Managing Performance Data in Multi-Channel Contact Centers
By Gregory J. Robb
The call center industry is transitioning to an era defined by “big data”: limitless quantities of Call Recording records between customer service representatives (CSRs) and clients. That performance data is increasingly analyzed by automated Call Recording software, which includes Screen Recording and Speech Analytics capacity. When customers reach out to industry, call center technology enables call center agents to resolve issues and produce key performance indicators (KPIs) in the process.
Call centers utilize Call Recording technology to tweak the customer interaction process for optimum call center productivity and profit.
What Is a Contact Center?
A call center differs from a contact center in very important ways, but many people confuse the two.
Call Center: processes all inbound and outbound call for a specific company. These calls may include inquiries on multiple topics: order, billing and even technical support.
Contact Center: processes customer requests using a variety of communication channels. Contact center communication may occur by phone, email, live chat and text messaging.
The Challenges of Contact Center Media
Call center technology has evolved to the point where traditional call center and contact center operations are converging. Customer service representatives (CSRs) are increasingly under cost pressures to function on multiple channels and in diverse forms of service. In essence, contact center agents ride the crest of today’s Call Recording technology to better serve clients more ably and more quickly.
Diversity of communication has become the technological challenge as call center merges with contact center. Therefore, customer service success is increasingly assessed from a much larger cloud of digital data. It is no longer a simple matter of Quality Assurance, but a quest for the very business intelligence (BI) which lends competitive advantage, productivity and profit.
According to the International Customer Management Institute (ICMI), an average call center tracks up to 25 performance metrics. However, ICMI estimates that 80 percent of value from performance measurement (and management) derives from five most crucial metrics:
• Cost per Call
• Customer Satisfaction
• First Contact Resolution (FCR) Rate
• Agent Utilization
• Aggregate Call Center Performance
Of course, key performance indicators (KPIs) are internal contact center measures of customer service. The values which clients favor are always changing with the times. Add to this the ever-diverse ways in which customers engage wireless technology and we begin to recognize the new normal as it is practiced by contact center agents.
Call Recording As Never Before
The new age of Call Recording software suites enables contact centers to honor their age-old commitment to premium customer service while managing massive amounts of digital data. Features such as Screen Recording assist supervisors in mentoring contact center agents in real-time, while Speech Analytics functions as the ultimate collator of untapped customer behavior.
In a multi-channel contact center, the path to productivity and profit rests on the marriage of traditional customer service in cutting-edge technological times. Massive amounts of performance data creates massive potential for contact center prosperity when it managed for optimum customer satisfaction.
