New research from Deloitte found strong interest in technology upgrades to transform contact centers.
Three in four companies will have cloud-based interactive voice response (IVR), interaction recording and CRM systems within two years and two in three will have cloud-based automatic call distribution (ACD), according to Deloitte Digital’s just released 2023 contact center survey.
The survey also found that two-thirds of companies expect to use an external partner for conversational AI and/or CRM management within the next two years, while 74% are currently at some stage of testing or deployment of customer-facing chatbots.
Additionally, voice/text analytics usage has increased from 62% in 2020 to 81% today.
The research also discovered that:
- Connected, consistent experiences are critical for building trust. Yet only 7% of the contact centers that offer multiple service channels are able to transition customers between channels seamlessly by providing data, history and context to the next agent or system.
- Nine in 10 contact center leaders are planning to invest in additional self-service capabilities in the next two years, with a goal of driving customers to conversational IVRs, interactive FAQs, virtual agents and/or chatbots.
“Customer and talent expectations have shifted greatly thanks to accelerated efforts to modernize contact center technology and deliver more seamless customer experiences,” Dounia Senawi, Deloitte Digital chief commercial officer and principal, Deloitte Consulting LLP, said in a prepared statement about the contact center technology research.
“By adapting to changing circumstances and embracing new technologies such as AI automation and self-service options, businesses enable contact centers to deliver exceptional customer experiences and gain a competitive advantage.”
One of the ways that contact centers aim to address labor and customer satisfaction concerns is by using artificial intelligence to handle routine tasks. Two service providers that offer AI-enhanced call center offerings are Verizon and Windstream.
When technology gets to the point that you can speak to have your words transcribed for the chatbot, aren’t you pretty much to the point where you should have a conversation with a person short of first trying to have FAQs answered before transfer? Some of the most frustrating interactions for people is to be caught in an IVR loop, and online dealing with a chatbot that isn’t programmed to recognize the keywords a customer is using is equally frustrating. Now the customer has to start guessing what keywords they should be using to get the chatbot to answer the question, essentially turning the tables where the customer is trying to “help” the chatbot. The technology is still in it’s infancy and needs more development before it will really be helpful.
The consumer must now speculate as to the keywords they ought to be using in order to persuade the chatbot to answer the query. This effectively turns the tables so that the user is now attempting to “help” the chatbot.