#contactcenterworld, @puzzelsolutions

Puzzel, a European contact centre as a software (CCaaS) provider, released the State of Contact Centres 2024 survey, a comprehensive European survey on the emerging trends, challenges and opportunities that are reshaping the customer experience (CX) landscape for organisations in Europe.

Contact centre leaders surveyed in six countries across multiple industries agree: a new era of customer experience (CX) is emerging, and it is characterised by transformative technologies, personalised customer journeys and a strategic shift towards self-service.

"This survey shows that people are increasingly pivoting to interacting with organisations digitally, however, voice still continues to play an important role on the customer journey," said Puzzel CEO Frederic Laziou. "Now is the time for contact centre leaders to modernise their operations to create powerful and enduring customer engagement strategies, which will help them not only build strong relationships with customers across all channels but also positively and meaningfully impact the growth of their business."

Fielded in October 2023 by OnePoll on behalf of Puzzel, the State of Contact Centres 2024 survey engaged 750 contact centre leaders across multiple industries, including financial services, public sector, travel and retail in Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Ireland, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom.

Key findings include:

- Digital is emerging, but voice is still important: In the last 12 months, 73% of contact centre leaders have faced substantial demand for voice interactions and 69% have grappled with high volumes of email enquiries, demonstrating an opportunity for better integration between voice and digital channels

- Staff training comes into the spotlight: 58% of contact centre leaders have increased their commitment to staff training and development in the last 12 months, and 45% have increased their workforce budget

- Opportunity to accelerate cloud adoption: Only 11% of contact centre leaders reported their operations are fully on the cloud. Meanwhile, 33% of respondents anticipate outdated on-premises systems posing a challenge in 2024

The time to build a unified customer journey is now

With the rise of digital channels, call centre leaders report a significant uptick in customer interactions, with 75% saying they have received more inbound enquiries over the last 12 months.

Call centre leaders are responsive to this shift in customer behaviour, and a staggering 80% of European contact centre leaders see customer journey optimisation as an important focus for 2024, with 72% identifying the importance of self-service tools.


Faster change hindered by slower technology

While customers are increasingly moving to newer and better technologies, call centre leaders continue to grapple with older technologies, as only 11% of the survey’s respondents reported that their contact centres are fully on the cloud. In addition, the survey found that 46% of Europe’s contact centres are still fully on-premises, hindering their ability to adopt the latest-generation technology such as GenAI. In fact, 33% of organisations anticipate facing challenges due to outdated contact centre technologies in 2024.
2024 is the year of AI in the contact centre

AI has come as a transformational tool for contact centre leaders, helping make agents even more helpful and efficient. In fact, 66% of contact centre leaders acknowledge the importance of investing in AI tools in 2024. Additionally, 39% believe generative AI for content and response will have the most substantial impact on the customer service industry within the next two years. This underscores the industry’s prioritisation of investments in AI-driven solutions to enhance customer interactions and overall operational efficiency.

Survey Methodology

Puzzel commissioned OnePoll research among 750 contact centre decision-makers across the UK, Ireland, Norway, Sweden, Denmark and the Netherlands in October 2023.

#contactcenterworld, @puzzelsolutions

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