It's all about the tools you have on hand to do the job well. It's the same with contact center agents. If they are given complicated screens with incomplete information and outdated technology, how can they be expected to provide an excellent customer experience?
As a contact center manager, you’re always seeking to balance two separate factors: You want your agents to provide a superior customer experience, and you want them to perform as cost-effectively as possible. With these twin goals in mind, you probably monitor such metrics as first-call resolution and average call handling time. The fact is, however, that the most important basis for both customer satisfaction (CSAT) and agent performance is the general well-being of your contact center agents. A recent ICMI study shows:
Imagine the chaos during peak times for customer service: florists on Valentine’s Day, retailers during the holidays, tax planners around April 15th and the application period for online schooling. One of the biggest challenges contact centers face is being able to quickly address staffing surges and peaks in activities in a short amount of time. Today, cloud technology and at-home agents are helping mitigate some of that chaos... Read on to hear advice from Liz Osborn on addressing contact center surges:
Recording interactions is the first step toward helping agents become more efficient and deliver higher quality interactions. Recordings can be used for coaching sessions with agents... for training new agents... for transitioning a current agent to a new role or program... and overall, call recording can provide the basis for analyzing interactions to learn what works best.
Just about everyone agrees: employees that feel rewarded tend to be more productive and more effective in their roles—and they’re less likely to depart for greener-looking pastures.
Here are a few ideas for livening things up in your contact center:
With the growing demand for multichannel customer service, more and more contact centers are recognizing the benefits of hiring and training agents to handle multiple service channels simultaneously (i.e. phone, email, chat, and social). These types of agents are being referred to as super-agents.
Today, contact centers are striving to meet the demands of connected consumers, who want near-immediate results on their channel of choice.
Here is a checklist of skills to look for when on the hunt for an effective super-agent:
For some contact centers, coverage can be a big issue. Too many agents costs too much. Too few agents costs even more—in lost sales and lost loyalty. So predicting demand and staffing to match isn't just important—it's crucial.
Here are a few reasons why you should pay attention to agent scheduling:
So you've hired a great team of agents. Initial onboarding activities went well. Your agents are making and taking calls, and business is good.
But business (and agents) can always get better—and coaching your agents is one of the most cost-effective ways you can help. Be a good coach and everyone will thank you—from your agents to those folks in the boardroom.
Here are 7 tips to consider when looking to improve your agent coaching strategy:
There are many standard traffic measurements (performance metrics) that can be performed on a call center to determine its performance levels. However, the most important performance measures are:
