Don't Stunt Your Contact Center Agents' Ability To Deliver Superior Customer Service

By John Cray, Director of Marketing and Product Management, Zeacom

There was a time when call center agents’ primary value was being able to share their personal knowledge about a product or service with a customer on the other end of a landline. As technology has expanded and new forms of communication such as email, web chat, and screen sharing have emerged, and real-time access to knowledge bases has become commonplace, multi-channel contact center agents have the ability to serve customers on a whole new level.

According to the latest research from Forrester, nearly all decision-makers focusing on customer satisfaction (93 percent) recognize that providing a good customer experience is a top priority and 75 percent view it as a competitive differentiator. However, the same study revealed that only 37 percent of companies have a dedicated budget for customer experience initiatives.

Many business executives rightly acknowledge the important role agents play in customer satisfaction. Unfortunately, good agents are hard to keep. A 2013 ContactBabel survey of 205 contact center managers found that 27 percent of agents leave their jobs every year, and in certain markets, like outsourcing, the attrition rate surpasses the 50 percent mark.

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