COVID-19 has of course changed the manner in which the entire globe now works, shifting employees from the office-based environment we’ve all grown so accustomed to, to remote working environments.
These environments can be particularly challenging for a number of reasons – they’re where many have been forced to home school their children, share spaces with their spouses and suffer internet connection issues.
There now exists, even more than ever, a trend between CX (customer experience) and EX (employee experience) due to the pandemic. The key to ensuring both experiences are positive ones, is to encourage human-centric behaviours in companies.
Adaptability is key
Business leaders should put both employees and customers at the centre of their objectives. In order to achieve this, a certain level of adaptability is required. Adapting is essentially the ability to problem solve, and problem solvers make fantastic agents. These are highly skilled employees with a desire to solve problems efficiently and empathetically. These are also people with mindsets who should be able to better generate adoption with the solutions they create. Hiring these types of personalities is essential for the CX/EX balance but more often than not, their personas can be infectious meaning established employees can learn from them and… you guessed it, adapt.
Less Really is More
Simplifying options may feel alien to organisations, but having too many options for customers not only puts agents under additional pressure to meet CX requirements but can also be overwhelming for customers. During these periods of high stress, as your consumers and employees face multiple external complications and uncertainties mentioned above, business leaders must look at ways to simplify your offerings or processes accordingly.
Feedback Worth its Weight in Gold
When your business responds to the needs of human beings leaders end up creating products and services people love. Feedback is vital and every single customer should be asked if the agent could help with anything else on the call or whether they’d like to take part in a short survey. Agents know they’re being monitored and will therefore be encouraged to perform at their best and the customer gets the best possible experience while the business is fed ways it can consistently improve. Everyone’s a winner.
To summarise, it may well be years before firms even begin discussing a return to the office. And many simply will not want to, despite vaccine rollout efforts. Remote working provides a reduction in business costs and a better work-life balance for agents if applied correctly. And these are just two examples.
Business leaders should encourage their employees to adapt to what many have dubbed ‘the new normal’. For as time goes on, our old ways of working will be nothing more than a thing of the past.
