Dimension Data, the $6.7 billion services and solutions provider, has predicted an increase in headcount in the global contact centre industry over the next two years.

The announcement follows the group’s forecast that, over the next 24 months, organisations will introduce more digital self-service channels into their businesses to deliver a greater customer experience, said a company statement.

The findings of Dimension Data’s annual Global Contact Centre Benchmarking Report (GCCBR) which surveyed 901 organisations in 72 countries across Asia Pacific, Australia, the Americas, Middle East and Africa, and Europe, were published recently.

The GCCBR is the only report of its kind that researches both the strategic, and the operational performance trends of the contact centre industry.

Adam Foster, group executive of communications at Dimension Data, said: “Digital, which is anything that doesn’t involve a live agent speaking to a customer, is fast becoming the consumer’s preference.”

“Today, consumers want to engage with organisations over multiple digital and social media channels to achieve the results they want. And they’re happy to move effortlessly from one digital channel such as web chat, email, SMS - and even video - to another using a range of devices including mobile and smartphones, tablets, and TV,” he added.  

According to this year’s GCCBR discoveries, 87 per cent of the contact centre industry will see an increase in the use of non-voice (digital) channels; while 74 per cent of those organisations that were polled predicted an increase in overall interactions. Furthermore, smart apps in contact centres will more than double to 55 per cent in 2016 from 26 per cent in 2014, with web chat hiking from 33 per cent rising to an impressive 70 per cent in the next two years, it stated.  

Foster said: “Our findings indicate that around 50 per cent of this year’s participants can already cancel or amend an order via their smart apps, and 39 per cent can update personal information.”

“The interaction mix in the contact centre is changing as the complexity of contacts and the channels themselves increase. This means organisations will need to adjust their resource models for the reshaped modern contact centre,” he said.

“We know from this year’s findings that 21 per cent of role skills and competency profiles are not aligned to the actual role, and more than a quarter (26 per cent) of those skills required to perform the role are not regularly assessed.  Added to this, the industry will see seven digital channels come on stream by the end of this year,” he continued.

“Based on these statistics, the number of employees and their skills will need to be increased, and those agents will require an increase in management and support levels. This is good news for the contact centre industry,” he added. – TradeArabia News Service