ISG Provider Lens™ Contact Center-Customer Experience Services - Digital Operations - U.S. 2024

Advanced CX fundamental for enterprises to leverage exponential growth

Within the rapidly developing and changing realm of customer service, advanced enterprise contact centers delivering superlative CX play a crucial role in ensuring customer satisfaction and improving business outcomes. These centers serve as the central hub for customer interactions, utilizing a mix of technology and human interaction to efficiently address customer needs. The incorporation of advanced technologies such as AI, generative AI (GenAI), ML and cloud-based solutions has transformed the operations of contact centers, making them highly agile, adaptable and capable of providing appropriate and personalized CX.

CX has now become a critical focus area for U.S. businesses, often being discussed in the boardroom as a KPI for the overall business. Companies of different scales are shifting from in-house operations to outsourced service providers to improve CX and consequently enhance their business operations.

Key CX trends in the U.S. Market

Several trends are being seen in the contact center industry in the U.S. and in alignment with global patterns. ISG has identified major drivers that are reshaping the industry and bringing about operational changes within the U.S. market.

Cost optimization via cloud initiatives

Cloud-based CCCX solutions offer significant benefits in terms of scalability and flexibility. These solutions enable organizations to quickly scale their operations, as required, to meet sudden spikes in demand triggered by planned
or unplanned events, crises or peak seasons. Additionally, cloud solutions facilitate remote work, allowing contact centers to deploy agents from any location, thus ensuring business continuity and operational efficiency.

Moving to cloud-based systems can help contact centers reduce expenses linked with maintaining on-premises infrastructure.

Cloud solutions commonly operate on a consumption-based model, enabling companies to better manage costs and allocate resources to improve services in other areas, thereby improving their cost efficiencies.

Focus on AI and advanced automation integration

The integration of AI and automation is reshaping contact centers by streamlining processes and enhancing customer
interactions. AI-powered tools such as chatbots, virtual assistants and automated response systems are now  considered table stakes in any CCCX solution. The use of AIbased analytics, such as sentiment analytics that enables an analysis of the sentiments of callers in real-time, offers relevant suggestions to agents, enhancing the quality of customer interactions, whereas predictive analytics allows businesses to anticipate customer needs and proactively address potential challenges —making both essential to CCCX.

Full omnichannel support is a key focus in the overall AI-assisted delivery of CCCX as it allows customers to engage through their preferred channels (phones, emails, chats, social media or text messages). The integration of multiple
channels guarantees consistent and highquality customer interactions and consolidates customer data from various channels into a single, comprehensive view. This single viewpoint and data pool enables agents to access complete customer histories and assists in personalizing support.

Security and Compliance

Safeguarding customer data in the age of hybrid working has become crucial; failing to do so leads to legal and financial consequences. Advanced contact centers enforce robust security measures such as multifactor  authentication, biometric security, private network connections and secure cloud environments to comply with regulatory standards such as GDPR, HIPAA and PCI-DSS that differ by region or industry. Enterprises expect the most advanced CCCX solutions to deliver some form of compliance management, ensuring that all customer interactions
and data-handling processes meet these requirements.

Self-service imperatives

The emergence of self-service options has empowered customers. Technologies such as intelligent FAQs and  automated chatbots offer fast solutions to common issues, reducing the workload on human agents. Smart interactive voice response (IVR) systems and automated chatbots utilize NLP to effectively understand and respond to customer
inquiries. These solutions can handle various tasks, from answering basic questions to guiding customers through troubleshooting procedures, significantly enhancing the self-service experience. Self-service in the CX portfolio, therefore, allows agents to focus on intricate queries that demand more focused understanding, while boosting overall accuracy and efficiency of resolution.

Agent experience (AX) efficiencies

The contact center industry historically has had high staff turnover, requiring significant re-hiring and training costs and leading to knowledge gaps and paucity of staff with the required training and expertise in customer interactions. This issue has grown in magnitude due to the challenge of recruiting and training personnel on modern, advanced technological solutions.

Offering flexible working conditions and robust AX support systems are crucial for attracting and retaining talent. Innovations in this area such as flexible work arrangements, gamified training and agent support programs have
contributed to reduce attrition rates, increase productivity and improve employee satisfaction. Equipping agents with advanced tools and technologies such as AI-powered systems and real-time analytics helps them to perform their
tasks more efficiently and effectively, leading to both agent satisfaction and an increase in the overall efficiency of a business.

Technology solution landscape

Technology plays a vital role in shaping the customer experience industry, while also delivering excellent AX in both the U.S. market and globally. Together with underlying transformation strategies in organizations, technology has helped to re-shape the landscape, redefining business agility and flexibility, and enhancing customer satisfaction
levels.

The main technologies driving these transformations include:

• AI and GenAI: AI has become a standard feature in most CX solutions today, with virtual agents, chatbots, AX systems and social media analytics relying on embedded AI technology. GenAI has the potential to revolutionize CX, though there are security concerns and boundary issues to address before widespread adoption.

• Security and compliance management systems: These are fast becoming integral to an overall CCCX solution or the overriding technology stack and cloud solution and include virtual private networks (VPN), remote edge and access security, remote environment monitoring, voice and biometric security with facial recognition, and profilebased
security.

• CX analytics: These include a wide range of solutions such as predictive analytics, sentiment analytics, speech-to-text and social sentiment analytics, providing agents with the know-how for contextual interactions and allowing them to be proactive in their dealings with customers. Concurrently, enterprises are effectively engaging with customers through social media channels, using AI and analytics to predict customer sentiments, moderate content and manage product portfolios to build trust and safeguard their brands.

• Omnichannel platforms: Delivering seamless, consistent and superior CX has become essential for enterprises  across all communication channels, making omnichannel platforms a priority for businesses.

AX solutions

Service providers are implementing a variety of strategic programs to enhance AX within a hybrid work environment.

• Providers are increasingly relying on automation technologies such as AI and cloud platforms to support repetitive tasks and also streamline hiring and training processes. Companies are also introducing comprehensive learning platforms either developed internally or in collaboration with universities to support training, reskilling and upskilling initiatives. Training is a key area that is benefitting from AI involvement as the technology can simulate customer
interactions, providing agents with practical experience and instant feedback. Building a continuous training program focused on upskilling and reskilling agents, while keeping them highly engaged, is crucial for maintaining high service standards, where AI-driven training modules and gamified learning keep agents engaged and continuously enhance their skills.

This personalized training approach helps enhance agent performance, increases agent satisfaction and reduces both churn and onboarding time for new staff.

• Enterprises are investing significantly in platforms that enable remote employee engagement, incorporating  interactive options such as gamification. Moreover, some organizations are conducting health assessments and  sentiment analysis through quizzes or inquiries to ensure that remote employees are engaged and satisfied.

• Investments are being made in social interaction tools and platforms to enhance AX, with certain providers exploring metaverse technology to create collaborative workspaces.

CX solutions and services remain crucial for the success of enterprises in the U.S. Despite the benefits of automation and AI, finding a balance between technology and human interaction is vital. Customers value the empathy and
understanding provided by human agents, especially when dealing with complex issues.

Combining AI and human elements, while ensuring a blend of efficiency and empathy, appear to be the most effective in terms of overall customer satisfaction. Choosing the right solution tailored to each company’s needs is paramount for overall business health and market competitiveness.

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