Yesterday an expert weighed in on what trends would help businesses in 2015. Today, another is weighing in on what not to do, and it’s focused on video and customer service.
Video is a big deal in the online space, ask anyone. There is new content developed every day, consumers are spending nearly as much time watching video content online as they do offline. Opportunities abound in video.
Except, when it comes to call centers, customer service and video.
“But if I have to pick something [on the downslope at call centers], I would say video chat came in with a bang at the beginning of the year and went out quietly,” said Brandon Knight, VP of Solutions Engineering, Corvisa Cloud. “Almost every trade show or convention early in 2014 had some type of presentation, speaker or workshop touting the need for video chat in the customer experience. One trade show I attended had no less than 10 different video chat providers promoting this supposed revolutionary change that was coming to call centers.”
The change, says Knight, never came. In fact, he says the time for video chat as a customer service option may still be years down the road, even though the infrastructure is already here for many businesses.
“While video has found its place in B2B interactions and conferences, consumers just [aren’t] ready to sit face-to-face with call center agents,” said Knight. “The low demand from the customer didn’t come anywhere close to justifying the associated cost with providing this channel. I can’t say that video chat will never catch on, but I don’t believe it will be anytime soon.”
Data sourced from Bizreport