5 Actionable Trends to Implement in Your Contact Center in 2024

What a ride 2023 was!  It’s as if we’ve lived half a decade in just one year.   

We’ve seen some mega global challenges – the ongoing conflict in Ukraine, the war between Israel and Gaza, banking shake-ups in the U.S., including the collapse of SVB (Silicon Valley Bank), a slow-moving global economy tinged with inflation, tech investments taking a hit of about 70%, the generative AI (Artificial Intelligence) revolution, crypto turbulence, and much more.  

Notably, the contact center sector has faced its own set of trials and transformations. This article delves into how global dynamics have influenced the landscape, particularly in terms of employee experience—a critical factor in customer satisfaction and operational efficiency.  

The Top 5 Contact Center Tends for 2024 

 These top five contact center trends for 2024 will shape the future of customer engagement in an ever-evolving world: 

The GenAI (Generative AI) Self-service Revolution 

Conversational analytics and chatbots have exploded in recent years, driven by the desire to better understand customer needs and simplify the experience by automating interactions. While most contact centers now offer self-service across channels, the process and results are inconsistent. Standardized queries are handled smoothly but can veer off script, and the dream of self-service turns into a mobile-crushing, tear-inducing quest for a human agent. 

Now, GenAI enters as the potential hero, delivering flexibility, creativity, and a human touch. Everest Group reports 89% of companies plan to adopt this in 2024. 

However, let’s manage expectations. Generic models? Not good enough. Proprietary models? Prohibitively expensive. While I believe GenAI will boost customer experience, in 2024, it still won’t be magic. 

The Contact Center Agent as Talent
The second hot 2024 trend is to focus on the contact center agent as talent. Despite a world of self-service, where bots and algorithms rule, human contact center agents are still the grandmasters of customer care. They’re the ones who step in when frustrations peak and complexities defy digital solutions. Imagine this: a hotel charge is not approved, and is followed by a tangled web of bookings, websites, and credit card providers. After pressing “0” enough times, you may no longer be the kind person we know you are.  When it is no longer an “I forgot my password” case, you need Master Yoda. It’s here that a super-empathic, highly proficient, high EQ agent restores calm, investigating how to untie the knots in multiple systems and help the customer successfully finish their transaction. 

Recent (industry dependent) spikes of 4-11% in Average Handle Time (AHT) tell a clear story: invest in your agents. From stellar onboarding to expert training, coupled with robust agent coaching and development, nurture contact center agents as lifelong talent. They’re the secret sauce to calming tempers, untangling knots, and elevating customer care to an art form. 

Agent Copilot: The 2024 Game Changer
Another contact center trend in 2024? Agent Copilot. Imagine you are a contact center agent, and you have a teammate whisper-coaching solutions during calls, streamlining paperwork, and personalizing your career growth. Agent Copilot tools are poised to explode in 2024, revolutionizing the customer care landscape. 

Gone are the days of frantic notetaking and missed insights. In-call Copilots become real-time knowledge engines, surfacing relevant resolutions and automating documentation. Picture frustration melting away as agents confidently guide customers, knowing resources are just a click away. 

But the journey doesn’t end with the call wrap-up. Post-call Copilots, like Centrical, transform contact center agent development into an engaging, personalized experience. Think real-time performance dashboards, bite-sized learning modules adapting to your needs, and gamified challenges fueling motivation. This growth-focused Copilot analyzes data – performance, proficiency, engagement – alongside your voice and your manager’s perspective. It then maps your personal improvement journey, guides your steps, and connects you to a supportive team. No more one-size-fits-all experience – welcome hyper-personalization! 

Agent Copilot isn’t just a tool; it’s a teammate, a mentor, and a cheerleader. It’s 2024’s key to unlocking empowered, engaged agents who deliver exceptional customer care. 

Supervisor Copilot: Empowered Coaching in a Human-First World
The fourth 2024 trend is AI Copilot for supervisors. In a hyper-digital world where AI threatens to turn faces into numbers, the human touch is essential. Moreover, in the post-pandemic contact center, contact center managers face remote work-related challenges, with guiding remote teams to success at the top. Juggling meetings with mountains of admin tasks eats up about 50-60% of their time, leaving less bandwidth for the human connection their teams crave. 

Enter the Supervisor Copilot: an AI-powered, data-driven teammate that streamlines workflows and reveals growth opportunities. It crunches numbers, spotlights areas for improvement, and suggests specific coaching actions. (Think personalized insights, not robotic prescriptions.) 

Imagine the Supervisor Copilot identifies an agent with dipping conversions. The Copilot digs deeper into the calls, pinpoints a lack of exploratory questions, and flags this for the manager, along with relevant resources – a role-play simulation, perhaps, or a list of effective opening questions. 

Now, the manager shines. The copilot helps the manager quickly validate the root cause, tailor the suggested improvement plan, and coach with empathy. The Copilot tracks progress and feeds future recommendations, using insights from this closed feedback loop. The Supervisor Copilot doesn’t replace managers; it empowers them. It frees them from the data grind, letting them focus on what AI can’t: building trust, cultivating empathy and nurturing the human connections that drive success. 

Gamifying Growth: Unleashing the Hero Within Your Agents
The final predicted contact center trend in 2024? Gamification. Here’s why. Consumers crave engaging experiences everywhere: TikTok tailors trends, Netflix predicts our binge-watch, even my swimming goggles coach me in real time. Yet, work often feels stale – the one-size-fits-all approach is soul-crushingly dull. We know it doesn’t have to be this way. 

Enter gamification: the secret sauce to boost contact center agent engagement and performance in 2024. We’ve seen it firsthand with hundreds of thousands of active users. Forget point-chasing leaderboards – our focus is on making every agent a hero. It’s personalized, playful, and goal-oriented, mirroring the engaging experiences we crave outside the office. 

The result? Agents blossom! Engagement skyrockets, leading to improved performance and sustained growth. It’s a win-win, transforming the workplace into an environment of engaged, thriving customer service heroes – your customer care dream team. 

Key to this success? Ditching the PBL (Point Badges and Leaderboards) trap. No pointless badge collections here. A proper gamification design is laser-focused on empowering every agent, nurturing their strengths, and celebrating their individual victories. 

In a world seeking personalized experiences, let’s bring that same magic to the workplace. Gamification unlocks the hero within your agents, unleashing a powerful force for customer care excellence. 

Propelling Contact Centers to New Heights in 2024 

We have just explored five key trends poised to empower agents and supervisors and elevate customer care in 2024. Yes, we live in a hyper-digital world. Bots and algorithms can excel at basic tasks, but the human touch remains the gold standard in customer care, as complex challenges demand the empathy, expertise, and problem-solving skills of agents. A quick recap of the trends that will reshape the future of contact centers in 2024: 

• Generative AI The smart, tailored, and AI-powered automation of the contact center customer experience will be a major player this year, but not quite perfected (yet). 
• Focus on the Agent The personal touch of contact center agents is still critical to customer care. Provide an exceptional experience throughout the employee lifecycle to nurture and develop their talent. 
• Agent Copilot This technology is taking center stage in 2024, helping contact center agents more efficiently improve their skills with a guided and personalized journey. 
• Supervisor Copilot Thanks to this AI-powered tech, contact center managers will be able to offload admin tasks to better focus on building human-focused, empathetic connections with their team. 
• Gamification The one-size-fits-all approach is demotivating and doesn’t help contact center agent engagement or productivity. Instead, deliver a personalized and targeted agent experience. 

By embracing these trends, contact centers can unlock the full potential of their human talent, transforming every interaction into a masterpiece of empathy, expertise, and lasting customer satisfaction. 

Follow Gal Rimon on LinkedIn for more about what is in store for contact centers in 2024. While you’re there, give Centrical a follow for industry news, trends, thought leadership, company updates, and much more.