More dynamics on the labor market, a growing number of channels and a strong increase in the number of interactions. It's getting hectic at the contact center again! Despite this increasing pressure, decision-makers only adjust their strategy to a certain extent, according to research by Verint in which Dutch customer contact decision-makers also participated. In this article we highlight some of the results.

 

The gap between what the outside world demands and what the inside world of customer contact delivers has now been examined for the second year. The Engagement Capacity Gap (ECG) remains unabated, according to Verint's analysis. Companies must put more effort into delivering the desired customer experience.

Finding and retaining talent in the top five

More than three-quarters of respondents believe that customer engagement challenges will increase in 2022; more specifically, 71% find it difficult to keep talent on board. Hiring talent is therefore in the top five priorities. Compared to last year, two thirds of the decision-makers have the goal of increasing the occupancy. In addition to the supply chain problems that have arisen in recent years, the respondents expect that the shortage of staff will have a major impact on the management of customer experience. Erwin van de Beek (Verint) explains.

The survey was conducted online in December 2021 among a representative group of more than 2.700 decision makers and influencers in the field of customer engagement and customer experience solutions. Respondents come from Brazil, New Zealand/Australia, India, Mexico, US, UK, France, Germany, Netherlands, Japan and Spain, and from a variety of industries.

“We see a lot of challenges in terms of occupation. Customers with a service level of 30% are often the rule rather than the exception. We are also increasingly encountering customers who have a third of their occupation in vacancies. I recently spoke to a client who needs 180 FTE, while the occupation is currently only 120 FTE. The service level at this contact center is therefore 30% instead of 80% and waiting times continue to increase. You can wait for more dissatisfied employees and a lower quality of service. It is important not only to recruit new employees, but also to keep people on board. Part of this is supporting your employees as well as possible in handling the multitude of work. Employee Experience (EX) and Customer Experience (CX) go hand in hand.”

'Digital first' is on the rise

Are organizations ready for the increasing pressure? For this, Verint has developed the so-called Engagement Preparedness Index (EPI), which looks at the state of application use, the organization's own assessment and the planned investments. A (recognizable) picture emerges across sectors: travel, telecom and financials are on the right side, but healthcare, utilities and government are examples where there is still a lot of work to be done.

Van de Beek: “The commercial drive of travel, telecom and financials in particular encourages companies from these sectors to use much more customer data within their services. There is a clearer choice for more digital first processes within customer contact.”

Who invests the most in CX and EX?

Within Europe, the Netherlands stands out with challenges such as a staff shortage and an increasing number of interactions. The Netherlands, on the other hand, takes a leading position when it comes to investments in solutions aimed at employee and customer experience. Which sectors have the strongest investment appetite?

Van de Beek: “Due to the number of growing contacts and the inability to meet the demand for new employees, we see that organizations are mainly looking for ways to handle contacts as efficiently as possible by using supporting tooling. Financials, governments and telecom are developing the most initiatives in this area. An example is the automatic push of knowledge articles or processes on the employee desktop based on what is heard in the conversation by a real-time speech analysis system.” (Ziptone/Erik Bouwer)

Verint Engage – Martin Melis will explain the research in more detail during the Verint Engage event on June 8 at InnStyle in Maarssen. Nationale Nederlanden and VodafoneZiggo will also speak during Verint Engage. Erwin van de Beek will lead a panel discussion, among other things. More information or register as a participant.

Technology Verint