Contact Centers Changed, Y'all.
Let's talk about how things shifted since 2020.
Businesses have faced a multitude of challenges since 2020. Likewise, contact centers have faced its share of obstacles. Here are a few examples:
The Pandemic – It was a doozy!
Mass relocation – Tens of millions of Americans have permanently moved since 2020.
The Great Resignation – Nearly 50 million people quit their jobs in 2021. Depending on the statistics you subscribe to, it’s reasonable to believe that 50% of Americans are currently considering a job move.
Agent Burnout - American employees have noted burnout as a contributing factor to quiet quitting and changing positions. Contact Center agents historically have high turnover rates, which are being compounded by the current environment.
Traditionally agents were located on-premise in tight quarters. The pandemic forced many of these agents to work remote, which has been enabled by modern CCaaSsolutions that allow agents to work from anywhere in the world with full functionality. Combine this with fierce staffing shortages, which can be firmly felt in contact centers. As a result, you can expect that many contact centers will continue to operate fully or partially remote in order to attract talent.
Organizations that utilize legacy systems likely struggled with contact center performance. Here are a few examples of areas that have been challenging:
Agent Training – How will you adequately train the dispersed workforces? These agents have to be trained on a number of complex applications, as well as learning to appropriately resolve customer issues.
Agility - Prior to Covid-19, the last great pandemic was in 1918-1919. Modern businesses were not equipped with the relevant data to make crucial decisions during this unprecedented time. To further complicate matters, layer in political turmoil, threats of war, a looming recession, and supply chain challenges. Businesses face an increasingly complex environment in which it must make critical decisions, often times in real time with limited data. This means that businesses must be agile. Contact Centers often feel this pain early, and must quickly adapt in order to support end users and retain brand loyalty. You should prioritize flexible solutions that allow your business to scale and evolve as your needs change, because your needs will definitely change!
Collaboration - How does your organization connect end users to specialist inside of the organization who do not sit in the contact center? A percentage of your calls will not resolve with a contact center agent. Does your communication/collaboration stack enable agents with the ability to quickly engage resources?
Access to Data – Agents must have access to real-time data, such as knowledge banks, so they can act with accurate information. This requires collaboration tools that reach beyond simple exchanges with their peers.
Agent Performance – How do you measure agent performance if they’re not staffed in a single location? Modern tools give you the ability to support the agent’s support needs while measuring their performance, without implementing spyware.
Company Culture – How do you teach company culture, which is imperative to creating a positive support experience for your end users, if your agents work remotely? Utilizing CCaaS applications, including video and chat collaboration tools, can be helpful. Please note that modern tools are not a magic trick for creating company culture; that still requires intentional communication and engagement.
Volume - It's no secret that inbound contact center engagement increased across all channels. While there has been a massive increase in omnichannel engagement, such as SMS, chat and email, voice still reigns supreme. Pindrop's Covid-19 summary report states that call volumes increased 600% above normal levels.
Data Orchestration - I know what you're thinking. What the heck does "data orchestration" even mean? By data orchestration I simply mean utilizing your customer data in meaningful ways that enable you to improve the customer experience and increase revenue. One lesson from the pandemic is that businesses often do a poor job of using data to impact businesses decisions. This is often revealed in one of two ways: 1) your legacy tool doesn't provide advanced analytics and reporting. 2) You have the data, but you don't understand what to do with it. If you struggle with either of these, let's talk about a roadmap for unlocking your data.
New Channels - SMS, Chat, Email, Social Media, Secure Messages, on and on.
Contact Centers are in a period of flux at the moment. If you’re struggling because your traditional practices aren’t as effective, you’re not alone. We may never go back to “normal,” but there are a number of tools and processes you can adopt that will improve agent performance and your customer’s experience.