Oh no, you're thinking, yet another cookie pop-up. Well, sorry, it's the law. We measure how many people read us, and ensure you see relevant ads, by storing cookies on your device. If you're cool with that, hit “Accept all Cookies”. For more info and to customize your settings, hit “Customize Settings”.

Review and manage your consent

Here's an overview of our use of cookies, similar technologies and how to manage them. You can also change your choices at any time, by hitting the “Your Consent Options” link on the site's footer.

Manage Cookie Preferences
  • These cookies are strictly necessary so that you can navigate the site as normal and use all features. Without these cookies we cannot provide you with the service that you expect.

  • These cookies are used to make advertising messages more relevant to you. They perform functions like preventing the same ad from continuously reappearing, ensuring that ads are properly displayed for advertisers, and in some cases selecting advertisements that are based on your interests.

  • These cookies collect information in aggregate form to help us understand how our websites are being used. They allow us to count visits and traffic sources so that we can measure and improve the performance of our sites. If people say no to these cookies, we do not know how many people have visited and we cannot monitor performance.

See also our Cookie policy and Privacy policy.

This article is more than 1 year old

Service call centres to become wasteland and tumbleweed by 2024

Aye, son, I remember when this was all industrial estates...

Capital equipment will outlive the working life of the engineers who service it, self-healing systems will do away with everyday maintenance, and call centres will be replaced by automated dispatch notification.

All this will come to pass in the next five years, according to predictions arising from a Forrester Consulting study of 675 "digital transformation decision makers" across North America, Europe, the Middle East and Asia Pacific.

Participants are said to be working in infrastructure roles at global industrial enterprises, including manufacturing, utilities, telecoms and healthcare.

It's not good news if you work in a call centre, with 62 per cent of respondents in the survey saying that technology will "completely automate" the process of dispatching service technicians to where they are needed.

Basically, customer service systems will identify fault flags as they happen, locate the nearest appropriate field technician and send them the job details directly. Or so the claim goes.

This already happens in certain cases, but to have so many VPs in charge of "digital transformation" at major industrial orgs saying call centres will be wiped out within the next five years could be a scary prospect for subcontracted IT companies fulfilling SLAs.

Some 72 per cent of respondents agreed that capital asset equipment will last longer than the working life of its current service engineers. Another 85 per cent said self-healing and remote monitoring will enable field service technicians to focus on more complex specialist tasks.

"As service data continues to mature in organisations, companies are able to make better operational decisions around predictive maintenance and customer service," said Sumair Dutta, director of Global Customer Transformation at ServiceMax, which commissioned the study.

"Likewise, the ability to extend the working life of capital equipment through better service data, combined with the shift to as-a-service delivery models, are reframing how businesses best schedule, dispatch and maximize the value from their precious technical service talent.

"The next five years will bring disruptive and major changes to service workforces globally." ®

Similar topics

TIP US OFF

Send us news


Other stories you might like