Customer service technology gives companies the ability to dramatically improve organizational at every level, including the contact center. The following advanced functions improve the experience of customers and agents while supplying firms with financial rewards.
Agent Productivity in the Call Center
Customers often have a hard time discerning the difference between a brand and its call center. Agents providing poor service, therefore, make the entire company look bad, rather than only themselves. Business owners and managers should remember, however, that the blame for contact center performance problems often has more to do with the lack of call center technology solutions than employee competence.
Because the performance of the contact center reflects upon the entire firm, agents often feel more pressure than their peers to provide a fantastic customer experience. Knowing this, companies should implement call center improvements to equip agents with the tools they need to rise to the occasion. Through technology investment, employers can reap a substantial return on investment. Employees become more capable and customers enjoy smooth customer service experiences.
Contact Center Technologies That Boost Agent Productivity
In the past, simple call handling solutions such as automated call distribution were enough to give companies a competitive edge in the contact center. Now, such tools have become commonplace and technology has created new opportunities for firms to accomplish more and form better relationships than ever before. The following features offer a sample of the tools that can revolutionize the call center environment.
E-Learning
Increasing employee competence gives firms a simple way for companies to improve productivity. Unfortunately, the cost of traditional training and development initiatives could cause hesitation on the part of employers. Not only did such programs cost money to hire instructors and buy materials, they took employees offline, into the classroom, causing call center performance issues.
By leveraging e-learning technology, call centers and their agents can convert unproductive time into an asset. A variety of available e-learning tools enables agents to learn at their convenience, whenever they have a chance, without reducing their availability to service customers. Elevated employee knowledge and skill levels provide for better issue handling, resulting in superior call center performance.
Gamification
Video games have almost universal appeal. Navigating around obstacles, overcoming adversity and rising to the next level gives people a sense of satisfaction and accomplishment. As a matter of fact, many people deal with electronic gaming as an addiction. Technology now makes possible the transformation of boring, routine tasks into a game-like experience.
Integrating game mechanics into learning and job performance opens new opportunities for everyone involved. Companies improve the productivity and engagement of their labor force while employees become happier, more competent and loyal. When work becomes a challenge that can result in points, badges, and other achievements, workdays go faster and motivation becomes natural.
Biometric Verification
Technology can analyze voices and recognize key phrases as callers naturally speak with agents. Such an approach to customer validation reduces call duration and first contact resolution statistics, resulting in an enhanced customer experience. In addition to saving time, biometrics perform two important functions.
First, robust speech analysis systems reduce fraud. On-screen alerts can warn agents to avoid discussing sensitive information with callers with uncertain identities. Second, biometric verification gives customers confidence that they can safely interact with a brand, improving the overall customer experience.
Workforce Management Software for Self-Scheduling
Automated scheduling technology reduces the load placed upon HR managers while optimizing staffing levels. Not only can employees interact with contact center solutions to create favorable schedules. As a result, employees get to improve their work-life balance without increasing management costs.
Self-scheduling tools also help maximize labor utilization. During low-volume periods, the scheduling system can assign agents with alternate duties that might include data entry, correspondence, and training. As a result, employees stay available to service increased call volumes while the company eliminates the need to hire additional back-office staff.
CRM Solutions
Call center technology can seamlessly integrate with CRM applications, streamlining workflows and simplifying the task of interacting with customers. Software forwards customers to appropriate agents as soon as phone calls, emails and other types of messages arrive in the contact center. Upon arrival at a screen where a skilled agent works, incoming inquiries pop relevant information from CRM and provide an interface for updating customer records with information about the current interaction.
Suddenly, thanks to technology, CRM systems provide essential information that supports rapid issue resolution while inviting employees to promptly and accurately update the system. Of course, the automation of basic tasks as well as real-time analytics simplify customer service tasks and reduce the amount of data entry required from call center agents.
Unified Agent Desktop
Every time a call center employee clicks the mouse or pecks away at the keyboard presents an opportunity to lose focus, waste time and degrade the user experience. Unified desktops present core information about customers, their issues and appropriate solutions from a single screen. By simplifying the appearance of data through compact graphical representations of data, agents can do their job with fewer manual actions
Less time spent with the keyboard and mouse means that agents can focus on the customer experience. Moreover, service quality improves and agents can easily update the system with notes about every contact. Together with other advanced call center functions, unified agent desktop also helps companies retain knowledge, helping to ensure long-term service improvements.
Automated Customer Calling
Outbound call centers can save time and improve accuracy by eliminating the dial pad from agent workstations. Based on incoming data feeds from CRM and accounting software, call center software can automatically dial one number after another as agents follow up on late payments or provide appointment reminders.
By first getting the agent on the phone and popping call-related information on the screen, systems ensure agents stay focused on customer issues rather than juggling a handset or headset and dialing the phone. Similarly, with data already in front of call center agents, outbound calls require less time and minimize inconveniences caused to customers.
Technology makes call center improvement easy and affordable using the above functions, as well as others. By simultaneously improving the agent and customer experience, companies can reap impressive rewards in the form of productivity and profitability.
Let us help you make your call center a success!
For further information about our services, give us a call at 888-571-9492 or 917-837-5225, or send us a message via the convenient website form.