The death of the call centerA vision of the future of Customer Service

The call center has done its job well for a long time.

But let’s face it – its days are numbered.

In our recent survey of 6,000 technology, media and telecomm consumers in five countries, 42% of people say there will be no call centers at all by 2025.

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None at all.

Here’s the disconnect: Call centers are currently the preferred channel of one in four consumers worldwide and one in three in the US.

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So they’re still popular, but consumers think they’re on the way out.

Why is that?

Because people believe they’ll be replaced by automated systems – which is the way everything else is going these days. Why should Customer Service be any different?

It isn’t.

But here’s the obvious question: if automation is here right now, why isn’t the call center already dead and buried?

Several things are keeping it alive: habit, convenience and frustration with digital systems that don’t quite match up to expectations.

Old habits die hard, and people like talking to people. (Sometimes, it’s the fastest, easiest way to sort things out.)That said, it is a generational thing.

While Baby Boomers, Generation Xers and over-70s like picking up the phone, Generation Zers and Millennials are open to virtual assistants, powered by artificial intelligence.

So things will change naturally over time, as new consumers come on the scene.

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Preferred communication

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Virtual assistant

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For now, the call center isn’t going anywhere. But it’s far from perfect. Just ask any caller.Long wait times, agents who don’t understand your problem, and being passed from one department to another.

We’ve all been there.

Companies aren’t crazy about call centers either. Just ask any CEO. They’re resource-intensive and cost-intensive. They tie up large numbers of staff on routine, repetitive tasks, and they’re expensive to scale.

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So automation is the answer.

But guess what? That ‘answer’ is failing to deliver right now.

56% of people overall say they’re happy to use a virtual assistant when contacting brands.

In practice, they can’t actually find what they’re looking for.

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So they pick up the phone.

Not because they want to. Because they have to.

36% of call center volumes are a direct result of digital channels failing to provide answers.

And each ‘fallback’ call costs $10 (which soon mounts up).

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So there’s a big incentive to get automation right.And that will happen, as robotic process automation and artificial intelligence, based on machine learning, delivers service that matches or exceeds human interaction.

In the end, the future of the call center comes down to two things: convenience and cost.

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Customers want an easy, hassle-free option that gives them answers fast. Organizations want to minimize their costs while keeping their customers happy. So for the moment, the call center isn’t going away.

But as technology comes online that transforms the user experience, call volumes will drop.

With virtual agents handling routine queries, and automated systems streamlining complex tasks, the call center will have to evolve into something else instead.And it will.

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And here’s the really interesting thing: All of this technology won’t mean the end of Customer Service agents.Instead, it’ll mean the emergence of a new breed of ‘super-agent’ who can find answers faster, keep customers happier and add value at every turn.

Super agents will increase customer retention rates, making big savings on costly customer churn (and our survey has some fascinating insights on churn too).

Clients may even pay more for a premium service that delivers better customer experience.

So the call center becomes a high-touch, high-value resource that handles complex queries and critical interactions. It’ll become a place where loyalty is developed and nurtured.CALL CENTER

Which means the call center could potentially become a profit center.

Now there’s a thing.

So does all this mean the death of the call center as we know it?

Yes. And that’s a good thing.

Because it’ll be replaced by something far better. Focused on quality, not quantity. On smart solutions, not routine issues. On relationships, not transactions. And on profit, not cost.

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This is a huge opportunity for all organizations.

And the time to seize it is right now.

© 2017 Conduent Business Services, LLC. All rights reserved. Conduent™ and Conduent Design™ are trademarks of Conduent Business Services, LLC in the United States and/or other countries.

About Conduent

Conduent is the world’s largest provider of diversified business process services with leading capabilities in transaction processing, automation, analytics and constituent experience. We work with both government and commercial customers in assisting them to deliver quality services to the people they serve.

We manage interactions with patients and the insured for a significant portion of the U.S. healthcare industry. We’re the customer interface for large segments of the technology industry. And, we’re the operational and processing partner of choice for public transportation systems around the world.

Whether it’s digital payments, claims processing, benefit administration, automated tolling, customer care or distributed learning – Conduent manages and modernizes these interactions to create value for both our clients and their constituents. Learn more at www.conduent.com.