Twenty years ago, I was working for a company with a large telemarketing team. New marketers started every day and, within an hour of starting their very first shift, they were on the phones making calls like seasoned professionals. Some of these employees were barely old enough to vote; few had any experience in telephone sales yet they had the full confidence of their team leaders because of one simple reason: the almighty agent script.

For all the reverence that was placed on the script, you might think it was some amazing and magical manuscript — filled with the wisdom needed to succeed. In reality, it was much a single-sided photocopied mess of a page that each new starter was given. Photocopied, because the original file had long since been lost. And it was a mess because each new copy had some handwritten scrawl added to it – years of updates and reiterations.

“Hi <person’s name>. My name is <your name>. Are you the owner of the company, and would you like to save money on your phone bill?”

Kudos to the original writer who, 20 years ago, had the forethought to include at least some measure of personalisation. Beyond that, I don’t know how calls progressed much further than the agent’s opening line.

With time, our technology improved. I still see the odd sticky note on a computer screen with short snippets of scripted language, but it’s rare. More commonly, I see agents reaping the benefits of dynamic scripting solutions where the agent is provided the remote party’s name and other relevant details. With so much information available about a company’s consumer base, they should be able to put it to better use.

The scripting function in the Genesys Cloud™ platform lets you empower your agents whilst cutting down on the amount of applications or data sources they need to have open. It’s a simple and easy way to implement all of the above and more.

Think of your script in the Genesys Cloud platform as a blank canvas. If you could start again from scratch, think about the best information you could give to your agents. Here are some ideas.

  • Determine what data you want to collect from your callers in the IVR. If you identify and/or authenticate them, tell your agents that this step is complete and save them 60 seconds or more.
  • Pinpoint how you identify callers. Then provide that data on the screen for your agents and save them time spent searching for it. Better yet, make those fields editable so agents can check records and ensure they’re up to date — data hygiene is worth the extra effort.
  • If you’re using a CRM system, bring up a specific page in that solution — either in a new browser tab or possibly embedded within the script.
  • If help desk is more your thing, identify the caller through an IVR then, when presenting the call to an agent, screen-pop the most recent support ticket details. You also could provide a new ticket form for new or unknown callers.
  • Think about all the tools and knowledge management solutions your agents use. Embed that in a script too, to cut down on the number of applications agents need to have open.
  • If there are complex processes to remember, create multiple pages in a script and have navigation between them to give agents step-by-step instructions. Or use embedded controls to carry out custom actions or call third-party APIs to hook into additional applications.

All these examples look mostly at inbound call scenarios. Historically, scripts have been associated with outbound calls only. But that’s a shame because the scripting functions within Genesys Cloud target many more applications than just outbound calling. And scripts within Genesys Cloud are available for all channels: voice, email, chat, social.

Now more than ever, the customer experience — and the agent experience — are ultimate differentiators in your company’s success. Find out how Genesys Cloud can deliver the difference for all customers, across all channels, all the time.