Call Center Trends Influencing Industry Best Practices

If we were to stop time and observe exactly what was going on in the call center industry at the present moment, we would see a number of developments and industry trends gaining momentum, including:

• Better analytics
• A steady increase in remote working
• Two-way social media customer service interactions

Let’s examine these industry trends a little deeper.

Improved Analytics Lead to Data-Informed Decisions

The days of relying solely on managers and team leads to make instant decisions with only a quick visual assessment and a “gut feeling” are becoming our industry’s past.

Trends have led to the refinement of many call center applications that allow supervisory personnel access to on-the-spot analytics and metrics. Such tools include:

• Smart reporting
• Wallboards displaying real-time critical operations metrics
• Utilizing historical data to better plan and track variances

As these tools are improved, more accurate analytics are delivered faster, which means the best practices managers use to efficiently manage the peaks and valleys of inbound call volume and determine agent assignments also improve.

In short, the industry trend of utilizing minute-by-minute analytics is better enabling managers, supervisors, and team leads to make the most effective decisions possible.

Remote Working On the Rise

Remote working opportunities are on the rise across the business world. To be sure, there are many benefits for both employees and businesses, like these mentioned in an article by Forbes Magazine:

• Improving productivity
• Better for your health and the environment
• Reduced commute time
• Keeping older generations in the workforce
• Reduced employee turnover

There is also a downside. For these remote workers, support cannot be obtained by simply asking the coworker in the next cubicle.

More than ever, people in fluid work situations are relying on effective interactions from customer service personnel to quickly resolve technical difficulties that are halting their productivity.

Their circumstances require that needed support to be made available to them through a variety of channels, such as call, text, email, app, or social media, just to name a few.

One of the major call center trends, Omnichannel, is set up to meet this very need, supporting the customer in the manner that works best for them, often across multiple channels without losing the thread.

Effective technical support through their preferred method of communication helps them meet their deadlines and obligations, hit their targets, and keep their business moving forward.

Two-Way Social Media Interaction

One communication channel under the Omnichannel umbrella that is gaining popularity is two-way social media interaction. It provides a convenient method for fielding customer concerns, but it also has the unique characteristic of helping customers solve their problems in a public forum.

The first advantage in this situation is that the back-and-forth dialogue between customer and agent remains online, available to be read by others who later experience the same issue. The initial dialogue, a single back-and-forth interaction, can actually resolve multiple instances of the same problem.

The second advantage is a byproduct of this online interaction — an agent’s effective, caring, customer-centered service methods are left for all to see, bolstering your company’s positive reputation.

Contact JBHworks Today

These trends are shaping best practices across the call center industry, making call centers better at what they do — serving the customer in an efficient and caring manner.

The most effective support centers redefine the customer service experience from start to finish by using the right channels to interact with customers where they are, by the means most convenient to them in the present moment, using data-driven decisions to guide workflow and reduce wait time.

If you’d like to learn more about how to get these industry trends working for your call center, contact JBHworks. We specialize in custom enhancements that can put the latest industry developments into action for you.