Contact centers have quickly become more strategic about performance enhancement processes within their organizations. They bridge the gap between an organization and its customers. Essentially, contact centers are primarily set up to handle inbound and outbound communication with existing and prospective customers. Contact centers are the first touch point for customers when learning more about a company’s services and capabilities. These interactions also give customers a way to share valuable feedback with agents during these calls.
With the volume of interactions managed by call centers, there are massive amounts of data generated on a daily basis. This data is mainly generated from recorded customer interactions, i.e. calls, live chat, emails, and social media responses. Collecting data without analyzing it is pointless, however, being able to gather insights into those interactions has proven very valuable.
Data analytics is vital as it converts data into meaningful insights that call for actionable steps to improve campaign and agent performance. This process is crucial in understanding customer experience, desires, and expectations. Analyzing such a huge amount of data can be difficult, but with proper systems and techniques in place, we can make data actionable.
Investing in effective contact center technologies and proper data analytics systems is critical for enhancing the overall organizational performance.
How to Improve Contact Center Performance
Contact centers act as the link between customers and companies. Strengthening this connection will ensure that the customers’ expectations are met and possibly exceeded. By contact centers providing their services, companies benefit by establishing customer loyalty, increasing their customer base, and increased profits, which is the end goal of most profit-making businesses. There are various ways in which we can improve contact center performance. Below are a few:
1. Identifying Key Trends
Do you know your customers’ expectations? If yes, is that expectation backed by data? Organizations tend to monitor trends without analyzing data, which then leads to customer frustration. With the help of analytics, organizations can determine exact trends and behaviors, driving positive customer experience. Therefore, organizations can coach agents on those critical behaviors and improve overall customer satisfaction.
2. Integrated Agent Coaching
Call centers should heavily invest in training its team members on best practices and procedures that provide the best results. Once you identify critical behaviors which lead to success, organizations can build custom training programs, for consistent performance improvement. Training should also be continuous to keep people in the loop on new skills, systems, and techniques to ease their jobs and make them more competent.
3. Compliance by Law
In every state or country, there are set laws and guidelines put in place by a regulatory body that contact centers must adhere to. Those guidelines help to safeguard peoples’ information and protect their right to privacy. However, failure to comply by these guidelines comes at a cost, including huge penalties and negatively affecting any brand.
Therefore, it is extremely important for brands to maintain the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of customers’ personal, information. By properly storing data using security controls, organizations can adhere to compliance laws and ensure there are no data breaches.
4. Working Motivation Systems
D.Chicu et al., in their research on the influence of the human factor on customer satisfaction in contact centers, highlighted how challenging working in contact centers can be. Team members need to perform various tasks, almost effortlessly, to maintain service quality, satisfy customers, and call resolution, while managing the call queue. As a result, the working environment can be very challenging for team members, leading to high-stress levels and increased absenteeism.
Organizations must create effective motivation systems, to improve the working environment of these team members, by allowing more flexibility in working hours. Team leaders can also create Workforce Management plans to make swapping shifts easier for team members.
According to Martin Hill-Wilson, founder of Brainfood Consulting, applying intrinsic motivation fuels team members toward better performances. He explains it as a psychological process that emphasizes team members having a sense of purpose so they can find meaning in the work they are doing. Having this mindset will give front-line team members the energy and motivation to go the extra mile, even during those times they might not feel like it.
5. Call Monitoring and Sharing Best Practices
Team leaders should strive to make their members better equipped to handle difficult situations. Call monitoring is a vital tool that can help train agents on how to overcome customer objections. Organizations must build a library of Dos and Don’ts during calls, that can serve as a live example.
We also need to look into how unstructured data can be structured and analyzed to benefit the organization for enhancing its performance. For example, converting data into helpful information provides insights about customers or your targeted audiences to help improve predictions regarding consumer needs and expectations.
Call center data analytics can influence organizational performance in various ways such as:
Improved decision making
Companies can utilize insights generated from data analytics to make well-informed decisions that lead to better outcomes. Data analysis provides accurate information regarding customers’ preferences.
Moreover, with advanced technology, a company can consistently fine-tune their customer engagement processes to ensure those practices are always updated based on changing trends and the needs of customers.
Increased customer satisfaction
Contact center data analytics help obtain information that can help a company better serve its customers by providing personalized information that enables companies to tailor their customers’ preferences, according to their needs. Having those insights helps agents provide customers with an effortless experience.
When customers are satisfied, companies can maximize profits, increase its customer base and improve customer loyalty, simultaneously.
Improved Operational efficiency
Data analytics gets the work done by converting data into insightful information. Having insights into what the customers are wanting, needing, and thinking helps to streamline the processes, saving time and money, which is a goal of every business. With the right data analytics, companies can be clear on what their customer’s expectations and provide exactly what is needed, which in turn reduces production costs and time.
Want to Enhance Performance Using Your Contact Centre Data?
Call center data analytics significantly impacts performance enhancement. Are you looking for a company to help you achieve this and more? Look no further because QEval has got you covered. We believe in improving customer experience that transcends to better organizational performance in the long run.
