The modern call center has evolved from a simple answer-and-respond environment to a complex, multi-channel environment for servicing customers.  This revolution started with the advent of CRM and the Internet a decade ago, with the introduction of email and web portals.  Customer support has gone digital to the point that many “call centers” have gone primarily email and web-based. Now, the combination of Web 2.0 and modern messaging and communications technologies are ushering in the next step in the evolution of the customer service call center.  With these technologies, the possibilities for call center management and interaction with the customer become endless. The various challenges brought about by modern technology and the means of implementation of the solutions will be discussed in much more depth in the coming weeks and months, and the sheer volume of possible topics is well beyond the scope of a short blog post, but a couple of examples are useful to providing some insight in the challenges faced by the 21st century call center.

Customer Service departments now have to be concerned with external interactions such as blogs, wikis, and social networking sites that are beyond the control of the corporate enterprise.  Companies now have to invest the time to and resources to search for customer problems rather than waiting for customers to simply call or email in. A customer may post product reviews, ask questions on message boards, post inaccurate (or accurate) information about a product on a blog or wiki, or tweet an issue that they have over Twitter.  The challenge of a 21st-century call center is to seek and respond to these non-centralized incidences, so that a customer may have access to the information they seek in a non-centralized, organic conversation that consists of both corporate liaisons and objective third party participants.

With the advent of new mobile communications technologies in particular, the world of SMS and MMS will add a whole new layer of communications possibilities between a company and its customers.  As the upcoming generation is more comfortable sending a text messgae than reading their email (and I say “younger generation” as an early-30s tech-saavy individual), mobile communications is going to become increasingly important.  As the Smart Phone revolution currently underway gains traction with the iPhone, Google’s Android operating system, and other imitators, people will increasingly expect to interact with companies their products and services via mobile technology.  Already, mobile commuications and the desktop are being integrated with CRM, allowing mobile messages to be logged in a queue to be responded to, but the possibilities and the demand go even further.

The 21st Century Call Center is not something that can be outlined in a single post or article, as is the topic of 21st century CRM in general.  Yet the points outlined here give a flavor of the types of  challenges that customer service departments will face in the 21st century.  Web 2.0 sparked a social revolution online that is still being felt.  As it expands into the corporate enteprise, those companies that embrace integrated techonogies early will succeed, while those who don’t will lag behind.

Related posts:

  1. Unified Communications Is Key
  2. Traditional Customer Service and Social CRM Are Complimentary, Not Contradictory
  3. Callcenter Callback — A New Option for Customer Satisfaction
  4. For Direct Marketing, Cell Phone Number Is The New Email Address
  5. The Mobile Salesforce