AGENT EXPERIENCE = CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE
¿Are you aware of the importance of Agent Experience?
Many companies worldwide consider customer experience as the most important thing in their day-to-day basis. This means that they are obsessed with providing a great and matchless experience to clients, leaving aside the employee and agent experience, which is also a very valuable topic that should be considered to achieve a company’s main goal, customer satisfaction.
The fact of putting the customer at the center of everything often puts the agent’s needs aside, but what a lot of companies don´t know is that both experiences are more connected than ever. Why? Well, a happy agent usually translate into a happy customer. Imagine yourself as a client calling in for support, and the agent that picks up the phone to assist you is just not in a good mood or even concentrated on the issue you´re calling in about. This will definitely end up being a very bad experience for you as a customer and you probably will respond to the CSAT survey with a low score, because it´s obvious that the agent is just trying to get through their day.
That being said, poor agent experience can lead to bad job performance, high levels of agent rotation, and worse the spread of a bad word around the market. This will affect tremendously the company´s reputation, but also the customer’s experience, loyalty and satisfaction. For all of these reasons, you should now be able to understand how supporting customers really starts with supporting your own people. So, how can you prevent these situations from happening? Easy, by taking into account the agent´s experience as well.
Here´s why focusing on agent experience is a win-win for any company in the contact center industry or those organizations that have a customer support team.
What is Agent Experience?
Agent Experience are all those aspects of support that an agent has to consider when assisting customers, from the tools, processes, workflows, and knowledge that they use to do their job, all the way to the initiatives made by the company to provide them a better experience. Some factors that are important to take into account are the following:
- How easy is it for an agent to solve a ticket?
- What type of tickets are they good at?
- What type of tickets frustrates them most?
- How valued do agents feel as a member of the support team?
After the Global Pandemic a lot of things have changed, bringing new challenges for customer support teams. One of these significant changes has been the way agents work today, which is mostly remotely, and with this of course new technologies have also been introduced, which means that many teams have had to learn new skills and processes to stay connected.
How to improve Agent Experience?
Agent Experience and Customer Experience are two concepts that are aligned, which means that anything you do to improve the first one, will also affect positively the second one. So, where should you start? Well, first you must always make your agents feel valued. Numbers and metrics are definitely important to consider as team leaders, but it is also extremely important to remember that your agents are humans too. Show your people that you value the job they do daily, by prioritizing their needs and well-being. Provide them with different channels of communication where they can express their efforts and feelings to the leadership team. Let´s not forget that nobody is able to give their best when they are feeling overwhelmed, frustrated, and stressed, and customers will definitely pick up on the signs when someone is burnt out.
Second, it is completely important for you to provide your agents with good technology, processes, knowledge and tools to improve customer interactions. Try Workforce Management Tools that can automate a repetitive task, like “chatbots or smart digital assistants” that can support customers in a faster and easier way.
Finally, it is also important to have a supportive work environment in which you can identify the frictions and difficulties that your agents are experiencing and take action immediately to improve the situation. You need to listen to your agent’s feedback because they have insights that can lead to better products and services, which will ultimately provide customers a better experience.
What strategies and tools are you incorporating today to understand and improve your employee´s experience?
