Contact Center Trends to Adapt, Compete, and Scale Your Operation This Year

Decision-makers for outbound contact centers look ahead to sharpen their competitive edge so they can thrive and grow. We’ve put together this summary of the most important industry trends that will impact contact centers in 2024.

We took stock of the past year, talked to industry experts, and even looked into our crystal ball to see what the year will hold. Use these trends and the practical tips?for sales and lead generation teams to make 2024 the best year yet for your outbound call center.

Here are ten top contact center trends for 2024 that will help you adapt to change, compete in today’s environment, and scale your contact center operation—all while supporting compliance.

[This article was originally published on the Convoso blog .]

The Top 10 Call Center Trends in 2024: What’s Shaping the Future of Call Centers?

Life in an outbound call center moves at an electric pace. Agents try to get customers on the line and hook them with a well-tailored pitch, while managers wrangle data, juggle lists, and do so much more to optimize their operation and drive ROI.

But the very best outbound call center managers and owners also keep an eye out for current and future contract center trends. They’re always looking for new ways to improve the efficiency and profitability of their businesses, staying on top of everything from impending changes in call center regulations to the cutting-edge technologies and expert-endorsed best practices that help them solve issues and meet goals.

This compilation of the top call center trends shaping the near future of call center sales and service will help you rub elbows with these forward-thinkers in the new year and bring your operation into a profitable new era.

1. Call Center AI Technology Matures—and Becomes Mandatory

At the tail-end of 2022, ChatGPT burst on the scene, setting the stage for what would become generative AI technology’s breakout year—the year that many realized a fourth industrial revolution was on the horizon .

Businesses across virtually every industry have been asking “how can we utilize AI to drive growth?” And they’ll continue to do so in 2024, as the impacts of AI become less theoretical and more practical.

In the call center, the trajectory of AI has been, and will continue to be, no different.

In 2023, the use of AI technology jumped from 59 to 90% of all contact centers. 2024, then, will be the year we start to understand AI’s transformational impact. Instead of exploring potential uses for AI in the contact center, leaders will be enhancing, extending, and scaling the abilities of their teams to drive new growth.

Instead of a luxury, AI will become table stakes for contact centers looking to compete in 2024, as conversational AI agents, predictive analytics, accelerated analysis, real-time guidance, and a host of AI-driven solutions gain widespread usage.

Read the full trend post: How Call Center AI Solutions Are Revolutionizing Sales & Service in 2024

2. Compliance Grows More Complex with Added Mini-TCPAs, FCC Rulings, and Privacy Laws

The world of TCPA compliance is always fast-paced and full of surprises. Call center regulations in 2024 will be no different.

Already, a range of developments at both the federal and state levels have many contact centers scrambling to continue supporting compliance and selling effectively under a new regime in 2024.

Things will start fast, as updated state calling restrictions take effect in Maryland on January 1, 2024. But it’s not just changes to the way businesses can call and text customers that are on the way. States across the country are also passing new privacy laws, adding even more potential hurdles for today’s call centers. In 2024, privacy laws will take effect in Montana, Oregon, and Texas, and still more legislatures have bills under consideration.

However, for many call centers, these may not even be the most consequential developments that 2024 has in store. With a highly anticipated FCC ruling set to radically alter the way lead generators and sellers obtain consumer consent, outbound call centers will need to adapt. The changes will likely take effect between July and October in the new year, putting the onus on call centers to take action and adapt in the months ahead.

Read the full trend post: TCPA & Call Center Compliance Trends: What Outbound Contact Centers Need to Know

3. Call Centers Cope with Rising Customer Acquisition Costs

Between falling contact rates, stubborn inflation, regulatory complexity, and competitive markets, in 2024 it will keep getting more and more expensive to find and convert new customers. Call center efficiency is always a priority, but this year it will be particularly important to combatting the rising costs of customer acquisition.

Read the full trend post: How Call Centers Will Cope with Rising Acquisition Costs

4. Reliance on SMS Marketing Continues to Expand

One way call centers will change their behavior in 2024 is by placing yet more emphasis on the SMS channel. As changing consumer habits, regulatory uncertainty, and call flagging issues continue to affect dialing strategies, call centers will look to text messaging as a relatively safe and effective means of reaching their customers and leads.

Building triggered text messages into an?automated outbound workflow? is a great way for call centers to reach as many customers as possible. Meanwhile, the increasing sophistication of conversational AI SMS solutions for sales and service teams is offering teams a way to navigate text conversations without increasing the burden on agents already stretched thin.

With research showing that text message open rates?are as high as 98%, texts will be an increasingly essential tool for call centers of all stripes in 2024 and beyond.

Read the full trend post: Contact Centers Increase Reliance on SMS Marketing

5. Teams Seek More Automation for Greater Efficiency and Scale

When your call center’s biggest cost is payroll, making the most out of every second is crucial. Beyond even the latest AI solutions, automation tools will greatly impact operations’ pursuit of call center profitability in 2024.

From powerful autodialer software that maximizes dialing rates and streamlines workflows, to call center scripting tools that help agents get on the phones faster and deliver the right message more frequently, automation is taking tedious or time-consuming tasks out of the hands of employees and helping drive greater performance across the three most important areas of a call center: its agents, managers, and leads.

Read the full trend post: The 7 Call Center Automation Tools Shaping the Industry

6. Omnichannel Strategies and Speed Support Contact Rate Improvement

We’ve already mentioned the rising trend of SMS outreach capabilities. But having an overarching omnichannel marketing strategy will be so important in 2024 that it bears repeating.

Because even beyond text messages, if you’re not reaching out to your leads over multiple channels, including?email , you’re missing out on an essential tool to stay competitive. With well-written opt-ins, SMS and email offer strong ways to build engagement and convert leads. And again, this has only become more important as call blocking and compliance regulations have reached new heights.

But in 2024, it’s not just?how?you reach out to leads that will make or break your sales—it’s?how fast. To complement omnichannel capabilities and truly drive contact rate improvements, your dialer software needs to deliver unmatched?speed to lead . Without a powerful dialer to reach leads as soon as they raise their hand—across channels and at scale—your business will lose out on growth and risk lagging behind the competition.

In the new year, it’s one trend that contact centers can’t afford to miss out on.

Read the full trend post: Omnichannel Strategies and Speed to Lead Will Improve Call Center Contact Rates

7. Marketers Continue to Combat Call Blocking and Flagging

Robocall rates remain high, consumers are still frustrated, and both carriers and regulators continue to take aggressive action trying to address the issue of unwanted calls (and texts). In fact, this ongoing activity is actually what’s driving some of the other call center trends we’ve listed here!

Avoiding call blocking with the right strategies, best practices, and?caller ID reputation management solution ?will continue to separate the best performing call centers from the rest of the pack in 2024.

Read the full trend post: Strategies to Continue Combatting Call Blocking and Flagging

8. Deeper Call Center Analytics to Power Personalized Customer Experiences

Reliable data is critical to efficiency, so managers need a dialer that offers flexible?real-time and historical reporting ?that can be customized with the metrics most critical to their business. Tracking the right?call center KPIs ?with detailed reports gives dialer managers insights to optimize the?efficiency of lead and agent performance ?to improve ROI.

Plus, as call centers strive for more conversions and sales, a personalized sales experience can help immensely. After all,?71% of consumers expect companies to deliver personalized interactions—and 76% get frustrated when this doesn’t happen. Data insights and a dialer that equips agents with lead info can deliver on the promise of personalization—and, in 2024, artificial intelligence will only accelerate call centers’ ability to capitalize.

Read the full trend post: Data Analytics and Real-Time Reporting Drives Personalization for Outbound Call Centers

9. Managers Reach for Better Sales QA Software for Coaching and Compliance

Many of the call center trends for the year ahead are about the changing ways that contact centers get in touch with their customers. But outbound call centers also need to track and optimize their operations, including once potential customers are on the line. Doing so is critical for boosting growth and maintaining compliance.

The latest call center quality assurance tools and software can do the work of an entire dedicated QA team, freeing up more agents to focus on making successful sales. Rather than having to check calls manually, QA software can evaluate every call to identify issues and help prioritize action to correct the worst performance trends—and capitalize on the best. Best of all, these tools are often third-party integrations that can work within your existing dialer software.

As call center expert Heather Griffin put it: “It used to take me 30 QA people to QA my 1000-seat call center. And now a system is doing it. Within the call center world, AI is fantastic.” Though many companies are hesitant to pay for more QA, in 2024, the importance of making this investment is becoming quite clear.

Read the full trend post: Managers Lean on Sales QA Software for Coaching and Compliance

10. A Renewed Focus on Call Center Agent Engagement and Support

The pandemic and its continued fallout in the labor market forced many employers—including call centers—to undergo a rethink in their employee engagement and retention strategies.

With?call center agent burnout ?already posing a longstanding pressure on turnover rates, call center managers will need to come to the table with innovative (and necessary) solutions to assuage their employees’ concerns. Because in the year ahead, it’s not just their employee head counts but their overall business performance that’s at stake.

In light of this ongoing call center trend, many call centers are placing their work environments as well as benefits and compensation strategies under the microscope. And with a renewed focus on agent well-being, satisfaction, and overall engagement, some are hoping that they’ll see their teams’ performance hit new heights in 2024.

Read the full trend post: Renewing the Focus on Call Center Agent Engagement

We hope these tips and call center trends will launch you toward greater success throughout 2024 and help to keep your business both competitive and thriving.?

DISCLAIMER: The information on this page and related links is provided for general education purposes only and is not legal advice. Convoso does not guarantee the accuracy or appropriateness of this information to your situation. You are solely responsible for using Convoso’s services in a legally compliant way and should consult your legal counsel for compliance advice. Any quotes are solely the views of the quoted person and do not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of Convoso.