Do Analytics Tools Change Agent Behavior?
By Larry Skowronek, Nexidia, a NICE Analytics Company
[one_half]As analytics and Big Data tools have become more advanced and ubiquitous, increasing numbers of contact centers are using them to increase both productivity and revenue. It’s true that multi-channel interactions and analytics provide a way for a contact center to harness the latent power of all its unstructured data and find some surprising insights into business processes, but the question remains: how effective are these tools at changing agent behavior? The short answer: extremely effective. From helping agents perform more efficiently, to giving them practical guides, to ultimately providing real-time help, interaction analytics have the potential to positively impact contact center agents across any industry. Below are three key areas where contact center agents, and the center as a whole, can reap the benefits of multi-channel interaction analytics.
Create More Efficient Agents and Business Processes
Through the use of interaction analytics, contact center agents have the potential to become far more efficient when working with customers. As data is amassed and analyzed, contact centers begin to see what methods work best and which ones need to be altered. A center that has the ability to analyze the entire population of interactions will have a much more holistic understanding of the issues most likely to plague a contact center, such as repeat callers or dissatisfaction leading to customer churn. As a company learns of the pain points along a customer’s journey, it begins to provide proactive coaching of its contact center agents to ensure that an issue is resolved, to the customer’s expectations, the first time that customer calls. While this approach to handling customer interactions might mean slightly longer call times, it also means far fewer repeat interactions and happier customers, making the entire operation much more efficient and effective over time. The effective use of interaction analytics puts agents at the center of a much more efficient organizational ecosystem. As companies learn more about the issues that they need to deal with, agents are provided with the information they need in order to manage customer engagements as efficiently and effectively as possible, resulting in increased agent performance and happier customers.
Design Useful and Accurate Agent Evaluations
The use of “traditional” post-call evaluation (prior to multi-channel interaction analytics) as a training tool has a track record that is spotty at best. Pinpointing specific examples where an agent could improve was inexact and time consuming. Many bad habits simply went unnoticed. Five interactions evaluated per agent per month is quite simply not enough analysis to get the job done. Interaction analytics provides a mechanism for contact centers to quickly review an agent’s entire log, find the exact areas most needing improvement, and build a training plan based off of that information, off of a complete picture of the agent’s performance on all of their interactions. Beyond even that, however, an integrated agent dashboard allows an agent to see what areas they are doing well in, which behaviors they can improve, and how they compare to their colleagues. The result is a contact center that is staffed by agents with the ability to monitor their own work and compare their own performance to their goals, taking control of the steps needed to progress and owning their own performance. Using these same analysis techniques, contact centers can also identify and quantify the best practices of the top performing agents and turn those actions into metrics for others to use. With quantified goals in hand, the agents that need the most help better pinpoint the areas where they need the most training, and as a result, put themselves in a much better position to succeed. Through these business-driven metrics representing the complete performance of each agent, combined with accurate and timely agent evaluations, contact centers will find that they create more consistent and positive agent behavior across the board.
[/one_half]
[one_half_last]
Monitor and React in Real-Time
Throughout the process of refining agents’ behavior through interaction analytics, companies have the opportunity to learn a lot about what issues their agents face as they try to best serve each customer. In some cases, before-the-fact training and after-the-fact coaching is not sufficient to enable agents to reach their full potential. In these cases, what they need is coaching and assistance while the customer engagement is in progress. Interaction analytics enable centers to identify these types of opportunities. Once identified, contact centers are able to create processes and procedures that utilize real-time analytics and monitoring to provide agents the support they need while the customer engagement is still in progress.
Real-time analytics allows the agent to make better decisions on a range of issues while the engagement is still in progress. By taking advantage of the information gleaned from multi-channel interaction analytics, agents are alerted when specific issues arise – and what to do about it. This process ranges from guiding an agent through a script for a predetermined sales process to using a newly refined troubleshooting method. From a compliance standpoint, real-time monitoring and analytics alert the agent to potential breaches in compliance practices, giving them the opportunity to fix the issue before the customer engagement ends, potentially saving the company millions in fines.
The result is a contact center full of agents that are more responsive and in a better position to help the end customer. In addition, as they work through the suggested real-time alerts, they are learning how to better handle future engagements of a similar nature.
Conclusion
Bottom line: The potential for multi-channel interaction analytics to affect positive and effective change in agent behavior is massive. When used correctly, multi-channel analytics provide not only a window into the areas of contact centers that need the most attention, but also help guide the way towards a radically more efficient and effective center. The good news is the answers contact centers are seeking are already there, hidden away in the already-recorded interaction data. The next step, then, is to unlock the potential of your agents through the power of multi-channel interaction analytics.
As Vice President of Product Management for Nexidia, a NICE Analytics Company, Larry is responsible for the research and development of the overall market strategy, product strategy, and development roadmap for Nexidia’s analytics solutions. Larry brings nearly two decades of experience working with contact center tools and management to Nexidia. He has led product management, quality assurance, and consulting organizations for contact center management software vendors across the industry, including TCS Management Group/Aspect Communications (workforce optimization and CTI), Informiam/Genesys (real-time reporting and monitoring), and LiveOps (hosted contact center). This varied experience has produced a keen understanding of the best practices for managing the evolving contact center. He has put specific focus on leveraging the contact center as a value-adding business function, which contributes directly to a company’s achievement of strategic and corporate objectives. Larry holds a degree in Philosophy, with a minor in Science and Technology Studies, from Williams College, Williamstown, Massachusetts. He may be reached at lskowronek@nexidia.com.
[/one_half_last]