The growth of multi-channel communications including e-mail, Web chat and social media has helped businesses improve communications with customers. Today’s contact centers are prepared to leverage these communications channels, according to reports.
According to DATAMARK, a provider of global business services to Fortune 500 companies, the popularity of multi-channel communications in contact centers will continue in 2014, as it will help them reduce phone calls and save agent time.
The above finding is from DATAMARK’s latest whitepaper that underlined top contact center trends for the New Year.
The whitepaper also reveals that the growing U.S. Hispanic consumer market will have a huge impact in outsourced customer contact. It will result in the growth of onshore and nearshore call centers in regions with a bilingual workforce proficient in English and Spanish.
Companies will increasingly turn to website- and social media-driven customer service approaches in order to reduce the number of phone calls and requests through other channels. Links such as FAQ or Customer Service will help customers find answers to their questions. Self service pages, instructional videos and downloadable customer service apps are also gaining popularity.
Video chat with an expert is the next big thing in customer interaction. Live video support using services such as Google Hangouts are gaining popularity. Companies are keen to turn these video chats to events that will generate positive publicity by surprising customers with celebrity experts.
Companies will work to keep consumer complaints and drama off social media news feeds by steering consumers toward mobile customer-service apps. Instead of posting a message on Facebook or Twitter and waiting for a response, a customer can open their app and get the help they need. Such methods will also help companies save their reputation.
Companies planning to outsource customer contacts will focus more on quality than cost savings. They will be willing to pay a little more to have their outsourced customer contact centers onshore--within the U.S.--or at nearshore locations. Mexico, due to its proximity to the U.S. and availability of young, educated, bilingual workforce fluent in English and Spanish, is the popular outsourcing destinations for these firms, according to DATAMARK.
The growth of Hispanic market will drive outsourced customer services, DATAMARK said. U.S. Hispanic purchasing power was $1.2 trillion in 2012 and is expected to grow to $1.5 trillion by 2015, according to the Selig Center for Economic Growth.
In short, the demand for Spanish-speaking customer service reps will give more opportunity to contact center providers in the U.S. Southwest, northern Mexico, and other Latin American countries that have large bilingual workforces.