The Human Connection
As more sales have gone online, however, businesses have struggled to maintain the human contact that is so important for long-term relationships. In many cases, the contact center is the primary source of direct customer interaction. That can make it a source of both satisfaction and frustration.
Buyers demand more from businesses today than ever. A survey of contact center callers by customer experience measurement firm CFI Group found that people rated their satisfaction level as 81 on a 100-point scale when calls were completed within five minutes. That figure fell to 47 for sessions that lasted more than half an hour. Satisfaction was 80 when issues were resolved by a single agent but just 36 when three or more agents were involved.
The SuperOffice survey found that 46% of consumers expect companies to respond to text or voice messages within four hours and 12% expect a reply within 15 minutes. An overwhelming 90% said they regard rapid response as either a crucial or very important element of the customer service experience.
The ability of a contact center to address customer questions rapidly and effectively is thus clearly correlated with customer satisfaction and repeat business. Employee satisfaction is also an issue in a market that is starved for labor and suffering the lingering effects of the COVID-initiated Great Resignation.
What all this means is that managing a contact center has never been more challenging. Customers expect to interact with businesses through whatever channels they prefer and to receive a response on a timely basis. Agents are now expected to juggle multiple forms of interaction, including voice, email, text messages, and social media.
Their task is easily frustrated by the difficulty of finding relevant information or answers to questions. Siloed data, inadequate search capabilities, and issues in reaching experts who can respond to complex inquiries contribute to agent stress levels and turnover.
The challenge of sustaining employee engagement in such environments is compounded by the fact that contact center jobs are typically entry-level positions with low pay and limited mobility. Customers who call are frequently experiencing frustration, which adds to agents’ stress level. It doesn’t help that performance metrics are often tied to speedy problem resolution and penalize agents who linger on customer calls. Given all these factors, it’s unsurprising that contact center turnover rates have historically run between 30% and 45% per year.
