How can you solve the most common contact center problems?

1. Effective implementation of technology

In order for contact centers to work at an optimal level, they need to use up to date technology. However, It can be very hard to choose a good option for a contact center due to the overwhelming amount of options on the market. Over time, a lot of contact centers have implemented different systems. Back in the days the only communication channel was the telephone. Nowadays, different communication channels are available and call centers changed into contact centers by adding those channels. The communication channels all came with their own software system. As a result, nowadays, companies are overwhelmed by all the different functions each communication system has. In order to make things structured it is recommended to get one system that integrates all the different communication systems.  For example, a good solution would be a cloud-based integration system. Those systems offer a good overview and give contact center managers control over every communication channel.

2. Lack of skills

Contact centers often fail to increase their quality due to employees' lack of skills. Here are some things that you can do:

• Use efficient technology. 3Fiftynine offers multiple easy to use software services that will make it easier for employees to access information. Employees will have to know less because the program does all the hard work. The only thing employees have to do is click-through to the right information. This replaces the training that every employee needs with one easy-to-use product for the whole team.
• Ask your customers for feedback; what do they think is lacking? This way you will be customer centered and you know for sure that the problems  they assess are the most important to fix.
• Look into your key performance indicators (KPI’s); are you doing it right? Are there other KPI’s you should look at? This is also depended on customer research. Find a way to communicate those (new) KPI’s to your employees. Let them know where the focus is. One way to easily display those KPI’s is with CardBoard. This add-on wall-display system is designed to show those KPI’s with the purpose to effectively increase awareness to employees. This, in turn, will be beneficial both to the customer and the employee.

3. Agent attrition

Another common problem is agent attrition. Being an agent in a contact center isn’t always easy. It is often a high-pressure job with little upward mobility. The result: dissatisfied employees. In fact, employee turnover in the contact center world is between 30 and 40 percent, compared to the overall average of 15 percent. To keep your employees happy this is what you could do.

• Give new employees the adequate training they need. They should to know the basis of your company. What is it you do and what type of customers do you have? In order to give your customers the best possible service, you need to make the knowledge of your staff is up to date. Train your team regularly. This will prepare your agents and avoid confusion. Which in turn leads to happier employees.
• Don’t overload your team with information. They need to be able to process the information giving in training. To support the team, you can have a look at supporting knowledge software for contact centers. At 3Fiftynine, we’ve created Branches with contact center agents in mind. It replaces long and intensive trainings with easy to use software that will support agents with answering questions.
• Let employees focus on qualitative metrics like customer satisfaction instead of quantitative metrics like handling time. That way when agents are communicating, they are focusing on the quality of the service. This will lead to agents being more emotionally connected to the customer.

4. Absenteeism and lack of engagement

Frequently absent agents rise costs for contact centers. In fact, employees in contact centers are 10% more absent than the average worker. Usually, the contact center agent is there for a part time job. It is often hard to find long working agents. The average work time at a contact center is 2.7 years.

The problem is that employees feel a lack of engagement. In fact, 86% of contact center employees feel that they don’t have the resources or authority to efficiently deal with customer needs. They have a feeling that they are nonessential to the company, unnoticed and that their company doesn’t want to invest in them. To resolve this, place contact center agents more central in your business. Make them aware what your company stands for. Try to make the contact center a place where employees can speak freely about concerns. Ask them to think along when new ideas are needed for training sessions or improvements. This will make them feel involved and part of the business. Invest in your contact center. If you do this successfully, contact center agents will be more motivated to help customers and be less absent. This will in turn deliver your company happier customers. And that is what a contact center is all about in the end.

General solution: Invest in self-service

40% of customers prefer self-service over human contact. Self-service has the following benefits for the customer:

• Opening hours are 24/7. The customer can access self-service when and where he wants.
• The customer gets direct and adequate help, with no queue.
• Constant quality
• The customer is in control of what happens and how.

There are certain types of self-service communication channels like IVR menus, automated E-mails, chatbots, and web transactions. People all get help with these tools, but no human will be in direct contact with you.

Summary

In order to keep your customers happy, it is necessary to have a good working contact center. However, with contact center there are some big common problems that appear almost everywhere. Those problems are:

• Struggles to effectively implement technology
• Lack of skills of your contact center team
• Agent attrition
• Absenteeism and lack of engagement

In order to resolve these problems, it is worth the consideration to invest in self-service. Self-service is a modern approach to answer question of customers. It doesn’t only take stress of the contact center team but is also demanded from the customer itself.