As social media use continues to grow amongst consumers, call centers are no longer able to sit back and watch. Although social media was reported to be a lower priority this year in terms of call center solutions, a recent study by Deloitte Consulting indicates that this is no longer proving true. In fact, its use in the contact center space is expected to significantly rise over the next two years.
Call centers, for that matter, are on the rise as well. In fact, 25 percent of respondents claimed that the size of the contact center will rise in the coming years. Additionally, 52 percent claimed that they plan on making zero changes to their call center in the future.
This projected growth can be attributed to the fact that consumers are increasingly spending time on sites such as Facebook and Twitter – and marketers need to reach them. For example, as the number of socially connected smartphone users continues to climb, it is no longer possible for call centers to bypass this market. Right now, there are 93.4 million smartphone users on the planet – that’s a lot of customer opportunity.
But this projected increase in social media is expected to extend outside the realm of Facebook and Twitter. In fact, 46 percent of those surveyed claimed that e-mail use will increase, while 32 percent claimed that voice will. It all has to do with a new interest in integrated marketing, which targets consumers based on a multi-channel approach instead of using one or two traditional strategies. In other words, basic telecommunication marketing is soon to be a thing of the past as more and more contact centers become wholly integrated. It’s only a matter of time before this becomes an industry standard…has your contact center gone multi-channel yet?