How are contact centers bracing for a recession as the economy falters? Find out the ways how to cope up with it.
Shivani Shrivastava
Nov 22 • 3 min read
The economy is in uncertain times today. Right? The cost of living crisis is currently at the forefront of people’s minds. Prices are rising at their fastest rates. Even employees, people are getting anxious: According to research from Insight Global, 78% of workers are worried about losing their jobs in the next recession. Economic downturns are especially tough if you’re a business that relies on a contact center.
In 2020, contact centers were hit hard by the pandemic. Between moving agents to work from home environments to unpredictable volumes, to navigating a more digital customer base, companies felt the pressure. The ones that struggled the most didn’t have technology in place that supported an evolving business.
With the talks of a recession looming around us, there’s no better time for companies to be ‘’Recession proof’’ and you can secure it with GenieTalk.ai so that whatever comes your way this year or beyond you are ready to face it.
We can’t predict the future because recession hits differently every time from industry to industry. ‘’Mistakes happen in Life, but repeating the same mistake it’s stupidity’’- Paulo Coelho.
Recession could lead to agent burnout, layoffs, and diminished customer service. They may also lead to more stress in call centers as agents try to deal with angry customers, which could lead to unhappy customers and exhausted agents. Here’s how to prepare your contact center for uncertain times.
Threats that the contact center faces:
Budget cuts: The overall business may have reduced profits and management might decide to cut costs across various departments. This will leave you to manage the same workload as before, but with fewer resources.
Increased call volumes: While your funds might decrease, inbound calls and customer queries might actually increase.
Chain reaction: As your resources become more limited and you’re unable to offer the same level of customer service as before, the overall customer experience will be affected, causing the loss of customers.
Solution:
Adopting Artificial intelligence(AI) and the latest technologies will revolutionize the way businesses interact with their customers and will change the way you do business. Artificial Intelligence technology has an extensive contribution to transforming the contact center industry. For customer service, online chatbots and Voice AI are excellent solutions to consider, and call center automation software is taking call centers to the next level.
Outbound Calls: Outbound calls are among the most effective ways of communicating with clients since they provide personal contact information.
Objections & Rebuttals: Agents may not bear the brunt of frustrated customers while feeling that their work doesn’t matter. Genietalk self-service technology will help you to resolve this issue. Not only does this save money and future-proof the contact center, but it may lead to more efficient transactions for the customer as well.
Scalability and Concurrency: 3600 calls per hour, Don’t be shocked, Yes you read it right. At a time you can attend as many calls as you want. Providing support that is available 24/7 is a strategic move that could help bring in more revenue to offset losses.
In a recession, you not only want to save money, but you also want to provide a competitive edge over your competitors. Looking into the adoption of artificial intelligence technologies that can automate your operations is key to ensuring a competitive advantage.
To learn more about how to modernize your contact center, schedule a call with one of our experts.