CX Training at its Best: Integrative, Cost Effective and Psychologically Fortifying
Listen to the full podcast here: In this episode we bring you Sheri Kendall, Regional Training Manager of Wayfair to...
With high demand for labor across industries and an abundance of remote work options, agents have more job choices than ever before. And that makes it increasingly difficult for contact centers to hire and retain all the agents they need; there aren’t enough available agents to go around, and existing agents are more willing to leave at the first sign of frustration.
Simultaneously, customer expectations for a better customer experience continue to rise. They want easy-to-navigate self-service options for straightforward interactions. But for more unique, nuanced, or complex issues, customers still want to talk to agents. And they expect those interactions to be just as simple and efficient.
Companies whose contact centers meet those expectations are rewarded with revenue and loyalty. And those that can’t deliver lose out to competitors who can.
So how do you ensure your contact center’s customer experience hits the mark?
Naturally, some contact center managers will try and forge ahead with the same practices, hoping that trying harder or spending more money will improve their contact center performance. But resources spent on amping up the status quo won’t produce the desired results or facilitate sustainable improvement.
Instead, what you get are:
Any one of these outcomes is bad enough, but each of these trends exacerbates the others.
In the end, costs spiral and no one is happy or doing their job effectively.
To thrive in this new world, contact centers must change their approach. And that new approach doesn’t start with ramping up hiring, piling on more technology, or developing new channels to help customers.
The success of your contact center relies on its ability to deliver outstanding customer service. And great customer service starts with your agents.
Here’s what happens when you focus on simplifying and improving your agent experience:
So where do you begin? Start by removing agent guesswork and stress.
And one of the most stressful situations for agents is the knowledge base. They’re never detailed enough to cover every scenario an agent will encounter. And accessing the information contained in them is time-consuming.
Any agent who references a knowledge base usually has to switch to a different program, search for the answer they need, read through the instructions once they find it, and interpret the best way to proceed based on what they found. While this is happening, customers are left waiting and handle times keep going up.
Knowledge bases also leave room for errors. Agents might misinterpret the steps they find. Or, in a rush, they might miss a step, resulting in inconsistent service for customers and frustrated agents.
For agents to be truly effective, they need the right information at the right time, and the steps forward must be clear. Because when every agent knows exactly what to do on every call, customers are happier and contact center performance improves.
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