Cutting-edge developments are constantly reshaping the customer service landscape in the Asia-Pacific region, and contact centers serve as invaluable indicators for identifying future trends. With that in mind, here are five emerging technologies and strategies helping to redefine customer interactions and support operations in contact centers across APAC.
Embracing generative AI in the contact center
Contact centers haven’t escaped the shockwave of disruption caused by the acceleration of generative AI technology over the last year, but the signs point to the technology having a positive effect.
A recent study by researchers from Stanford Digital Economy Laboratory and MIT Sloan School of Management found that the use of a generative AI assistant tool in contact centers resulted in an average boost in productivity of 13.8 percent measured by the number of resolved customer issues per hour.
One company exploring the technology’s potential in APAC contact centers is Accenture. A recent Bloomberg report revealed that the organization’s Philippine unit is studying the use of AI-powered “co-pilots”, acting as advisors for customer agents.
Arvin Yanson, managing director of Accenture Philippines’ innovation hub, says: “Our clients are very much starting to explore generative AI, so it’s important that the industry goes in lockstep with this.”
Developing predictive CX for customer support
If companies can proactively address issues before customers have to contact them, this can reduce the volume of interactions and also lead to higher levels of customer satisfaction.
Predictive analytics play a pivotal role in this process, meaning data capture and tools to provide valuable insights are essential. Fujifilm Asia Pacific provides an example of a company embracing this approach. With more than 100 support engineers in technical support centers in locations including Sydney, Seoul and Kuala Lumpur, the firm introduced a web-based remote access tool for customers, with the key aim of driving predictive support.
“Delays or machine downtime can be costly for customers so being able to predict when a service call or replacement part is needed and scheduling an appropriate time for maintenance with a client is critical,” explains Justin Russell, general manager for Fujifilm’s Asia-Pacific customer operations. “Our goal is to resolve an issue before the client is aware it exists.”
Putting the X factor into cloud-based contact centers
Cloud-based contact center as a Service (CCaaS) continues to transform customer operations across Asia-Pacific as companies replace legacy systems. Yet another connected trend – experience communications as a service (XCaaS) – is increasingly making its presence felt in the region.
XCaaS seamlessly integrates CCaaS and unified communications as a service (UCaaS) into a cohesive solution, allowing businesses to oversee both internal and external communications using a single licensing structure.
XCaaS represents an effective way of merging disparate systems and improving customer service – and that was the mission of Australian travel company Journey Beyond which, according to CIO, recently replaced its outdated technology and shifted to a cloud-based solution.
Part of the transformation plan was to establish a unified communications platform across the business and combine it with a new contact center platform. To achieve this, an integrated UCaaS and CCaaS platform was chosen.
According to Madhumita Mazumdar, GM of information and communications technology, the integration offers increased accessibility for the whole Journey Beyond team.
“At a national integrated level, we now have subject matter experts in each of our experiences available to deliver unrivalled customer experience, with economies of scale,” she says. “So, if one team is under duress in terms of call volumes, the call can be overflowed and picked up quickly by a consultant with secondary expertise in that brand.”
Improving efficiency with automation
Many contact centers across the globe are realising the potential of automation to improve efficiency and productivity, and it’s a trend that’s gathering momentum across the APAC region.
As with many businesses, electronics multinational Sharp experienced a dramatic increase in contact center demand during the Covid-19 pandemic. Sharp Electronics Indonesia chose automation as the solution, with the aim of improving speed of consumer care and service, increasing customer satisfaction and improving accuracy and efficiency.
Typically, Sharp Electronics Indonesia receives an average of 1,000 customer enquiries per day. The volume of calls used to require 33 hours for manual information input alone. Following the integration of automation tools, however, the time required has been reduced by 40 percent to 20 hours. In addition, overall productivity has gone up by 60 percent.
According to Arie A Noya, customer service planning and technical center manager at Sharp Electronics Indonesia, “customers are enjoying better satisfaction and service, which also results in better sales performance”.
Harnessing social media evolution
The social media landscape has always been subject to changes in habits and preferences, and recent months have seen a seismic shift resulting from Elon Musk’s acquisition of Twitter.
Recently rebranded as ‘X’, the platform’s widespread adoption has seen it evolve into an essential tool for contact centers in responding to customer needs and queries promptly and publicly. Auscontact, Australia’s contact center industry association, notes that “for contact centers in Australia, Twitter has been a vital channel for providing real-time customer support”.
Yet the association adds that the transformation of Twitter into X, requires contact centres to “recalibrate” their approach to brand interaction and influence, and that “there may be a transition in how customers engage with brands and how businesses position themselves on the platform”.
Auscontact observes: “With Twitter’s rebranding, Musk aims to embrace data-driven insights, making personalization a focal point of the platform’s evolution. Contact centers in Australia can leverage this transformation to tap into enhanced customer data and analytics.”
Another social media change highlighted by Auscontact is the emergence of Threads, the Meta platform and X rival. This channel, says the association, “brings a new dimension to multichannel communication for contact centers” as it enables agents to engage with customers via threaded conversations, making interactions easier to track and manage.
Threads also offers a range of features that can “revolutionize customer engagement for contact centers”, says Auscontact – including the ability to link multiple posts together in Linktree pages, providing an opportunity to share content, showcase products or services and offer support.