Contact Centre Summit | Forum Events Contact Centre Summit | Forum Events Contact Centre Summit | Forum Events Contact Centre Summit | Forum Events Contact Centre Summit | Forum Events

Posts Tagged :

Research

EU businesses fined over 830m euros for GDPR violations in 2022

 960 641 Stuart O'Brien
By:
0
As of December 2022 companies based in the EU paid a total of €2.83 billion in 1,401 cases for violating various data protection laws. Out of that, GDPR fines in 2022 total €832 million, which is 36% lower than the €1.3 billion paid in 2021.
However, according to the latest data analysed by Atlas VPN last year stands out not in the total sum fined, but in the severity of the charges imposed on a single entity — Meta.
The data for the analysis was extracted from Enforcementtracker, though not all cases are made public.
While the heftiest sum charged for violations was recorded in Q3 of 2021, the third quarter of 2022 was also significant, as businesses were penalized €430 million.
The Data Protection Commission (DPC), an authority for GDPR enforcement in Ireland, imposed a €405 million fine for Meta Platforms Ireland Limited (Instagram) on September 5th, 2022.
Two issues were found with the processing of personal data pertaining to child users of Instagram.

The children’s email addresses and phone numbers were publicly exposed when using the Instagram business account function, and Instagram profiles of kids were public-by-default.

Another hefty sum of €265 million was penalized to the same entity on November 25th, 2022, when the DPC declared that Meta had infringed two articles of the EU’s data protection laws after details of Facebook users from around the world were scraped from public profiles in 2018 and 2019.

Moreover, the DPC issued a “reprimand and an order” forcing Meta to “bring its processing into compliance by executing a range of specified remedial activities within a specific deadline”.
Meta complied and made the adjustments within the required timeframe. To date, Meta has paid around €1 billion for GDPR violations.

Digital customer engagement solutions: 2022/23 buying trends revealed

 960 640 Stuart O'Brien
By:
0

Live Chat, AI Applications and Self-Service top the list of solutions the UK’s leading customer engagement professionals are sourcing in 2022/23.

The findings have been revealed ahead of this week’s Digital Customer Engagement Summit, which takes place on October 20th.

Delegates registering to attend the event have been asked which areas they needed to invest in during 2022 and beyond.

A significant 47% are looking to invest in Live Chat, with 38% sourcing AI Applications and the same percentage on the hint for Self-Service solutions.

Just behind were Social Media Monitoring, Case Management and Multichannel Survey Tools.

Top products & solutions being sourced by delegates at the Digital Customer Engagement Summit (Top 10):

Online Live Chat Systems
AI Applications
Self-Service
Social Media Monitoring
Case Management
Multichannel Survey Tools
Unified Communications
Business Intelligence
Predictive Routing
Text Analysis

To find out more about the Digital Customer Engagement Summit, visit https://digitalcustomerengagement.co.uk.

Less than 10% of CFOs plan to decrease customer service spending in the next year

 960 640 Stuart O'Brien
By:
0

Only 7% of CFOs plan to decrease customer service spending over the next 12 months, according to a July 2022 poll of 234 finance leaders by Gartner. Twenty-one percent plan to increase customer spending and 72% to maintain spending, despite economic pressures.

“In response to inflation, supply chain disruptions, and a tight labor market, CFOs will make trade-offs in spending that affect customer service and support (CSS) leaders,” said Sarah Dibble, Director in the Gartner Customer Service & Support practice. “The bright spot for CSS organizations is that their function is not a top priority for cost cutting compared to real estate/facilities management and finance, which are the most likely to face budgets cuts in the next year.”

Nearly all CFOs prioritize, and will continue to prioritize, digital investments over categories such as sales or research and development, focusing particularly on technologies that enhance current revenue streams or new digital products and services. CSS leaders should therefore prioritize the technologies that meet these criteria to make the strongest case for investment to their CFO.

CSS leaders must also make a strong case for digital investments that reduce costs. For example, digital self-service channels offer a tremendous cost savings opportunity for service organizations, costing $0.09 per contact compared to $14 per contact in assisted service, according to Gartner research. Another area that will not only reduce costs but also better help serve customers is conversational AI, which is expected to reduce contact center agent labor costs by $80 billion by 2026.

CFOs will also look to ramp up investments in hiring and compensation, but increase scrutiny on consultants, contractors, and facilities. “Service leaders with large budget allocations in the latter of these categories should be prepared for increased scrutiny, as well as have contingency plans in place,” said Dibble. “For instance, there may come a time when a contact center in an expensive geography needs to be closed down, transitioned to remote work, or the frontline is unable to handle contact volume without contractors.”

Overall, CSS leaders should look to demonstrate ways that their function helps the company achieve its financial objectives by increasing customer loyalty, especially as CSS organizations are faced with frustrated customers who are dealing with their own financial stresses.

Other actions for CSS leaders to mitigate the effects of the economic downturn include:

  • Influencing the C-suite on cost reduction and avoidance
  • Migrating volume to digital and self-service
  • Improving, automating, or eliminating inefficient processes
  • Assessing outsourcing options and partnerships
  • Contributing to the top-line by developing value enhancement strategies

Consumers judge brands based on customer service, but contact centre employees aren’t being empowered

 960 640 Stuart O'Brien
By:
0

Both consumers (97%) and contact centre managers (98%) agree that customer service interactions have an impact on whether consumers stay loyal to a brand. And a vast majority (88%) of contact center managers also agree that brand perception directly impacts overall company revenue. When positive customer experience (CX) interactions boost loyalty, revenue follows.

Calabrio has identified a direct correlation between contact centres, brand loyalty and brand revenue. The global research report, State of the Contact Center 2022: Empowering the Contact Center as a Brand Guardian, uncovered a surprising gap between the role contact center agents play in consumer brand perception and how much employers support and empower those same agents to be brand guardians.

“We know that contact center interactions can make or break a customer relationship, leading to increases or decreases in revenue,” said Tom Goodmanson, president and CEO of Calabrio. “How smoothly those interactions go is a direct result of how agents are trained and how they are supported with the right tools and technology. It’s critical for brand loyalty that agents feel confident to make the right decisions at any given moment. And the most efficient way to improve the customer experience is to empower contact center agents as brand guardians.”

The jump to the cloud revolutionized how agents work and learn, opening opportunities to build stronger customer relationships. To accelerate this, agents now need a more flexible and more autonomous work experience, accessibility to best practices, and digital tools that help them shape the optimal customer journey across all possible interaction channels.

In short, agents need to be truly empowered as frontline brand guardians to protect revenue streams.

Voice reigns supreme

AI-powered chatbots have gained in popularity, but nearly 80% of consumers still rank phone interactions as their preferred customer service channel. Yet contact center managers have a mismatched perception of how important voice channels are to brand image. Managers ranked voice channels third, behind email and web interactions.

This gap may be leading to a misplaced focus on newer channels, such as social media and apps. Instead, consumers overwhelmingly think contact centers should prioritize agent training (70%) and fill staffing gaps (58%), instead of adding additional channels like chatbots or virtual assistants.

Loyalty is fleeting. Bad experiences have BIG impacts

60% of consumers say they switched brands due to a negative contact center experience— most leaving after only two negative experiences. Even a single negative experience significantly damages consumers’ perceptions across future interactions. In fact, consumers with a recent negative experience were less than half as likely to say contact centers were doing a good job in any category. In other words, recency bias is powerful — and it is hard to recover once consumer confidence is lost.

Other critical disconnects

The study shows significant gaps between consumers’ experiences and the service contact center managers think they are delivering:

  • Availability of human agents – 80% of managers think they are meeting or exceeding customer expectations for access to live agents. But only 37% of consumers agree.
  • Quick response times – 79% of managers think they are meeting or exceeding customer expectations for response, but only 45% of consumers agree.
  • Needing to feel heard and understood – 84% of managers think they are meeting, or exceeding customers’ needs to feel heard and understood by the brand, but only 45% of consumers agree.

The study consisted of 500 respondents from the US, UK, Nordics and DACH, split evenly across consumers and contact center managers. To see the full report, go to: State of the Contact Center 2022: Empowering the Contact Center as Brand Guardian.

Short waiting times ‘more important than choice of channels’ when it comes to customer service

 960 640 Stuart O'Brien
By:
0

Short waiting times and quick resolution of their query are the two most important elements of customer service for consumers, according to new research.

When asked what they believe are the three main components of a good customer service conversation, as part of FM Outsource’s Make Every Conversation Count report, the vast majority of people said short waiting times (61%), and having their query dealt with quickly and effectively by an operator (60%).

Surprisingly, the specific channel through which these conversations are conducted was significantly less important to people than the quick resolution of their issue: 39% of people said they value having the option to speak to a trained customer service operator on the phone, 23% said they appreciate a wide range of channels, and 22% said they look for 24/7 availability.

The content of the conversation itself was also seemingly less important. Only around a third (32%) of people said they believe the pleasant demeanour of the operator is an integral component, while 19% find personalisation makes a difference.

However, it is clear that consumers are still keen to have a conversation with a human operator when they have a problem, regardless of channel. Fewer than one in 10 (9%) of respondents said they look for the ability to solve a problem themselves, and only 2% like to have the ability to solve queries via automated responses.

Similarly, when asked for the three main components of a bad customer service conversation, long waiting times (57%) and lack of satisfactory resolution to query (42%) were the two most popular responses, followed by not having the option to talk to a human (34%).

Things that would undoubtedly cause temporary frustration for the duration of the conversation, including unpleasant operator demeanour (23%), repeating information multiple times (18%), dealing with multiple agents in one interaction (15%), and a lack of personalisation (14%), were all cited much less frequently.

Martin Brown, CCO at FM Outsource, said: “Our research would suggest that, ultimately, consumers are simply looking for the swift, effective resolution of their problem or query. While it’s increasingly important to offer customers a wide range of choice of channels and availability, the quality of conversations must not be compromised as a result of spreading agents too thinly.

“If customers are finding their query remains unresolved, the fact they were able to contact the company outside of work hours will be of little consequence to them. Businesses need to ensure that operators are empowered to provide a satisfactory resolution across every customer service channel, with the right technology and resourcing in place to enable them to do so.”

Contact & customer service centres: 2022/23 buying trends revealed

 960 640 Stuart O'Brien
By:
0

Artificial Intelligence, Call Centre Technology and Customer Experience Surveys top the list of solutions the UK’s leading industry professionals are sourcing in 2022/23.

The findings have been revealed following the recent Contact Centre & Customer Services Summit, which took pace earlier this month.

Delegates registering to attend the event were asked which areas they needed to invest in during 2022/23 and beyond.

The rankings represent a change in requirements from 12 months ago, when the top 3 were Agent Coaching & Monitoring, Training & Development and Artificial Intelligence.

% of delegates at the Contact Centre & Customer Services Summit sourcing certain products & solutions (Top 5):

  1. Artificial intelligence
  2. Call Centre Tech
  3. Customer Experience surveys
  4. Homeworking Solutions
  5. Multichannel Survey Tools

To find out more about the Contact Centre & Customer Services Summit, visit https://contactcentresummit.co.uk.

CCaaS demand to push market to $19.8bn by 2031

 960 640 Stuart O'Brien
By:
0

The Contact Center as a Service (CCaaS) market was worth $4.3 billion in 2021, and is estimated to reach $19.8 billion by 2031, growing at a CAGR of 16.8% between 2022 and 2031.

That’s according to a new report published by Allied Market Research, Contact Center as a Service (CCaaS) Market, which says the automatic call distribution segment was the highest revenue contributor to the market, worth $854.7 million in 2021, and is estimated to reach $3,321.7 million by 2031, with a CAGR of 14.7%.

In short, the COVID-19 pandemic is anticipated to have a favourable effect on the contact centre as a service (CCaaS) business worldwide.

The demand for CCaaS has increased owing to increased feedback management, and suppliers cost associated with the setup of offline contact centres. Moreover, the growing decency upon Internet and digitalization globally started to deploy CCaaS solutions, and thus is expected to drive the growth of the Contact Center as a Service Market analysis post-pandemic.

Region-wise, North America holds a significant share in the global CCaaS market, owing to the presence of prime players in this region. In North America authorities have expressed a strong enthusiasm in implementing contact center cloud solutions. Major corporations that are committed to delivering superior customer service are widespread in the area, which boosts the growth of the market.

The collaboration to provide cloud-based contact center solutions to the Canadian market was announced on April 21, 2022 by Five9, Inc., a global provider of intelligent cloud contact centers, and Deloitte Canada, an independent company operating under the Deloitte name. Collaboration is anticipated to significantly improve customer experience as Five9 continues to expand its worldwide footprint and link the success of Deloitte Canada and Five9 with Canadian businesses to fulfil the rise in need for digital age networking and CCaaS.

Other key findings:-

  • The automatic call distribution segment was the highest Contact Center as a Service Market Share contributor, with $854.7 million in 2021, and is estimated to reach $3,321.7 million by 2031, with a CAGR of 14.7%.
  • The integration and deployment segment was the highest revenue contributor to the market, with $100.4 million in 2021, and is estimated to reach $798.5 million by 2031, with a CAGR of 23.1%
  • The large enterprise segment was the highest revenue contributor to the market, with $2,880.8 million in 2021, and is expected to continue its growth during Contact Center as a Service Market Forecast period.
  • North America was the highest revenue contributor, accounting for $2,378.8 million in 2021, and is estimated to reach $9,353.9 million by 2031, with a CAGR of 14.9%.
  • Asia-Pacific is estimated to reach $5,517.4 million by 2031, at a significant CAGR of 19.5%.

The key players profiled in the Contact Center as a Service Industry report include Accenture LLP, Alphabet Inc. (Google Corporation), Amazon.com Inc. (AWS), AT&T Inc., Cisco Systems, IBM Corporation, Microsoft Corporation, Orcale Corporation and SAP SE. Market players have adopted various strategies, such as product launch, collaboration & partnership, joint venture, and acquisition, to expand their foothold in the Contact Center as a Service (CCaaS) market.

Data shows customer service has power to make or break corporate reputations

 960 640 Stuart O'Brien
By:
0

Good customer service is the most powerful tool a business has when it comes to improving and maintaining its reputation, new research has found.

As part of its Make Every Conversation Count report, FM Outsource asked 1,000 people for the factors that are most likely to have a positive impact on their perception of a brand. Efficient customer service was the most widely cited response, with half (50%) of respondents valuing it most highly.

Ranked just below efficient customer service were customer reviews (49%) and recommendations from family and friends (44%), suggesting that strong customer care is linked to positive endorsements.

In contrast, price (32%), social media presence (18%), and advertising (15%) were all cited much less frequently.

However, while good customer service has the potential to enhance a business’s reputation, the research found that poor customer service can destroy a brand.

When asked whether a customer service conversation had negatively impacted their relationship with a brand or business, 86% of respondents agreed. Notably, nearly a third (31%) of consumers have told friends or family to avoid a brand following a negative customer service interaction, and 26% have left a critical review online.

At the same time, the research also revealed that the vast majority (80%) of consumers believe that poor delivery of customer service reveals a brand’s general lack of care towards its customers. Only 11% said that it is unrelated.

Martin Brown, CCO at FM Outsource, said: “There is still a tendency among many businesses to treat customer service as an additional overhead, rather than an integral growth opportunity. However, our research shows the powerful ripple effect that a positive or negative customer service interaction can have on a business’s reputation.

“In the challenging business landscape ahead, reputation will be crucial to organisations’ ongoing success. It’s therefore clear from our report that outstanding customer service will be an invaluable tool when it comes to not only retaining, but also attracting customers.”

SMS rises up the ranks for customer communications, but are retailers are missing out on mobile?

 960 640 Stuart O'Brien
By:
0

A Wunderkind survey of over 2,000 UK shoppers has revealed that while email remains the dominant channel for consumers, with 84% saying they find it the most convenient channel for communicating with retailers during the buying journey, a third (32%) say they now find text just as convenient – an increase of 6 percentage points year-on-year.

However, despite this increased consumer demand, just one in three retailers currently use text as a marketing channel (beyond purely transactional communication like delivery updates), meaning the vast majority are missing out on a huge opportunity to engage with customers, increase conversions and, ultimately, encourage a greater number of sales – especially when texts are used in careful conjunction with email.

Just over half (56%) of shoppers say they have received a text message from a brand or retailer in the last 12 months, with the same percentage (56%) saying that the speed and convenience of text as a communications channel enhanced and supported their online buying journey, whether by providing information faster than it would have been received through email, or by helping them react to a fast-changing stage in their buying journey, such as a shipping update or the option to use a discount or promotion.

This desire for text communications, Wunderkind’s research suggests, mirrors the now ubiquitous use of smartphones, with consumers increasingly wanting to interact — and buy — through their mobiles. mCommerce transactions made on smartphones and tablets are expected to represent over half (58%) of all online retail sales this year, rising to 63% by 2024, which will equate to sales of around £105 billion.

A separate poll of 60 senior UK marketing and ecommerce professionals in Wunderkind’s ‘Countdown to 2024’ report showed that just a third (34%) currently use text to communicate and engage with shoppers.

Wunderkind’s General Manager International, Wulfric Light-Wilkinson, said: “Text represents a significant opportunity for retailers to increase loyalty and drive sales. Best-in-class customer engagement isn’t about relying on any one channel – but rather, supporting the shopper on their path to purchase, and meeting them wherever they are.

“Regardless of the channel mix, consumer engagement success comes down to brands putting themselves in the shoes of current and prospective customers, understanding how they like to communicate and operate, and using that insight to build campaigns that engage them seamlessly across multiple touchpoints.”

Additionally, it is worth noting that customers engage quickly with texts, which is ideal for retailers or brands wanting to promote a flash sale or send out a time-sensitive message. Research suggests 90% of people open a text message within three minutes of receiving it, while, according to Gartner, texts have an average open rate of  98% and a response rate of 45% – much higher than email  (which has an average of 20% and 6% respectively).

Download Wunderkind’s full report: The Untapped Potential of Text.

CX pros focused on AI & automation investments

 960 640 Stuart O'Brien
By:
0

Talkdesk’s The Future of AI 2022: Progressing AI Maturity in the Contact Center report indicates that despite consensus (85%) around the value of artificial intelligence (AI), companies are hedging their approach by continuing to invest, but curbing deeper deployments in the near-term due to challenges around organisational alignment, security, and gaps in talent.

As customer service expectations grow across every type of industry – from retail and consumer goods, to financial services and insurance, even healthcare – fast-moving organizations are gaining a competitive edge by using AI and automation to deliver better service and boost productivity.

To reap the benefits and avoid being left behind, 79% of customer experience (CX) professionals say their company plans to increase investments in the year ahead. Fifty-two percent acknowledge that without AI and automation, customer satisfaction will decrease; 48% expect a decline in contact center team productivity. Yet, the use of AI and automation in contact centers has scaled back; for example, their use in self-service declined from 69% in 2021 to 60% today.

Implementing new technology always represents an uncharted territory for companies and AI is no different. The former rush to embrace AI initiatives appears to have met with the reality of the challenges companies are facing, primarily around three key areas:

1. Misalignment on AI business goals

CX professionals report less confidence in their own understanding of AI. The percentage of those saying they feel moderately to extremely familiar with AI in the contact center dipped from 93% a year ago to 87%. Similarly, the number of respondents characterizing their organization’s application of AI technology as more advanced fell to 35%. Resistance to change within their organizations and lack of strategic vision were commonly cited hurdles.

2. Security risks and IT challenges

Eighty percent believe AI will improve identity and authentication security within the next two years. Nearly as many (75%) agree further that AI technology will allow customer data to be more secure than with a live agent. The belief that AI will improve security seems to contradict findings that security is a key barrier to AI deployment; however, half of the respondents attribute security concerns to the limitations of legacy contact center infrastructure.

3. Lack of in-house AI expertise

Another common obstacle to advanced AI implementation is the lack of AI professionals who can build, train, and maintain AI solutions. New technology, such as human-in-the-loop tools, can help democratize the use of AI in the contact center, making it easy for agents to train and maintain AI models without the need for specialized programming skills. According to the survey, 15% of companies are already taking advantage of these emerging tools.

“As contact centers continue to evolve from cost to growth centers, falling short on AI maturity can negatively impact not only the most important contact center KPIs, such as customer satisfaction and productivity, but also broader business goals tied to revenue and lifetime customer value,” said Ben Rigby, Talkdesk senior vice president and global head of product and engineering, AI, automation, and workforce. “Working closely with a CX technology partner that has deep AI expertise can allow organizations to break through the barriers to deployment and achieve their AI ambitions.”

Download the full report here.