JOHANNESBURG, South Africa - Tuesday, February 24th 2015 [ME NewsWire]
(BUSINESS
WIRE)-- Organisations that don’t embrace digital customer engagement
channels – that’s web chat, social media, SMS, smart phones 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 that do. In fact, the digital customer engagement revolution
is here, and is forcing organisations to adapt their customer service
strategies, or die.
That’s according to new research published
today 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 & Africa, and Europe
participated.
Results from the report show non-voice traffic
(digital) is set to rise in ¹87% of contact centres within the next two
years, and voice traffic (talking to a customer centre agent on the
telephone) will drop in 42% of contact centres during the same period.
Based upon information gathered by Dimension Data gathered over last 10
years, contact centres will manage more digital interactions than voice
in the next 24 months.
“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% companies recognise that service is a differentiator, yet
customer satisfaction is down for the fourth consecutive year.
¹ percentages rounded to the nearest decimal point
-ENDS-
Contacts
Hilary King, cell: +27 82 414 9623
Global PR manager
Dimension Data Holdings plc
Email: hilary.king@dimensiondata.com
Permalink: http://me-newswire.net/news/13735/en
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