Contact centres and customer support are among the most promising areas of BI implementation today. Research suggests that BI is the no.1 most in-demand technology feature among contact centre executives, and it has enabled agents to provide a better CX in over 50% of cases. The benefits of BI in a contact centre environment ranges from operational efficiency to more engaging experiences, resulting in both bottom-line savings and top-line revenues.
Unfortunately, BI adoption in contact centres is still below average, according to research by BI-survey.com. Just 31% of service departments use business intelligence, compared to 84% in finance, 68% in management, and 62% in sales. To correct this, contact centres must reassess their operations and identify potential gains in five key areas.
- Maintain service levels in peak periods
Business intelligence is a central component of demand forecasting and staffing. It leverages historical traffic patterns, seasonal data, upcoming event calendars, and other variables to predict the potential traffic demand on a specific day and the resources needed to attend to service requests without long queues or call abandonment. Business intelligence also prevents contact centres from being overstaffed, anticipating lull periods.
Efficiency gains: Avoid lost opportunity costs from abandoned calls. Reduce labour costs by preventing overstaffing.
- Keep a watch on agent satisfaction and engagement
Business intelligence applies to internal operations, just as it can transform customer-facing tasks. By monitoring agent performance, productivity, and involvement in activities like training and gamification, you would be able to identify disengagement before it becomes a problem. Given that turnover is a major problem for contact centres and it takes between $10-$20k to onboard a new agent, agent satisfaction must be a top priority.
Efficiency gains: Reduce turnover costs and losses from declining productivity.
- Leverage customer intelligence for predictive routing
Business intelligence can improve CX by matching callers with the right agent. To achieve this, the BI tool studies CRM data and IVR information, evaluating current resource availability to route the call to the agent most likely to achieve a first-time resolution (FTR). It can also help in customer prioritisation, in case the caller has a high CLV.
Efficiency gains: Increase customer lifetime value (CLV) by delivering better CX.
- Analyse occupancy rates and productivity
Agent productivity and overall contact centre capacity analysis is among the primary applications of BI you need to remember. Occupancy rate indicates the portion of time agents are spending on work-related tasks, mapped against their entire workday. A low occupancy means you have a high number of idle hours, which is an indication of possible overstaffing. Or, if there are long queues despite low occupancy, you might need to reconfigure your rioting systems.
Efficiency gains: Minimise agent idle time and reduce your cost per call.
- Identify channel expansion opportunities
This is a high-level application of BI in a contact centre, one that can accrue significant ROI over time. By studying channel traffic patterns and customer feedback, you can identify potential areas of channel expansion like adding a new chatbot or optimising the mobile app.
Efficiency gains: Shrink call volumes and reduce labour requirements.
