When we talk about contact centres, the focus is usually on improving customer experience. However, an equally important and often overlooked aspect is agent experience.
The attrition rate in the UK contact centre industry is double the national average at 26%. Contact centre leaders have consistently cited it’s a struggle to attract top talent and keep them happy and fulfilled in their jobs.
All this recruitment also comes at huge costs.
We know the old saying, “Happy agents = happy customers.” This is now backed up with solid numbers, too. Companies with engaged agents had 20% higher sales than those who didn’t. So, keeping your agents happy doesn’t just help reduce attrition rates; it also directly correlates to improving your customer experience.
How can technology improve agent experience?
At our ‘Future of Communications in Hospitality’ event last year, this discussion led to some interesting points.
Kimberley Ramsey, Global Sales Director at TigerTMS, highlighted the lack of career progression for contact centre agents, which is a huge reason why many leave their roles.
“The entry-level contact centre jobs give you a great start in entering an industry. But beyond that, there needs to be a structured path for career growth so agents can have a direct impact on contact centre processes and feel fulfilled.”
“Invest in the right employees and incentivise them to stay. Employee success contributes to customer loyalty and satisfaction, too.”, she said.
The old ways of working in a contact centre, where an agent has to click through multiple windows, use siloed systems and constantly deal with angry customers, don’t exactly inspire job satisfaction.
They spend their time and energy on mundane tasks when, instead, you could give them the tools that help them do their work better and communicate better. They could spend their time on tasks that matter to them, the customers, and the company.
Rob Wiles, Channel Manager at Zoom, asks, “What contributes to happy staff? Is it simple communication? Team collaboration? Recognition?”
“Employee experience is influenced by lots of things. As technology providers, we can help simplify internal communication, encourage collaboration between teams and recognise those who do good jobs. That contributes to happy staff to a degree.”
Ben Hollyer, Senior Regional Partner Manager at RingCentral, added, “Humans are creatures of communication. When you create barriers to that, then there will be problems that translate to invisible frustrations. And before you know it, there’s attrition.”
So, how can you remove those barriers that cause frustration?
AI can help in improving agent efficiency
Often, agents spend a lot of their time on mundane tasks, such as searching different systems for answers, taking call notes, and updating CRM systems after a call is over.
AI-powered Contact Centre as a Service (CCaaS) tools can significantly reduce this drudgery by enhancing agent efficiency and job satisfaction. They can enable faster response times, improve customer experiences and empower agents to contribute to more strategic initiatives.
With CCaaS solutions and embedded AI capabilities, agents can offload mundane tasks like:
- Searching for customer history
- Searching multiple knowledge sources quickly to come up with relevant answers
- Summarising call notes
- Answering frequently asked questions
- Drafting response emails and more
This lets agents focus on higher-value tasks, such as solving complex problems and building stronger customer relationships. The result? Better productivity, less burnout, and happier customers.
We’ve often seen situations where a customer, after unsuccessfully trying self-service or chat, is transferred or ends up speaking to an agent feeling frustrated.
Rather than agents starting a conversation from scratch and dealing with an irritated customer, integrated CCaaS platforms surface all relevant context and customer information from connected systems to avoid further irritation from repeating information. AI features speed up the interaction and transform the experience for the customer and agent.
It can also help streamline a lot of activities that happen after a call is wrapped up, such as,
- Auto-summarisation: Use AI to generate accurate call summaries and transcripts, reducing the time agents spend on post-call notes.
- CRM updates: Automatically update your CRM and other systems with the latest customer information.
- Follow-up actions: Schedule follow-ups, send confirmations, or trigger workflows automatically.
Happy agents, Happy customers
Investing in AI-powered CCaaS solutions can ultimately pay off, as our customer, Legal Landlords, says, after adopting Zoom recently as their contact centre platform.
“The team dynamics have changed completely. Our agents don’t have to leave voicemails constantly because the system takes care of that for us. They’re more productive having real conversations with people.”, says Hayley Finch, Product Manager at Legal for Landlords.
Businesses need to create an environment where agents thrive. No one ever complained of satisfied customers, and as the saying goes, happier agents indeed make happier customers.
