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From Contact Center To Command Center: How To Finally Realize The Value Of Analytics

by Donald Greco, Executive Director, Unify - September 27, 2016

From Contact Center to Command Center: How to Finally Realize the Value of Analytics
By Donald Greco, Executive Director, Unify
 
Analytics. For years, big data and analytics have been technology buzzwords that are supposed to revolutionize the way companies interact with their customers, yet many organizations still fail to see return on their investment. Even though companies have data, simply possessing mountains of information doesn’t necessarily equal intelligence. According to a recent study, action and change management, as well as solution approach and design, were the top two barriers to achieving strong business outcomes using analytics –  and the contact center is no exception. All of this rolls up into one thing: application. The buzz around analytics is there for good reason because, when applied correctly, analytics can transform the customer experience. If the contact center truly wants to use analytics to improve the customer experience, it must shift its focus away from being managed as a traditional contact center and transform to operate as a command center.
 
Analytics and the Contact Center
 
Contact centers have typically focused measurement directives around limited benchmarks such as first call resolution and call duration. While that data is helpful, it doesn’t actually identify the reasons behind customer calls that drive organizational change and business outcomes, both in the contact center and across the company. Contact centers have typically lagged behind when it comes to technology implementation, and it’s often the last frontier for an analytics solution. However, the contact center fields hundreds, if not thousands, of calls every day, meaning it’s more than just a complaint resolution department; it’s an epicenter of direct contact with customers and a deep well of data about consumer and agent behavior – and brands must design solutions around the application of analytics in order to see the true value of that behavior data. It’s this behavior data that will allow a contact center to train and manage agents so they can, in turn, effectively cultivate customer relationships by delivering the right experience through better, more personalized service.
 
Agent Analytics   
 
The first step toward operating a command center is applying analytics to agent behavior. There is profound value in understanding agent behavior, and applying analytics to the contact center workforce provides a window of insight into employee engagement levels and training needs. By analyzing the behavior of high performing agents, brands can identify successful training methods and resources and implement these practices across the department to elevate the entire contact center team. Conversely, organizations can also use analytics to connect certain behaviors with employee turnover, such as agents consistently returning late from breaks. When a company understands the indicators of a disengaged employee, managers can take the necessary steps to help train and reengage, which will ultimately decrease churn and lower the cost associated with frequently hiring new employees.  
 
Technology Integration
 
For a contact center to truly make the transformation into a command center, it must take an integrated approach to technology and use analytics insights from across the organization. By putting the right tools in place to categorize agent skills and strengths, and integrating that information with workforce management systems, the contact center can harness the well of information to ensure that every customer is routed to the best agent to handle a particular query. When skillset information is married with technology such as heat maps that visualize the location of inbound calls and times received, or with predictive capabilities that identify increased staffing needs due to marketing campaigns or product launches, brands can ensure that the right agents with the right skills are ready and operating in the time zones where customers need them most. Not only will this guard against a team of agents being overwhelmed by call volume, they’ll have the right team of trained experts available to deepen relationships to both increase customer loyalty and decrease churn.
 
The Customer Journey
 
One of the most important parts of contact center transformation is its ability to transform its perception of itself. That is when the contact center will evolve into the role of a command center that delivers strong business outcomes. Rather than operating as a silo, the contact center must acknowledge its place as an important part along the customer journey, and that data must be linked with and used across the entire organization. Using pattern identification, the command center can garner a thorough understanding of customer sentiments and actions around products, services, packaging, logistics, and marketing efforts. When that information is shared with and contextualized against data from other departments, a much more complete view of the customer journey emerges.
 
For a contact center to evolve into a command center, brands must refocus the lens to view it as a valuable arm of the organization that is rich in data and customer insights. In order to cultivate those insights, it starts with cultivating the right agent experience. By gleaning insights about agent behavior and understanding various skillsets, brands can take action to re-engage employees and reduce churn. By taking an integrated approach to technology and designing processes around the broader customer journey, the contact center can transcend the traditional stereotype to become a hub of information that, when indexed and applied correctly, operates as a command center of imperative information.
 
 
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