An efficient, productive contact center reflects the focus on customer service. Managers, keenly aware of the needed efficiencies and essential customers’ good will, are providing more and more tools to their agents, from customer experience management, advanced helpdesk software, social media customer service tools and even individual agents metrics. Alas, these wonderful tools reside in disparate applications and do not communicate with one another. For agents, new challenges occur, the biggest obstacle being the need to handle multiple search fields.
Navigating multiple search fields is redundant and wasteful
When a customer calls in to a contact center, an agent must access a variety of identifying information, details on support history and knowledge bases to respond to issues. Not only agents navigate among several applications, each one being disconnected from the others, but they must also initiate separate search functions within the applications. Searching knowledge bases or customer databases requires input of the same information multiple times, increasing the length of the call. Agents spend time in uncomfortable silence or trying to fill time gaps with small talk to avoid the awkwardness. Many times, the right information isn’t properly revealed during the search, which means additional delays, escalation or call backs. And all these impact the customer experience negatively.
Solving the Problem: A Unified, Single-Search Integration Platform
Some innovative companies eliminate the problems and delays caused by multiple search fields by integrating all applications and processes into a single, unified integration platform. Instead of dealing with data silos, agents start a single search, the needed data is pulled from the application it resides in, and the information appears on the agent desktop promptly. Agents can review history, update data which is automatically updated in all other applications, thanks to the back office integration tool of the platform. Agents have access to all relevant information in a single view. Workflow procedures become streamlined as they exist within the platform instead of in separate modules. Other benefits include:
- Productivity increases due to automation of certain routine tasks
- Elimination of repetitive and redundant tasks (thus reducing errors)
- Data from multiple applications is searchable within the unified platform
- Accuracy and real time data are available immediately for the agents and customer
- First call resolution increases by usually 51% as agents have access to a more comprehensive databases knowledge
An integration platform (iPaas) gives you a solution that is prompt to deploy (75% decrease in launch time), easy to master (agent training is reduced by 15% with a substantial morale boost and decreased turn over). All applications including CRM, call center scripts, routing tools, databases, credit card processing, order entry systems and many more, are unified under one robust yet flexible platform.
Since companies do not “reap-and-replace” with a new application that takes months to deploy and master, the ROI is excellent. Companies keep their needed applications, they simply integrate them via an integration platform that streamlines search capabilities, automates back office updates and provides intelligent guided workflows. Ultimately, a robust yet flexible and innovative integration platform reduces call duration time, increase customer satisfaction and agent performance.
