Since 2020, the pace of change inside the contact center has accelerated through technology. More agents are working remotely than ever before and customer’s have gravitated to digital-first interactions. While we’ve developed a much deeper understanding of what drives customer behaviors through the use of tools like artificial intelligence and real-time analytics, the agent experience hasn’t benefited much from the same revamping, and contact center success is suffering. 

That’s because the new realities of a digital world have not been fully translated into how leaders run their contact centers, particularly how they monitor and manage agent productivity, engagement, and performance. Contact centers have become 24/7 operations, so the imperative to keep up is more apparent than ever.

In this Ventana Research Analyst Perspective, Keith Dawson, VP & Research Director of Customer Experience, dives into how we got here and offers some tips for how to enact transformative strategies that will help contact centers modernize agent performance management. 

You can access the article in full above to get his tips, but we look at some of the insights below: 

Use AI and automation to deliver assisted guidance in real time

Virtual agents provide a significant source of agent assistance. They help reduce call volume and can even help customers after hours. Virtual agents are also a great tool to help call centers automate their workflows. Livevox’s AI Virtual Agents can help customers the same way a live agent would thanks to their expansive abilities. Call centers can leverage LiveVox’s AI Virtual Agents to provide customers greater convenience. Virtual agents can be customized to your call center’s needs. They can be set up no-code or low-code, making it easy for agents to create responses specific to repeat or routine interactions to minimize low impact interactions within a customer journey. The setup’s ease of use makes it simple for agents to adapt to last-minute changes.

And the added benefit? Artificial intelligence makes it possible to improve agent performance management by recording, analyzing, and learning from 100% of your interactions – even when they’re conducted by a virtual agent. 

Screen agents for sales awareness skills

In a digital-first environment, low-impact inquiries are being shifted to self-service applications leaving more complicated inquiries to agents. As a result, agents have been tasked with becoming ever-more savvy problem solvers with this increase in complicated tickets. The good news? They’re primed to find solutions and make suggestions that result in quality service interactions.

For effective cross-selling and up-selling, though, your frontline agents need to be able to spot and nurture warm leads during a customer interaction. Agents need to assess the customer quickly, pinpoint their needs, and recognize when the door to suggestion swings open. Most importantly, they need to know how to seize that moment and walk the customer through the door.

Cultivate empathy by showing appreciation for individual agent contributions

Dawson says that because there’s been a rise in complexity of customer calls, agents are now required to show greater empathy and awareness of customer frustrations. If this is the case, then so too must agent training and recognition reflect this level of nuance. 

In order to provide the most relevant service, agents need to be well-versed in the internal resources that are available to solve problems. In a word, they need to be empowered. 

According to Dawson, “agent training has to guide performance in problem-solving skills because the interactions that make it past self-service and automation are likely to take longer to resolve and be more important to the customer.”

Contact center leaders tend to be focused on achievement. So it’s natural for them to highlight areas where agents aren’t performing up to these high standards. However, people tend to perform at their best when their success is acknowledged. So leaders must consistently find ways to show their appreciation for agent’s’ strengths.

Access the free Ventana Research Analyst Perspective in full here.