In this uncertain time, contact centers have to consider the impact of the avalanche of data, driven by mobility and the Internet, on customer service.
A valuable but underrated tool in data management for customer experience strategies (CX) is Workforce Management technology. Traditionally, WFM has been deployed in organizations to efficiently manage staff with the goal of meeting service levels, avoiding overtime spending and overstaffing. However, it is time to rethink how businesses can use WFM, as a source and data processor, to drive a broader transformation. Currently, WFM solutions are rapidly evolving into powerful and strategic tools to combat the growing phenomenon of data overload.
Five Ways To Maximize Employee Data And Management
Business leaders need to foster a creative approach to unlock the full potential of an organization’s personnel management infrastructure. Exploiting the data library that already exists at the core of the WFM solution can create new opportunities to build an effective CX strategy that positively impacts the entire business.
1) Maximize Human Capital
Successful customer-centric organizations start with good people at all levels and in all functions. Workforce management enables companies to collect and share data with other departments. For example, human resource professionals can use the data to determine what kinds of skill sets are lacking to develop effective senior management training and recruitment programs and succession plans. The data can also be used for companies of various sizes during periods of organizational change, such as mergers and acquisitions, to determine which departments need to grow or shrink.
2) Centralize The Data
Personnel management has to collect the data in one place and make it relevant for planning and forecasting purposes in terms of customer service and customer experience. The data must be: contextual, suggestive, preventive, and predictive to ensure you know who the employees are, where their skills lie, and when they are available to handle customer demand.
3) Look To The Future
Many organizations, especially those in rapidly expanding markets like China and India, want to be proactive and eager to forecast staffing needs based on future growth projects to stay ahead. WFM technology makes this possible by providing easy access to a wealth of historical data and advanced reporting functionality to quickly forecast, create and search for future specific skill and personnel requirements.
4) Plan Business Continuity
Unexpected situations and major disruptions to the IT system can disrupt day-to-day business operations. WFM technology allows managers to imagine scenarios they pose, for example: “What if…?” to be able to face all possible eventualities and evaluate their impact on customer service, making workforce management an intrinsic part of business continuity planning.
5) Manage Resilience, Security And Compliance
These are very real concerns for senior managers and, if ignored, can affect customer confidence. Users expect their online transactions to be secure and in line with the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards. They also expect their brands to comply with the latest regulations and laws, such as the GDPR for EU countries, and not to share their personal data with third parties without their prior written consent. The same applies to employees.
Today’s WFM cloud providers, as masvoz, continually invest in security, ensuring that cloud deployments have the highest level of security. The services are offered through the web with support in separate data centers. Compliant cloud providers also ensure that their services run on platforms that have received approval from EU data protection authorities, have to implement internationally recognized information security controls and are certified to standards quality as ISO-27001.
A robust and modern workforce management solution can help channel data to drive an effective CX program across the business.