Advances in contact centre technology have transformed the work of the customer service agent forever, inspiring an evolution from a reactive responder role to an engaged facilitator of the brand relationship and customer experience. To explore how this shift will continue to evolve as we enter the 2020s, we caught up with Ross Daniels, Strategic Partnerships VP at Calabrio, for his take on the growing role of workforce optimisation as part of the contact centre product.
“Our product aims to give agents a bit of empowerment, control in their day," he said.
"When you have a happy agent, you have a happy customer — and that means quality interactions”
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Ross Daniels[/caption]
The agent is part of a system involving multiple moving parts, and the Calabrio One agent engagement and workforce optimisation suite includes call recording and quality management, forecasting and scheduling tools, and predictive sentiment analysis — leading to continual learning and improvement, just as the tool continues to improve:
“The last piece we added to the suite is a business intelligence reporting tool connected to multiple data sources, for a deeper level of understanding of what’s going on the contact centre or other departments. A lot of times things surface in customer service which are actually a problem in supply chain or marketing or somewhere else”, Daniels explained.
Data unleashed
The theme of interconnectedness of data and removal of silos for optimised performance underpins a trend Daniels highlighted for the customer experience trend of 2020, as we move towards true omni-channel interactions. Reflecting the way customers communicate in real life, to bridge the gaps within the conversation, this functionality is starting to be applied by brands leading the way in customer experience.
Daniels shares a story of contacting his motor insurance company shortly before our conversation, which demonstrates how things are coming together:
