The contact centre essentially has one main function, and that is to provide the all-important excellent customer service to drive a brand, business or service. But with talk of the so-called ‘smart contact centre’ making soundwaves, particularly in 2020 when the global COVID-19 pandemic took hold, such call centres and now beginning to evolve. To ensure your contact centre isn’t left behind, let’s take a closer look at what a smart contact centre is and why – like it or – we’re all headed in that direction.
Below are six key points that define a smart contact centre:
- Exerting more influence by creating a right first-time approach. This is done through additional training and investment in agents to allow them to respond to enquiries immediately
- Second guessing is also a factor, which enables issues to be put right that shouldn’t have happened in the first instance
- Shuffling management teams by bringing contact centre agents into a more central position will prompt an exchange on issues encountered, leaving room for all-important resolution
- Integration and data insight are surprisingly similar as more often than not, the information already exists though it may not be easily digestible. To tackle this, transition from data to insight to generate actions
- Self-service reporting tools with the required governance helps by simply creating a single version of the truth, which in turn aids authority
- It’s vital business leaders interact with their agents by exchanging information regarding complaints and issues. This will help stomp out problems faced to enable a speedy and swift response to customers
Why First-Time Culture Matters
So we know the pandemic is the reason smart contact centres are emerging, but there’s more to it than that. Millennials – dubbed the most impatient generation – are another factor as to the evolving contact centre. They, along with Gen Z customers, possess positive attributes of being so hyperconnected that brands are battling tooth and nail to reach out to them. Both generations are namely responsible for a growing impatience that means contact centre agents have had to adopt a first-time right culture. And this impatience is bleeding into the boomer generation and beyond in mirroring their behaviours.
As a result, the smart contact centre will now take a leadership role across many an organisation in giving a right-first-time service to its customers. For example, the contact centre gets a complaint and it too will address the complaint to avoid passing customers from pillar to post.
First time-right tips
- Understand the needs of the customer
- Don’t be afraid to ask questions
- Set clear expectations
- Make sure the customer is kept fully informed throughout contact
- Empathise with the customer
- Follow through on promises that you make
- Ask the customer if there’s anything else you can help with
First Time-Right call rates
If your agents have clocked their your first time-right rate is lower than you think it could be management teams should investigate immediately. There may well be a specific reason or a gap in the agent’s knowledge that could easily be filled with an interaction.
