Delivering a Cost-efficient, Four-Star Customer Experience with Workforce Optimization Capabilities
Customers rarely see what goes on in the back office but it’s often hard for them to overlook the influence of behind-the-scenes activities on their contact center experience. In some ways, this situation reminds me of a restaurant visit. Most of us subconsciously set an inner timer for what we think is a reasonable period to wait for our order. If delays seem excessive and service is subpar, our satisfaction suffers no matter how great the food tastes. It’s the total experience that makes or breaks our status as regular customers.Of course, a restaurant operates very differently from most retail establishments and other businesses. Typically there’s no true back office, but the wait staff, kitchen crew and management must constantly work together in real time to immediately process customer transactions and resolve issues. More than one attempt to heat cold soup could chill a customer’s opinion forever, so first complaint or contact resolution is imperative. Most businesses’ back-office processes are much more sophisticated and they usually affect customer satisfaction less directly, but their influence on the overall customer experience, and employees’ abilities to manage it, is just as significant.
The overly complex back-office systems and processes that are typical of many organizations potentially create or exacerbate inefficiencies and drive up costs. Due to the complexity, it’s often difficult for an organization to be appropriately staffed to meet customer demand. Since staffing tends to represent the most expensive budgetary line item, overstaffing can be very expensive. At the same time, understaffing can result in poor customer satisfaction.
Automated solutions that offer full workforce optimization, including workforce management, performance management and quality management capabilities, can increase back-office productivity and decrease costs. They help improve customer service levels while decreasing required staffing through predictive modeling. Businesses have better insight into tasks and employees and the forecasting, scheduling and tracking flexibility to manage and measure performance against specific goals. And employee performance and morale are supported through automated online coaching and the ability to manage their own schedules using predefined rules.
We’re seeing evidence that a consistently quicker, more accurate response to customer queries is a reliable benefit of automated workforce optimization solutions. Organizations can deliver exceptional service levels and an extraordinary customer experience without additional resources or costs.
How have you equipped the back office to feed the total customer experience? I’m interested in hearing about related performance, productivity and satisfaction outcomes for both your employees and your organization.
Author: Brett Williams
Catergories: Customer Service/Consumer Demands, Performance Optimization, WFM
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