45 percent of contact center agents are now actively avoiding new tools and tech, according to 2023 Gartner research.
The statistic suggests that agents are tired of learning and following new systems and ways of working. While they may be less efficient, agents are continuing to use outdated, legacy tools that they’re more comfortable with, despite the presence of new and advanced solutions.
While CX leaders have the best of intentions in providing new tools, simply trying to force team members to use technology is unlikely to be the answer. After all, for companies to deliver exceptional customer experiences, they first need to ensure their staff members are engaged and supported.
Moreover, pushing team members to adopt new technologies without an adequate strategy or training increases the risk of talent turnover and disengagement.
Not only does this lead to new expenses and problems for business leaders, but it also directly impacts customer satisfaction levels.
Indeed, studies show that when agent turnover rates are lower than 15 percent, customer satisfaction scores increase by an average of 26 percent.
Business leaders need to implement new technologies mindfully to ensure they can increase employee adoption and preserve high levels of staff engagement and satisfaction.
How to Improve Technology Adoption in the Contact Center
As customer expectations and digital solutions evolve, standing still isn’t an option for most contact centers. Businesses need to be able to embrace innovations so that they can deliver the best experiences to their clients. However, leaders must also take a strategic approach to ensure business-wide adoption and preserve employee engagement scores.
Here are a few steps companies can take to boost technology adoption in the contact center.
1. Prioritize Employee Experience
When leveraging new tools for the contact center, it’s natural for business leaders to focus on the impact the solutions might have on the customer experience before anything else. However, great customer experiences can’t survive without excellent employee experiences.
Rather than just thinking about how new technology can benefit customers, business leaders should look at the advantages they can bring to their team members. Taking this approach will ensure that organizations can present new solutions to their team members, focusing on the benefits they can leverage.
For instance, a company implementing a cobrowsing solution into a mobile app can explain to their agents how this new solution will allow them to collect contextual information about client customer issues without leveraging various tools.
Demonstrating how the technology will save employees time while helping them to perform better in their roles will make adoption more likely.
2. Keep Solutions Simple
Today’s contact center employees are dealing with more complex consumer interactions. Not only are customer journeys more extensive and spread across multiple channels, but they require professionals to leverage various tools and platforms daily. The last thing an employee wants is to add another complicated system to their toolkit.
With this in mind, it’s worth implementing tools that offer a simple end-user experience.
First, focus on software with an intuitive, straightforward user interface, which requires supervisors to provide minimal training and guidance to staff members.
Then, consider selecting a solution which can integrate naturally with the tools business employees are already using, such as CRM platforms, collaboration tools, or mobile applications.
3. Keep Agents Involved
According to a study from PWC, 90 percent of C-suite executives say they address the needs of employees when buying new technologies. However, only 53 percent of staff members agree with this statement. This leads to a significant disconnect in how satisfied team members are with the technologies they’re accessing.
Moreover, while 92 percent of executives are happy with their technology choices, only 68 percent of employees feel the same way.
To bridge the gap, companies must keep agents involved throughout the planning, purchasing, implementation, and optimization process with new tools.
Business leaders should speak to staff members about their needs and pain points before seeking new solutions.
Additionally, they should actively collect and listen to employee feedback about the benefits and disadvantages of the tools they implement.
4. Deliver Tailored Training and Support
Finally, employees will struggle to adopt and implement new technology if they don’t feel comfortable using it. Even companies who carefully select solutions based on their ease of use and intuitiveness should still offer team members training and guidance.
While some employees can adapt quickly to new solutions, others need extra advice and support.
Creating step-by-step guides on using tools can allow team members to visualize the benefits of the technology available more effectively.
Sometimes, business leaders and technology champions can use the new tools adopted as part of a training process. For instance, a company adopting screen sharing, co-browsing, and video tools can use all those resources to introduce staff members to the available functionality.
Encouraging employees to adopt new technologies can be difficult, particularly in an environment resistant to change. However, business leaders can increase adoption with the right action plan while maintaining excellent staff satisfaction.
5. Partner with Vendors That Consider Post-Deployment Needs
There is a responsibility on vendors – alongside the contact center – to recognize the significant change that new customer experience tech brings and support service teams in delivering a clear training and adoption program that continues post-deployment.
Vendors should encourage clients to involve colleagues representing the different user personas as design and change champions.
They will increase technology adoption and sell the benefits to their colleagues, ensuring faster rollout time and a continuous feedback process.
Ready to Upgrade Agent Experiences?
Following the advice above will drive agent engagement with new contact center technology.
Moreover, as they realize the many benefits of assistive technologies, their job satisfaction rates may skyrocket.
Constant Contact found this to be true after its recent contact center transformation. To delve into their story, check out the case study.
