The call centre industry in the U.K. is a GBP£2.5-billion market. While massive, it actually has declined by almost 8% this year as an effect of Brexit, the country’s recent referendum to leave the European Union. Additionally, the ongoing pandemic has forced service providers to adopt homeworking setups, which hasn’t been easy for them. (1)
Analysts expect the Brexit to hamper the industry’s growth over the next several years, owing to a decline in business confidence. Strangely, however, the pandemic has created a massive surge in demand, with one service provider’s volume of calls jumping by 233% since the country’s first lockdown. Industry-wide, demand has increased by 37% this year compared to last year. (2)
Regardless of its current state, the call centre market is poised to remain strong as dependence on contactless transactions rises. Providing reliable service, in this case, entails significant changes along the line.
Here are examples of the trends call centres have accepted and employed recently:
1. More Personalised Customer Experience
The average modern consumer has grown weary of repetitive advertising strategies, an effect of what experts call ad saturation. One survey in 2019 showed that seven out of 10 consumers said they’d seen the same ads over and over, and only one out of 10 enjoyed them. It also explained that more people would want ads that cater to their specific interests. (3)
This trend suggests an inclination toward a more personalised customer experience. It entails a call centre in the U.K. designing the means to offer products and services tailored to consumer preferences. Some examples include routing calls to the right agent, using data to determine a more intuitive approach, and providing multiple contact channels.
2. Call Center Automation
Automation of multiple processes and operations within call centers is one of the key trends in the industry. These are, for example, robotic process automation (RPA) solutions, AI-powered bots, predictive call routing, predictive auto dialing, speech analytics, and sentiment analysis tools - all driven by the recent rapid adoption of Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies.
These call center automation trends will make call centers much more efficient and productive, first of all, by reducing the amount of manual work for call center agents. On top of that, these automation solutions will allow agents to deliver more efficient customer service experiences, which means more satisfied customers.
3. Homeworking Arrangements
As mentioned earlier, the ongoing pandemic has forced call centres to adopt homeworking arrangements, maintaining operations while minimizing physical contact. One study showed a spike in the number of agents either moving to homeworking setups or desiring to move to one during the first few months of the country-wide lockdown in 2020. (4)
As convenient as it may be, such arrangements aren’t without their fair share of challenges. For example, a global call centre company had been under fire for requiring its homeworking agents to be closely monitored via cameras. The move has raised valid issues regarding the agents’ right to privacy, something call centres have to seriously consider.
4. A More Interconnected World
Over the years, there has been substantial talk about the Internet of Things (IoT) and its growing role in today’s digital economy. Simply put, it refers to the connection of billions of devices to a shared internet, having equal access to data. Remote mobile apps are a good example, controlling an appliance’s operation from a mobile phone.
How is IoT relevant to the call centre? Some are being rebranded as ‘contact centres’ due to the growing number of contact channels they offer—text messages, social media, etc. In some cases, the customer won’t have to contact tech support: IoT-capable hardware can automatically send a signal to the centre if it detects a problem. (5)
5. Huge Job Opportunities
With the increase in demand for call centre services also comes a need for additional agents. One tech support firm has since offered ‘unlimited’ vacancies for homeworking agents, a far cry from the standard operating model of call centres years past. As of this writing, the homeworking call centre agent can earn on average GBP£20,665.
There’s no doubt that the call centre agent is a lucrative job to have in a COVID-stricken world, though not because of the pay. If not no longer, seldom needing to report to the office can go a long way in growing an agent’s take-home salary.
Conclusion
Despite recent events, the call centre industry is expected to be a high-demand service for the time being, if not the new status quo. These trends are proof that the industry’s making steady strides to adapt. No doubt that the call centre of the near future will be entirely different.
