5 Tools To Effectively Manage Contact Center Agent Workload During Crisis

The COVID-19 pandemic has undoubtedly changed our world. To protect their people and maintain business continuity, many organizations including call centers have adopted remote work models. As the crisis continues and remote work remains the norm, call center leadership must prepare for increasing workloads that will raise agents’ stress and increase their burnout risk.

To cope, they can leverage several tools to manage agent workloads, reduce stress, and minimize the probability of burnout, especially during crises.

#1: Unified Agent Desktops for Optimum Agent and Customer Experiences

Next-generation unified agent desktops provide the best possible user experience for contact center agents. These desktops integrate traditional contact center functions into a thin-client desktop with a user-centric design.

NovelVox offers integrated and unified contact center agent desktops for Cisco Unified Contact Center Enterprise (UCCE), Cisco Unified Contact Center Express (UCCX), Avaya, and Genesys contact centers. With this powerful tool, agents have access to caller information from multiple applications on a single screen. They don’t waste time searching for information in different places so their customer interactions improve, AHT goes down and the FCR rate increases. Our world-class call center agent desktops help create the ideal equation for every call center: happy agents equal happy customers!

#2: Real-time Performance Monitoring with iVision Plus Call Center Wallboards

A contact center wallboard is a powerful visual communication tool that gives managers a quick bird’s-eye view of contact center performance. The iVision Plus series from NovelVox consists of innovative and interactive wallboards for Cisco Finesse, Genesys, and Avaya contact center platforms.

These devices can seamlessly collect contact center data from multiple sources and provide a comprehensive view of activities at any point in time. View your team’s performance floor-wise, and get real-time KPIs and metrics on a mobile device for on-the-go updates. iVision Plus even supports ‘gamification’ to help you motivate your agents, and find ways to boost their performance and productivity.

#3: Monitor and support your team with a Cisco Finesse Supervisor Desktop

With the Cisco supervisor desktop from NovelVox, you can support your agents’ productivity and efficiency goals with real-time data and statistics. Thanks to its single interface, you don’t need to toggle between multiple applications or gadgets to monitor your team’s performance, view queue summary, or take actions related to reskilling or performance optimization. The device integrates with third-party applications like workforce management, call loggers, and quality monitoring tools, and provides everything you need to motivate your agents and encourage them to deliver consistently excellent results.

#4: CTI Connector for Complete Control of All Customer Information

Computer Telephony Integration (CTI) is a powerful technology for contact centers handling a large number of incoming calls. Using a CTI connector, agents can use computers to manage all telephone calls efficiently and with minimal stress. With unified information and advanced controls available at their fingertips, they can have more productive customer conversations and provide the personalized experiences they’re looking for.

NovelVox offers NextGen Cisco Finesse, Genesys, and Avaya Embedded CTI Connectors for Salesforce, Microsoft Dynamics, ServiceNow, Zendesk, and more. Our standard CTI adapter comes with advanced features so managers can have more data from other applications, and get additional advantages like reporting, call logging, and agent performance stats to increase agent efficiency and derive better all-round results.

#5: Dynamic Call Center Scripting Tools Reduce Escalations and Improve FCR

An effective call center agent script can keep your call center agent team unified and effective. Scripts ensure that only accurate, company-approved information is shared with customers, and also safeguard the organization from legal and compliance issues.

Dozens of call center organizations rely on the dynamic guided agent call center scripting tool from NovelVox. With this software, managers can easily design the complete business workflow logic and update agent scripts as per business needs. With intelligent guided scripts, your agents can save up to 50% of level 1 call escalations and improve First Call Resolution (FCR) by 45%. You can even use these scripts to train new agents so they can hit the ground running, faster and better.

The tool easily integrates with third-party systems to help boost the performance capacity of both agents and the contact center as a whole.

Wrap up

During crisis situations like the one the world is experiencing right now, stress can lead to agent burnout and increase your call center’s employee turnover (and costs). The tools we’ve discussed in this article can help you help them manage their workloads more effectively.

NovelVox offers world-class Cisco gadgets, iVision call center wallboards, unified agent desktops, Cisco Finesse supervisor desktops as well as contact center integration solutions. To discuss your unique contact center needs, get in touch.