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Customer care in the post-pandemic world has taken some interesting twists and turns. The rise in digital interactions has forever altered the agent experience and customer expectations, making the jobs of contact center managers and supervisors harder than ever before. Their days are spent juggling business goals and metrics with rising customer—and agent—demands. It’s a delicate tightrope walk, and recent research shows that it’s only getting more difficult to balance the evolving needs of customers, agents and business decision-makers.
From a customer experience standpoint, not only are customer expectations higher than ever, but customers are also adapting to customer service across channels. According to a recent survey and article by McKinsey on the current state of customer care, call volumes are set to rise by 20% across all age groups (Gen Z, Millennials, Gen X and Baby Boomers) this year alone. The findings also show that more than 70% of customers are likely to talk to an agent.
+70%
of customers
are likely to talk to an agent
While that puts added pressure on contact centers to get their customer experience right, it’s also a massive opportunity to grow customer loyalty and advocacy. According to a report by Forrester, customers are 10 times more likely to recommend a brand and 2.4 times less likely to churn after connecting with an employee who answers all questions and quickly solves problems. Of course, seizing that opportunity depends on how well agents perceive their experience—and how likely they are to stay onboard.
From an agent experience perspective, Gartner’s research points out that the industry is still grappling with an annual agent turnover rate of more than 30%. Worse still, only 1 in 3 customer service reps feel that they are engaged in their jobs. The cause? Lack of on-the-job support. According to the research, 65% of agents are seeking more on-the-job training and coaching and better growth opportunities.
65%
of agents
are seeking better growth opportunities.
However, rising customer expectations and sinking agent engagement are only part of the story. From a business standpoint, leaders have been increasingly focused on pivoting their contact centers from being cost centers to revenue generators. That adds another layer of pressure as contact center leaders must consider financial goals alongside customer experience and agent performance benchmarks.
Given the high stakes and the multiple priorities and stakeholders that contact center supervisors must handle, there is a definite need for a “Manager Application” that focuses on where these multidimensional requirements converge. While this Manager Application must be able to handle complexities, it also needs to be simple to configure and use. Because agent conversations (across multiple channels) form the bulk of the customer conversations in a contact center, one of the ways to enable such an application is by building/integrating it within the agent guidance system using AI.
This approach not only unburdens agents from having multiple widgets and tools on their work screen, but it also enables a more holistic agent guidance solution that includes real-time guidance, supervisor coaching, automation and agent well-being—a major improvement over traditional solutions that offer only provisioned automation or coaching.
When considering what makes an effective Manager Application, managers should look at how it can empower them to impact three key areas: agent experience, customer experience and contact center operations. Let’s dive a little deeper into each of these.
Agent experience
A Manager Application can impact the agent experience in two main ways:
Quicker onboarding
Research shows that the average industry turnover rate is roughly 38%, implying that, to maintain a full staff, one out of every three contact center agents will be new. Consequently, agent onboarding and ramp-up times become an important aspect of agent experience that managers must handle. A Manager Application, embedded within the agent guidance solution, can shorten this time. By enabling the ability to monitor live calls, tracking the different kinds of alerts agents get in real-time and facilitating manager alerts when critical infractions (such as compliance or agent complaints) occur, the Manager Application can help managers support new agents and get them up and running sooner.
Customized coaching
Organizations are increasingly focused on upskilling, reskilling and provisioning customized coaching for their customer service agents. Here, a Manager Application can help:
- Identify where agents struggle based on the alerts that show up and on their call handling metrics, such as AHT or silence times. As a result, supervisors can tailor coaching programs based on where the agent needs help.
- Measure progress before and after training by comparing performance metrics over the appropriate time periods.
Customer experience
A Manager Application can play a vital role in improving the overall customer experience. By providing the ability to monitor calls in real time, chime in during difficult conversations or intervene when necessary, a Manager Application gives the supervisor better control and visibility over customer conversations and enables them to proactively help struggling agents in the moment. This capability can impact key metrics like average handle time (AHT) and first contact resolution (FCR) that influence customer perceptions and, consequently, influence CSAT and NPS scores.
Contact center business operations
On the business side, a Manager Application can help managers keep a pulse on operations and gain deeper visibility into call center operations. Purpose-built manager dashboards—which can drill down to individual agent performance or zoom out to overall AHT, FCR and Sales performance—give visibility into everything that agents do and help managers stay on top of their business operations. They also enable managers to identify performance gaps, service bottlenecks and other areas for improvement and take corrective measures as needed.
Does your agent guidance system have a manager application?
If not, you’re only seeing part of what’s happening in your contact center. Fortunately, Uniphore can help. As part of the U-Assist real-time agent guidance solution, the manager application feature gives supervisors complete visibility—and interaction capabilities—throughout their contact center operations. Using a unified dashboard that tracks key metrics, monitors agent conversations and provides real-time alerts when a compliance infraction occurs, the solution allows contact center leaders to take meaningful action when it counts the most—during the customer interaction.
Want to learn more?
Our product experts can show you how the U-Assist Manager Application works, including dashboards, navigation and more.