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Fast, accurate analytics vital as call centres adapt to ‘new normal’ of WFH

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The immediate provision of accurate speech analytics is becoming increasingly vital as contact centres increasingly look to maintain WFH operational models.

That’s the view of leading call centre solution provider Avoira which is anticipating heightened interest in the technology from delegates attending the virtual Contact Centre and Customer Services Summit on the 16th November.

The company reports managers are finding that the interactive nature of a sophisticated real-time analytics solution not only enables more effective call outcomes but enhances employee engagement.

Speaking ahead of the Summit, Steve Watts, Avoira’s head of sales, said: “With team leaders and managers having lost the Captain’s Chair view of what’s happening minute-to-minute,  real-time analytics are even more important and compelling.

“As a result, contact centre directors and heads of innovation are now taking a closer look at the sophisticated tools they might deploy to ensure productivity and service standards are maintained as the novelty of homeworking wears off.”

He adds that capturing real-time traffic not just within a centralised centre but across a remote working network, remains a challenge for all but the most potent speech analytic solutions.

The cloud-based Xdroid solution arguably unique – in delivering real-time analytics of both voice and text communications. It automatically records and analyses all calls and monitors customer experience, compliance and the performance of individual agents, wherever they are working.

The powerful solution can detect and range of emotions, reporting on whether customers are displaying displeasure, uncertainty, disappointment or happiness. Based on analysis of dialogue, it provides on-screen prompts which can steer an agent to engage in specific actions – such as up-selling or making a compensatory gesture – at the time most likely to yield a positive response.

A formidable customer service tool, the technology claims to deliver an increased client retention rate of 30% and an inbound sales uplift of 14%.

It can also increase agent retention and reduce breaches which can result in legal or regulatory actions.

“It’s not just regulatory and legal compliance with which our solution can assist, but in ensuring employees, wherever they are, continue to subscribe to and share the organisation’s ethos,” says Watts. “By providing tools with which to help an agents job be performed more easily and effectively, it also helps them feel valued.”

The benefits of homeworking agents and flexible contact centres

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By Jabra

This year has caused a massive shift in where and how we all work, as a direct response to the worldwide disruption caused by the pandemic.

Contact Centres were forced to move their staff to a homeworking model and try to successfully manage agent teams remotely, whilst customer needs grew and became more complex. All of this led to a number of fundamental changes in the working practices and technology stack utilised within contact centres, that required rapid and efficient adoption and deployment.

However, as organisations now start to review their ‘new normal’ business procedures and requirements for the future, Jabra look at the benefits of having homeworking agents and how to manage them.

Click here to read the full article.

Half of UK workers say employer not prepared for a second wave of COVID-19

 960 640 Stuart O'Brien
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In a sweeping survey of employees and business leaders across 11 nations, The Workforce Institute at UKG (Ultimate Kronos Group) found only a fraction of employees (20%) felt their organisation met their needs during the initial months of the COVID-19 pandemic.

But there is a silver lining: a third of employees globally (33%) say they trust their employer more now than before the pandemic began because of how organisations reacted.

“Hindsight 2020: COVID-19 Concerns into 2021,” commissioned by The Workforce Institute at UKG and conducted by Workplace Intelligence, explores how nearly 4,000 employees and business leaders1 in Australia, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, the U.K., and the U.S. felt about their employer’s initial COVID-19 response and examines the top needs and concerns of the workforce through 2021.

In these uncertain times and as we enter a new period of increased restrictions, there are many employee expectations and concerns that business and HR leaders must address in order to alleviate anxieties around the world of work.

Research found that, according to U.K. workers, less than half of U.K. organisations were prepared to manage through the start of the COVID-19 pandemic (42%) and their organisations made mistakes during the pandemic (44%). However, more than half (53%) of U.K. workers say their organisation went above and beyond expectations during the pandemic.

Looking ahead, less than two thirds (57%) of U.K. workers believe that their organisation will be prepared to manage through another potential spike in cases of COVID-19. With this in mind, the research highlights the following key workplace concerns and expectations.

Communication is key, alongside swift decisions

Globally, the most common complaint about the initial pandemic response is that it was too slow, according to a third (36%) of workers, who wished offices closed faster and safety measures for essential workers were implemented sooner. However, in the U.K., the most common complaints were that workers wished their organisation had acted with more empathy for employees (31%) and communicated sooner and more openly (31%). This was then followed with 28% wishing the response had been quicker.

It’s not all about physical health – mental health is more important than ever

The biggest employee operational concern in the U.K. is balancing their workloads (42%) so they don’t get burned out. With over half of U.K. workers stating that they’ve been working either the same or more hours regularly since the start of the pandemic (51%), it’s imperative that organisations recognise this and respond accordingly. Overall, over half (53%) of U.K. workers say their organisation has taken at least some measures to guard against burnout; this rises to three in five (59%) globally.

Overall, organisations are focusing more on ensuring staff do not burn out, which is further reflected in the fact that the top three concerns about operating over the next 18 months in the U.K. are: future redundancies or furloughs due to economic instability (40%), ability to help employees balance workloads to prevent fatigue/burnout (39%), and the ability to offer necessary learning and development opportunities.

Future redundancies are also a concern for employees, with two fifths of U.K. workers (40%) concerned about future redundancies and furloughs due to economic instability created by COVID-19. This is equally a concern in China (44%), Mexico (41%), Canada (40%), and the U.S. (37%), but less of a concern in France (26%) and the Netherlands (27%).

Cleanliness, commuting, and common areas are cause for concern

While 45% of workers worldwide say overall cleanliness is a top concern going forward, they’re equally concerned with using shared common areas like lounges and restrooms (42%) as well as shared workspaces like conference rooms (37%). More than a third of all employees (35%) also voiced concern about passing through high-traffic areas such as lifts, staircases, and waiting rooms.

Physical workplace concerns vary by country: In India and France, the top concern is safely commuting to the workplace (72% and 50%, respectively), while overall cleanliness and sanitation is most worrisome to those in Mexico (60%), Canada (50%), Germany (47%), Australia and New Zealand (46%), the U.S. (44%), and the U.K. (42%). In China, two-thirds (63%) are worried about passing through high-traffic areas while a third of employees in the Netherlands (35%) are nervous about shared common areas.

In terms of person-to-person contact, 46% are concerned about being quickly informed about presumed or confirmed positive COVID-19 cases in the workplace and 43% are concerned about their company’s ability to react quickly to presumed or confirmed positive COVID-19 cases in the workplace.

Only 13% of global employees are worried about movements being tracked at work to fight COVID-19 – including fewer than one in 10 Gen Zers and younger Millennials2 (8%) – signalling they may recognise the immediate safety benefits in this approach to aid contact tracing.

Fast call centre analytics ‘vital’ in the new WFH normal

 960 640 Stuart O'Brien
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The immediate provision of accurate speech analytics is becoming increasingly vital as contact centres increasingly look to maintain work from home (WFH) operational models.

That’s the view of leading call centre solution provider Avoira, which is anticipating heightened interest in the technology from delegates attending the virtual Contact Centre & Customer Service Summit.

The company reports managers are finding that the interactive nature of a sophisticated real-time analytics solution not only enables more effective call outcomes, but enhances employee engagement.

Speaking ahead of the Summit, Steve Watts, Avoira’s head of sales, said: “With team leaders and managers having lost the Captain’s Chair view of what’s happening minute-to-minute,  real-time analytics are even more important and compelling.

“As a result contact centre directors and heads of innovation are now taking a closer look at the sophisticated tools they might deploy to ensure productivity and service standards are maintained as the novelty of homeworking wears off.”

He adds that capturing real-time traffic not just within a centralised centre but across a remote working network, remains a challenge for all but the most potent speech analytic solutions.

As such Watts is expecting heightened interest at the Summit in the AI powered voice analytics solution which Avoira is set to showcase.

The cloud-based Xdroid solution is a rarity – arguably unique – in delivering real-time analytics of both voice and text communications. It automatically records and analyses all calls and monitors customer experience, compliance and the performance of individual agents, wherever they are working.

The powerful solution can detect and range of emotions, reporting on whether customers are displaying displeasure, uncertainty, disappointment or happiness. Based on analysis of dialogue, it provides on-screen prompts which can steer an agent to engage in specific actions – such as up-selling or making a compensatory gesture – at the time most likely to yield a positive response.

A formidable customer service tool, the technology claims to deliver an increased client retention rate of 30% and an inbound sales uplift of 14%.

It can also increase agent retention and reduce breaches which can result in legal or regulatory actions.

“It’s not just regulatory and legal compliance with which our solution can assist, but in ensuring employees, wherever they are, continue to subscribe to and share the organisation’s ethos,” says Watts. “By providing tools with which to help an agents job be performed more easily and effectively, it also helps them feel valued.”

FREE EBOOK: Managing Contact Centre Homeworkers – 20 Quick Tips

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Being a home worker will give you (as a Manager) a different and better perspective on the unique issues and pressures facing colleagues.
That said, are you finding it difficult to support your remote teams? Unsure how to motivate and boost work-at-home productivity? Or are you struggling with information security and compliance?
The new eBook from Sensee will teach you how to get on top of these and many other remote management issues.
View the ebook here (no need to register)

ContactOne help Bierce Surveying rapidly transition to home working, without loss of functionality

 960 640 Stuart O'Brien
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With the recent outbreak of CoVID-19, and the need to protect staff, many businesses whose employees can work from home have been forced to implement, often untested, home working plans in substantially reduced timelines.

Bierce Surveying was faced with this challenge, having to transition all office employees to home working as fast as possible, including the call handlers within the multi-channel contact centre. The Digi Desk product is a cloud-based solution which is accessed by the user through an internet browser. All the user/s needs are a laptop or desktop computer an internet telephone or soft phone, which runs on the la top or desktop computer and a reliable broadband connection.

Nicholas Ainger, Bierce Surveying’s Managing Director, commented: “ContactOne rapidly reacted, initially offering comprehensive advice on how to configure the home working environment and subsequently working with us to move all of our staff to home working. This included the back-office team who were just using telephone extensions and the call centre Digi Desk users. Considering we had no homeworkers or experience, it was surprising how quickly we adapted to this, knowing that we are protecting our workforce as well as continuing to operate a good quality and professional service. All our inbound callers do not know we are working from home, which is a strong testament to the technology and partnership we have with ContactOne. Furthermore, our contact centre supervisors can visually see, in real-time, exactly what’s happening and, if necessary, listen in to calls to help agents as required.”

The Digi Desk contact centre solution that Bierce Surveying uses is a cloud-based service that utilises VoIP technology; it has been designed to natively support both office environments and any type of agile or home working; all that is needed is a reliable broadband connection. Fortunately all of Bierce Surveying’s employees, like many others around the country, all had reliable broadband, so the process was as simple as the agent taking home their desktop PC, monitor (or laptop) and phone, and then setting them up at home. With this approach Agents and back-office staff alike continue to work in the same way, with the same equipment and software meaning that everyone was up and running within an hour of getting home. Some as quickly as 10 minutes. This approach ensured customer/caller user experience remains unchanged, with end customers unable to distinguish between home workers and office workers. It also ensured rapid deployment and access as neither Agents, Supervisors nor Back Office staff needed any re-training.

One of the major operational benefits the management team has is the management information (MI) available, which covers every aspect of customer interaction, agent performance and key performance indicators (KPI’s) for the business. This enabled the senior management to understand how the current situation was impacting the contact centre in real-time as it unfolded.

Supervisors were able to manage the agents effectively as the supervisor wall boards show, in real-time agent statuses, whilst remote call monitoring enabled supervisors to eavesdrop on calls and whisper, helping less experienced agents to handle the more challenging calls, a key support mechanism for home working agents. As there is no limit on the number of wallboards that can be used, Bierce Surveying were able to quickly configure additional wallboards to meet the evolving needs, such as real-time call volumes by partner.

“As some of our partners who were less prepared than ourselves decided to close their offices, we were able, with the help of ContactOne, to instantly create additional voice routes into our now home worker base and assist them in maintaining their customer facing presence”, Nicholas added, “this enabled us to continue to offer an exemplary service to both our partners and their customers.”

Bierce Surveying Ltd provides a range of services to support energy saving/monitoring initiatives, surveying, property marketing, risk assessments and certified quality audits. They do this through several partnerships and some of the fuel poverty outreach schemes are monitored and audited by the energy watchdog OFGEM. ContactOne and Bierce Surveying have been working together for over 18 months. Bierce Surveying uses ContactOne’s Digi Desk cloud based multi-media contact centre platform. It allows Bierce Surveying to seamlessly work with their different partners using branding optimised for that partner. At a glance, agents can see which partner is contacting them, what the customer call is in relation to and deal with this interaction in the most efficient way. A key benefit to agents is that they can also see when the customer has contacted Bierce Surveying in the past across all the implemented channels.

To find out more on how the multi-channel Digi Desk solution works or if you would just like some advice on your current technology set up or working practises please call the ContactOne team on 0330 880 4444.

https://contactone.net

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