Retail Contact Center Growth Opportunities in North America - 2023

Successful Providers Must Bridge the Physical and Digital Realms

Preparing for a pandemic that lifts or redescends is top of mind for retailers that must navigate increasing foot traffic in stores and in malls with a large retail footprint. To mitigate economic headwinds, customer retention is key. Malls and retailers need new ways to entice pandemic-weary customers, and retailers must find the optimal mix of digital and brick-and-mortar, making both equally compelling and open to hybrid phygital experiences.

This is the third year the publisher has tracked the changing retail contact center landscape and is a follow on to a study published in September 2022. This growth opportunity report incorporates data from the publisher's research and other secondary sources.

Digital transformation was a central component of the publisher’s 2021 and 2022 reports and remains a central theme in 2023. This fits well with consumer predilection for self-service options, researching and getting feedback on goods and services before they engage with a business, and wanting that information flow to continue when they move from an online to in-person experience. We are moving into an enhanced era of phygital experiences that fluidly move between online and in-person.

This study is valuable for solution providers to better understand what each industry seeks in delivering excellent customer experience and for healthcare organizations to benchmark themselves against the competition and other industries.

Key Features

This report details additional examples of retail transformation, including:

• The embellishment of customer interaction channels, including short message service (SMS) and social messaging (Facebook, Twitter, LINE, WhatsApp, Instagram)
• The further use of AI to enhance employee and customer service
• Enhancing proactive outbound contact with additional capabilities (voice and SMS)
• Extending proactive and interactive customer contact two ways from the contact center to brick-and-mortar retail establishments
• Integrating knowledge management systems to enhance self-service channels and backup agents when self-service is not enough
• Advanced analytics for increased personalization and customization, customer sentiment, and preference management
• Use of newer technologies such as augmented reality, virtual reality, and generative AI to broaden both digital and in-person consumer experiences.