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In this article we highlight several of the top Call Center Outsourcing trends in 2022. As a leading provider of call center outsourcing services, Callcenter.com has a unique advantage to staying on top of industry trends.
Top trends in 2022 are as follows:
- Machine learning & Artificial Intelligence
- Multinational Strategy
- Hybrid Workforce model
Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence
Over the past several years we have seen rapid advancements in how customers are able to interact with support channels and how customer service agents are best able to serve the customer.
Agent assist technology
For call center outsourcing providers, efficiency for an agent team is of the utmost importance. By utilizing agent assist technologies makes a staff member’s job easier and more efficient to rapidly serve a customer.
This is accomplished by automatically interpreting what a customer is asking and delivering this to the customer service agent in an accelerated manner. In addition the agent assist will search knowledge articles and place them on a heads up display for agents. This will decrease the average handle time and reduce cost by increasing efficiency in the call center.
Machine learning
Machine learning is where machines will teach themselves how to operate through experiences.
This technology can enable call center agents to gain valuable insights into customer behavior in real-time by displaying analytical information on the agents monitor. Machine learning can help to bring relevant information on which customers are more likely to purchase new or additional products and services.
Machine learning can also help companies determine which customers are most likely to be retained and which customers will cancel or not return.
While machine learning technology is still very new and infant, it’s already changing the customer experience and sales landscape.
Multinational Strategy
While Covid had a massive impact on how business gets done and caused companies to evaluate where their employees work from and are large offices a necessary resource, it is not the only external factor that is driving change in staffing and outsourcing.
Rising labor costs, employer competition for the same workforce and an increase in the cost of living have all impacted how call centers and customer service operations design an overall labor strategy.
While offshoring has been around for decades, companies are deploying a multinational approach to customer experience for tier 1, 2 and 3 resources.
Deployment of tier 2 and 3 domestically and tier 1 in nearshore or offshore can elevate the customer experience and allow companies to retain and satisfy their customers.
While remote workforces in India and Pakistan prove to be more challenging with a less robust high-speed internet infrastructure, this could soon be changing with a broader reach and lower costs to the end user for satellite high-speed internet.
Hybrid Workforce Model
While covid-19 measures have caused businesses to take a long, hard look at where their employees work from, two other factors have been influencing a larger shift to remote working and/or hybrid locations. What are they? Rising cost of commercial real-estate and during 2020 executives recognized that remote staff can accomplish a similar level of output as in-office teams. That evidence has empowered executives to allow some or parts of their workforces to have flexibility in where they work from.
According to the U.S. Census bureau the average commute time in the USA is 27.6 minutes one way or 55.2 minutes total. That is about 1 hour of commuting time. For some people that’s 1 more hour away from their families, their children, missing a workout, not being able to walk the dog and a whole variety of other activities and obligations that could otherwise be accomplished.
It’s not a new concept!
In a poll done by PEW Research, 76% of people preferred teleworking over working from an office.
One final point on remote workforces is they give call centers the ability to recruit and hire employees in rural areas where unemployment rates could be higher. This is a great strategy because labor competition is reduced in smaller communities therefore employee turnover can be lower and job satisfaction higher. We will write more about this in a future article and how call center businesses can help elevate employment rates in rural communities.
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