It’s unusual for Contact Centres to encounter an immediate technical imperative. Contact Centre pace of change has been gradual with 1970s call centre technology still recognisable in today’s contact centre platforms.
The 2020-21 global pandemic has created a technology inflection point which is already supporting some retail processes. Consumers and workers have stayed at home and this has driven expectations and experience of more immersive interactions. Why talk on the phone when a Facetime, Zoom, Teams or Webex chat has become the ‘new normal’?
Video has entered the Contact Centre
Person-to-person video has been a long time coming – I first encountered the Datapoint MINX (Multimedia Information Network eXchange) with its desktop video back in the 1980s = and video contact centres have been a conversation topic for several years but without gaining traction.
That’s all changed.
The full commercial and operational impact of video in the general Contact Centre has yet to be realised or even completely assessed but video is here – just take a look at Richer Sounds & Oak furnitureland to schedule a video call or experience virtual shopping at Nordgreen.
These implementations aren’t contact centres as we know them but the parallels are clear.
The video impact
Current Video Contact Centre systems operate in relatively small volumes in relatively high value retail business. Generally, these operations are supported by arranged appointment and not troubling the contact centre operational planners. But you need to get ready for video becoming the expectation of all your customer interactions.
In coming articles I’ll be looking at:
Video value: Consumers are expecting the service, but does video have a Return on Investment?
Planning for the Video Contact Centre: when does this channel move from deferred demand to immediate demand? Back to basics on Contact Centre planning.
Zoom, Teams, WebRTC or something else: Consumer technologies like Zoom are useful for Proof-of-Concept projects but can they support Contact Centre operational demands and needs?
Setting the environment and building the Contact Centre team: Adding live video to your Contact Centre will push your teams out of their comfort zone. And your customers will have preconceptions and expectations of how your agents interact and how your environment looks. There’s more than technology to making a success of video.