Contact centers manage customer interactions across multiple platforms, including phone, messaging, email, chat, and social media. As the technology rapidly evolves, we anticipate that artificial intelligence (AI), automation, and self-service functionality will dominate contact center market trends. In this article, we’ve compiled the most dominant contact center news and developments so you can better understand how to leverage this technology for your business.
State of Contact Centers: Market Trends & Growth
Market trends and statistics show that contact and call center phone systems are moving toward the cloud. Keep your business relevant and responsive by learning the latest contact center market trends and pivoting according to your target market’s interests and mindset.
1. Global contact center market size is expected to reach $496 billion by 2027
(Source: Statista)
More businesses are adopting cloud-based contact center solutions to centralize databases and efficiently manage customer interaction. Over the past few years, contact centers have played a significant role in improving the quality of customer support. An omnichannel approach allows companies to gain extensive insights and make informed business decisions.
2. North America accounted for 35% of the contact center software market in 2022
(Source: Grandview Research)
In 2022, North America made up 35% of the contact center software market. Strong growth in North America is attributed to the region’s robust economic landscape. Industries in the region have a high level of digital adoption and a large consumer base. There are also several contact center software vendors in the region. Popular vendors include RingCentral and Nextiva, both of which are part of our best cloud contact center providers offering feature-rich solutions.
Nextiva topped our list as the best overall cloud contact center thanks to its advanced features, including workflow automation and custom call routing options. This omnichannel platform has enterprise quality management capabilities and geo-redundancy to safeguard data across multiple data centers. Check out our comprehensive Nextiva Contact Center review to learn more about this provider.
3. 44% of contact centers aim for an omnichannel experience
(Source: Customer Contact Week)
Today’s customers have infinite options and can quickly jump from one company to another if they have a less-than-pleasant customer service experience. Keep clients engaged by providing a seamless client journey, regardless of their preferred communication channel. Omnichannel systems give your agents access to updated and relevant customer information, ensuring customers are provided personalized and efficient support.
4. 60% of organizations are working to merge their existing service channels
(Source: Deloitte Digital)
Many businesses are centralizing fragmented communication systems to the cloud. By merging different service channels, businesses increase savings, agent information access, and data harmonization. Integrating channels makes it easier for agents to interact with customers across different communication mediums. Gain more agility by moving customer care systems like telephony, automated call distribution, and analytics to the cloud.
RingCentral is one of the leading omnichannel contact center solutions thanks to its extensive feature set and robust third-party integrations. Its plans include interactive voice response (IVR), call recordings, and artificial intelligence (AI) call transcription and summary. This platform contains 30-plus digital channels, making it an excellent option for businesses with several options for customer service.
Interested in RingCentral? Here’s our comprehensive RingCentral Contact Center review.
5. North America has the largest market share of the call center AI market
(Source: Markets and Markets)
Advancements in AI have allowed organizations to adjust their workforce to include AI-powered chatbots. Bots help provide relevant historical data and insights that can help strengthen your team’s upselling efforts and client care.
By 2027, North America is expected to hold the largest call center AI market share, estimated at $4.1 billion. Experts indicate this growth is because of the region’s early adoption of AI technology, smartphone usage, and software developments.
Contact Centers & Customer Service
Customer expectation is higher than ever, and they expect their concerns to be resolved in a prompt, personalized, and efficient manner. These customer service contact center market trends explore the future and challenges related to customer care.
6. 63% of support & service leaders are prioritizing improving operations
(Source: Gartner)
Your contact center service is the frontline for your business, playing a crucial role in customer care experiences. As client expectations rise and self-service and automation continue to develop, 63% of service and support leaders are working to ensure their solutions are flexible and responsive to customer needs. Efficient communication systems are the building block for a loyal and satisfied customer base.
Tip: You must consistently measure your progress to improve contact center operations. This helps your team identify individual and team strengths and weaknesses and plan performance improvement plans for those who need it. To learn more about enhancing your team’s productivity, here’s our guide to improving employee productivity.
7. Top challenge for nearly half of the surveyed customer experience (CX) leaders is meeting customer expectations
(Source: Genesys)
A recent report indicates that nearly 50% of CX leaders find meeting customer expectations challenging. Customers want and expect personalized services—features like analytics and reporting generate real-time, actionable insights for better client servicing. With advancements in automation, organizations need to harness the benefits of such technology for customer service, better communications, and improved workforce productivity.
8. Customers prefer their issues to be solved by one agent
(Source: Salesforce)
Customers don’t want to be passed around—they want their issues solved by a single agent. Omnichannel cloud contact centers help meet this expectation by providing a multi-channel platform that reduces the customer’s effort to reach out to your business. Omnichannel contact centers let clients use their preferred communication channel, and agents have at their disposal an integrated system where previous interactions are documented and accessible.
Do you want to learn more about the omnichannel contact center platforms? Here’s our guide on the best omnichannel contact center software providers—choose the provider that fits your needs.
9. 80% of customers switch brands for better customer service
(Source: Qualtrics and ServiceNow)
Four out of five people have switched brands because of poor customer service. This highlights the importance of building personal customer relationships and resolving concerns efficiently.
Data also shows that customers are more likely to show loyalty if problems like supply concerns or labor shortages are proactively communicated. Relatedly, Qualtrics XM Institute estimates that very poor customer experiences put an estimated $3.6 trillion of sales at risk each year.
Contact Center Tools & Technology
Our contact center market analysis anticipates increased AI, automation, and self-service applications. This is because more customers prefer finding solutions independently over waiting for an agent’s assistance. Read through these call center industry trends to understand the direction of customer service software advancements.
10. 79% of CX leaders plan to invest in contact center AI & automation
(Source: Global Talkdesk Research)
CX professionals recognize the importance of AI and automation. Fast-moving organizations seek to build a competitive advantage by using AI to deliver better customer service and boost team productivity. However, obstacles like implementation and talent gaps prevent companies from fully realizing their automation targets. Several contact center providers like Freshdesk have built-in AI technologies that optimize customer support and boost efficiency.
The Freshdesk contact center is an omnichannel, business voice-over-internet-protocol (VoIP) phone system for real-time customer support and coordination. In addition to call and queue management, it comes with a native, out-of-the-box chatbot named Freddy. The bot has features like auto-triage, which suggests ticket fields for new tickets. Its article suggester feature recognizes customer queries and gives information to your agents.
11. Chatbots will be the primary customer service channel by 2027
(Source: Gartner)
Gartner’s customer service and support survey found that 54% of respondents use a chatbot or conversational AI technology for customer-facing applications. It predicts that by 2027, chatbots will be the primary channel for customer service for 25% of organizations. Crucial strategies to effectively deploy a strong chatbot customer support channel include creating a deployment strategy, reducing customer effort, and using relevant chatbot metrics.
Chatbots provide fast, 24/7 customer service and proactive customer service.
(Source: NicoElNino)
12. Agents say help desks are the top customer service tool
(Source: HubSpot)
Customer service teams revealed their top three customer service tools: help desk systems, a knowledge base on the company website, and a shared email alias for customer service support. Empower your agents and integrate advanced communication tools so your employees have updated customer data. Similarly, provide self-service and available customer-facing information so clients can minimize agent interaction and solve their problems.
Contact Center Human Resource & Staffing
Over the past few years, there have been a lot of changes regarding how customer support is provided. Now, more and more businesses recognize the evolving needs of their employees. For years, the focus of contact centers has been on the customer, but recently, companies have given more attention to agents’ needs. We’ve culled out some of the most dominant trends when it comes to human resources and staffing.
13. A majority of leaders find recruiting & retaining talent challenging
(Source: 8×8)
More than half of CX leaders are concerned about recruitment and retainment. The call and contact center industries have one of the highest staff turnover rates. Today, attrition rates continue to increase, largely due to the popularity and demand for remote work options. The cost of high turnover is seen in the amounts spent on interviews, hiring, and onboarding. Other CX challenges include reducing costs, cybersecurity, and improving agent productivity.
14. Conversational AI costs to reduce labor costs by $80 billion in 2026
(Source: Gartner)
Gartner predicts that by 2023, one out of every 10 agents will be automated, reducing contact center labor costs by $80 billion. It estimates that by 2031, savings will increase by $240 billion annually.
Companies must invest in professional resources, such as data analytics and natural language understanding, to capitalize on this technology. Conversational AI improves data analysis, productivity, and customer experience when appropriately implemented.
15. Business support service industries have the highest concentration of customer service representatives (CSRs)
(Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics)
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, business support services employ the most CSR, accounting for 36.43% of industry employment. This industry group is primarily engaged in routine business support functions like preparing documents and operating business service centers. These service providers help take on internal processes, such as data entry, payroll management, and call center operations, to increase efficiency and reduce costs.
16. 58% of call center agents don’t gain much from company coaching sessions
(Source: Call Centre Helper)
More than half of agents feel they get very little out of coaching sessions, and having a clear career growth path significantly impacts their decision to stay or leave a company. Providing the right learning opportunities can improve employee retention rates and increase employee engagement. Providing continuous learning at work that’s suited to your employees builds new skills, greater confidence, a positive outlook, and increased productivity.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Contact center statistics refer to a communication system’s overall effectiveness and performance in terms of overall customer satisfaction. Managers monitor metrics to track the effectiveness and efficiency of a contact center. Examples of contact center metrics and statistics include average call abandonment rate and average time in queue.
The steps you need to take to improve your contact center’s performance depend on your challenges. Suppose the issue is agent performance—strategies like focusing on low performers and creating a detailed standard operating procedure. It’s important to track your call center metrics so you can measure your team’s best practices and areas of improvement.
One of the easiest ways to determine market trends is through the use of trend discovery tools like Google Trends and Semrush Trends. To run a successful business, you need to be updated on news and trends within your industry. Knowing your market and competitive landscape allows you to remain agile and identify growth opportunities. Other strategies include monitoring social media, engaging customers, and working with industry experts.
Bottom Line
According to the contact center news and trends highlighted in this article, contact centers are expected to grow exponentially over the next few years. AI, predictive analysis, self-service automation, and machine learning are some emerging technologies expected to take center stage. Companies that invest in these cloud contact center market trends will be well-positioned for future success.
