Gone are the days when call center service meant nothing but voice support. With the advancement in technology, call center – as we knew it, has gone through a sea change. Today it bears little resemblance to its predecessor.
An increased service offering
Unlike the old one, the modern contact center offers a wide range voice-based and non-voice services in both inbound and outbound category. Today a call center supports various back office services, support services, sales, market research and survey campaigns to name a few.
It seems that with the technology boom, the first generation call center has transformed into a multi-faceted industry that branches out in different directions.
But a mere increase in the number of services that a call center can offer cannot really picture the growth of this industry. To truly understand that, one must delve deep into the communication channels it can support today.
Supports an increased number of communication channels
When the concept of call center emerged, it only used to support phone calls. But today, thanks to the advancement in technology, now can support multiple communication channels such as – voice calls, video calls, chats, social media, self-service and much more.
Each of the services is specially designed keeping it in mind that a customer can always contact using his preferred communication channel and will expect a quick answer to his query via the same channel.
Supports self-service for simple queries
The incorporation of self-service is another remarkable technological feet. At present most customers are tech-savvy and hence they do not want to waste their time waiting in a queue to be put through an agent. Given the chance, they would like to have a solution that allows them to resolve simple queries by themselves.
Self-service allows these customers a chance to get the answers for their simple queries and in this way shortens the call queue as well.
Virtual Contact Center
Virtual contact center is another technological advancement in the call center industry. Using the cloud technology, data is distributed to the agents who are working on behalf of the company from their homes.
Since data is stored in cloud, it requires less power consumption and space requirement, helping the company save more. Plus, having data in the cloud can also save the company from data loss due to disasters.
Advanced identification and verification
Biometric identification is the latest form of technology that allows customers to identify themselves using fingerprint scanner in their mobile app and voice identification in case of calls. This minimizes the risk of fraud or data theft and at the same time reduces the call time by 20%.
An increased attention to personalized service offering
Thanks to real-time metrics and social media, it is now possible to know what a customer likes, dislikes, what is his favorite sports or favorite band. If a call center can store these little details about their customers in a metrics and use them to offer a personalized customer service.
This may lead to higher customer satisfaction and customer loyalty.
Call center has come a long way in terms of service and offerings. This would not have been possible without the technological advancements. It is expected that in the coming years things will get more advanced.
