Calabrio’s latest research has unearthed a number of insights into the current state of the contact center agent experience.
With so much of the customer service and experience sector focused on KPIs and the latest efficiency-boosting tech solutions, the people working in the industry trenches are often overlooked.
In failing to consider agent satisfaction, contact centers risk increased turnover, absenteeism, and burnout.
In its Voice of the Agent study, Calabrio surveyed over 500 European contact center agents to unpack the trends and challenges affecting agents in their day-to-day work lives.
Arguably, the most surprising revelations in the report revolved around how agents viewed their roles, with 70 percent claiming that they would recommend their jobs to others.
In addition, 64 percent confirmed that they were proud to work in a contact center, while 66 percent advised that they were satisfied with their jobs.
These figures seem at odds to traditional views of contact center work.
Indeed, in a conversation with CX Today, Calabrio’s Vice President of Solution Engineering, Ed Creasey, discussed what he considers to be a perception shift in contact center careers.
“I was an agent in the 1990s, so this has probably been the most revealing research I've worked on,” Creasey said.
“I would say until relatively recently, being an agent was regarded as monotonous and stressful.”
For Creasey, the contact center he experienced as an agent was a “brutal” work environment of high call volumes and over 90 percent occupancy rates, leaving the agents with little breathing room.
The result? A high-stress, low-paid job with demanding customers, little training, and minimal recognition.
So, what’s changed?
The Contact Center Reimagined
Positioning Creasey’s contact center experiences from the 90s alongside the results of Calabrio’s 2024 research, highlights just how much has changed in the sector in the last 25-30 years.
Obviously, technological advancements have played a huge part in this. Centers these days are a long way removed from the phone-heavy environments of yesteryear.
Today, agents are far more tech savvy, with their roles necessitating the use of a wide range of tools and features to interact with customers across multiple channels.
More recently, AI – particularly generative AI (GenAI) – has come to the forefront of the customer service and experience tech space.
And while there can be a tendency to assume this will be some sort of magic bullet innovation, Calabrio’s study warns against overreliance on AI.
Indeed, of those surveyed, 56 percent did not find AI helpful in their daily tasks.