Deloitte Digital's "2024 Global Contact Center Survey" highlights contact center trends and priorities for service leaders. With insights from 600 senior contact center leaders across the U.S., Australia, Canada, Japan and the U.K., the report showcases how service innovators — today's most effective and efficient organizations — are outperforming less-advanced organizations in areas like connecting experiences across channels, effectively deploying self-service tools, and the use of Generative AI to maximize efficiency.

"Improving efficiency has never been more important for Contact Center leaders," said Tim McDougal, service excellence lead, Deloitte Digital. "Service innovators stand to gain the most in this evolving landscape. While customer service remains near the top of leaders' priorities, the organizations who are best positioned to succeed will likely be those who embrace the power of Generative AI, collaborate across the business, and those who can provide value enterprise-wide."

Who are service innovators?
Service Innovators are organizations that are setting the standard with the most sophisticated capabilities in their service delivery, quality assurance automation, personalization, and employee retention. These organizations achieved 57% more of their service strategies in 2023 versus other survey respondents and were much more likely to report excellent customer satisfaction (4.6x more likely) and excellent employee satisfaction (2.5x more likely).

The state of service
Rapidly emerging GenAI-powered tools and the growing need to effectively manage costs are transforming the contact center landscape in an increasingly digital-first world. This report tracks this transformation and examines how organizations are adjusting their strategies to improve service efficiency and customer satisfaction amid these challenges.

Below are key findings for what companies are getting right and where service innovators are exceeding:

They are implementing robust omnichannel orchestration to connect experiences across channels

• Four in 5 companies have activated a channel steering strategy that deliberatively guides customers to the most effective channel for their inquiry.

• One in 3 companies has implemented omnichannel integration tools, resulting in a 9% lower cost per assisted contact.

They are using advanced analytics and streamlining collaboration across teams to improve self-service tools and resources

• Twenty-six percent of companies have a well-defined cross-functional strategy to improve self-service capabilities.

• Twenty percent are currently investing in better self-service capabilities (with an additional 30% planning to invest by the end of 2024).

• Service innovators are 2.7x more likely to invest in analytics compared to organizations with less advanced capabilities.

They are achieving service efficiency through the power of GenAI

• Service innovators are 8x as likely to have deployed GenAI when compared to organizations with less advanced service capabilities.

• GenAI's early adopters are experiencing a greater impact, outperforming future adopters' expectations in all areas (improved customer service scores, higher agent productivity, improved deflection to self-service, and improved agent occupancy rate).

• Companies currently deploying GenAI are 35% less likely to report agents are overwhelmed by information they're working with during calls.

"When paired with other performance enablers, Generative AI can help strengthen contact center performance. Those who have adopted the technology are seeing improvements across the board, including in productivity and increased customer satisfaction," said Jaden Herrin, contact center leader, Deloitte Digital. "While GenAI can help boost efficiency, contact centers understand that their most critical interactions will still require human-to-human communication. Excellence isn't optional and companies who are seeing the greatest success are the ones effectively melding technology and talent."

Methodology
The report surveyed 600 respondents (360 in the U.S. and 60 respectively in Australia, Canada, Japan and the U.K.) who are full-time employees of a company with 1,000 or more employees and $100 million or more in annual revenue. Key industries surveyed included: automotive; banking; consumer goods and services; energy; health care and life sciences; hospitality; industrial and resources; insurance; media, entertainment and publishing; retail; and technology and telecommunications.

Deloitte Digital's promise: Connecting things in new ways. Across all clients and sectors, we believe great customer experiences create greater impact. That elevating the human experience creates enduring value, for the organization, for the customer, for society, for all.

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For more details on the future of contact centers and customer experience, view the report here.