If your contact center has been operating for many years, you may have noticed a curious thing: the agents who were once your best workers are no longer. This is the case for many call centers who are rapidly transitioning to contact centers. Phone (News - Alert)-based agents, once the norm for most customer support, are having to transition to multichannel contact center workers, and not all of them are adapting.

Many companies are approaching the multichannel environment with different strategies. Some are ensuring that agents have a chance to work in many different channels, while others are keeping agents in the channels in which they perform best. There are pros and cons to both – some agents prefer being able to switch-up their tasks to avoid boredom, while others feel adrift outside their areas of expertise.  According to a recent blog post by call center on demand solutions provider Five9 (News - Alert), it’s a matter of determining which agents work best in which channels.

“People are going to have strengths and weaknesses,” wrote Five9. “Someone who’s great at voice communications, for example, may also do chat well — but might struggle with social or email communications.”

By taking agents channel strengths into consideration as well as their subject matter expertise and their specific support skills – customer retention, for example, or calming angry customers – smart contact centers can find the best paradigm for each agent and build schedules accordingly to play up workers’ strengths and make them feel more comfortable and valued.

Some other valuable tips provided by Five9 include:

Find tactful agents with common sense for social media. Social media is a public channel .Posts, once put into the social strata, can never be deleted, and poorly thought out posts can damage a company’s reputation. For social media channels, choose emotionally mature and even tempered agents who think before they act and who are carefully trained to represent the company in a positive and helpful light. Keep this channel out of the hands of political, opinionated, impulsive or reactionary employees.

Make frequent adjustments. Employees learn and grow and pick up new skills. What works for you today may not be what works for you in a year, and employees may appreciate the opportunity to hone and perfect new skills…or show them off. Revisit your schedules frequently to change up routine and give employees new opportunities.

Make the best use of multitasking agents. There will be some agents who will shine in all (or most) channels. Don’t risk boring them by keeping them in once place, according to Five9.

“Eventually, you’ll identify a few agents who do well in multiple channels,” wrote the blogger. “For those agents, limit time in a channel to a few hours, then shift to another channel during the course of the day — it combats monotony and keeps agents fresh for your customers or prospects.”

In the end, what works best for your organization may not be what works best for another company, and vice versa. Evaluate your agents strengths and weaknesses, set goals and evaluate frequently to identify new opportunities.