The call center industry is expected to see continued growth in 2024. But as any insider will tell you, that growth is not distributed equally. Whether it’s at inbound, blended, or outbound contact centers, there’s no shortage of businesses facing headwinds and hurdles that threaten to hamper growth.
These contact center challenges come in all shapes and sizes, however they certainly aren’t created equally. In this guide to today’s biggest call center challenges, we zero in on the top five issues facing today’s teams and point you in the direction of the best available solutions.
For contact center decision-makers like you, these issues aren’t an abstract concern, they’re every day obstacles getting between you and the performance you’re after.
Studies indicate that as many as 74% of contact center agents are at risk of burnout. It’s clear that call center agent stress is an industry-wide issue. And at too many call centers, the problem is only clear to decision-makers once they begin to see the worst symptoms of burnout issues.
Once burnout begins to take hold, that’s when teams are hit with the hallmarks of the problem: lower productivity and high agent attrition. (Evidence this is a common call center challenge being faced in 2024: one study found that call centers’ average attrition rates in the past two years were between 30 and 40%!) From here, things can spiral quickly, with constant (and costly) hiring becoming part of the new normal. Teams need to take action and put in place solutions long before burnout can really take hold inside the call center.
There’s no one call center solution to stem the tide of burnout. Fighting burnout and reducing agent stress starts with building a culture that supports its members and sets clear expectations—and career paths—for them. Of course, technology is also key. Solutions that can reduce risks of burnout include:
Federal TCPA compliance issues are complex enough for call centers to handle. But now call centers have a growing number of state-level challenges to contend to. With privacy laws and “mini-TCPAs” popping up everywhere from Washington to Florida, a patchwork of different laws has been created across the country. For businesses dialing or otherwise supporting customers in multiple states, it can be hard to stay on top of differences between states. (Not to mention keeping up with the rapid pace of change.)
Of course, the above issues have been present in each of the past few years. In 2024, there’s a new call center challenge being added to the compliance mix: the closing of the “Lead Gen Loophole.” At the end of 2023, the FCC ruled that express written consent must be gathered on a one-to-one basis and that lead-generating websites and any resulting outreach possess a “logical and topical” connection. With the ruling expected to go into effect by the end of 2024, some teams may be in search of new sources of leads.
Contact center compliance tools come in many forms, but what’s most important—for both call centers and their technology partners—is to take a proactive approach. In addition to choosing a software with a history of staying ahead of the compliance curve, enlist the help of expert counsel to audit your business processes, create a TCPA compliance checklist, and develop a defensible position.
As for the matter of the changes to third-party lead generation, hopefully your business is not among those heavily effected. However, if you’re among those brands that relies on comparison shopping sites, now may be the time to pivot toward sustainable, drive-to-site campaigns that generate first-party leads and inbound calls.
Quick and easy transactions. Omnichannel communications and engagement. Personalized experiences. Every day, the list of must-have aspects of your customer experience looks more and more like last year’s list of luxury features. And if your business can’t keep up with customers’ increasingly high expectations, they will take their business elsewhere.
As the heart of support and sales teams, call centers are central to the customer experience. Leveraging technology like dynamic scripting or predictive analytics that enables greater personalization is key. Meanwhile, your call center must continue to expand its available channels—for both support and outreach.
For many call centers making outbound calls, it’s been getting harder and harder to reach potential customers. This top call center challenge is driven in part by those changes in consumer expectations and phone habits. But at the core of the issue is the recent rise in call blocking and flagging.
As carriers have taken aggressive action to combat the rise in spam and scam calls, legitimate businesses have gotten caught in the crossfire. As a result, contact rates have suffered as calls get flagged as spam.
To boost contact rates, call centers should first look to caller ID reputation management solutions to help them stay ahead of call flagging issues. Complementing high-speed, predictive dialing with omnichannel strategies is also important. Automated emails and SMS drip campaigns don’t just improve contact themselves, but they can also prime prospects to expect calls and answer them more frequently.
Whether it’s low contact and conversion rates eating into revenue or high handle times harming customer satisfaction and retention, many call centers of all types are struggling to achieve scale. And at root, call centers’ challenges with scale are challenges with efficiency.
Whether inefficiency is harming the productivity of agents, the insights of managers, or the value offered by customers and leads, it has outsized power to slow growth.
To achieve scale, call center automation is absolutely crucial. Look to automate your call center operations by:
To overcome the biggest contact center problems facing businesses today, the right technology is key. Learn how to choose a call center software solution that will not just help you overcome the top challenges, but also meet the needs of your particular business. And put your existing solution to the test by scheduling a free demo with Convoso today.
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Convoso is a leading CCaaS contact center software provider for sales and lead generation teams. Since 2006, Convoso has remained at the forefront of innovation, consistently developing solutions to foster customer growth while supporting adherence to regulatory standards. Its omnichannel capabilities include conversational AI game-changer Voso.ai to scale sales and revenue further.
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