A perennial topic of interest for customer service leaders revolves around reducing costs through greater adoption of self-service. And we now know that guidance is the key to promoting web stickiness. For guidance to be successful we first need to understand where to guide customers and that’s where many organizations have leveraged CEB Customer Contact’s Issue to Channel Mapping Tool.
But it’s interesting to pause for a second. In the quest for greater web utilization, I often wonder, with such a great emphasis on building out their web presence, how much companies really consider the implications this has on staff (specifically, QA, Supervisors, and Reps).
Self-service has certainly had a significant impact in terms of deflecting call volume and vetting out relatively simple issues. But as you see below, we’ve made the role of the frontline staff considerably more challenging.
With a greater frequency of more complex issues, staff must adopt new skills to meet the new customer expectation around tailored, low-effort service. Obviously, frontline reps will handle the bulk of the customer interactions and will need to adapt. Easier said than done. But, also, what are the necessary skills Supervisors and QA need to have to facilitate the upskilling of reps and ensure that these new skills are retained over time?
So the BIG question you need to ask yourself: How well- (or not-so-well) equipped is your frontline team to succeed in the “Era of Quality 2.0?”
Join CEB Customer Contact for our webinar “Contact Center 101: Critical Staff Skills” on Wednesday, June 19th or Thursday, June 20th as we discuss the following skills:
- Managing conversations and exercising decision making for frontline reps
- World Class Coaching for supervisors
- Trends based analysis for QA staff
Very much hopeful that you’ll be able to join us for this engaging discussion!
Related Links