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However, their basic needs remain the same: fast and personable service, knowledgeable answers, and a solution to their problems. The contact centers that will stand out and succeed in this economic climate are the ones that create better, consistent customer experiences and meaningful relationships. Companies need to think not only about the immediate bottom line but also about preparing themselves for when the economic climate improves. A key to long-term success is continuing to deliver quality customer service and putting the processes in place that will aid customer retention.

So, how can companies use technology to keep customers happy?

If I Can’t Do it All, Where Should I Focus?
Contact center agents play a crucial role in customer satisfaction and retention. To customers, agents “are” the company and, like it or not, customers’ experiences with agents can translate into their overall perception of the business. Increasing the likelihood of a positive experience requires that contact centers:

1. Arm agents with quick and easy access to accurate information
2. Arm supervisors with the tools to monitor how well agents are doing their jobs, and identify where and how to make any necessary adjustments through coaching and training.

Contact centers generally leverage multiple applications to manage customer interactions. If your contact center is looking to improve customer satisfaction, those to focus on are:

• Streamline agent desktop tools and workflows
• Identify your vital key performance indicator s (KPIs)
• Leverage quality management tools and processes
• Equip supervisors with coaching and training tools

Let’s take a look at how these tools work together to help create a better customer experience.

Agent Desktop Tools and Workflows
To satisfy customers, agents must have complete and accurate information at their fingertips in order to process calls efficiently and accurately on the first call. Contact centers should evaluate their agent tools and processes to identify the following:

• Does the desktop present the agent with caller information in real time for quick identification and personalized attention?

• Are the agent desktop tools unified and without ambiguity, or do I require my agents to toggle back and forth between multiple applications to find information?

• Does the desktop provide agents with access to experts inside or outside of the call center to improve first call resolution?

• Do I automate routine operations and streamline workflows?

Identify your Vital KPIs
If you want to optimize performance, you need a compass to guide you. Contact centers should identify those key metrics that point to the most critical performance areas relative to customer satisfaction and retention, such as first contact resolution, quality scores and customer satisfaction scores. When identifying KPIs, contact centers should evaluate:

• Is it meaningful?

• Can I measure it and report on it?

• Do I have the means to improve it?

Quality Management Systems and Processes
Quality management (QM) systems help supervisors manage performance against KPIs. Supervisors can view critical call center statistics to gain better insight into performance and help identify staff coaching opportunities that will develop skills. Contact centers should focus on some key areas:

• Do I provide agents with direct access to their scores? Allowing them to review their own performance and track how they are performing in relation to their team or group provides self-learning opportunities and motivational guidance to exceed contact center norms.

• Do I ask the customer? Contact centers should also leverage survey information to identify the customer’s perspective in determining if agents require help or further training and, if so, in what areas.

• Do I have the right training content to act and improve customer service – for example, to ensure that agents are more knowledgeable and can answer questions and solve issues more quickly?

Supervisor Coaching and Training Tools
Once you deliver the KPI and quality results to the supervisors, they must have the means to act upon the results to make adjustments and improvements. Contact centers should evaluate their supervisor tools and processes to identify the following:

• Do my tools provide my supervisor with crucial KPIs in real time?

• Can I alert supervisors when contact center events occur that exceed defined thresholds?

• Does my contact center provide the tools for monitoring, coaching, and training centralized or virtual teams?

• Do my supervisors have an efficient and non-invasive way to deliver coaching, through presence/chat systems?

• Do supervisor tools support centralized and virtual teams, as required?

• Do I provide my supervisors with pre-defined training content or the ability to easily create and deliver training content (i.e. example calls, etc.)?

The Importance of Integration
These tools are not new; many contact centers use monitoring, quality management and desktop applications. Without integration between workforce optimization solutions and agent workflows, however, these tools can clutter the contact center staff’s desktop and actually impair improvements – even leading to information gaps or conflicting data.

By carefully evaluating workflows and processes, contact centers should strive to attain a single, comprehensive view of the customer experience and of contact center performance, enabling agents to better understand and address customer issues. The result will be more positive and consistent interactions, shorter wait times and increased first call resolution, leading to satisfied customers and increased brand loyalty.

The bottom line is that focusing on customer satisfaction metrics and processes can help you make sound decisions – particularly in a tough economy – as to where your time and dollars will be best spent investing in technology or determining how to better leverage the technology you already own.