#contactcenterworld, @everestgroup

Contact centers and service providers that can smoothly transition to a next-generation operating model and adopt digital capabilities will witness huge success in the market, while others will face the risk of falling off the radar, according to Everest Group.

The customer experience management (CXM) industry is witnessing significant disruption in service delivery, as buyers are increasing their focus on digital solutions to reduce costs, optimize operations, and improve customer experience (CX). While traditional contact centers primarily rely on voice-based delivery as well as manually intensive tasks to deliver services, an increasing number of investments are being made in building next-generation contact centers to meet growing customer expectations.

Next-generation contact centers can be characterized by integrated data, multi-channel interactions, and the leverage of digital tools such as virtual assistants, robotic process automation (RPA), robotic desktop automation (RDA), and advanced analytics. They also go beyond offering innovation around technology to include other elements such as consulting, design thinking, talent upskilling, and evolving delivery models such as Work-At-Home-Agents (WAHA) to align with the enterprise needs.

Although traditional models of contact center outsourcing constitute 92-94% of the market as of 2018, this segment is expected to grow at only 2-4% over the next few years, whereas the digital CXM segment (6-8%) is expected to grow at a high compound annual growth rate of 20-25% over the same period. By 2021 the digital CXM segment will command a 10-15% share of the overall CXM services market.

These findings and more are discussed in Everest Group’s recently published report, "Customer Experience Management (CXM) Annual Report 2019: Delivering Next-generation Contact Center Services." The report offers an in-depth discussion of the changing dynamics of the CXM market, including insights on evolving customer needs and the components of a next-generation operating model, emerging solution trends in CXM services, CCO market overview and adoption trends, and the outlook for 2019-2020.

"Everest Group believes next-generation contact centers are more than a trend: they are the only viable way forward," said Shirley Hung, vice president at Everest Group. "Enterprises need a growing base of loyal customers, and the way to build that base today is to provide a customer experience that is personalized, seamless, requires less customer effort and offers strong security. Traditional contact centers simply are not well equipped to deliver on this mandate. Next-gen contact centers, in contrast, leverage data, technology and talent to deliver the kind of seamless, omnichannel interactions that can meet evolving customer needs, contribute to business objectives, and keep companies alive and thriving."

Key findings:

- The global CCO market grew at 3-4% in 2018 to reach US$83-86 billion, driven by the growing interest among new buyers for outsourcing and emerging growth avenues for service providers around consulting and digital CX solutions.

- Some industries, such as technology and travel & hospitality, witnessed high growth, driven by increased outsourcing by digital-born firms.

- Next-generation contact centers, while in high demand, continue to be only a fraction of the traditional Contact Center Outsourcing (CCO) market, which is still driven by scale, location footprint, and voice-based delivery.
Digital CXM, which is currently at 6-8% of the CCO market, is expected to grow at a CAGR of 20-25% over the next three years. The adoption of digital CXM components is on the lower side, leaving providers with huge untapped market opportunities.

- Real value for enterprises lies in transitioning from multi-channel to consistent and seamless omnichannel CX delivery, including being available for customers at their channel of choice – both voice and non-voice.

- Heavy investments across the entire spectrum of next-generation technology solutions have led to an increase in the impact that service providers can deliver with these deployments.

- Next-generation recruitment techniques and advanced learning methods are increasingly being used to build skilled talent pools that can enhance operational delivery.

- Delivery from onshore locations is rising as buyers shift their focus towards enhancing services support. Even alternate delivery models, such as the gig economy, are growing as they provide access to skilled talent at lower operational costs.

#contactcenterworld, @everestgroup

Posted by Veronica Silva Cusi, news correspondent
Source: https://www.prweb.com