Predicting the Unpredictable: Seven Future Trends for Contact Centers
A significant number of industries and organisations experienced major business disruption over the course of 2020. Government lockdowns and restrictions interrupted supply chains, forced the closure of some companies and required others to adapt to remote working where possible, while also accelerating the adoption of new technologies to facilitate changing working practices.While this year brought about huge changes to how our society operates, it also provided lessons that contact centers can use to predict the unpredictable and plan for an uncertain future. Across the industry, we’ve seen a significant shift in the way that contact centers are managed, and how agents are responding to changing customer behaviours and needs. This shift will likely continue as we settle into the new normal and will impact two of the key factors in how we Work from Anywhere: people and technology.We’ve identified seven emerging and developing trends that will continue to change the way contact centers work in 2021 and beyond:Changing trends for contact center agentsThe global workforce experienced a significant shift in 2020 as businesses increasingly adopted Work from Anywhere processes to accommodate the pandemic. This was a major adjustment for many workers, and one that provided a great deal more flexibility than traditional contact centers. Over the next few years, we anticipate a steady uptick in hybrid working environments, as fewer people come back to work in traditional contact centre environments, which will impact the workforce in three ways:
About the Author
Darren Rushworth
Darren Rushworth has served as the president of NiCE Asia Pacific since 2017. He is responsible for complete field operations with focus on the region's sales, marketing and customer services. Darren's career spans over 30 years in the IT industry, with the past 21 years spent in the Asia Pacific Region. He therefore brings significant experience in enterprise sales, country management, and business operations. Prior to joining NiCE, Darren was managing director of Singapore for SAP Asia Pacific where he increased SAP's market share by delivering double-digit growth in ERP and cloud sales. He also was instrumental in improving customer and employee satisfaction and elevating SAP to become one of Glassdoor's Top 5 Great Places to Work. Prior to that, Darren led SAP's Philippine and emerging market operations where he was responsible for a team of more than 1,000 employees across 10 countries. He drove a cloud-first go-to-market approach, resulting in SAP Philippines being the leading cloud market for SAP South East Asia. Before joining SAP, Darren held multiple leadership roles at Oracle including VP Applications Sales APAC, VP Channels, and VP Oracle Direct APAC. He also developed several businesses within Oracle, including establishing the first Oracle value added distributor in APAC, setting up the Dell business unit for mid-market sales, and spearheading Oracle�s Linux strategy taskforce, resulting in the creation of a Linux line of business.
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