We recently surveyed a number of contact center professionals, asking what the top pain points are in their contact centers. 44% of our respondents said their top pain point is “Doing more with less”. You may be asking yourself, what exactly does this mean? In contact centers, doing more with less is an admirable objective that many organizations try to achieve. But it is also a very broad problem that most contact centers are facing and each may define this pain point differently. For some “doing more with less” means effectively utilizing a smaller budget without reducing quality of service or facing budget cuts within your department while facing an increasing workload. The best way to take on this big endeavor is identifying what “doing more with less” really means to your organization. Below you will find the top 4 ways you can do more with workforce optimization in your contact center.
1. First Call Resolution (FCR)
Does your organization measure first call resolution (FCR)? You may be asking yourself, what is FCR? First call resolution is properly addressing the customers’ needs the first time they call, thereby eliminating the need for the customer to follow up with a second call. FCR is an essential metric for any contact center for two simple reasons: it drives customer satisfactionand reduces operating costs. Customer retention is one of the many reasons that satisfying customers has become a key priority among progressive enterprises. So now we ask you, are your agents answering your customers’ questions and concerns the first time? If you said “no” or “you’re not sure”, then this is one way to “do more with less” in your contact center. Increasing your FCR rate helps eliminate the second calling customers which thereby reduces your incoming call volume. One way to help your FCR rate is to properly coach and train your agents for common issues that may arise during calls.
2. Speech Analytics
Do you know which topics or issues come up the most during calls in your contact center? Are customers satisfied with the solutions given by your agents? Speech analytics dramatically increases a contact center’s ability to quickly uncover customer insights, identify key issues and complaints, prevent high-impact incidents and handle customer interactions more effectively and efficiently. Analysts are able to break down the calls being recorded and filter out data that is relevant at the time (i.e. “called before”, “second time calling”, “issues with billing process”, etc.). The speech analytics software allows analysts to search for specific key words, terms or phrases. This then results in a report which shows the trends within calls in your contact center. How do you know if there is a problem if you don’t know what your customers are saying? Not only can you determine an issue within your organization but this also helps with training agents in the contact center. Speech analytics can help your organization “do more with less” by uncovering issues and allowing you to take a proactive stance. Take a look at the next section for more information on coaching and training.
3. Quality Management and Coaching
Do you find that some of your agents have longer handle times than others? This may be due to a customer having a lot of questions, but what if the agent is having trouble answering the customers’ concerns? By using a quality management (QM) solution, analysts can monitor and review theiragents’ performance. Implementing at QM solution enables organizations to train and coach their agents on a regular basis since the analysts are more educated about agents who are performing well and those who need a little guidance. A QM solution can also help with agent retention as this is one of the costlier and time consuming issues at many contact centers. It’s easier for an organization to “do more with less” by having agents that fully understand your goals and are committed to providing high quality customer service and increasing your FCR rate.
4. Workforce Management
Are you scheduling the right agents at the right time? This is often a struggle for a number of organizations because many are still using spreadsheets to forecast and extract data for agent scheduling. In order to help your contact center “do more with less” we suggest utilizing a workforce management (WFM) solution. This solution enables easy and efficient agent scheduling, staffing the right people, with the right skills at the right time of day. For example, lets say your organization has peak seasons such as back-to-school or the holiday shopping season. WFM helps you forecast trends to better staff your contact center during these busy times. No longer will you be over or under-staffing your contact center. This powerful tool helps contact centers optimize operational efficiencies, employee satisfaction and ultimately the customer experience. You can continually improve and refine your contact center operations from the insights gained using this innovative WFM solution. There is no better way to manage your agents’ schedules then with this efficient and effective system.
From our survey we know one of the pain points at your organization. Now is the time to implement a solution that will reduce the pain for you and your agents.
