4 Predictions About The Future of the Contact Center

With banks’ channel strategies becoming increasingly customer-centric, how is this shaping their call and contact centers? Four experts offer their predictions.

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Biometrics Transform Customer Verification

At Bank of America, we’re making interactions easier for our customers with cutting-edge technology, while maintaining the safety and security of information and data. And a lot of that work is happening in our contact centers.

For instance, rather than navigate multiple menus, our Interactive Voice Response system (IVR) now allows customers to speak naturally to describe what they need using simple, everyday terms. This IVR functionality provides better response by quickly getting callers to the right option, and also funnels them to a contact center agent when needed. And information passed from the IVR to an agent reduces the need for customers to repeat themselves.

Today, integration across channels is critical for customers who want to choose when and where they do business with us. New technology has made that simple. The two channels which have the most integration points are mobile and contact centers. So, for example, if a customer is on their mobile device, yet needs to access our expertise, they can now transition from mobile banking to speaking with a contact center agent quickly and fully authenticated.

And these innovations are just the beginning. Currently, our contact center employees spend 25%nof their time just verifying customers. Voice biometrics will change all that. This will allow us to identify customers based on their voice characteristics, offering protection and convenience in one solution.

These continued improvements provide more seamless customer interactions, while the safety and security of our customers’ information remain our number one priority.

— Steve Beasty, Customer Banking Technology executive, Bank of America

Peggy Bresnick Kendler has been a writer for 30 years. She has worked as an editor, publicist and school district technology coordinator. During the past decade, Bresnick Kendler has worked for UBM TechWeb on special financialservices technology-centered ... View Full Bio

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