[Video] 4 Takeaways About Call Center Trends for 2015

Last week, Fonolo hosted another insightful Google Hangout, discussing the top 4 call center trends for 2015. To save you some time, we’ve extracted video snippets of the answers to each question.

Let’s take a quick look at the panelists: Kristoffer Lentz, Director Digital Marketing at Solavei, Chris Bright, CEO at Customer Voodoo, Kevin Brown, Managing Director at VoxPeritus, and Shai Berger, CEO at Fonolo.

Gamification

It’s no secret that keeping call center agents motivated can be a real challenge. Gamification guides and reinforces high-value activity by capturing employee performance data and, in turn, using that data to motivate them with rewards and points. According to Gartner, by the end of 2015, more than 40% of the top companies will be using gamification to transform their business operations. Kris Lentz has a good understanding on how gamification can be beneficial. He explains how he sees it growing in popularity next year. Listen to his opinion and what the rest of the panel has to say.

Mobile Engagement

91% of smartphone users keep their devices within arm’s reach, 24/7, so it’s no surprise that this device has become the first choice for customer communication. In fact, 72% of consumers said they would replace traditional channels with mobile apps if the same customer service features were available. Chris Bright starts the discussion in this segment. We asked which flavour of mobile customer service will dominate: SMS, in-app or mobile web-based? Hear what the panel has to say.

Workforce Optimization

For contact center managers, it’s imperative to optimize staffing levels to match trends in call volume. Workforce optimization solutions target this issue directly. They also attempt to make better use of agent idle time. A survey by Knowlagent found that the majority of idle time occurs in less than 3 minute increments. Proponents of WFO claim that even these small bits of time can be used to improve agent performance. Usually the keys to success in this category are having the right tools in place. We asked Kevin Brown if he sees workforce optimization tools becoming more sophisticated. Hear what Kevin and the group have to say.

Omni-Channel Customer Experience

According to CCIQ, 88% of companies are delivering service on multiple channels to keep up with increasing consumer demand. A lot of companies are talking about omni-channel customer service and WHY it’s important, but few realize the distinction. Gartner predicts that by next year, 80% of multi-channel implementations will fail because companies will retain channel-centric strategies. Chris Bright starts the conversation off by explaining the difference between multi-channel and omni-channel and how companies can deploy it successfully. Hear what the panel has to say.