Voice biometrics, gamification and video technology have been hot topics in the contact centre industry in the last 12 months, thanks to various webinars, opinion pieces and blog articles. However this does not necessarily translate into a willingness to invest in the technology according to a recent report on Customer Service in 2015 from Business Systems.
Incorporating survey results from over 100 contact centre professionals, when asked what was on their technology wish list in 2015 only 4.8% responded with voice biometrics, 5.8% responded with video based technology and just 7.7% responded with gamification tools.
Despite the high profile of these products, it appears that web-based technologies and some of the more tried and tested applications are coming out top. Web chat leads the way with nearly a third of respondents having it on their wish list, followed by customer feedback at 26.9%, web self-service at 26% and agent coaching and quality monitoring tools coming in at 25%.
Steve Morrell, Founder and Principal Analyst at ContactBabel comments
“the most popular technologies on people’s wish list for 2015 are not all new. Agent coaching, quality and performance tools have been around for a long time, but the changing nature of contact centre work – more complex, longer calls as well as increasing multichannel work – means traditional ways of measuring success and quality are changing.
There are some newer technologies as well – notably web chat, which is rapidly growing in popularity with customers, although it as yet only accounts for less than 3% of inbound interactions. It does offer a somewhat cheaper alternative to telephony, especially if it can mix virtual (automated) and live web chat, and is a quicker option than email.”
When respondents were asked what they wanted an investment in technology to deliver for them unsurprisingly the top answer was ‘improve the customer experience’ at 62.3%, followed by improving first call resolution at 45.3% and better understand the voice of the customer at 41.5%. Clearly some technologies will be better suited to meeting these goals than others.
Voice biometrics and gamification are still relatively new to the contact centre market and with gamification the deliverables tend to focus more on internal improvements around employee engagement and better business performance. Voice biometrics on the other hand helps improve processes, speed up call handling time and protects both the business and customer against fraud.
Stephen Thurston, Director at Business Systems comments
“What we are seeing seems to be following the same path as speech analytics. Seven or eight years ago there was a lot of initial hype and excitement in that area but it has taken time to gather momentum, people want examples of where technology is working well and delivering tangible results for others before they’re willing to invest.”
Steve Morrell notes “one of the most interesting findings in the report is that there are so many solutions and products which are catching the imagination of the industry. The strong growth in multichannel and mobile, as well as the opportunities for deep insight given by analytics means that it is no longer a case of contact centres just trying to do the same things more quickly.”
For additional information on Business Systems please see their Company Profile or visit their website
