Dublin, Oct. 13, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The "Customer Perspectives on Contact Center Trends Amidst the COVID-19 Pandemic" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.
The report surveyed 661 IT decision-makers around the globe to IT/Communications to gain a deeper understanding of the impact of COVID-19 and their plans to exceed CX expectations as the world recovers from the pandemic.
COVID-19 accelerated the move towards self-service, allowing many companies to invest in technology that deflects calls/live chat but still improves the customer experience (CX). Voice continues to lead, but self-service channels such as virtual agents and IVR will be heavily supported over the next year. restructure their organizations to take advantage of new resource pools and longer tenures.
COVID-19 forced organizations to reallocate resources quickly, revealing another aspect of contact center operations that needs attention. Employees had to be trained on new tasks quickly, and some companies did not have the solutions in place to do so.
In an industry accustomed to attrition, many companies realize the value of agent retention. They are investing in tools that allow younger generations, gig workers, "retirees," along with those enlightened by the new COVID-driven work-at-home culture to attain the flexible schedules they want. Companies across sectors recognized that agent performance improved when they moved to work from home.
Conversational AI and virtual assistants became a top priority. As businesses quicken their pace towards self-service, they are hindered by customers unwilling to adopt new contact channels. The need to collaborate between departments continues to gain importance as the need to differentiate becomes increasingly crucial. More than -50% of respondents say the top two benefits they have seen from integrating UC and CC solutions include improved customer journey and better agent experience.
The top priorities for technology investments point to improving agent performance and operations. Companies are ramping up investments in performance management, quality monitoring, and collaboration to make it easier to share information across departments.
For almost half of the respondents, the social media channel became the highest priority during the pandemic. The convenience of using these channels to complete transactions and the ease of divulging information to the masses will continue to help this channel thrive.
CSAT and NPS scores improved during the pandemic, revealing that customers were more emphatic with a "we're all in this together" manner.
This study provides data for the following industries:
- IT/Communications (50)
- Financial Services & Banking
- Healthcare
- Public Administration
- Manufacturing
- Retail
- Travel & Hospitality
Channels covered: voice, email/web form, social media messaging apps, social media apps, mobile apps, SMS, Chat with live agents, virtual agents, video chat, video teller/kiosk, and IVR.
Technologies covered: conversational AI & virtual assistants/bots, quality monitoring, collaboration tools, performance management, flexible APIs/CPaaS, eLearning for agents, proactive customer care, gamification, and augmented reality.
CSAT and NPS scores are provided for each industry.
This study is valuable for solution providers to better understand what each industry seeks in delivering excellent CX, and end-user businesses to benchmark themselves against the competition and other industries.
Key Features
The primary goals of this research are to:
- Understand the impact of COVID-19 on contact centers
- Understand challenges organizations face today
- Monitor the status of digital transformation
- Assess the current and future use of contact center solutions
- Evaluate factors that drive investments in contact center solutions
- Gauge market and technology trends
- Appraise available IT budgets
- Measure perceptions by vertical industry
- Discover opportunities in different regions
Key Topics Covered:
1. Research Objectives and Methodology
2. Key Findings
3. Channel and Technology Usage
- Interaction Channels Usage Today
- Interaction Channels Support - Next Two Years
- CX Technologies Investment Plans - Next Two Years
- Contact Center Technology Investments
4. Strategic Direction
- Obstacles to Achieving Company Goals
- Measures to Improve Agent Retention
5. Impact of Covid
- Top Supported Business Functions
- Security and Compliance Capabilities for Remote Workers
6. Agents Seat Trends
- Agent Seat Trends Due to Covid
- Plans to Change the Number of Seats
- Impact on Agent Performance as they Moved to Remote
- Percent of Agents Moved to WAHA (Work at Home Agent) During the Pandemic
7. Interaction Trends
- 47% Increase in Number of Contact Center Interactions
- Channels that Gained Priority due to COVID-19
- Technologies that Gained Priority due to COVID-19
- Impact of COVID-19 on Voice Interactions
- Average Number of Live Chats Handled by Agents
- Growth in Virtual Agents
8. Customer Satisfaction
- Average CSAT Score By Industry
- Change in CSAT Score Since Pandemic
- NPS Score
9. Integration and Collaboration Trends
- Importance of Integrating Unified Communications and Contact Center Solutions
- Factors Preventing UC&C and CC Solutions Integration
- Integration of UC & C and CC Solutions - by Industry
- Benefits of Integrating UC & CC
- Tools Used to Collaborate with other Departments
10. Omnichannel
- Level of Integration of Channels
- Factors Preventing Organizations from Delivering an Omnichannel Experience
11. Hosted/Cloud Solutions
- Use of Hosted/Cloud Contact Center Solutions
- Investments in Hosted/Cloud Capabilities
- Investments in Hosted/Cloud Contact Center Capabilities
- Percent of Interactions Handled with Cloud/Hosted
- Benefits of Using CPaaS
12. Analytics
- Analytics Used Today and Investment Plans
- Leading Providers of Analytics Solutions
13. Respondent Profile
- Selection/Purchase Decision Authority
- Supported Business Functions
For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/6wsais
