5 Innovations From 2020 That Will Shape 2021

Tiago Paiva at Talkdesk shares five contact centre innovations that excite him as we move into 2021.

1. Aim for the Cloud

For the past five years, there has been a widespread acceptance of the cloud as the most viable option for contact centre operations.

From this acceptance, there has been a steady shift away from on-premises solutions to cloud adoption, but confinement measures caused a massive acceleration of investment in technology, transforming the contact centre landscape at a faster pace than any chief digital transformation officer ever could.

The pandemic cemented the cloud’s importance.

2. In-Office Work Is Optional, Remote Work Is the Norm

Talkdesk was well positioned to adapt quickly to the changes brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic.

As the severity of COVID-19 became clear, they knew they had the responsibility to keep our employees safe. The company also recognized an opportunity to maintain high productivity levels by using their own tools, systems and processes in place for business continuity.

Just as Talkdesk’s cloud technology makes it easy for their customers to switch to remote working, they were able to apply that same technology internally with ease.

Talkdesk put two of their corporate values into action – move fast and do whatever it takes – and transitioned all 1,000 employees to work-from-home, virtually overnight.

All employees now and forever will have the technical capability to work from anywhere.

3. Stay Bold, Adapt and Evolve

Talkdesk have a bold mission: to help organizations around the world build brand trust and loyalty by delivering exceptional customer experiences.

Using the functionality of cloud allows you to easily adapt your contact centre operations to the evolving needs of your customers and your teams, resulting in increased productivity, customer satisfaction (CSAT) and cost saving.

4. Don’t Settle for Less Than Exceptional CX Every Day

Customer experience (CX) is critical to retaining and driving business and the mandate to improve it in 2021 will continue. But moving forward, what are the new pillars of great CX in the current remote working context?

Talkdesk’s five stages to go from “survive” to “thrive” and build resilient cloud contact centres included:

1. Tackle – Determine what needs to change.
2. Transition – How to change it?
3. Transform – Make the change.
4. Transcend – Leverage the benefits of change.
5. Thrive – Deliver seamless, exceptional customer experience every day.

Take your position as a CX leader by setting the standard for what exceptional CX should look and feel like in your industry every day.

5. The Best Products Will Continue to Rise Above

There’s been a saying floating around for many years that “We are in the era of the customer,” with “New era of the customer” updates coming every two to three years.

I believe these all link back to the age-old saying: “The customer is always right,” and are simply clever updates to a tried-and-true approach.

However, I see successful companies over the next few years differentiating themselves through innovations in craftsmanship and CX. Brands can always compete on price, and sometimes the price will win the battle.

But the best made and most innovative products will always rise above. Craftsmanship combined with a best-in-class CX; this powerful combination of tangible and intangible will always win the war.