Fifty years ago, a call center consisted of a room full of consultants busily answering telephones. Then, the computer age dawned, and call centers became larger and dealt with more queries. Today, things are changing even more thanks to technological advances.
In this post, we look at the evolution of call centers. We spoke to the team at SupportYourApp, call center outsourcing specialists, to find out just how much things have changed.
The Integration of AI and Automation
Today’s call centers automate as many functions as possible. They might incorporate artificial intelligence for smart query routing, ticket management, and sentiment analysis.
Virtual assistants typically answer calls and give clients a range of choices. This can be in the form of pressing a particular number or saying what the query is about. This enables the system to forward the query to the right department.
Omnichannel Communication
Call centers today often handle interactions across multiple channels. These include email, social media, SMS, and live chat. Customer relationship management software creates a unified customer profile where consultants can access all the customer interactions.
Some software now incorporates AI to scan through several databases, including purchase history. This allows the system to generate personalized recommendations and relevant discounts.
Cloud-Based Solutions
Twenty years ago, your business had to make a significant investment in infrastructure to store data security. Upgrading your systems represented a significant investment, and remote work was very challenging.
Today, you can instantly upgrade your capacity thanks to cloud computing. You also don’t have to house your call center on your premises. Thanks to cloud computing, you can use an outsourcing provider halfway around the world.
What’s more, these solutions come with a range of useful analytics.
Remote Work and Virtual Call Centers
Running an in-house call center is prohibitively expensive. However, forty years ago, you didn’t have much of a choice. You could outsource the function, but that was also costly.
Thanks to improvements in technology, like VOIPs, you can now easily route calls halfway across the world. Your clients will never know, and you can save money.
The benefit to this option is that it cuts your overheads significantly and allows you access to the global talent pool.
It’s not the right choice for every company, but it works for many.
Enhanced Training and Quality Assurance
AI is changing the way we train our employees. We can use tools like ChatGPT to generate realistic scenarios for our customer service teams. We can also incorporate virtual reality or augmented reality.
The downside of technology moving rapidly is that we need to try and keep up. This means that we need to invest in lifelong learning.
Customer Experience and Satisfaction
AI can be useful in handling simple queries instantly. This significantly cuts wait times and allows human consultants to focus on satisfying customers. It also empowers clients with more self-service options.
We can also use these tools to ensure better personalization of communications. The analytics tools we have today are also extremely helpful in assessing our service levels and customer satisfaction.
Regulatory Compliance and Data Security
However, we must be careful that the tools we use comply with data protection regulations such as GDPR and CCPA. We’re lucky in that many highly advanced tools on the market make it easier to protect sensitive customer information.
These tools can also provide real-time monitoring against threats and audit trails that prove we’re compliant.
Future Trends and Innovations
Looking forward, you can expect even more innovations in the near future. We’re already starting to use virtual or augmented reality to assist clients in resolving issues. We’re also already seeing more face-to-face interactions between consultants and clients.
In the near future, it’ll become normal to have voice-enabled devices and for consultants to use smart assistants. The overall focus of call centers will change to the overall customer experience rather than just one interaction.
As a result, we’re likely to see call centers taking a more proactive role. They’ll reach out to clients to ensure they’re happy with products and services. Or to offer advice on how features work. We’ll see less focus on pure sales calls and more emphasis on courtesy calls aimed at customer success. These help to reduce churn.
Conclusion
You’ll remember when a hard drive with 60GB of data was state-of-the-art if you’re old enough. Today, that’s the bare minimum for a flash drive. Technology is constantly improving, and we’re adapting.
Call centers, in particular, are embracing new tools to deliver better service faster than ever before. Will we get to the point where we anticipate customer needs before they arise? Eventually, but for now, we’re looking at practical improvements.
