The customer experience (CX) industry is experiencing disruption as IT decision-makers and customer contact leaders face budget challenges and strive to align CX with corporate goals. Fear of failure has made organizations less agile, emphasizing the importance of trust, ease of use, and reliability in selecting CX providers.
Key megatrends include:
- Generative artificial intelligence (GenAI), focusing on conversational AI for translations and summaries, while voice interactions remain vital.
- Call deflection to manage rising costs and growing demand for skilled agents to handle complex inquiries.
- Hybrid work models, requiring new supervisory methods and unified communications and collaboration (UCC) tools.
- Increasing video interactions, especially in finance, manufacturing, and healthcare, for clearer communication.
- Personalized solutions to retain a multigenerational workforce and customer base.
Contact center organizations can now strategically align CX goals across departments, enhancing customer retention and unlocking new growth opportunities.
How is your organization adapting its CX strategies to meet the evolving demands of customers?
Key Learnings from Customer Perspectives
Frost & Sullivan conducted a global survey to understand businesses’ perceptions, decisions, and purchasing preferences for contact center solutions. The survey aimed to establish the size of corporate budgets for channels, applications, and solutions in contact centers, and understand purchase preferences.
| Understanding Customer Perspectives in Contact Center Solutions |
| Work-from-Home (WFH) Performance: Despite 77% of businesses finding WFH agents who can perform better or as well as office agents, more companies are asking agents to work in the office. Hybrid workplaces are likely depending on company culture, industry, and service type.
Employee Engagement: Two-thirds of businesses prioritize employee engagement. Data supports the hypothesis: employee experience (EX) + customer experience (CX) = revenue growth. Technologies supporting agents improve retention. Technology Adoption: Easy implementation and use are crucial. Almost 40% cite customer reluctance to adopt new channels and the training required for employees on new applications as roadblocks. Omnichannel Customer Journeys: Less than a quarter of organizations deliver omnichannel customer journeys, indicating a gap between customer expectations and positive experiences. Click here to learn more. |
Strategic Imperatives
- Embracing Remote Work and Cloud Technology: Amidst geopolitical chaos, strategies are actively transitioning to work-at-home (WAH) models and embracing cloud-based contact center-as-a-service (CCaaS) solutions. This transformation is enhancing operational flexibility and scalability, adjusting to the evolving demands of the workplace.
- Aligning Customer Experience (CX) with Corporate Goals: Ensuring that investments in customer experience enhancements are closely aligned with broader corporate objectives is a powerful strategy for coherent growth and achieving strategic milestones. This approach underscores the importance of integrating CX initiatives within the overall strategic framework of the organization, ensuring that efforts to improve customer interactions directly contribute to the achievement of corporate ambitions and long-term success.
- Integrating AI and Automating Processes: The integration of AI into contact centers and the automation of business processes are ongoing. These efforts help in streamlining operations and bolstering digital transformation initiatives, with a mindful adoption of GenAI technologies to balance innovation with caution.
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Seizing New Growth Opportunities in Customer Experience
Today, advancements in CX strategies are ushering in a new era of customer-centric innovation. Hybrid work models, for example, are transforming the workforce by balancing remote and in-office work, optimizing productivity, and improving employee engagement. These innovations are creating new growth opportunities for contact center organizations to boost operational efficiencies, foster brand loyalty, and enhance customer satisfaction by leveraging:
- Call Deflection Strategies: As calls become more complex, businesses are prioritizing call deflection while maintaining voice interactions as a core channel. The use of video has surged, with an increase in planned investments from 2023 to 2024, enhancing customer support and satisfaction.
- Employee Engagement Initiatives: Two-thirds of businesses are focusing on initiatives that improve employee engagement, recognizing the link between a positive EX and CX. Investing in training, development, and career growth strategies boosts employee satisfaction and retention, leading to higher eNPS (Employee Net Promoter Score) and CSAT (Customer Satisfaction) score.
- AI-Enhanced Authentication: AI-driven authentication processes are becoming crucial for ensuring customer trust and security. By infusing AI into authentication, businesses can speed up processes and protect against fraud and cybercrimes, enhancing overall customer trust and loyalty.
- GenAI Applications: The cautious but strategic implementation of GenAI in CX solutions is transforming self-service capabilities and agent performance. Businesses are leveraging GenAI to enhance customer interactions while addressing concerns about security, privacy, and trust.
How is your organization planning to capitalize on these emerging growth opportunities in the CX landscape?
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About Frost & Sullivan
Frost & Sullivan, the growth pipeline company, enables clients to accelerate growth and achieve best-in-class industry positioning in terms of innovation and leadership. The company’s ‘Growth Pipeline-as-a-Service’ provides corporate management teams with transformational strategies and best-practice models that catalyze growth opportunity generation, evaluation, and implementation. Let us coach you on your transformational journey, while we actively support you in fostering collaborative initiatives within the global contact center solutions ecosystem. This journey is fueled by four powerful components, ensuring your success in navigating dynamic business and industry landscapes.
- Schedule a Growth Dialog with our team to dive deeper into transformational strategies and explore specific needs within your company.
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- Join Frost & Sullivan’s Growth Council and become an integral member of a dynamic community focused on identifying growth opportunities and addressing critical challenges that influence industries.
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