Ch-ch-changes

David Bowie, a British singer-songwriter, actor, and musician, was one of the most influential musicians of the twentieth century. The majority of fans and music critics agree that Bowie’s most avant-garde work was created in the 1970s, which he began with the album Hunky Dory in 1971. The first tune on the album was “Changes.”

“Changes” was a song about the many changes that occurred in the early 1970s, particularly the generational gaps that existed at the time. As a possible reading of the song, Bowie’s attempt to fathom how he would feel after he no longer belongs to the younger generation has been offered.

In the chorus of “Changes,” Bowie stutters the “ch” at the beginning of the word “changes.” It’s unclear why Bowie decided to put that stammer in the chorus. Although some think it is an homage to The Who and the stammering words of their 1965 song “My Generation,” the song sounds amazing. It would make sense given the song’s content.

Change appears to be the only constant in the contact centre industry, and the changes that have transpired in the last nearly two years are unprecedented. I can’t recall a time in my 30 years as a contact centre analyst when things progressed as swiftly as they have in the previous 18 to 20 months. I’ve often observed that the industry appears to have undergone a decade’s worth of change in a single year. The industry has been in a perpetual scramble to adapt to all of the changes, including rapid shifts to a work-from-home (WFH) workforce and accelerated cloud migration, among other things.

Saddletree Research completed its analysis of contact centre employees for 2021 on May 31st of this year. In partnership with the non-profit National Association of Call Centers (NACC), we conducted a survey of 168 customer service executives at Middle Tennessee State University to learn about the changes they encountered between January 2020 and May 2021. With many of the questions we addressed, such as the benefits and challenges of the WFH workforce, we were able to go deeper into the consequences of these transitions. Some of the other responses to our enquiries startled us.

One of the more noteworthy consequences of the industry’s quick response to these advancements is the adoption of digital communications channels by contact centres. The sector has seen a significant growth in digital channel support in recent months, clearly in response to customer preferences and presumably as a result of generational preferences. According to the results of our poll, the top three customer communication growth channels for 2020-2021 are given in THE CHART. All three channels are digital.

Even though my “official” start date was November 1, which has passed, development work started a few days ago, on October 27 to be exact. As the website for the book club gets better, I can see what I want it to be like. So it’s a satisfying sensation.

Obviously, I’ll need a timeline, a detailed list of what will happen when, to figure out how long it will take. They always offer you an estimate of how long it will take, which may or may not be accurate. I know what most people think because I’ve worked in the field. So, there you go. Dun-dun.