What is Unified Agent Desktop?
App Sprawl
I have the honor of observing, assessing and even co-managing contact centers on a weekly basis. During my travels I’ve found that agents manage far too many applications, and it lowers overall customer satisfaction. For example, the last financial services institution I audited had a total of 37 applications that the agent could utilize and a total of 28 used on a daily basis. Might I submit to you that our agents are too busy managing applications to prioritize the customer experience.
Right about now you’re saying to yourself, “We can’t reduce the number of applications. Those are critical to the business.” I would suggest an assessment of applications to find redundancy would be fruitful, but there’s no way to reduce the scope of applications to a single pane of glass without a custom-built solution designed to improve agent efficiency. Let’s talk about Unified Agent Desktop.
Unified Agent Desktop Defined
UAD is a single application that you customize to create a unified point of service for your agents. Effectively, the UAD consolidates all of your applications into a single pane of glass. All of the tools an agents need to perform their duties can be found in the Unified Agent Desktop, without the need to leave this single application. This includes customer data, communication channels, knowledge bases and various support tools.
UAD is the Future
If your agents struggle to manage the growing number of applications under their care, consider UAD. This tool simplifies the agent workflow and increases productivity. UAD accomplishes this by reducing the need to switch between multiple applications and systems, often toggling back and forth to complete simple tasks. This improves your company’s culture in the following ways:
Agents are happy because they can quickly and efficiently resolve issues
Customers are happy because their issues are resolved quickly and efficiently
Your business is happy because you retain agents and customers because their needs being met
UAD can also provide supervisors and leadership with helpful insights regarding an agents performance and customer interactions. Agents who are under-performing can be coached in real-time. Customer engagements can be flagged and supervisors alerted when assistance is needed.
UAD Over the Top
My personal favorite use case for UAD is bridging the gap between your aging premise-based contact center solution, which lacks the advanced features of a modern customer experience tool that’s born in the cloud. You can layer a UAD solution on top of your existing premise-based contact center. This allows you to transition slowly to the cloud, without the pain of a forklift upgrade. Agents can access modern tools while you plan for your eventual migration.
UAD can also be layered in over-the-top of your CCaaS tools, such as Nice, Five9, Talkdesk and Dialpad.
Key Benefits
Ramp Time | Unified Agent Desktop simplifies the on-boarding process by reducing the amount of applications your agents must master. This reduces training cost, gets agents in the queue sooner and improves retention.
Agent Productivity | Workflows are more efficient under a single pane of glass that unifies all necessary applications. This leads to faster handling times and improved resolution rates.
Customer Experience | UAD provides quick and efficient resolutions, because tools are easily accessible for all agents.
Real-time Analytics | If you’re on a premise-based solution, your analytics could use a boost. This tool allows you the data needed to make critical business decisions and improve performance.
Use Cases for UAD
Multichannel support | Your customers expect to interact with your business through a variety of channels, including email, chat, voice, social media and more. This tool allows agents to seamlessly switch between channels.
Service desk operations | Helpdesk hinges on being able to quickly find information and playbooks. This tool grants agents access to relevant information and tools, so they can quickly resolve technical issues, leading to faster resolution times and improved user satisfaction.
Healthcare | In the healthcare industry, a unified agent desktop can provide care teams with access to patient records, medical history, and other critical information, helping them make informed decisions and provide quality care.
Financial services | In banking and financial services, a unified agent desktop can enable agents to quickly access customer account information, history, and transaction details, leading to faster issue resolution and improved customer satisfaction.
Retail and e-commerce | In the retail and e-commerce industry, a unified agent desktop can help agents access customer order information, shipping details, and return policies, enabling them to quickly resolve issues and improve the customer experience.
The End
In conclusion, a unified agent desktop is a powerful solution that can bring significant benefits to contact centers and customer service operations. By providing a consolidated interface for agents to access all necessary information and tools, this tool can improve agent productivity, enhance the customer experience, and increase operational efficiency. Additionally, a unified agent desktop can provide real-time monitoring and analytics, enabling supervisors and managers to identify and address issues quickly, leading to better decision-making and overall contact center performance. Overall, a unified agent desktop can be a valuable investment for any organization looking to streamline their customer service operations, reduce costs, and improve the customer experience.