Workforce Management Featured Article
Learn Why Agent Visibility is Critical to Contact Center Performance
Performance in the contact center is a measure often top of mind for call center management. Metrics must be captured on a regular basis so adjustments can be made where needed. At the same time, upper management often wants a report on specific metrics in order to gain an understanding of cost and anticipated benefits.
The constant balance between performance, measurement and adjustment is a challenge to achieve, especially if you lack the insight you need. Fortunately, there are opportunities to invest in workforce optimization solutions offered in the cloud that allow you to gain better insights and make improvements. The question then becomes what solution is best for you and how do you get started?
One of the first things you need to do is to put together a list of needs you’re seeking to satisfy. Are you being asked for metrics that you can’t capture? Are you needing to make adjustments, but you’re not sure where the problem begins? Are you struggling with quality monitoring steps and taking the agent to the next level? Make a list of all the questions you have and needs that must be met.
Next, ask your colleagues what has worked in their environments. Whether you’re in a networking organization or part of a forum specific to call center management, find professionals in similar roles and learn what has worked well or failed miserably in their call centers. Many of them are likely to have something they would do differently if given the change, so learn from their experiences.
As long as you’ve made your list and talked to colleagues, it’s time to establish your budget. How much is it worth to your bottom line to have the visibility necessary to answer key questions on performance? Could you reach additional goals if you optimized the performance of your workforce and could drill down on agent training? Once you’ve established your budget, prioritize your list of needs and wants, in case you have to make cuts to the available features to match the money allocated for this implementation.
Finally, call a few vendors and ask them for a bid. Also ask these vendors to provide you with a list of customers you can call to gauge their satisfaction with the solution. Most will be very honest with you. Even if they’re happy with performance now, they’ll share whether or not there were a few hiccups along the way.
To get a first-hand look at how one solution is enabling call center management to implement workforce optimization to improve performance, make time for Monet Software’s webinar, How to Gain More Insights into the Performance of Your Contact Center. Scheduled for Dec.18 at 11am PST (2pm EST), this webinar will explore how visibility, especially at the agent level is so critical to optimizing performance. To reserve your space, register today.
Edited by Stefania Viscusi