It is likely that your organization is focused on Customer Experience Management (CEM) and is continually seeking new ways to enhance the customer experience.  For most organizations, the contact center is the public face.

Negative customer experiences are often the outcome of inefficient contact center processes. Many of these organizations struggle with how to create high value interactions while still encouraging agents to handle more calls in less time and improve customer service ratings by reducing both headcount and costs.

Making agents as efficient as possible is an essential aspect of improving customer satisfaction. Studies have shown that callers dislike waiting on hold, being asked to repeat themselves, or being transferred because a representative does not have the correct information or the authority to resolve their issues. These problems challenge contact centers when their systems and agent processes cannot easily conform to the way callers want to interact.

One reason for this organizational shortcoming is that contact centers do not provide agents with a 360-degree view. Without easy access to all relevant customer information when they need it, they are forced to sacrifice valuable interaction time while searching for answers. To the caller, this delay represents inattentiveness and a poor interaction.

Several contact center activities also involve complex workflows that span many different systems. This disparity results in customers waiting on-hold as agents navigate from system to system. Again, delays give customers the impression that agents are not properly trained or worse, that the company is not concerned with service and support.

There is no quick fix when it comes to affecting change in the contact center. When adjustments in process are required, everything slows while systems are updated and agents are retrained, creating an environment ripe for errors.

Inefficient processes like these generate sub-par contact center performance metrics, which result in poor customer experiences. Again, when agents must concentrate on complicated systems and procedures, they are unable to focus on resolving customer issues. Also of note, is that in addition to customer migration, new sales opportunities will be lost because when an agent's time is wasted on the systems management and not service, the window for any chance to up-sell or offer special promotions is instantly closed.

Zeacom, a contact center software provider, has a strong track record in helping organizations improve customer experience management.

The company’s multimedia, enterprise-grade solutions improve customer satisfaction as well as agent productivity. Customers spend less time on hold and do not leave their interaction with a sense of frustration and dissatisfaction. Through Zeacom’s (News - Alert) contact center software, agents not only have the resources they need to be more helpful to customers, but also are also more motivated, which results in a more efficient contact center operation.

When the agent's focus is on the customer and not complex desktop environments, it improves their ability to build customer rapport and create value from every interaction.