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While innovations in contact center technology have transformed the industry during the past decade, when it comes to contact center operations, people are still your most important asset. The organizations most recognized for providing exceptional service are those that have employees who are both proud of their brand and dedicated to making their customers happy. The impact of your employees cannot be understated. In fact, it’s fair to say that your employee engagement drives your customer experience (CX).
It is true that in today’s digital age, simple actions and queries are more likely to be managed through self-service channels. However, this doesn’t mean that the need for contact center agents is diminishing. Agents are now handling a larger volume of escalated issues and complaints that can’t be resolved via non-voice interactions. This challenge is compounded by the fact that customers are increasingly using multiple channels during their journeys and are sharing their experiences and complaints publicly on social media channels. In other words, interactions are more complex than ever, and customers are becoming more demanding while also exerting greater influence. Making sure your employees are engaged and empowered cannot be considered a secondary concern when it is such a pivotal factor in your overall customer experience.
The Price of Complacency
Yet, many contact centers are experiencing diminishing service levels because they are not effectively supporting their employees’ success. According to the Dimension Data 2015 Global Contact Centre Benchmarking Report, customer satisfaction levels dropped for the fourth consecutive year. It is no coincidence that these levels are decreasing at the same time that contact centers are shifting to digital customer service with greater self-service options. With customer satisfaction still the number one measure of operational performance, not proactively supporting your employees’ ability to manage growing customer expectations is a business decision that can have a profoundly negative financial impact.
Optimizing Employee Engagement
Engaged employees deliver better CX. To make this happen, you need the right set of tools in place to support their efforts, including:
According to Gartner Research, by the end of 2018, 70% of organizations with over 300 contact center agents will have taken an integrated approach to workforce optimization with their next round of technology investments. Because the deployment of effectively trained and motivated agents is so essential to sustaining exceptional CX, organizations not investing in this fundamental aspect of contact center operations will find it increasingly difficult to sustain a competitive advantage.
Helping Save Time and Money
As with any investment in contact center technology, it’s important to look at the operational benefits and the return on investment. When it comes to planning and managing workforce, a growing number of companies using Genesys Workforce Management are achieving measurable results that are driving improved employee engagement along with cost-savings.
This was certainly the case for British Telecom. With more than 6,000 call center advisors dealing with over 200,000 interactions per day, they knew they needed to a better solution for managing shift patterns, training, and scheduling. They chose Genesys Workforce Optimization and Workforce Management solutions, and they were able to streamline workforce planning and training quickly. Along with improving overall service levels, the deployment of the solution resulted in a 10% reduction in average handle time. Automated training management time decreased from three weeks to 25 minutes, and e-learning sessions went from over seven hours to under one hour per day.
Who Should You Choose?
When it comes to investing in a solution to support your employee engagement and overall CX strategy, it’s wise to work with a solution provider that is focused on innovation, financially sound, and currently investing in R&D. At Genesys, we continue to introduce new capabilities while improving existing solutions. This includes our acquisition of best-of-breed speech analytics and leveraging advanced technology to create new analytics-driven quality management capabilities. This commitment to innovation is combined with a long-running, continuing track record of success that has enabled us to help more than 4,700 companies across every industry achieve their CX goals.
Find out more about how Genesys can jumpstart your employee engagement with workforce optimization solutions which are natively integrated into our Customer Experience Platform.
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