Organisations Warned To Invest In Digital Customer Engagement In Next Two Years - Or Die

Organisations that don't embrace digital customer engagement channels - that's web chat, social media, SMA, smartphones and mobile applications and even video - into their engagement strategies within the next two years, are likely to see their customers jump ship to competitors who do. In fact, the digital custoemr engagement revolution is here, and is forcing organisations to adapt their customer service strategies or die.

That's according to new research published by Dimension Data in its annual Global Contact Centre Benchmarking Report. This year 901 organisations in 72 countries across Asia Pacific, Australia, the Americas, Middle East and Europe participated.

Results from the report show that non-voice traffic (digital) is set to rise in 87% of contact centres within the next two years, and voice traffic (phone) will drop in 42% of contact centres in the same period. Based upon information gathered by Dimension Data gathered over the last 10 years, contact centres will manage more digital interactions than voice in the next 24 months.

---

Sponsor message - content continues below this message

the 2024 '19th annual' Global Top Ranking Performer Awards NOW OPEN

Enter your Center, Strategy, Technology Innovation, Teams and Individuals into the ONLY TRULY GLOBAL awards program - regarded by many as being like the Olympics for the Contact Center World! Join the best from over 80 nations and compete for the most prestigious awards out there!

FIND OUT MORE HERE

---

Content continues ….

"This represents the biggest change in the contact centre business in 30 years, and has profound implications for the way organisations deploy technology to delifver and manage customer service," says Adam Foster, Dimension Data's Group Executive - Communications.

According to the report, by the end of 2016, customer will commonly be using up to seven different digital channels in addition to the phone.

"But," stresses Foster, "That's not to say that contact centres are dead, and customer service agents will become redundant. That's definitely not the case. The reality is that their scope has been broadened and the types of interactions that are happening via the phone where an agent is required are becoming more complex and more critical.

"Organisations will need to focus on geting their staff highly skilled and putting systems in place to enable them to answer customer enquiries immediately. Because voice is often the channel of last resort, this is where the moment of truth really happens. If agents can't resolve the customer's call, it will reflect badly on the organisation and could lead to the search for an alternative supplier."

Meanwhile, with around 74% of contact centres predicting the overall number of transactions to increase - largely fuelled by digital - the impact that this trend is having on customer satisfaction is concerning. Of the 901 research participants polled, 75% recognise that service is a differentiator, yet customer satisfaction is down for the fourth consecutive year.