Recent developments on the customer side are focusing contact center management on multi-channel Workforce Optimization. While Boomers talk, Gen X/Millennial customers text. The Millennial milieu is fast overwhelming the marketplace and thus our workplace as well. The tough love message to contact center managers is that you need to be part of the social media effort in your company, and must be prepared to staff up to respond well to evolving customer needs. Studies show that Millennial distrust institutions and corporations and trust each other, i.e. other individuals who provide information and opinions (and complaints!) via social media. This is a major challenge for companies, since the communications and complaints are outside their control and open to the world.
Leading centers can meet these changing demands by (1) understanding the growing impact of social media upon business and how social media operates, (2) establish a presence on social media sites and encourage feedback about the company, its products, and services, (3) invest in speech and text analytics technologies that can scan social media sites, emails, and text messages to the company, to collect business intelligence (BI), evaluate and report on red-flag issues that can be followed-up by people, and (4), adjust labor management to meet the needs of fluctuating queues, not just shifts.
Voice and non-voice channel management and Workforce Optimization need to be integrated with the other processes of the center; this allows for proper forecasting and planning.
Finally, acquire technologies that not only surface problems, but surface solutions as well. Better WFM technologies can treat multiple centers as one virtual global entity and also give you drill down BI capacity for each individual center.
CallTalk™ Caramels: Sweet Snippets from BenchmarkPortal’s Best CallTalk Episodes
This CallTalk Caramel was compiled and edited by Bruce Belfiore and Kamal Webb. It was drawn from a CallTalk episode with industry expert Bill Durr entitled “Workforce Management Optimization Analytics Demystified, Part II.” We welcome your questions and comments at BruceBelfiore@BenchmarkPortal.com.
CallTalk is a monthly internet radio program featuring the most innovative managers and thought leaders in the customer contact field, interviewed by BenchmarkPortal CEO Bruce Belfiore. “Caramels” distils “Aha!” moments from these interviews into practical, bite-sized nuggets to inform and assist you as a contact center professional.
