People are fascinated by trends, and that’s not a bad thing. Keeping up with trends ensures that we have the opportunity to benefit from cutting-edge innovations. This is especially true of technology and one area where technology trends can have a major impact is in customer service.

Call Centre Clinic just released predictions fromcontact center and unified communications systems integrator Sabio’s for the technology trends it expects will impact customer service in 2012.

Topping the list is customer service operations making sure the contact center is fully entrenched in social media use as another form of customer self-service. The company said it is imperative that customer service agents are savvy in social media interaction as well as a result of consumers’ attraction to social media channels.

Not surprisingly, the second trend customer service operations need to be on top of for 2012 is “optimizing” contact centers for customers’ use of smartphones and other mobile technologies. The growing popularity of smartphones and their use for just about every kind of contact makes this trend self-evident.

Along those same lines, the article said companies are providing customers with a pre-determined channel, what it terms “brand-in-hand” or “dedicated” apps, for mobile technology use that allows customers to bypass IVR menus to gain direct access to the contact center for voice interaction or webchat.

Sabio also sees companies making more use of video in their customer service operations, either in a self-help capacity or for agent to customer interaction for problem resolution.

With all of these new channels of communication being adopted, the study says companies are now taking steps to ensure that they are providing a consistent experience across all channels—a trend that is sure to be welcomed by customers. They are also rethinking their use of on-premise technology and considering the benefits of cloud-based contact center offerings.   

Another noticeable trend found by Sabio is companies using technology to enable their agents to be more helpful. The company found there is trend for customer service operations to use multi-channel agent desktops allowing them to provide higher-quality service and ultimately save the organization money.

The trend for more empowered live agent assistance is being rivaled by another trend found by Sabio—virtual assistants. The company said it has seen increased use of these avatar characters for customer service purposes.

Speech analytics technology is finding a place in more customer service centers. The study’s author said speech technology has matured enough and has become affordable enough to be adopted by customer service operations that want to better understand their customers and the true intention of their calls.

With all of these trends poised to explode in 2012, one of the most encouraging that Sabio found is more companies are making an effort to listen to the feedback of their customers. The company’s consultants said, “2012 looks set to be the year when major organizations really start to embrace the link between offering a high quality customer experience, loyalty and longer-term financial success.”

In other news, TMCnet reported, “Contact centers are looking to reduce operational costs and minimize customer churn at every opportunity. One proven way to accomplish this goal is by embracing support channels that diminish the need for customers to take part in costly phone interactions.”