Hybrid working is in the news almost every day. Some of the biggest employers in the world have already announced permanent “work anywhere” strategies. Now research reveals that only 6.93% of contact centre leaders plan on bringing most of their staff back to the office.
This trend holds significant importance when customer experience agents are concerned. With buyers becoming increasingly selective in how, where and when they spend money over the course of the pandemic, delivering strong CX (customer experience) is crucial to winning and keeping customers.
Last year, the industry analyst Gartner predicted that customer experience would become the key differentiator for consumer and business buyers – and this prophecy has come true.
Businesses that had not invested in new CX tech at the start of last year found themselves in a dire situation, with frustrated customers not being able to get through, and contact centre agents themselves feeling demotivated.
From Cost Centre to Value Centre
The more careful nature of consumer spending is coupled with a desire from businesses to get more out
of their current crop of agents. Many organisations are now choosing to invest in their existing employees’ performance, rather than going down the costly route of recruiting new staff, according to Martin Taylor, Deputy CEO and Co-Founder of contact centre technology provider, Content Guru.
“We are living through a period of uncertainty, and contact centres are looking to keep costs as low as possible while adapting to the evolving digital landscape,” Taylor continues.
“Rather than expanding their workforce, businesses are looking at how to gain more value from existing employees. Just as the pandemic forced them to analyse, and therefore realise, the benefits of improving employee experience, so organisations are looking to invest in technology that assists agents and enables them to work more efficiently, quickly and effectively.
“The focus is now on tech that can enhance employee experience just as much as CX.”
Taylor said that the home working revolution has taken the CX industry out of its comfortable, closely monitored environment. The sector is now in uncharted waters, with workforces dispersed and employees demanding more flexibility in their working lives.
Homeworking and productivity are often viewed as synonymous nowadays. But a study by Harvard Business Review found that contact centre workers who participated in in-person guided meetings saw a 24% increase in sales productivity. For any organisation looking to make a distributed working model permanent, a significant investment must be made to ensure that remote collaboration and communication techniques are properly effective.