A new survey by Genesys (
News -
Alert) Telecommunications Laboratories recently explored customer service organizations and found that while many have implemented strategies to improve customer interactions, most have yet to take action on those strategies.
This survey also studied the most effective contact centers and discovered certain activities that made them more successful than others. For one, the most effective and successful contact centers sought to identify customers at the first available opportunity. A full 78 percent of call centers are currently identifying customers before connecting them to agents.
Successful contact centers are also assessing the value of the customer interaction. In doing so, they are determining the level of service to provide as well as how to match the customer with the right agent. Another 22 percent of contact centers still do not identify customers before matching them with the appropriate source.
Only 21 percent of contact centers are currently using advanced analytics to prioritize incoming calls. Another 35 percent of contact centers match their top-value customers to their best agents using an isolated group of high-performing agents.
With regards to segmenting agents and matching customers, the study found that an increasing number of contact centers have started to consider demographic matching, matching customers and agents by age and gender.
Results indicate that a vast majority of contact centers are segmenting their agents by the most basic needs, as 22 percent group agents by quality or performance outcomes; 22 percent use sales results; and fewer than 30 percent use soft skills.
Contact centers are beginning to use newer methods of segmenting agents, and matching customers that include demographic matching. It may still be too soon to tell is these newer methods are more effective than traditional methods, or if they deliver the same performance.
The results of this survey do leave me to question a few things. For one, if 78 percent of contact centers are identifying callers before connecting them to agents, is it just luck that as a consumer, I am consistently contacting that 22 percent who do not? It never fails that I enter all requested information and when I finally reach an agent, I am required to repeat every bit of it.
For those contact centers who feel that they have implemented strategies to effectively identify customers, they need to be sure that the process is streamlined through to the agent. A customer who is calling in may already be frustrated about an issue, complicating the process of getting to the agent will only make things worse.
