The Usual Suspects: Building Productivity in the Contact Centre

Efficiency losses can occur in every department of the contact centre, but the biggest drain on your productivity may not come from where you expect.

It’s hard to argue about the value of productivity in the contact centre, or any enterprise for that matter. Having efficient, streamlined practices guiding your operation is one of the cornerstones of a successful business.

But despite how obvious the idea is, knowing how to increase the productivity of your operation is a goal that’s harder to achieve. This is because many contact centres aren’t aware of the necessary steps needed to build a well-oiled and productive machine.

The easiest ways to optimize the business practices of your centre is to ensure that your automated software solutions are integrated well with your operational goals, while using relevant and accurate information to inform the customer experience.

Internal Optimization

When we assess our customer service we tend to get caught up focusing on things like KPIs and proactive outreach, but customer service isn’t limited to the arena of consumer interaction.

The internal processes of your contact centre have just as much impact on productivity as your consumer-facing agents do. You can’t have one without the other.

Internal optimization of the contact centre relies on streamlined automation, useful and relevant data, and the right agents to drive them.

Automated Solutions

The first step to improving your productivity is one you’ve likely already taken — using technology and software solutions for cost-saving insights and better customer outcomes. Routine tasks and data collection are prime candidates for automation and can be handled with exceptional accuracy.

This can mean sending your callers through interactive voice response systems, providing options for self-service through your website, or simple data collection about call history and previous experiences through CRM systems.

And, according to the 2013 Real Self-Service Economy Report, your customers may thank you for the privilege: 70 percent of consumers expect websites to offer automated self-help solutions, and 40 percent prefer automated self-help over human contact.

This isn’t to say your contact centre agents are replaceable — far from it. The contact centre depends on the flexible problem-solving that creative agents can employ. The right agents utilizing intelligent automation will see benefits to their productivity, cost-management, and will provide better overall experiences for their customers.

However, automated solutions aren’t perfect on their own. In fact, without the appropriate guidance, automation can hurt you as much as it’s supposed to help. This occurs when the fundamental driving force behind automation is old or outdated: your data.

Rotten Data

Yes, unfortunately, all of those phone numbers, addresses, and customer experiences that your CRM system collects and files can be the very things that throws a wrench into your automated strategy. Outdated, incorrect information, or duplicate information can be a big source of failure for automated CRM systems.

Research by The Data Warehousing Institute showed that “dirty” data and its associated costs can impact businesses to the tune of $600 billion each year.

This is why identifying and managing the bad data in your centre is essential for maintaining productivity and providing a good customer experience.

Take ownership of your data by building a culture of shared responsibility in your contact centre. Data errors are often the result of employees who either mishandle or fail to understand the value of good data. Collaboration towards the goal of productivity and accuracy in all data collection is the key to meeting this goal.
Increase visibility of data origins with visual data analytic tools that make the history of each bit of information clear: where it came from, who collected it, and how it’s being applied to further your goals. This initiative relies on agent accountability and transparency.
Audit your data with a combination of analytics and employee manpower to help ensure accuracy. This involves sifting through your collected information to determine valuable customer information from the redundant bits of data that were collected erroneously or entered into the system incorrectly.

Conclusion

Better productivity in the contact centre is a continuous goal. The challenges of maintaining efficiency in a fast-paced technological world can be daunting, but you aren’t alone in the fight.

Keeping your centre equipped with relevant software solutions can take much of the burden off of your shoulders, but only when your data management has been optimized to account for the bad data that may be slowing you down. Once you clean house and ensure that your data is ready for your automated system, you’ll begin to enjoy the true productivity that your centre is capable of.

Looking for more ways to enhance the productivity of your call centre practices? Download our free white paper!