The State of the Contact Center in 2023: The Transformative Impact of Remote Work and Artificial Intelligence on Contact Center Strategy and Operations

Author: ICMI Research

Publisher: ICMI

Number of Pages: 54

Sponsor:

"The State of the Contact Center in 2023" provides contact center and experience management professionals with the peer-level insight they need to benchmark and improve services, increase retention, and make critical training and technology investments, helping contact center leaders and their teams create more value for internal and external customers and advance in their careers.

Every year, the ICMI community shares real-world challenges and tell us how they are changing people, process, and technology plans and strategies in response. "The State of the Contact Center in 2023" provides contact center and experience management professionals with the peer-level insight they need to benchmark and improve the services their teams deliver, increase retention of experienced staff, and decide on critical training and technology investments, helping contact center leaders and their teams create more value for internal and external customers and advance in their careers.

Here are just a few key findings from this year's study:

• What’s in a name? 22% of respondents work in Customer Support Centers, with generic Contact Center (15%), Customer Service (15%), and Call Center (14%) running second, third, and fourth in a tight pack. Alternatives – some certainly industry-specific – include Customer Advocacy, Associates’ Information Center, Patient Care Scheduling Center, Care Navigation Center, Customer Interaction Center, and Guides Team.
• Want a raise? Leadership is looking at quality of work, customer service skills, monitored interactions, and, of course, meeting metrics and targets. Experience, certifications, and doing more work have less impact.
• Contact center leaders need to do a better job selling execs on the value their teams create. Here’s a powerful story: A majority of respondents say improvements in employee experience have helped increase revenue.
• Remote, work-from-home (WFH) remains an effective workforce model. Decisions to remain at least partly remote show that leadership is satisfied with the outcomes agents are typically tasked with delivering.
• No surprise, AI is big! Generative AI dominates the ICMI community’s plans, but all varieties of AI-powered tools are at various stages of planning and deployment.