ISG Provider Lens™ report finds regional issues add to uncertainty as providers join global trends toward remote work, automation and cloud contact centers
The 2020 ISG Provider Lens™ Contact Center – Customer Experience Services report for
Reforms to the U.K.’s IR35 regulations, which limit the role of temporary workers within the
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As in other regions, COVID-19 lockdowns forced many providers to institute large-scale work-from-home strategies. The shift to remote work can give providers some advantages, including lower costs and a larger potential workforce, the report says. But it has also brought challenges related to training, agent motivation, background noise and security. Companies are turning to facial recognition, auto screen lock, voice biometrics, VPNs and other tools to tighten the security of work-from-home and bring-your-own-device (BYOD) operations.
With advances in technologies for remote work, a healthy mix of remote and brick-and-mortar working models is expected to emerge, according to the report.
Worldwide, the pandemic led to call volumes sharply increasing in some industries, such as travel and insurance, and falling in others, such as retail. With wait times and call abandonment rates rising, customers of all ages are adopting digital channels such as email, social and asynchronous messaging, increasing the need for personalized, omnichannel customer experiences. Though triggered by the pandemic, these changes are likely to be irreversible, the report says.
Many companies are looking to cloud contact center platforms to meet the new demands from both operational requirements and customer preferences. Providers that were using cloud platforms before the pandemic adapted more quickly to the need for remote work requirements and were better able to provide effective omnichannel experiences, ISG says. Cloud platforms with a full technology stack can include tools for better workforce management as well as analytics, AI and machine learning (ML) to enable more personalized services.
The pandemic has led to a sharp spike in the use of automation, which is becoming a necessity, according to the report. When agents were being shifted to the new remote work model, many companies turned to AI or chatbots to handle basic queries. In addition, AI-powered speech, text and sentiment analytics and customer behavior prediction are enabling more meaningful conversations. Most call centers now are looking to scale up their automation capabilities while giving agents more specialized skills to field complex inquiries, ISG says.
The 2020 ISG Provider Lens™ Contact Center – Customer Experience Services report for
The report names seven as leaders in the quadrant: Capita, Concentrix, Conduent,
Customized versions of the report are available from Conduent and Transcom.
The 2020 ISG Provider Lens™ Contact Center – Customer Experience Services report for
About ISG Provider Lens™ Research
The ISG Provider Lens™ Quadrant research series is the only service provider evaluation of its kind to combine empirical, data-driven research and market analysis with the real-world experience and observations of ISG's global advisory team. Enterprises will find a wealth of detailed data and market analysis to help guide their selection of appropriate sourcing partners, while ISG advisors use the reports to validate their own market knowledge and make recommendations to ISG's enterprise clients. The research currently covers providers offering their services globally, across
The series is a complement to the ISG Provider Lens Archetype reports, which offer a first-of-its-kind evaluation of providers from the perspective of specific buyer types.
Starting this year, each ISG Provider Lens™ study will include a Global Summary to help enterprise subscribers better understand provider capabilities across all geographic markets covered by that study. All ISG Provider Lens™ reports also will now include an Enterprise Context feature to help executives quickly identify key insights related to their roles and responsibilities.
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