It’s no secret that contact centers are under pressure. A fluctuating labor market, the need to be always available, and the expectation of top-notch customer service have many contact centers struggling to keep up. But, what many people don’t realize is that these challenges are not new and contact centers have been facing them for years. What has changed, however, is the way we deal with them. In the past, contact centers relied on disconnected, complicated systems to get the job done. Today, we have better options.
Effective workforce optimization solutions provide easy to use and integrated software that contact centers can leverage for better customer service outcomes. This allows agents to be more productive and customers to get the help they need faster and more easily. In this blog, we’ll go over some interesting statistics and the main challenges impeding contact center workforces, and how DVSAnalytics’ Encore helps to solve them.
Main Challenges Facing Contact Centers Today
When it comes to operations, contact centers are constantly trying to find ways to improve efficiencies and optimize their performance. The goal is always the same – provide exceptional customer service while constantly improving existing processes based on relevant data. Nowadays, however, it appears contact centers are being asked to do more with less.
According to a study conducted by Contact Customer Week (CCW), 51% of contact centers report that their tools and systems are too disparate and fragmented to meet the needs of agents and customers. What’s more, is that 17% report that these systems and tools are too difficult to use effectively. This can lead to an entire host of issues, including longer wait times for customers, higher levels of customer frustration and dissatisfaction, lower agent engagement, and overall inefficiency.
How Poor Workforce Optimization is Impacting Contact Centers
These operational challenges exist for a variety of reasons; though most, if not all of which are due to poor workforce optimization (WFO). Poor WFO leads to operational pain points such as unsupportive work environments for agents, frustration using tools, poor onboarding processes, as well as frustrating workflows and systems. Moreover, these issues set contact centers back in terms of employee retention with 33% of contact centers reporting high turnover as their biggest challenge. This forces contact centers to invest even more time and money into tools and training for new hires, rather than being able to focus on delivering world-class customer experiences.
Further, with customers calling with more complex inquiries that require agents to access various tools and data, having disconnected systems can add to the lingering frustration for both parties. This can hurt productivity and can even impact customer retention. Unhappy customers having to answer repetitive questions leads to agents taking longer with each call, and customers will often switch to a competitor following an experience like this. In fact, CCW’s study revealed that it only takes an average of two bad service interactions before a customer switches to a competitor. So, with all this in mind, how can contact centers improve their workforce optimization for greater success?
Workforce Optimization for Happier Employees & Customers
There are many different measures of success when it comes to WFO in contact centers. The most important metrics include customer retention and satisfaction, ability to increase customer-lifetime value, a customer-centric brand reputation, as well as a work culture that values employees. By focusing on improving these metrics, contact centers can begin to see real results in terms of operational efficiency and effectiveness.
How exactly does putting people first in a contact center help to accomplish their goals? To start, contact centers that deliver consistent and impressive customer service lead to a more favorable reputation and can even drive better word-of-mouth and social chatter about the company. More positive interactions between customers and agents has a tremendous impact on brand loyalty and customer retention, and the best way to achieve this is to have happier, more skilled, and engaged employees.
Ultimately, contact centers that focus on employee engagement and retention are able to decrease the high costs associated with training new hires, as well as improve performance management. And by implementing an integrated software solution that allows for ease of use, a more efficient onboarding process, and better agent engagement features, contact centers can realize the benefits of a smarter WFO solution.
DVSAnalytics’ Encore As a WFO Solution
With DVSAnalytics’ Encore as a WFO solution, the future for contact centers looks bright. Complete with interaction recording, comprehensive analytics tools, actionable data collection, seamless integration, reporting, agent engagement tools, as well as workforce management (WFM) capabilities, Encore is an all-encompassing solution for the modern day contact center.
Encore empowers contact centers to make informed decisions on training processes and agent performance by gathering insights on customer-agent interactions. Moreover, Encore’s WFM features such as self-scheduling for employees, real-time adherence monitoring, result in happier employees and therefore happier customers.
Encore’s WFO solutions provide the flexibility and support that employees need, while never compromising on quality or ease of use. Customer loyalty is the name of the game nowadays, and the best way to win them over is to provide a top-notch customer service experience. With Encore, contact centers can put their best foot forward and start delivering the exceptional service experiences that customers deserve.
Get in touch with one of our experts to learn more about what Encore’s can do for your contact center today.
