Canadian Contact Centers will be forever changed, for the better, post-pandemic
[Toronto, ON, June 2, 2021] In Q1 2021, Customer Service Professionals Network Inc. (“CSPN”) collaborated with Microsoft Canada, Medallia, and EY Canada to engage over 400 organizations across Canada to understand the key trends influencing how contact centers are navigating service within and beyond the COVID-19 pandemic. The survey was structured to interview both contact center agents and leaders.
Major trends identified from the survey data were categorized into 5 sections: Strategy, Culture, People, Operations, and Technology and included statistics on agent productivity and collaboration, enhancing customer experiences, critical skills for success, and key technology investments for the future.
“Over the past year, Canadian contact centres have been stretched like no other time in our history” says CSPN Partner, David Singh. “Agents are working remotely, facing unprecedented call-volumes, and peaks and valleys of customer issues. Agents may be working from home but are the hidden support pillars of organizations of all sizes.”
The pandemic has really accelerated trends in the contact centre space, customers are more comfortable doing things online and over the phone, not face to face. And with the increased attention and investment, contact centres are taking advantage of technology to help reduce friction in both the customer and the agent journey.
Some of the key insights stemming from the report include:
- Over 75% of businesses placed contact centers as above average priority within their organization
- The top two priorities for contact center agents were: 1) Quality of Work Environment and 2) Ability to Work Remotely
- Over 51% of hiring managers placed Communication Skills as most important
- A 25% skills gap exists in Canadian Contact centers
Reporting Findings Webinar
David Singh, CSPN, and insight leaders Rachel Lane, Solution Principal Contact Center, Medallia Inc, Cassaundra Laundry, Product Marketing Manager, Dynamics 365 Customer Engagement, Microsoft Canada, and Mike Smith, Associate Partner, Consulting, EY Canada, will discuss key findings gathered from the survey and how strategies can be implemented into various organizations and work cultures during a virtual event.
###
About Medallia Inc.
Medallia is the pioneer and market leader in customer, employee, citizen and patient experience. The company’s award-winning SaaS platform, Medallia Experience Cloud, is becoming the experience system of record that makes all other applications customer and employee aware. The platform captures billions of experience signals across interactions including all voice, video, digital, IOT, social media and corporate messaging tools. Medallia uses proprietary artificial intelligence and machine learning technology to automatically reveal predictive insights that drive powerful business actions and outcomes. Medallia customers reduce churn, turn detractors into promoters and buyers, create in-the-moment cross-sell and up-sell opportunities and drive revenue impacting business decisions, providing clear and potent returns on investment.
About EY
EY is dedicated to helping organizations solve their toughest challenges and realize their greatest ambitions – from start-ups to Fortune 500 companies – and the work we do with them is as varied as they are. Through our four service lines — Assurance, Consulting, Strategy and Transactions, and Tax — we help our clients capitalize on transformative opportunities. And in a fast-changing world, we give them the support they need to be effective today and create long-term value for tomorrow. Across all disciplines and from every angle, EY professionals draw on our shared creativity, experience, judgment and diverse perspectives to reframe the future for our clients – now, next and beyond. For more information about our organization, please visit ey.com.
About CSPN
CSPN is a boutique customer and employee experience consultancy that also helps to curate a network of over 15,000 customer professionals across Canada. Over the past 20-years, CSPN has helped over 1,000+ clients to design, develop, and deliver high-impact training with the goal of making remarkable differences in the lives of employees and customers. CSPN leverages human-centered design principles and best practices in adult learning to drive high engagement and content retention. CSPN help organizations answer two strategic questions: 1) How do we create happier customers? 2) How do we create happier employees?
For more information on the report or to discuss how the survey data can be used to benchmark your organization, please contact:
David Singh
Partner
(905) 477-5544
[email protected]
