Call Center Management Needs a Little Help from Technology

While the contact center serves an important function within a corporation, it can also be a challenge to remain efficient, purposeful and on task. When technology is lacking, processes are manual and updates are put on the back burner. Ultimately, the center loses effectiveness.

A recent OpenSpan (News - Alert) infographic highlighted a few survey findings that point to key areas where the contact center may need a technology overhaul. For instance, of those in call center management surveyed, more than 70 percent report they have limited or no access to computer telephony integration (CTI (News - Alert)). A full 47.4 percent have yet to integrate any applications with CTI.

When that technology is lacking, it often means the call center agent has to do tasks manually or multiple times to achieve the desired result. More than 80 percent of them copy and paste or rekey data when moving from one screen to another during each call – a process that is unnecessary and prone to errors. More than half of these individuals struggle with applications timing out and system lag time is a problem for 21 percent. 




Source (News - Alert): OpenSpan

Call center management is also struggling to manage their environments due to poor implementation and strategies. For instance, 78 percent of those with sales responsibility say they need to improve sales performance. However, more than 80 percent have no ability to monitor error rates and 40 percent have missed their numbers for each reporting period.

In an industry where customer satisfaction is critical, too many are not paying attention to the bottom line when it comes to call resolution. In fact, more than 60 percent are not or cannot measure first call resolution. These centers instead rely on call wrap notes that are manually entered by the customer service representative. Customer service ratings are lower than desired and many still lack the technology to track whether or not a customer has to contact the company more than once to achieve resolution.

The findings from this survey point to some glaring gaps in capabilities and technology updates in contact centers today. The number of calls an agent can handle with the proper tools can increase significantly. If call center management had access to workforce optimization tools, staffing could immediately improve, reducing idle time or strained workloads from understaffing.

The right technology in place could also help the call center to prioritize calls to ensure optimal performance across the board. Without it, the customer service approach is nothing short of a guessing game.

At the end of the day, the contact center is still a cost center and must have the right efficiencies in place to deliver the most value possible. Given the results of this survey, there’s still a lot of work to do.

Edited by Stefania Viscusi