Call Center Management Featured Article
Evaluating Agents' Skills to Match Personality Types with Customers
The idea of skills-based routing in the contact center is not new. Most companies engage in the practice, at least a little bit, depending on how they manage their workforce. Building a schedule that takes into consideration the various skills of employees is extremely difficult to accomplish using old-fashioned methods such as spreadsheet. The advent of modern workforce management software has made things easier: managers can now easily build and adjust schedules to take into consideration all the workers’ skills and ensure there is good coverage for all communications media at all times.
Armed with the ability to use skills in an accurate way, however, companies face another challenge: which skills should be applied to which customers? Smaller contact centers often account for skills like language and product knowledge and leave it there. Chances are good, however, that most contact center workers are being under-utilized when it comes to skills. There are agents who are great at calming down angry customers. Others might be better at handling elderly customers by simplifying technical explanations of new products or services that might be unfamiliar to those customers. Some agents may be terrific at cross-selling and upselling.
In a recent blog post, Monet Software CEO Chuck Ciarlo noted that emotion can be an equally pivotal consideration when routing agent calls.
“Customers who want to conduct their business as quickly as possible without a lot of chit-chat will be happier with an agent who moves the call along more efficiently,” wrote Ciarlo. “Senior citizens, who remember a less-hurried time and may enjoy some pleasant conversation during their calls, will prefer an agent with a more genial personality.”
The deeper you drill, the more skills you’re likely to find. Cultural differences between customers could also play a role: a New York customer might want an all-business agent who minimizes the small talk. Customers in other parts of the country, however, might feel more comfortable with an agent who is friendly and conversational. It’s an important concept to get right: first impressions are critical in the contact center, and how a customer feels about an organization is likely to be strongly affected by the attitude of the representatives.
“Behavioral analytics studies suggest that emotions might be a more important factor than content in call routing,” wrote Ciarlo. “Given that most calls will consist of basic questions and transactions, pairing a customer with a like-minded agent is a strategy that may deliver better results.”
Today, speech analytics technology can help in quickly identifying the caller’s “type” by their reactions or emotions. Keeping good customer records can also help: when you know which existing customers are calling, it’s likely you also know that customer’s location, age and purchase history with the company. Setting the right tone in every customer contact is vital for success. For this reason, it’s worth a deeper look at all your agents’ skills.
Edited by Stefania Viscusi