Four digital technologies that will transform the customer experience

The contact center has traditionally been a necessary evil for organizations. Companies look at them as a cost center, and they will be the first on the chopping block when a financial crisis or downturn hits. Ironically, the contact center is typically the first thing customers encounter when dealing with a company. Here are some common challenges facing customer service organizations.

Growing number of channels: Consumers use an average of 10 channels to communicate with a brand. Companies struggle to stitch data across all these channels to provide a contextualized and personalized experience for customers.

Attrition: Contact centers are heavily people-dependent, and attrition has been a huge problem. On average, it costs $4,000 or more to hire an agent and an additional $4,800 or more to train them. The average annual turnover rate for agents in the U.S. contact centers ranges from 30%-45% (i.e., approximately half of the trained agents walk out of the door indicating the magnitude of the problem).