BUSINESSES ... NEED TO BE SET UP TO RESPOND TO CUSTOMERS IN A SEAMLESS WAY IN WHATEVER CHANNEL THEY CHOOSE .
AGENT EMPOWERMENT
ILLUSTRATION PROVIDED BY ADOBE STOCK
GUIDING
CUSTOMERS ON THEIR JOURNEYS HOW AI CAN ASSIST AGENTS ASSIST CUSTOMERS .
BY BRIAN PETERSON , DIALPAD
Businesses with contact center operations are facing a core challenge . Namely customers ’ service expectations keep rising , but the agents whose job it is to keep them happy often lack the right tools , resources , and training to serve them well .
One recent survey found that 83 % of support teams are seeing customer expectations increase in 2023 compared to 75 % a year earlier . But just 40 % of respondents said they were confident in meeting those expectations .
40 CONTACT CENTER PIPELINE
Breakdowns between customer expectations and contact centers ’ abilities to deliver occur in several ways .
· Customers get placed on long holds while agents search for information or escalate calls to managers .
· The explosion of channels that customers use to contact businesses has added another layer of complexity and potential for frustration .
Businesses , then , need to be set up to respond to customers in a seamless way in whatever channel they choose .
At the same time , contact centers are struggling to monitor and improve agent performance . The post-COVID-19 pandemic reality of remote contact center teams has made monitoring and supporting staff exponentially more difficult for managers . They can no longer walk the floor to respond to a raised hand . They can ’ t sit next to an agent and coach them through a call .
BUSINESSES ... NEED TO BE SET UP TO RESPOND TO CUSTOMERS IN A SEAMLESS WAY IN WHATEVER CHANNEL THEY CHOOSE .