Today, contact centers have revolutionized the support system. Gone are the days when agents were just expected to make a specified number of calls and generate leads. Now, agents are required to create exceptional customer experience (CX) by educating callers about their queries and making a cross or up-sell of products/services. Also, they need to outmatch their competitors. Here are some ways to boost your contact center performance with integrations.
1. Revisit IVR scripts
Old in the industry but still neglected by numerous contact centers is the Interactive Voice Response (IVR). IVR script needs to be designed according to the customer’s journey that redirects the caller to the concerned department. It will balance the call volume and increase self-help for callers. Via IVR, customers will be able to approach the skilled agent or specialist and get their queries resolved instantly. This keeps the agent stress-free from the huge call volumes and focuses on making customers delighted.
2. Improve agent desktop
Every contact center uses an agent desktop, but is it loaded with all the required functionalities? To optimize agents’ performance and make the most of their potential, make sure the Unified Agent Desktop
- Offers a unified view of relevant customer information
- Supports 3rd party application integration
- Provides an industry-specific interface that’s designed as per the department’s need
- Allows easy customization of interface with no need for coding
- Switch screen based on the IVR variables
Else there will be an increased level of frustration among agents and customers with long hold time and higher handle time. In the long run, an incapable desktop will reduce the efficiency of agents and keep them demotivated.
3. Motivate agents with Wallboards
Every individual requires motivation, especially at work, and that too if it is about contact center agents. Day-in-day-out they have to hear numerous calls and address customers’ issues. In such a busy schedule, it is important to keep them motivated and notice their good performance. What could be better than displaying the performance to the floor? To boost the efficiency of your agents, get interactive wallboard installed in your contact center. This will display the real-time performance of all agents to everyone on the floor. The great performers can be appreciated and the agents who aren’t serious yet will get a reality check of their work. A healthy competition will better the performance of every individual at the call center. So, your Contact Center Wallboard should have
- Gamified or intuitive design
- Offer SMS, email, or alerts for notification
- Have a seating plan at a glance
- Easy integration with 3rd party applications to fetch data
4. Supervise the agent’s performance
In addition to motivation, it is necessary to monitor the agent’s performance via the supervisor’s desktop. Every contact center has supervisors to keep a check on the agents and their performance. Hearing calls is not the only task that can get the maximum from the agents. Here’s the checklist your Supervisor Desktop should have
- Silent monitoring and barge-in during live calls
- Agent reskilling based on the quality of replies by the agents
- Change the status of agents if they aren’t performing well or ideal for long
- Inter-team communication for live assistance
Agents need to be supervised regularly for assistance and management to use their potential positively for business growth and create an outstanding customer experience.
5. Empower agents with built-in gadgets
From time to time agents require supporting gadgets to ease their tasks and improve their efficiency. These are preferred when coming as in-built gadgets with the agent desktop. These gadgets can be added or removed as and when required. Some of the majorly required gadgets include
- Knowledge Base – A repository of product and process documents that helps agents in handling calls and customers can benefit from this as a self-help system. This universe of knowledge should be updated regularly and have easy to use interface for every agent, even the newbies.
- Agent Scripting Gadget – It includes a series of dynamic guided scripts designed according to the process followed by your business. These are easy to customize and save largely on the training part. It makes 15-day old agent capable enough to handle calls like a pro.
- Call Wrap-up Gadget – Call disposition or wrap up consumes a lot of time for agents as the call summary that requires mentioning all important data. Manually doing this task for each call is time-consuming and expected to miss some relevant information. Call disposition gadget automatically fetches the required information, thereby improving the performance of agents. As they can utilize the time saved in answering the next call.
- Inter-team Chat Gadget – Agents always require continuous assistance. Inter-team communication and phonebook help them easily connect with other agents, team leaders, or subject experts, and increase call resolutions. Well, informed discussions are enough to impress a caller and assure returning customers.
- Customer Management Gadget – This mini CRM tool displays the customer information in front of agents even before answering the call — allowing them to create a personalized experience. This boosts the feeling of being important among customers.
- Ticketing Gadget – Required to manage ticketing activities with an SLA engine, multi-level assignment, reporting, and more. It increases the efficiency of agents by enabling them to add, view, change status, and do much more with a ticket.
6. Train Agents
After collecting data from advanced monitoring performed through supervisor desktop, internal survey forms, and wallboards, it’s time to analyze it and find out the weak areas that require agents to be trained upon. Training is not necessarily to be software-focused but can be process-focused or policy-related. Make sure you don’t indulge agents in too much training or for a long duration. Training has benefits such as
- Keeps agents informed of what’s new in the organization
- Refreshes the learnings and motivates them
- Help agents build on their weak areas and improve performance
7. Go omnichannel
If you are still restricted to a single channel that is the voice, it is time to step ahead and explore other communication channels. Integrate your contact center system with email, chat, social media, and more. This is an amazing strategy to distribute the load of call volumes and feel customer valued by being present for services where the customer prefers. Instant help on every platform lets you hold the customer with your business as issues can be solved instantly.
8. Benchmark targets & monitor burnout
Induce healthy competition among agents on the grounds of how competitors are performing or within the team. Set targets and a benchmark to be achieved every month or annually. And set a defined incentive/award for making the same. Be cautious that the pressure does not convert it into a burnout situation resulting in a business dip.
9. Other motivators
Apart from the software, products, and training, other things motivate agents. These induce positivity among agents and boost their performance to an optimum level. Working hours, incentives, work from home, monetary benefits, office parties, occasion celebrations, and comp offs are some of the adds-on that leverage agents’ efficiency.
Conclusion
As the famous line goes, “happy agents create happy customers”, so you need to support your agents and simplify their work with the best of technology. Integration is the magic wand that connects various 3rd party applications empowering agents to perform their best even with the possible resources available. Agents get the power to create a personalized experience, handle call volumes, and more. So, get ready to tap the untapped potential with seamless integration of your software and 3rd party applications.
