Boost Morale by Giving Every Agent an Automated Manager

Fifty-two percent of contact center staff believe their company isn’t doing enough to prevent their teams from burning out. Unfortunately, the center environment causes burnout and can seem impossible to address.

For instance, high call volume days can be exhausting, especially when calls tend to be more complex. Customer frustration can be contagious and may spread like wildfire when stories are shared amongst the disengaged. High volume days also cause disappointment when scheduled training classes are the first activities canceled to meet service levels.

Sometimes long calls run into lunch or break time. Or, agents wait in idle time before shift end and then receive a call right before they were supposed to log off. All such scenarios can cause agent fatigue. As a result, some agents might find ways to sneak little breaks in during the day by hiding out in after call work (ACW) or unauthorized AUX states.

In the current state, these nuances are difficult to pin down and resolve. But what if you could give every agent an automated manager to help them stay on schedule, meet performance goals, and guarantee development activities?

Make Sure Agents Take Breaks on Time!

Not staying on schedule causes frustration for a couple of different reasons. The more obvious - breaks are highly valued, especially in the contact center. Also, agents won’t meet adherence goals, even though the issue is out of their control.

Instead, contact center automation improves schedule adherence. An automated manager monitors center data to notify agents to go to their next scheduled break, lunch, or log out for the day. This proactive approach occurs a few minutes before the scheduled start time to avoid calls that disrupt the schedule.

Employee surveys revealed positive feedback when agents have an automated manager:

“Cool...always cutting it close because of that last-minute call before break.”

“Finally, something to help us meet adherence!”

Offer Real-Time Support for Every Agent

Agents have specific performance metrics to meet when handling calls. They may need to put customers on hold or consult with another agent in order to assist the customer, and these scenarios can put performance goals at risk. More than likely, supervisors won’t have real-time awareness that their assistance is needed.

Thresholds can be set to check in when agents are on a long call or consulting with another agent. This manager can also remind agents that they’ve placed a customer on hold for an extended period of time. While wrapping up, agents in ACW beyond a specific time threshold will be asked if they need assistance.

“I especially like how it lets you know right at 2 minutes if you’re in ACW. I appreciate anything that will help me perform better at this point.”

Offer Work Variety

Handling calls can be monotonous, so offering different activities can break up the day nicely. Examples include: personalized training, coaching, reading critical communications, self-serve knowledge breaks, back-office work, etc.

Imagine being able to offer such variety when most center workforce management and operations professionals know that they can barely squeeze in a minimal amount of mandatory training.

The automated manager allows more agent development activities than possible in a traditional contact center. The manager sends these activities directly to agent desktops when service level conditions are optimal and will prompt agents to return to call handling if volume spikes.

“I think this is a much-needed tool, especially on high volume call days.”

Working as a call center agent is no walk in the park, but you can alleviate many of the stressors that happen throughout a typical shift and guide agents seamlessly throughout the day.

“What a great change for a morale boost.”