3 min
In essence, the objective of a personnel management strategy is to train agents to offer excellent experiences to clients. In the era of customer centricity, they determine what constitutes a great experience.
According to the report “Workforce Managament”, prepared by CCW Digital, more and more are the companies that recognize the fluidity of the personnel management strategy and that know that the processes and technologies that promoted productivity in the past may not be effective in the present and in the future.
These organizations are paying attention to key trends that define how companies should engage customers and, in turn, how companies should manage their workforce in the contact center.
Seven Trends that Affect the Management of Personnel in a Call Center
1.- Fluid experience: customers demand quick and easy interactions with organizations, that is, they are demanding a “fluid experience”. The personnel management strategy should empower agents to deliver these experiences to clients. They should know how to communicate naturally, intuitively, informatively and concisely. They should also be able to navigate quickly and smoothly through the systems, including the CRM and database tools, to ensure they can provide accurate and relevant information without delay.
2.- Personalized experience: customers do not require, or even want, in-depth conversations. However, they expect the interaction to be tailored to their specific circumstances. They expect the organization and its agents to know who they are, why they are calling and what they want.
Personnel management should facilitate this form of personalization. Agents must have instant access to all relevant information about the customer, the customer’s interaction history, and the product or problem they are calling. The agent must also be able to adapt to the client’s personality and communication style.
3.- Coherence between the channels: the omnichannel movement requires that organizations offer great experiences where customers choose to interact. Agents must be prepared to meet this demand. Queues and CRM systems must cover all channels to ensure that the agent has a 360-degree view of the client. These employees, in addition, should feel comfortable communicating in most or all channels.
4.- Conversations of high complexity: as self-service channels become more prevalent and robust, customers become less dependent on the assistance of agents for simple issues. If they contact an agent (and, specifically, if they call an agent), it will be for the purpose of resolving more complex issues.
The agents must be prepared. They cannot be robots that simply repeat information; they must be versatile experts capable of interpreting and resolving complicated and unknown challenges quickly and accurately. They cannot simply “listen” to what customers say; they need to “listen” to what customers really demand.
5.- Collaboration with other departments: companies must ensure that employees can communicate without problems between the various departments. Culturally, they must ensure that employees have a solid understanding of how all departments of the company are involved and value the customer experience.
6.- Adaptation to employee mobility: the millennial generation has a thirst for mobility. To accommodate this demand, organizations must adapt to this new trend of work mobility. They cannot simply focus on empowering agents to perform today’s tasks; they need to prepare agents for a different future.
7.- Flexible call center: the customer experience team is no longer restricted to the conventional “contact center”. According to the report, the agents are no longer sitting in rows of cubicles but are working in different buildings or regional offices. Some even telecommute. Personnel management must take into account this reality of “labor flexibility.” It must promote fluid collaboration, consistent performance and a unified culture among agents who are not necessarily in the same country, much less in the same office.
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