What CX technology trends to lookout for in 2022?

Championing any modern idea or technology demands time and necessity. Earlier, over some tea, my colleague and I were discussing how the past few years demonstrated mass adoption of different technology, which were usually accepted with criticism. One such technology is cloud-contact centers. How contact centers changed and switched to a complete remote model, is definitely a process to behold. All were possible, just because of necessity and timing. And it is just the start of a massive digital journey which will take CX technology by storm. In fact, the CX trends of 2022 are absolutely exciting, innovative and is customer-first.

Technology is not evolving for its own sake. Customer needs have undergone a lot of change in the last two years. Major processes have become digital, thanks to the lockdown and it seems like our customers like it that way. And as we move forward, it is necessary to redefine which CX technology trends will persist or come up in the coming years. In this blog, I will discuss some major technology trends that will contagiously spread across the customer experience industry, sooner or later.

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Customers wouldn’t want to have a triggering conversation with your agents. They want their money’s worth in kindness and proper service. By the time, you analyze the call and make amends with your agents, the customer will be long gone. To fix this, in-call analytics like Hotword will become a key differentiator. CZ-Hotword will be able to analyze the customer and the agent’s speech while they are talking and share the real-time transcription on the supervisor’s dashboard. It will alert the supervisor if any negative behavior or unhealthy words are used, indicating poor customer service or loss of the customer. In such a situation, the customer needs to be reassured and retained. The supervisor can immediately barge into the particular call or whisper to the agent to offer instructions.

This real-time amendment will help you retain customers who are unsatisfied. It can assist you when your agents are new joiners or just having a bad day. But above all, this will ensure that customers will receive the attention and support that they seek.

Earlier the digital sphere was only inhabited by millennial and gen-z customers. However, the number of digital consumers is increasing. Now, customers who were not digital natives, are also adopting it. There is a huge inclination now, towards digital channels and it is the right time to expand digitally. Here are a few factors that we need to keep in mind:

• Brands need to prioritize digital avenues as customer support channels as well, just like they did with IVR and email.
• The newer generation will slowly choose self-service while the adopting generation will expect agent assistance through these channels.
• Expectations will rise as customers are aware of how digital works and how enterprises have more data now. They will expect a more targeted and personalized experience, rather than a repetitive, disjointed one. Exploring omnichannel strategies is the way to go.
• With the digital transformation comes the expectation of instant gratification. If agent assistance is delayed, then customers will definitely look for immediate alternatives.
• Lastly, it is high time you integrate chatbots with most of your social platforms. It will eradicate the lag that takes place before an agent comes on board, while also clearing out all primary tickets.

As every corner of the world is getting more connectivity, businesses are also expanding. This is a prime moment to deploy multilingual voice bots and connect with wider demography. There are some primary benefits:

• Multilingual exposure
• Biometric verification
• Help differently-abled customers who struggle with sight
• User-ease

During the pandemic, many industries experimented with the video chat feature for customer service. Surprisingly, it has been received positively by the customers. Most modern customers despise visiting banks for KYC or other verification. They are grateful to banks that will verify their identities through video chat and geo-tagging. With remote verification, customers no longer have to wait in queues before banks. This is just one instance.

Video chat is also revolutionary for consumers who need medical assistance. Every other medical company has adopted video consultation through their applications, to meet the customer’s needs. Subsequently, tech-based companies are also enabling virtual support to help customers get educated on their products and apply quick fixes when in a pickle. Such possibilities and flexibility, make video chat a wonderful feature for customer support. Hence, it is fair to say that virtual contact centers will eventually become a thing, considering the pace at which it is booming.

It is very important now than ever to understand your customer’s journey. Customers are spread out across channels and third-party websites. You must attribute your leads or success to these touchpoints. Doing so will allow you to create a more cohesive customer experience.

For example, a customer browses your products on an app, but arrives there through an Instagram shop and not your e-commerce website. A smart job will be to connect with that customer on Instagram and ask about their preferences and showcase relevant products. Here the customer did not arrive at your product page through a traditional path, however, a more connected experience brought together all your touchpoints. This just makes the customers’ lives easier. In fact, such dedicated support and customer-centric experience enable favorable decision-making as well.

As the Management Guru, Peter Drucker mentioned – "If you can’t measure it, you can’t improve it." Contact center dashboard has been providing such measurement for a long time. But is it enough? The future is about providing insights which are not just historical data – but insights driven by predictive analytics and prescriptive analytics. Contact centers are having millions of interactions and have data that can be used to train Machine Learning models. These data models can provide insights which can help in reducing the call flow by pre-empting them like identify the behaviour before a customer calls in and getting it solved proactively and avoid an inbound call.

Lastly, data security is a huge concern for call centers as well as their customers. A cyberattack is more often these days than any other. When your security gets compromised, your reputation gets compromised and suddenly years of hard work gets forgotten overnight. One can no longer rely on captchas or tick boxes to assure security. Hence, contact centers, whether it is on-premise or cloud-based, contact center owners must invest in data protection and security. Conduct audits and reevaluate your existing systems. Above all, ensure that your privacy policies shouldn’t become a customer experience barrier.

Conclusion

This probably sums up our intuition and assessment for the year 2022. Obviously, there is some room for surprises but apart from that, we strongly believe these are CX technology trends that will dominate and benefit most contact centers in 2022. Keeping that in mind, engage and analyze your customers better for more comprehensive understanding of their behaviors and patterns.