Navigating pandemic shockwaves for the contact center agent

Though the end user experience is often analyzed from several points of interest within development and operational teams, it is time to assess how contact centers fundamentally impact the user experience; and how the pandemic has greatly affected agents’ workflows.

Sam Hahn, technology evangelist from eGain, joined KMWorld to discuss how contact centers and their agents are at a disadvantage when it comes to modern knowledge tools. This is critical when considering the end user experience; if the entities responsible for serving those end users are ill-equipped, the ultimate experience, for both end user and contact center agent alike, suffers.

In a survey conducted by eGain among frontline contact center agents spanning several industries, 63% of agents said the complexity level of customer inquiries had increased. Further, 76% of those agents work from home; paired with inquiry complexity, this means agents require robust, knowledge-based guidance available on their desktop and accessible in their desired environments.

The collected data offered a distressing statistic: 64% of agents have no knowledge guidance, where 33% find answers from documents or colleagues, and 31% are limited to a Google-like search.

Forty-nine percent  of agents reported that the largest challenge for finding solutions for customers is needing to look at numerous windows before the answer is found. Additionally, 38% said it was due to constantly changing information, and 25% noted it was due to different systems that give different answers.

Visibility into customer interactions is another obstacle facing agents, with 54% of agents reporting that they do not have a 360-view of customer interactions, and 56% of agents had no ability to see self-service interactions (e.g., chatbot) that the customer had previously had before interacting with the agent.

This variety of issues compounds to burden agents with extraordinary stress. Regardless if you are a veteran or new agent, high stress levels are the common ground all agents are experiencing.

The new working world incited by the pandemic has left gaps in the contact center agent’s workflow that requires guidance, visibility, and multichannel, streamlined support. To combat these daunting statistics, Hahn pointed towards the eGain Knowledge Hub as the contact center’s north star. The solution is a single, harmonized platform for managing knowledge that connects and collects once; writes, collaborates, and approves once; automates and adds intelligence once; and manages compliance once. Being transformational, eGain Knowledge Hub can amplify ROI for digital transformation in customer engagement. eGain’s solution emphasizes simplicity, value, and continuous action, where contact centers and their agents only stand to gain.

For an in depth-analysis and discussion of eGain’s survey, solution, and success stories, you can view an archived version of the webinar here.