Unlocking Customer Engagement Through an Enhanced Agent Experience

In a previous blog post, we discussed how a solid customer engagement plan starts with an engaged workforce. In the contact center, this means agents who are not only armed with the right tools, training, and technology to best serve customers in every single interaction, but who are focused on building long-term, loyal relationships with customers.

As any contact center manager knows, engaging and keeping those agents is easier said than done. It involves continual evaluation to implement best practices, taking conscious steps to reduce employee churn, and proactively implementing tactics to keep agents engaged and motivated.

At first glance, that may seem a bit overwhelming, but with a little help from Calabrio technology, you can start moving in the right direction of building great agent relationships so they can build even better ones with your customers.

Here’s How to Focus on Your Agents

1. Implement Best Practices

Traditionally, analytics have been used to identify customer behavior patterns in data so brands can improve the customer experience, but they’re also key to implementing agent best practices across the contact center. Perhaps you have one agent who consistently resolves calls quickly or has very few repeat inquiries. While this information is a great start, the big question on any manager’s mind is always, “Why?”

With Calabrio Analytics, you can get to the heart of that question – and quickly. Speech analytics can identify conversation topics as well as words and phrases that are most effective, and desktop analytics will tell you which resources the agent utilizes during a call. When that information is melded together, you can gain a complete view of the reasons behind an agent’s success and share those best practices with the rest of the team.

2. Focus on Reducing Employee Churn

Agent churn is a worry for every contact center manager, and rightfully so. It costs more to hire and train a new team member than it does to invest in an existing one. To help keep your current team together, the most important thing you can do is to quickly identify the signs of a disheartened agent and take active steps to reengage.

Calabrio ONE’s agent activity data will help you spot those red flags so you can develop an action plan to prevent the person from seeking employment elsewhere. Maybe there’s an agent who shows little or no activity in the last five to ten minutes of a shift, or the data indicates a surge in dissatisfied customers. When these types of patterns emerge, you can immediately address the issues and guide that agent back on the path to success.

3. Keep an Engaged Staff

When it comes to keeping agents engaged, it’s about more than just heading off potential issues. It’s about proactive implementation of the kinds of perks and programs that motivate the entire contact center team, which often revolves around flexibility.

With Calabrio Workforce Management, you can implement performance-based scheduling and self-service options, which allow agents to make shift and vacation requests, access schedules, and view performance metrics. When agents feel valued and like they have a voice in the department, they’re more likely to exude that during interactions with customers.

At Calabrio, we know that an engaged workforce is the key to fostering the types of interactions that create loyal customers. We’ve built our technology around this belief and we’ve seen our customers benefit from transforming the agent experience.

Want to know more about creating the right agent experience? We’d love to connect with you!  Click here to contact us.

Brad Snedeker

Brad Snedeker is the Director of Customer Advocacy at Calabrio. With over 15 years in the industry, Brad has extensive knowledge of the contact center space. As Calabrio’s head of the Innovation Center, he works directly with users to teach and develop new and innovative techniques to implement customer engagement and WFO best practices.