Invest in customer engagement - or die

IT infrastructure solution provider Dimension Data Australia is warning organisations that don’t embrace digital customer engagement channels, including web chat, social media, SMS, smartphones and mobile apps, are likely to see customers move to competitors in the next couple of years.

The company conducted its annual Global Contact Centre Benchmarking report showing that non-voice traffic will rise in 87% of contact centres within the next two years and voice traffic will drop 42% during the same period.

“This represents the biggest change in the contact centre business in 30 years and has profound implications for the way organisations deploy technology to deliver and manage customer service,” says Adam Foster, Dimension Data’s group executive - communications.

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

“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 telephone where an agent is required are becoming more complex and more critical.

“Organisations will need to focus on getting 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% of companies recognise that service is a differentiator, yet customer satisfaction is down for the fourth consecutive year.