Six Key Elements to Optimizing Agents and Operational Efficiency

Today’s customer service organizations are evolving and their supporting technologies are advancing faster than ever. As customer expectations reach new heights, companies are under pressure to adopt new strategies to remain competitive.

Under these pressures, contact center executives can easily lose focus on the key elements that drive organizational success. What is the number one priority for contact center and back office business units? Their people. Agents and knowledge workers are the frontline to serving the customer, and companies should focus on developing these employees, making them more effective and efficient performers.

So, what is the best, fastest and most cost-effective way to make agents and knowledge workers more effective? There is no “quick fix,” but there are several common trends among the companies that are making the biggest impact on agent and knowledge worker performance. Here are six key elements to consider when you’re trying to boost agent effectiveness and efficiency:

• Simplify the Desktop: Desktop complexity not only impacts handle time – it can reduce agent and customer satisfaction. Simplifying the desktop – by providing an aggregated customer view of all mission-critical customer data in a single window – keeps agents from having to navigate complex systems.
  
• Gain Activity Insight: Every transaction is another step along the customer journey. All of these transactions take place on the desktop. Tracking and collecting transaction data from the desktop – such as productive, non-productive and idle time – can provide intelligence to make changes that improve operational performance. This insight can be used to transform the business so that transactions are optimized to deliver gold-standard customer service.
  
• Automate Workflow: Forward-thinking customer service organizations are using desktop automation to do away with repetitive tasks, such as copy and paste, post-call wrap up notes and other time-consuming tasks.
  
• Enforce Process Adherence: Automating processes not only simplifies the work required by the agent or knowledge worker, it also aids in maintaining adherence to internal or regulatory mandates… not to mention avoiding costly errors and rework.
  
• Gamify Agent Activities: Gamifying key worker activities, setting performance goals and creating a competitive environment keeps employees motivated and engaged.
  
• Monitor System Performance: Using intelligence captured from the desktop, you can monitor and analyze how your technology investments and applications are impacting the business, and quickly identify opportunities to maximize performance.
  

While there isn’t a “quick fix” to help you turn agents into star performers, these six elements are some of the top proven methods for making contact center agents more effective. Feel free to experiment first with a few simple changes – evaluate their impact and then build on your progress in an iterative fashion. Traditional agent performance reviews only impact the individual agent, but when you begin to transform a group of agents into star players, there can be significant operational performance impact that has a ripple effect throughout the business.

More Resources

• Webinar: The WFO Puzzle: Putting the Pieces Together
  
• ICMI Contact Center Expo & Conference: Workforce Optimization in The Customer Channel Choice World
  
• ICMI Symposium Course: Workforce Management Bootcamp
  
• ICMI Training: Do-it-Yourself Workforce Management