voiptech.solutions/ to learn more. Or you can send us an email at support@voiptech.solutions, or give us a call at 0203 745 0201.