If there’s one thing that’s constant in business, it’s technological change. With consumer expectations of contact centers at an all-time high, staying ahead of the customer service curve is vital. Here are the trends we expect to see in 2023 and how your organization can rise to the occasion.
Conversational AI Will Make Inroads
From ChatGPT to art generators, AI has been making endless headlines recently. Artificial intelligence is growing in leaps and bounds, and consumers are becoming more comfortable interacting with it. While most brands already incorporate chatbots and Interactive Voice Response (IVR) systems into their customer contact solutions, 2023 is going to see a doubling down on natural, conversational AI technologies. Brands that invest in conversational AI will benefit from improved customer sentiment as well as deeper insights into customer needs.
Omnichannel is Everything
Consistency matters in modern-day customer service, but brands face an ongoing challenge in unifying an increasingly fragmented customer journey. Instead of trying to funnel consumers into a particular channel (or away from the phone, which is too often the case), brands need to accept that customers engage with organizations in a multiplicity of ways. They should strive to deliver a coherent, seamless experience across all the different ways a customer interacts with them and aim to meet customers where they are, regardless of time, location, or channel. If your brand hasn’t already, now is the time to switch to an integrated, multi-channel customer contact solution.
Humans Matter More than Ever
The goal of technology is to augment human customer service, not replace it entirely. Human connection is a powerful benefit of great customer service. In addition to reinforcing and building your brand, it can also help identify pain points and offer deep customer insights. Instead of cutting headcount by routing every contact to a machine, find ways to empower your customer service reps to quickly and easily solve problems while on the line. Not only will you hear more smiles on the other end, but you’ll be building a powerful dataset that you can’t get from clicks and emails: the literal voice of the customer. With technology like ACD’s, you can record and analyze every call, combining those qualitative insights with quantitative data for a full 360-degree window into your organization’s customer service strategy and overall operational strength.
It’s Time to Get into the Cloud
The past few years have seen our workforces become increasingly distributed, and that’s not going to change. Gone are the days of large brick-and-mortar operations with expensive, high-maintenance on-premises technology. The top-performing companies and organizations are the ones who have quickly shifted their customer contact solutions to the cloud, reducing their IT obligations and paving the way for a remote workforce. If you’re still working the old-fashioned way, make 2023 the year that you invest in on-demand customer service agents and a cloud-based, integrated system that allows you to anticipate, take and analyze inbound contacts across any channel.
Stay Ahead of the Trends With ACD
At ACD, we pride ourselves on being proactive when it comes to customer contact trends. With our two-pronged approach consisting of a tailorable cloud-based customer contact platform and a pool of instantly scalable customer contact reps, we’re empowering brands of all sizes across all categories to lead the way in customer satisfaction. If you’re ready to step up to meet the challenges of 2023, talk to our team about our one-stop-shop solutions today!
