How Can Workforce Optimization Help Improve the Customer Experience?

Are you one of those brands that once led your industry in customer service, yet have found your customers to be a little pickier than in the past? You’re not alone – access to endless amounts of information and providers has educated the consumer base like never before. This means you have to step up your game if you want to make an impact. Workforce optimization can help along the way, but you have to have a clear strategy in place.

The ultimate goal is to deliver the level of quality service that knocks your customers’ socks off and sets the standard way too high for the competition to touch. It’s not just a “one and done” kind of thing; you have to deliver this level over and over again. What’s even more challenging is that the bar will continue to move higher, wowing your customers again and again. The ultimate point – you can’t do it alone. You need your employees to get engaged and help you along the way.

To do so, workforce optimization is key, but so is clear communication. You have to convey exactly what it is that you need to achieve the desired level in customer care. What are your customer standards and why did you create them? A recent Forbes post suggests that there are three parts to the effective method for communicating the standards you want to achieve. Taking from their points, you need to develop a summary statement that includes:

• Why the service is of value to your customer base;
• The emotional response you are trying to elicit from the customer; and
• The way in which you expect the team to accomplish this service.

It’s one thing to tell your team that they need to deliver better customer service, but how do you quantify that to actually take it to the next level? When you develop your summary statement with these three keys, you can actually set the stage for autonomy for your staff. They can take this opportunity and knowledge to develop the right approach for specific and unique interactions. 

In other words, workforce optimization focused on customer service improvements is not a method to train your employees to be the same person in every interaction. Instead, it’s empowering these individuals to make educated decisions on how best to handle each unique interaction so as to wow the customer.

A workforce optimization solution, such as those offered by NICE, allows you to schedule employees according to their skill set. You can also leverage the platform to track and measure performance so you know when to apply the proper training.

If you truly want to set a new standard for the customer experience, focus on the right strategy and tools to get it done and make a commitment to consistency. 


Edited by Rory J. Thompson