Call Center Scheduling Featured Article
Omnichannel Customers Require an Omnichannel Approach to Contact Center Scheduling
Call center scheduling is a very familiar duty for most call center managers. How many agents do I need on the phone today, or this afternoon? What about next week? What about when that big marketing campaign hits at the end of the month? What do I do when two agents leave early to pick up sick kids? While quality depends on managers having answers to these questions, too many contact centers today forget that it’s not all about the phone anymore. Customers demand service via a variety of channels, and they expect the same robust service regardless of which channel they choose.
According to a recent survey of 1,000 customers conducted by management consulting firm the Northridge Group, 61 percent of consumers to report engaging with companies on more than one channel to get a customer service-related issue resolved to their satisfaction. One in five customers report having to use three or more channels. Often times, additional channels involves social media today, particularly among younger customers. So for contact centers that are spending their time worrying about scheduling only for the telephone, there are huge gaps that customer service quality is falling into. Since most consumers are using different channels for different purposes, brands should tailor their customer service experience efforts to each channel…and this includes contact center scheduling. As in: How many agents should be dedicated to chat today? How many agents do I need on social media today? Among those social media agents, how many should be dedicated to Facebook, and how many to Twitter (News - Alert)?
“Customers use each service channel differently,” said Daren Moore, president of government and enterprise services for the Northridge Group. “The onus is on companies to meet their customers on their channel of choice. A truly omnichannel customer service experience provides a consistent and seamless flow throughout all channels.”
This is particularly compelling advice, since the report found that 47 percent of consumers plan to use social media for customer service issues the same or more next year than they currently do. At the same time, of all customer service channels, social media has the lowest percentage of issue resolution and follow-up, at 13 percent and 9 percent, respectively. Similarly, the survey found that only 13 percent of consumers get a response within minutes despite the inherent immediacy of social media.
As younger customers – those of the so-called “Millennial Generation” – gain more buying power, the importance of telephone support will decline as they flock to their preferred channels, which are social media and chat. For companies focusing all their scheduling and quality efforts on the telephone, more customers will be lost through the neglected channels.
Ensure that your contact center is approaching scheduling in an omnichannel way, ensuring there are enough agents on all channels so when customers make a choice to reach out – regardless of the media they choose – someone is there to help them.
Edited by Stefania Viscusi