There are few nascent technologies today with more promise for communications than WebRTC, and as we’ve seen from a few early experiments with the technology, we can expect great things.
WebRTC is the standard behind a free, open project designed to allow high-quality, real-time communication applications to be developed in the browser via simple Java APIs and HTML5. What it essentially means is that you can easily engage in video or audio communications with people all over the world as easily as clicking on a link.
While many people engage in Web and audio sessions with one another over the Internet today, it generally involves some pre-planning. You and the person on the other end need to be using the same technology solution, which often requires one or more of you to download and install that technology. WebRTC will change all this, allowing for Web and audio conferencing on the spot, simply through a click in the browser.
The call center is expected to see a great boost from the uptake of WebRTC, though many have yet to truly examine the potential, according to a recent blog post by Ashley Unitt of New Voice Media. Likewise, customers will potentially see some improvement in how they communicate with the companies with whom they do business.
“For customers, we are going to see a lot more blurring of communication methods for contact centers tied to Web sites,” writes Unitt. “We are going to see a blending of the traditional click-to-call and Web chat capabilities currently running on Web sites, with the ability to easily ‘upgrade’ a Web chat or co-browsing, to a voice call, to a video call, the display of video answers to FAQs and screen sharing as currently provided by Skype or Google Hangouts.”
Think about it. The typical customer today browses a company Web site and – if he or she wishes to speak with an agent about a product or service – must dial in to a toll-free number. He or she must then direct the agent who answers to the Web page in question so both parties are looking at the same page. But WebRTC will entirely change the game because it will essentially sync the voice or video call and the customer’s browsing session.
“This will be done because the [agent] can capture Web browsing history and pass this as metadata to the WebRTC voice call enabling better routing of the call when it hits the contact center and richer information to the agent once the call is answered. This provides a unique ability to personalize voice calls that originate from a Web site,” Unitt said.
We’re not there yet. Not all customers are using browsers that enable WebRTC (the newest versions of Google’s Chrome and Mozilla’s Firefox have some WebRTC capabilities, and Microsoft is working on its own initiative), and it will take still longer for a critical mass of customers to take advantage of the technology. Contact centers, too, will need to build new initiatives to handle WebRTC-based communications, and it seems likely that WebRTC penetration in contact center operations will vary greatly by industry (with tech companies, perhaps, taking the earliest steps).
Still, from a mobile and Web-based customer service standpoint, the next few years should be interesting.
Edited by
Alisen Downey
