Non-voice channels within the contact centre are rapidly edging into the territory once dominated by voice interactions.
This is according to Andre le Roux, MD at Interactive Intelligence Africa, who notes this trend presents a wealth of opportunity for organisations to become more efficient and cost-effective, and for customers to enjoy faster, better service.
Frost & Sullivan predicts that by 2020, around 50% of voice interactions will have moved into other channels.
"This figure may be far higher if we consider the already large portion of information sharing that is now handled by company Web sites - also a non-voice channel, says Le Roux.
"In fact, a substantial portion of customers make company Web sites their first point of contact with a company, and only turn to other communications channels if their questions are not answered by the site."
Therefore, beefing up the company's site to be more informative and user-friendly might be seen as the first step to introducing non-voice technologies that lighten the load of contact centres, he says.
Dimension Data Global Contact Centre Benchmarking Report, says digital contact continues its explosive growth as popular engagement method in the contact centre.
By the end of 2016, customers will mostly be using digital channels - including social media, live chat, SMS and video, which combined are expected to overtake telephone use, it says.
"Ten years ago there was no Web chat, smart phone apps, social media, and very little e-mail. Today, digital interactions account for over 35% of all interactions and, at the current rate, will overtake voice in two years' time."
However, despite the expected growth in digital, increasing complexity means it's been difficult for contact centres to embrace and deliver high levels of service on all the channels that are now available to consumers, it says.
While telephone interactions in contact centres are managed, tracked, and quality controlled, the same performance rigour isn't always applied to digital channels, says Rob Allman, group principal director, Customer Experience and Collaboration at Dimension Data.
This lack of management and quality control of digital platforms within contact centres can lead to an inconsistent and degraded customer experience across a brand or company services, he adds.
In today's evolving omnichannel environment, customers want to move fluidly between the channels of their choice within the same interaction, notes Le Roux.
For instance, a customer has a Web chat session with an agent, which then transitions to a video call with screen sharing - this is called multimodal communication and it's yet another evolution of the omnichannel trend, he adds.
Therefore, to support these rapidly changing customer expectations, contact centres must begin to employ non-voice modes of interaction, says Le Roux.
To do this successfully, they should look for a communication platform that's built from scratch to process multichannel interactions; if possible, one that's delivered via the cloud for flexibility and faster time to value, he adds.
"Contact centres that do so will not only delight and retain customers, they'll also be positioned to operate more efficiently and cost-effectively."
The International Customer Management Institute says non-voice contact channels shouldn't be planned as an afterthought, but must be considered as part of an integrated customer ecosystem.
"Generally, customers contact companies because they need to - don't leave them hanging on one channel or they will pop up on another less happy, more difficult to satisfy and with a lasting negative perception of your responsiveness."
Study market data and survey customers to find their acceptable wait times and run all your channels to hit those wait times, it says.
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