We are living in a moment when there is more data available to us than ever before and at a time when innovation in technology is making it accessible in ways we've never experienced.
On a surface level, that's exciting. But dig a little deeper and it's easy to become overwhelmed. Nowhere is that truer than in our contact centers, the heartbeat of every customer-centric organization. The sheer volume of data available in contact centers can feel like a double-edged sword. But, if we lean into that challenge and embrace the insights from this data, we can significantly improve the customer experience, boost employee engagement, and increase operational efficiency.
Surfacing the right data at the right time in the right way can provide the confidence to challenge status quo processes and tools. And at the heart of the contact center are two core groups of people: customers and colleagues. This is the perfect time for the industry to ask itself how it can use actionable insights to serve both groups even more effectively.
The Call Centre Management Association (CCMA) recently published research supported by evaluagent entitled "Using Contact Centre Insights To Elevate Customer and Colleague Experience." For this initiative, CCMA spoke with 12 contact center leaders representing a diverse mix of vertical markets to explore the topic of data and insights. The research found that most contact centers are producing prodigious volumes of data to measure customer experience, employee engagement and operational efficiency. Although direct customer feedback from customer surveys is still prized as a valuable source of information, data regarding customer interactions is also captured from voice calls, text chats, online form submissions, search terms, and social media posts. The same is true of employee feedback. Although advisor and staff feedback is still solicited through surveys, data is also collected and measured in training results, attrition rates, occupancy, and utilization.
At this point, it would appear that contact centers are not suffering from a lack of empirical data. If anything, they might be overwhelmed by too much of it. To improve the customer experience, the next step is to turn this data into actionable insights.
Data-led insights are already playing an integral role in guiding operational decisions in the contact center in a variety of ways. As an example, quality assurance (QA) data, which is often compiled via call monitoring and scoring, is often used to optimize operations. In fact, Sarah Leff, operations director at Interact CC, said in the CCMA research initiative, "QA is directly linked to resourcing and budgets. We tend to find that when it's really busy, agents are rushing and QA scores drop. Employee satisfaction and customer satisfaction are linked, and it's all a symptom of resourcing. We can usually use QA, particularly in heavily regulated areas, as a driver to discuss additional resourcing."
That's why, to drive a better customer experience, it's critical to prioritize quality assurance in the contact center and to gain a better understanding of what's going on with every customer interaction across every channel.
Finding the Right Balance Between AI and Human Intelligence
One of the best ways to ensure a superior customer experience is to boost the engagement and performance of contact center agents.
Generative artificial intelligence applications like ChatGPT have understandably generated a great deal of excitement about the prospect of enabling advancements such as quality assurance coverage in the call center. These applications can collect and analyze vast amounts of data and improve operational efficiency by speeding up insights and offering recommendations. As an industry, we are quickly approaching the point where companies are going to have to implement AI-based tools to compete effectively.
But to be clear, generative AI is not a suitable replacement for human oversight. QA teams are always going to be valuable and essential. Generative AI apps can help them to become more effective and productive by automating tasks and helping evaluate process for training and engagement. So getting the human-AI balance right is crucial to success. It needs to be emphasized from the very beginning that AI is not here to replace teams but support them. AI can do much of the manual legwork, but oversight is vital to keeping QA focused and prevents it becoming a tick-box exercise.
A survey by ContactBabel indicates that there has been a significant change in attitude toward AI in the contact center over the past six years. The proportion of businesses believing that AI will replace contact center employees dropped from 60 percent in 2017 to 26 percent at the end of 2022.
Contact center managers who want to use data insights more effectively should do the following:
- Stay focused. Approach data with a clear hypothesis and well-defined objectives. Are you trying to increase speed to resolution? If so, look to data for a clearer understanding of demand volume, reasons, and patterns. Clarifying goals and defining success metrics up front will help you to achieve them. Consider beginning with a small pilot that will allow you to explore a particular issue without derailing your usual processes.
- Train agents and evaluators on the benefits of AI. Make sure agents are comfortable with how AI works and how it can support them. AI can identify out-of-the-box characteristics, such as customer frustration, repeat contact, complaint escalation, and other elements that might require escalation. AI can also suggest coaching tips, enable agents to self-evaluate their own problem areas, and incorporate gamified elements to help with motivation and engagement.
- Integrate contact center insights throughout the business. As any CX professional can confirm, agents in the contact center have a front-row view on the customer experience and a clearer picture of the customer journey than anyone else in the organization. Unfortunately, however, those insights are often trapped within the contact center rather than being put to use in other sectors of the business. To optimize your operation, make sure contact center insights are integrated throughout the business, with the understanding that they provide a valuable window into the customer experience. We need to clearly illustrate that the contact center is a value center, not merely a cost center.
James Marscheider is chief commercial officer at evaluagent.