2024 will be an interesting year for call centers. In particular, although providing top-notch user experiences will still be high on everyone’s priority list, service agents themselves may be in for a ride.
Many firms are already implementing AI tools to automate simple issues and offer customers self-service options for routine tasks, which means only the complex problems are left for live agents. This is increasing the demand for highly skilled and specialized agents, and we haven’t seen any signs of this slowing down just yet.
Meanwhile, the ever-evolving threat of cyberattacks also leaves call centers with a cat and mouse game of cybersecurity compliance regulations to deal with. Thus, if you run, manage, or work at a call center, it behooves you to stay ahead of the curve.
7 Contact Center Trends That Are Changing the Game
1. Call centers will focus on employee retention
53% of CX leaders view recruiting and retaining talent as their biggest challenge. This is no surprise since the average agent attrition rate for call centers in the US reached a staggering 83% in the first quarter of 2022.
High turnover rates are a big problem because they cause call centers to spend considerable time and resources recruiting and training a consistent influx of new employees. This can be really tough on smaller firms, as hiring and onboarding a single employee can cost a call center $5,000-$7,000 on average.
That said, expect agent attrition rates to be a top priority in any call center, leading to a renewed focus on employee well-being. As a result, more and more companies will look to offer more competitive compensation and flexible work schedules in their job listings.
72% of call center agents view better pay as the top factor when deciding to stick with a company, while 47% also value flexible scheduling options—mainly split shifts as well as flexible breaks and lunch times.
In other words, make sure you strive to create a healthier work environment. Ask for feedback from employees and make an effort to create a more comfortable and flexible workspace.
We don’t expect things will improve drastically in 2024—36% of companies reported that they spent little or no effort turning the situation around in 2022, despite the high attrition rate.
Still, 2024 will probably mark the first few steps in the right direction.
2. Virtual call centers will become the norm
In 2024, the number of remote call center agents could be 60% higher than in 2022.
As companies continue to adjust to remote work, they often see reduced overhead costs (such as running physical offices) in addition to new opportunities to tap into a global workforce.
And although remote working options can lead to an increase in employee satisfaction and a decrease in turnovers, they also pose additional security risks—as well as communication challenges for teams that aren’t used to digital methods.
That said, private cloud networks, VPNs with multi-factor authentication, and security measure workforce training are all accompanying parts of this trend—along with cloud-based contact center solutions and other collaboration tools. The effects of these are all likely to become more prevalent in 2024.
3. AI-powered sentiment analysis will rise in popularity
Predictions suggest that 95% of consumer interactions will be tracked by AI and ML-powered analysis tools by 2025. Although this particular statistic applies to multiple categories and touch points like social media marketing, sentiment analysis tools are especially handy for call centers.
Popular call center software solutions such as 8×8 and Vonage already offer this feature—mostly because it provides call centers crucial insights into the quality of their services.
In general, sentiment analysis tools leverage NLP (Natural Language Processing) and ML (Machine Learning) technology to listen in on customer conversations and point out any underlying emotional tones between service agents and customers.
As such, sentiment analysis tools give call center leaders and managers a nifty way to gauge agent effectiveness and customer satisfaction, as well as a new way to tailor responses based on customer emotions.
Sentiment analysis tools are also handy for prioritizing support tickets because they read and interpret text, which helps you tend to upset customers as quickly as possible.
Finally, since plenty of call center solutions offer sentiment analysis features already, the technology isn’t hard to implement. This will likely lead to even more widespread adoption and increased competition as a result.
At the end of the day, customers want to be met with great customer support, so they’ll naturally end up choosing the companies that leverage sentiment analysis the best.
4. Customer self-service portals will be in high demand
95% of businesses experienced a growth in customer self-service requests between 2020 and 2021, and the average growth was around 37%.
This trend is not very surprising, as 75% of consumers agree that self-service is a convenient way to solve their issues, and 67% prefer self-service options over reaching out to a live agent.
Additionally, letting customers deal with simple issues by themselves gives service agents the extra time to move on to more pressing problems.
For your self-service portals to be on point, your FAQ pages should use data from both Google Search Console and your knowledge base to identify and solve real questions.
Your resources should also cover text and video formats in addition to offering multi-lingual support to make the information accessible to everyone.
Keep in mind that AI-powered chatbots fall into this category, and these are getting much better at performing routine tasks for live agents. Nevertheless, it’s still recommended to monitor your self-service features to optimize portals for the best possible experience.
In the end, a good self-service portal will provide benefits to businesses and their customers alike, so this trend is likely to pick up steam in 2024.
5. Service agents will be better trained
Although many trends are meant to free up agents from having to handle routine inquiries, they bring additional challenges of specialization and preparation.
Without being needed to handle as many lower-level functions, service agents will need to develop their technical skills and increase their understanding of their company’s products/services to deliver adequate support.
Since around 40% of agents report that customers typically get angry once they can’t solve issues on their own, employees need to be even more prepared to handle frustrated customers—since they’ll be dealing with a higher frequency of them.
Furthermore, working from home can also make things difficult for agents, since they won’t have as much access to direct help from managers and supervisors as they would in a physical company office.
In other words, a service agent’s job is about to become much more demanding, so proper training is more important than ever.
6. Call centers will go multi-channel
Despite how 79% of consumers expect consistent communication across multiple departments, 55% feel like they’re talking to separate departments—not with one company as a whole.
This explains why 43% of customer experience leaders report an increase in demand for multi-channel experiences that centralize all customer communications and give sales agents the data necessary to address individual customer needs.
Expanding your self-service options and integrating website chatbots is a good start, but it’s also a good idea to double down on email, social media channels, and even SMS.
Remember, given the complex issues that agents must handle, live customer engagement tools like co-browsing and video chat may also become a priority. These can help service agents diagnose issues faster, provide adequate support, and improve customer service experience.
That doesn’t mean you should dial back phone support, however, as 59% of customers still view phones as their preferred means of communication.
If you’re looking for out-of-the-box multi-channel support to unify your communications, take a look at call center software like RingCentral, Nextiva, and 8×8. These platforms integrate natively with many popular CRM (Customer Relationship Management) systems, giving service agents access to all the information necessary to deliver personalized experiences.
7. New mandatory security and privacy measures
As call centers become more digitized, state regulations will double down on privacy and security measures, leaving companies that handle customer information in a rush to adhere to the latest regulations.
For instance, US states like Oregon, Texas, and Montana, will implement new privacy laws in 2024, while other states will roll out new measures by 2025 and 2026.
Meanwhile, the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) will implement 13 new compliance regulations as part of the PCI DSS 4.0 program, which will take effect in April of 2024.
Some of the new PCI DSS regulations include the following actions: encrypting stored cardholder data, limiting both physical and digital access to cardholder information, and updating anti-malware, firewall, and other types of security software to their latest versions.
Since it’s relatively easy to comply with these new regulations by outsourcing customer credit card payments to third-party payment system providers, this is a trend that is likely to grow in 2024.
If you don’t want to deal with any additional compliance regulations, look for companies that are PCI DSS Level 1-certified. This ensures that the payment system provider in question meets the highest possible security measures.
Now What? Call Center Challenges in the Future
Although most of the trends for 2024 will bring positive changes, they also come with a series of challenges. It’s important to set yourself up to succeed by knowing how to overcome these potential hurdles.
1. The switch to multi-channel customer service can be overwhelming
Suddenly switching from a phone-centric approach to emails, chatbots, social media, and SMS can cause chaos within your organization as well as overwhelm employees—especially when not implemented correctly.
You need to centralize all communication channels in a way that agents will have quick access to all available and relevant information. Adopting a digital-first approach by merging Call Center as a Service (CCaaS) with Customer Experience Management (CXM) software can be an excellent solution.
This helps unify communications and make customer data readily available for multiple departments like customer service, sales, and marketing. If you can get good at delivering contextual support, it’s highly likely that you’ll be able to improve the customer journey.
2. AI will likely make customer service agents worried
Just 34% of agents claim they understand the role of AI within their department. In other words, you need to be crystal clear and explain that AI is an assistant—not a replacement.
Be transparent about how AI works within your organization and hold coaching sessions to teach agents how to leverage this technology to make their jobs easier.
3. Customer expectations will rise
On top of the increased demand for self-service portals and more complex inquiries, 76% of customers also expect personalized experiences—such as adhering to their preferred communication channels and sending recommendations based on their purchase history.
In other words, customers know that service departments handle a lot of data and want them to make the most out of it.
That said, with a unified CCaaS and CXM software approach—plus some sentiment analysis tools, you’ll be able to deliver satisfying customer service experiences as well as targeted marketing campaigns.
Conclusion
Simply put, 2024 most likely marks the start of a series of massive changes that will alter the way competitive call centers operate.
Make sure you stay on top of the latest trends and advancements in technology so you don’t fall behind both in terms of retaining employees and serving your customers.
Lastly, if you’re not using a third-party service to help you stay compliant, keep an eye out for upcoming security regulations and prepare yourself ahead of time to avoid any potential hiccups.