Everyone knows about leap years (yes, we have another one coming up in 2016). But, did you know that June 30, 2015 will be the longest day in 3 years – and by one extra second, no less!
The so-called leap second that will lead to some clocks actually showing 23:59:60 on June 30 before flipping over to 00:00:00 was introduced because the earth’s rotation is slowing down influenced by the Moon’s orbit and other, less predictable influences (think earthquakes or major weather events). In order to correct that loss and keep our calendar synced up, the occasional leap second was invented – a second that is manually added on at irregular intervals on June 30 or December 31. It’s been done 26 times since the introduction of the leap second in 1972 – buying you almost half a minute of time.
Doesn’t sound like much, does it? Then again, with a current population of somewhere around 319 million people in the US, the addition of a single second across the US adds up to an astonishing 10 years (!) of time. Just goes to show: small changes can have a huge impact.
Small changes can also make a big impact when integrating your contact center and your Salesforce.com environments. The NICE CXone Agent for Salesforce does help your agents save time – with each and every interaction. Just think about the time it takes an agent to find customer data if they have to manually search for it. They ask the customer for identification: 10 seconds. Enter the search criteria manually: 3 seconds. Execute the search: 2 more seconds. Only 15 seconds, yes, but multiplied by the number contacts and agents, saving the time can add up to considerable efficiency gains in Average Handling Time (AHT). And with the recent introduction of two additional channels in our Salesforce Agent, email and voicemail, efficiency gains are bigger than ever before.
Think about the time you can save when your agents handle all channels in one consolidated interface. The fact that they use consistent handling paradigms, and that all required controls are integrated into an interface they are intimately familiar with will not only shave time off AHT, but also allow them to concentrate on contact handling (not on juggling multiple windows and interfaces). Also keep in mind that this approach helps reduce training needs for new agents – potential for considerable productivity gains in the ramp-up process for new resources.
Increasing ease of use and agent productivity certainly was one of the guiding principles for our recent NICE CXone Agent for Salesforce release. We have added the ability for agents to select and copy text between chat contacts in the application. Agents can now end After Contact Work (ACW) as soon as they’re done with what they need to do, and handle the next contact earlier. In addition, Agents can now select whether or not they automatically log into the NICE CXone platform when they log into Salesforce. Automating log-on can certainly be a time saver…
It’s not all about efficiency, though. Integrating your Salesforce environment with your contact center will also improve customer service. With small things, such as being able to greet a customer by name. With bigger things, such as allowing your agents to better understand the customer situation thru access to most current customer data. And really big things; think immediate access to cross-sell and up-sell opportunities.
Have we whetted your appetite? If so, take the additional second you gained (plus some) and take a look at our AppExchange listing today! The clock is ticking… And by the way: the trial is free, and installs in hours, rather than days or even weeks. We think it’s time well spent!
