Benefits of improving your Agent Experience

Your agents are the heart of your contact centre. They manage everything from the day-to-day mundane tasks right through to handling complex customer queries keeping your customers happy and playing a key part in keeping them loyal. With customer service being ranked as one of the most important factors when looking for a provider (86% of buyers are willing to pay more for a great customer experience according to PWC 2018), your agents have potentially the most important role in your business. Supporting these colleagues is crucial, not only through their manager and peers, but also by giving them the right systems and tools to help them perform at their best. Your agents’ job satisfaction should be high on your priority list – it will not only benefit them but your customers and your business as a whole.

Benefits to your agents

Opportunities for growth

During COVID, contact centres agents had their time to shine as contact centres became the main point of contact for most retail stores and customer-serving businesses stores during the pandemic. With more attention and focus, agents were able to quickly progress and take on more responsibility, giving them opportunities to further their careers into specialist, supervisory and managerial roles. These more experienced agents turned supervisors have in-depth knowledge of their teams, your customers and the business – their value to you is increasing. Giving your agents the chance to progress and learn with you is vital – if these opportunities aren’t available, your agents will leave you, seeking a new employer where they can grow and progress.

An easier way to work

Efficiency in customer service is one of the most important aspects to any customer experience according to a customer experience survey and providing your agents with the right tools to offer this is imperative. You can do this by making sure they have the right technology and integration between systems to allow them to access the data and information they need, quickly and easily. Not having information readily available can frustrate your agents, having a knock-on effect to the service they’re providing to your customer.

Flexibility

Creating a better agent work experience by offering other job role perks like hybrid working, flexible working hours and shift management will significantly improve their work:life balance, giving them more time to do the things they love outside of working hours. Remember, creating happier agents means happier customers.

Benefits to your customers

Okay, we get it, happier agents mean happier customers, but so what? Well, with happy customers you’re able to build longer-term loyal relationships where they’re comfortable calling or emailing your team knowing they’ll get a great experience every time. Customers also enjoy building trust with specific individuals who know their account well and understand their requirements – encouraging staff retention will help support that.

Contact centre AI solutions can also help. They can provide simple answers to customers quickly while leaving the more complex requests to the agents themselves. Adding automation and AI into your customer experience in the right way, can provide a quick and easy route for customers who want to self-serve through a knowledgebase or chatbot, while others who want a more personal experience should still have the option to talk to or email a real, live person. Providing the customer with choices is key when it comes to be best possible customer experience.

Benefits to your business

Most successful businesses are built by creating loyal and trustworthy customer relationships. Nurturing these relationships is good for business, attracting an ever-increasing brand following through positive online reviews, recommendations, and testimonials. People value great service, and will happily pay more for it, so if your reputation is good, you’ll be much more likely to keep them.

Productive agents make your managers’ and supervisors’ jobs a whole lot easier, rather than dealing with agents who lack the motivation and passion for the job. Success breeds success, so a good agent experience will increase both team productivity and business better, resulting in improved customer rapport, sales, and a drama-less environment. It’s a win-win for everyone.

Achieving the perfect working environment is not always an easy process and it’s difficult to find the right solution to make it work for every agent and customer. But by making small positive changes in your business you can often make a real boost to team morale, agent loyalty, and overall company culture.

If you enjoyed this blog, check out our other blogs taking about contact centres at our blog page.