Forrester Research Forecasts a Bright Future for Contact Centers in Terms of Revenue in: Money on the Table: Proof That Customer Service Drives Revenue
The latest report from Forrester Research, in 360 magazine, predicts a significant increase in contact center revenue in the coming years. According to the report, the industry is expected to experience a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 7% through 2026.
Forrester´s senior analyst, Christina McAllister, attributes this growth to several factors, including the rising demand for customer support across multiple channels, the growing importance of customer experience (CX) as a competitive differentiator, and the adoption of new technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) and automation.
We have seen first hand how these trends have impacted the contact center industry. However, delivering an exceptional customer experience also requires a strong emphasis on human connection and empathy. In the interview McAllister said:
“I’ve spent my entire career watching companies try to make the agent obsolete. We’re not there. We’re not even close. The technology should be used for connecting the customer with the appropriate agent in the first place so that they don’t have to go through the runaround. It’s about intelligent, intelligently handling the service conversation, as opposed to just kind of like trying to avoid that service conversation.”
I agree with her. Most companies are not even close to a good customer service experience today, as we still greet customers with robotic voices and never-ending phone menu selections.
We’ve all been there.
We call a company we do business with, with a seemingly simple question. We are greeted by choices, and after the choices, more choices…
We try to focus but we struggle to see which option suits us. Should I choose invoice or is it subscription, do I want to buy or cancel?
Which key was that again? or which keyword should I state?
You press some keys only to hear what you really should have chosen was ‘invoice’ and now you are stuck in a new queue.
On average, 42% of the people who have a request go through this kind of process are irritated before they even get to the actual service, according to data from ContactBabel.
In conclusion, self-service is great. Many chatbots too. However, the telephone experience (TX) is still lacking behind in welcoming customers.
I think this sound from the talented voice artist, Louse Samuels, a British Voice Artist in Santa Barbara, is straight to the point and actually not very Zen-like…although pretty typical of what I encounter every time I call customer service.
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