A new series where I ask what the hold up is on contact center industry advances

First, a confession. I think I have Trends Fatigue. Industry news, blog posts, ads… added up they seem like a blur of blah blah about trends in omni-channel this and SaaS that.

There must be a dozen new “aaS” acronyms invented every week. Just yesterday, for example, I saw “ORaaS”. It stands for Outsourced Recruiting as a Service. And, you guessed it, each “aaS” is connected with breaking news of an industry trend.

So I’m introducing a new series: Call Center Trends Not Happening. Because with all the ink about trends in contact centers and customer care, I got to thinking: what isn’t happening that should? In this series I outline trends I think we should be seeing and ask what the holdup is.

Wanted: video chat

According to xxxxx, the 80 million millennials in America represent 200 billion in annual buying power. Of these, 87% use two to three devices at least once on a daily basis.

Why should companies care if up-and-comers use a bunch of devices, you ask? Well, have you ever tried to hold a text conversation on wearable tech like a smartwatch? It is nearly impossible. What about a video chat on an Apple Watch? It’s pretty cool.

So why aren’t more contact centers, in-house and outsourced, offering video chat? It’s a way to engage a hot demographic using technologies they already carry around in their pockets.

Chat was the buzzword 5-7 years ago, then chat became widely adopted. More recently, video calling has been a buzzword. But no contact center I know of offers video calls.

Reality check

Do you agree this should take off? What are the obstacles — hidden costs… technology obstacles… perceptions that have to change? Please comment.

WHAT’S IN ROMERO’S HEAD | VOL 1 EPISODE 6

Call Center Trends Not Happening | 2. Marrying MobileABOUT THIS SERIES: With all the ink about trends in contact centers and customer care, I got to thinking: what isn’t happening that should? In this series I outline trends I think we should be seeing and ask what the holdup is.Wanted: optimization of multi-channel care for mobile users

According to yyyyy, 78% of customer care operations are initiated from a cell phone, not a landline. So roughly 8 out of every 10 people who contact your customer support operation are using their iPhone, Android, or other type of cell phone!

Now pause to think about the channels your customer care operation offers.

Are all equally appealing whether the user is on a desktop or a cell phone? I bet not.

Compare, for example, chatting using a native app on your cell vs chatting through a chat app rendered in a mobile web browser. First there’s logging in to the website. Next there’s finding how/where to start a chat interface. Once that opens up, you’re squinting at a chat screen within a mobile browser screen. You need a magnifying glass and toothpick to click anything, much less type.

We should be seeing a trend in mobile optimization of customer care, technical support and the like — across all channels including email, chat, video, AR, AI, mobile, social, text and web channels. I don’t see it.

Reality check

Do you agree this should take off? What are the obstacles — hidden costs… technology obstacles… perceptions that have to change? Please comment.

WHAT’S IN ROMERO’S HEAD? | VOL 1 EPISODE 7

Call Center Trends Not Happening | 3. BiometricsABOUT THIS SERIES: With all the ink about trends in contact centers and customer care, I got to thinking: what isn’t happening that should? In this series I outline trends I think we should be seeing and ask what the holdup is.Biometric omni-channel identification

Gartner Group predicts that, by 2020, about 85 percent of a customer’s relationship with a company will occur without the customer interacting with a human. So why aren’t we fostering biometrics in omni-channel customer care and technical support?

Often IVRs prompt callers to enter identifying information the moment they connect. Responding can be quick, unless your customer doesn’t understand what is being requested of them… doesn’t have the requested info handy… isn’t understood by the automatic speech recognition (ASR)… or the like. And after all that, often the agent asks for the same identifying information.

Having customers create a pin to use when calling in by phone is an attempt to create a shortcut. But it’s also asking customers to remember yet another unique password. Which can lead to more frustration.

Biometric voice recognition is short and sweet. If our phones use biometrics to unlock them, if we can login to bank accounts with our finger, then why are we not using the same technology to rocket customers to where they want to be (chatting, talking live, opening support ticket and the like)?

Reality check

Do you agree this should take off? What are the obstacles — hidden costs… technology obstacles… perceptions that have to change? Please comment.

—