Critical Issues
Navigate the future of customer engagement with confidence.
2023 Critical Issues
Each year, Council members vote on the most important issues facing the customer service industry, in their region of the globe. The annual Critical Issues become the key areas of focus for member discussion and Council events throughout the year.
The Evolution of Digitalization
Areas of Focus:
- Leveraging automation opportunities in the contact center
- Strategies to simplify the agent desktop and minimize customer friction
- Integrating multiple platforms and vendors across the multichannel experience
Enabling First-Class Self-Serve
Areas of Focus:
- Facilitating customer adoption of self-service capabilities and driving self-service utilization
- Balancing self-serve with live agents
- Ensuring seamless first contact resolution in self-serve
- Minimizing friction in self-serve channel transitions
Navigating the Workforce of the Future
Areas of Focus:
- Transforming staffing strategy for virtual environments: Hiring, onboarding, training, engagement, career path, and retention
- Prioritizing technology to better cultivate and enable a high-performing workforce
- Developing a new employee experience for the modern workforce
- Ensuring technology and processes are in place for successful WFH
Metrics are More than KPIs
Areas of Focus:
- Focusing on the right data metrics to drive the best customer outcomes and loyalty
- Leveraging metrics to bring the story to life and get buy-in from all departments
- Key metrics for customer contact governance
Uncovering the Data Analytics that Matter
Areas of Focus:
- Leveraging the internal value of data for more effective decision-making
- Quickly anticipating trends and technology shifts using predictive intelligence
- Measuring employee satisfaction and employee NPS (eNPS)
Leadership in an Evolving Contact Center Ecosystem
Areas of Focus:
- Marketing and branding the contact center to ensure it is indispensable to the entire organization
- Creating cross-functional partnerships
- Demonstrating the contact center’s value to broader strategic goals: Sales, loyalty, and retention
- Cultivating executive champions and getting a seat at the table