Metrigy has revealed that most contact centers are fully staffed for the first time since its records began seven years ago.
The US-based customer experience research firm shared the finding in an infographic – which highlights how 58 percent of service operations now have the necessary staffing.
That represents a massive ten percent jump from 2022.
Interestingly, Metrigy notes that the “biggest driver” of this trend is the rise in AI-powered agent-assist technologies, revealing that contact centers leveraging the technology are 20 percent more likely to be fully staffed.
This year, these agent-assist technologies have received lots of TLC from contact center vendors, augmenting them with generative AI and inspiring new, exciting use cases.
That said, other forms of AI are likely helping out, including virtual agents and RPA. As Robin Gareiss, CEO of Metrigy, said:
Companies didn’t suddenly find new agents. Rather, AI is making existing agents more productive, reducing the need for new hires.
Gareiss also suggests that companies not using AI will hire 2.3 times the number of new agents throughout 2023.
Yet, many other significant factors have contributed to the staffing uptick.
One excellent example is rising salaries, with fully staffed contact centers paying – on average – $3 to $4 an hour more than those understaffed.
Meanwhile, Metrigy also revealed how contact centers have widened their recruitment pools.
Indeed, 55 percent of companies are hiring agents with new skill sets. Those range from product-specific knowledge to tech experience and sales backgrounds.
According to Metrigy, the most significant drivers of this change include new products requiring new expertise, a desire to improve customer ratings, and the increasing complexity of contact center work. Much of that stems from a rise in AI and bots handling many of the most basic questions.
However, perhaps most interestingly, the “agent” definition has expanded in line with the trend. Indeed, 47 percent of companies allow employees outside the contact center to support agents in solving issues. Among those companies, nearly 30 percent of employees are helping when needed.
The rise in tight contact center integrations with UCaaS platforms, like Microsoft Teams, has proven a core enabler here – spreading CCaaS tools across the enterprise.
So too has the development in predictive routing technologies, more accurately understanding customer intent and filtering many of the more simple queries to agents outside of the central contact center hub.
As a result, contact centers are becoming more specialized knowledge hubs and changing their longstanding “cost center” perceptions.
As Staffing Levels Rise, So Does CSAT
In line with rising staffing levels, The American Customer Satisfaction Index (ASCI) recorded its largest increase in CSAT levels in 15 years during the second quarter of 2023. That comes after a prolonged period of decline.
Sharing the reasons for that persistent drop, the ASCI stated: “There has been a stronger demand for labor, often unfilled, which has led to a decline in services and longer waiting lines, thus leading to weaker customer satisfaction.”
Now, if contact centers manage to maintain reasonable staffing levels, hopefully, they can start to bring customer service experience back in line with customer expectations.
Already, the ASCI has recognized the positive step forward. Meanwhile, when releasing the results, the organization noted improvements in accessible support information and – to a lesser extent – social media services.
That said, 33 percent of contact centers still report that they are severely understaffed, and – in recent months – Microsoft released a damning report of UK waiting times.
However, Metrigy’s findings – alongside the CSAT uptick – offer some hope, driven by AI, UCaaS integrations, and changing views of the contact center agent role.
