Contact Center Agents - Soaring up From Heroes to Super Heroes

Agents remain the most critical resource in any contact center. But, every contact center continues to struggle with big challenges when it comes to engaging, motivating and retaining agents. Agent turn over continues to soar at over 30-45%, more than double the average of all industries (Research, The Quality Assurance & Training Connection). Today’s agents are clearly the heroes of the contact center - managing angry customers, solving complex problems and juggling multiple systems. But that is not where it stops. They now have to soar up to new levels thanks to the increasing number of channels and complexity of interactions from digital customers. They now have to don the role of a super hero and that is not easy.

Here are some insights from a survey that we did in collaboration with ICMI to help build better agent strategies, processes and tools.

1. The number and complexity of interactions is getting higher, but the size of the centers are not increasing at the same rate. We can no longer throw agents at the problem. Think of how you can make your agents more productive with the right tools and processes and at the same time employ self-service options for easy, repeatable use cases. Your agents should now be  utilized for those high impact and complex problems.
2. What your agents like the most working in contact centers is helping customers. Leverage that positive attitude to build a win win. Address their challenges that hamper this. And, it is no surprise that the biggest frustration and challenge the agents quote is around inadequate and hard to use systems. Investing in efficient desktops that unify channels, applications and data across systems is extremely critical. That makes the agents focus on the customer rather than the tool.
3. The biggest cause for attrition is lack of growth and advancement opportunities. Invest one on one time to manage employee expectations and work through a career plan that best suits the individual. 
4. Contact centers can no longer get away with supporting one or two channels. With the proliferation in channels, agents now have to manage multiple channels. That involves not just a change in mindset but investment in newer tools and training so the agents can embrace the change better.

These are just starters. To learn more, join our webinar, 4 Keys to Improving Agent Satisfaction, on August 21, 2019 to learn more on how to make your agents more satisfied.