Keeping agents informed

As a consumer, we have probably all had the experience: you see a promotion, you are attracted to a special offer, you respond by phoning the number, only to find that the person on the other end knows nothing about the offer!

It’s frustrating for the caller and very disappointing for the agent. A responsible agent feels let done either by management or by the system.

And there is really no excuse today. There are so many systems and techniques for getting relevant information to agents in a timely fashion.

The importance of getting the right information to the right agents at the right time, cannot be overestimated. Every day in call centres, agents handle probably more than 95 percent of all company electronic customer interactions. Yet the people manning the front lines —those who represent the company voice to the world—are sometimes among the last to be informed about the very activities that customers need to know about.

Of course, rather than using entry-level workers who are pressured to keep talk times low and sales volumes high, many companies choose to go down the path of self-service on the web to let customers get basic answers faster. Where such a system is in place, agents can focus on handling the more complex problems.

But companies ignore the importance of their call centres at their peril. Many consultants estimate that it costs four to 10 times as much to capture a new customer as it does to provide good service to an existing customer. And, a whopping 68 percent of customers who defect, do so because of poor service.

Such alarming statistics pointedly highlight the importance of the call centre.  After all, call centre agents actually talk to customers every day. However, without accurate information that they can rely on, it’s almost impossible to do the job they should be doing.

Sometimes it may be only an electronic notice board that is needed. If your agents require only the most critical queue statistics and concise text messages, there are simple options that solve the problem. They are so inexpensive that even the smallest contact centre can benefit from the enhanced productivity that on-time information can provide.

Where agents need enhanced queue statistics and richer text messaging, there are new and improved solutions. Some of the software packages required for sophisticated notice boards no longer require a dedicated server yet they deliver rich capabilities allowing the call centre to maximise productivity.

The software is now so advanced that with the one co-ordinated system, you can simultaneously provide many different messages on numerous wallboards throughout a call centre.

But obviously, getting the information challenge right and keeping agents informed and up-to-date at all times, involves a great deal more than electronic boards around the centre.

If you've got a high-volume call centre, you're probably not combing through each recorded call every night. It's understandable, yet it's a shame--because that call-centre data could be crucial.

Many companies are picking up on that fact. Technology such as emotion detection and word spotting helps businesses cull information not just from what customers say, but also how they say it.

There is readily available software now which includes emotion-detection and word-spotting features trained to pick up on variations in tone of voice as well as key words, such as cancel, happy and even a competitor's name. This sort of software can introduce a new level of valuable information to the call centre.

The software enables an experienced manager to identify patterns of behaviour - what customers intend to do and what their next step might be.