How Has, and Will the Function of Agents Change in the Contact

Advisers, customer service representatives, contact centre agents. Whatever you call them, these are some of the most important people in your team.

Now that customer experience is the ultimate differentiator for modern brands, contact centre agents are the people who bridge the gap between your consumers, and your company. The question is, how is the role of these crucial individuals changing?

In the past, the contact centre agent was someone who sat in a room with dozens of other people, always answering the phone and responding to problems, or handling a stream of outbound calls. Today, these agents have been empowered, transformed and updated by the rise of digital transformation.

Contact agents are handling multiple communication channels at once – not just calls. What’s more, these advisers also have more complex issues to handle, and a wider range of tools to assist them than ever before. Here’s how the function of agents in the communication world has changed, and how it will continue to transform in the future.

Customer Experience Has Changed the Contact Centre

Perhaps the biggest and most crucial change in the contact centre environment so far has been in how we handle customer communication.

Although businesses have always known that delivering good experiences for their clients is important, experience is now essential to any brand. Customers are beginning to value the unique knowledge that customer service agents can give. What’s more, from all environments, clients are beginning to search for more personalised experiences when they connect with a brand.

The changing preferences of consumers has led to a rise in many different practices. For instance, it’s common today for all customer agents to have access to CRM systems that provide information on consumers. Additionally, the rising demand for 24/7 service also means that more companies are investing in automation, AI, and chatbots.

Intelligent tools are now working alongside, or hand-in-hand with the modern contact centre agent. On the one hand, this means that today’s professionals have access to more information and contextual support than ever before. On the other hand, augmented solutions also mean that today’s agents are left to handle more complex customer queries, because chatbots and automated systems are filtering out the repetitive and easy calls.

Creating Decentralised Teams of Knowledgeable Agents

So, does the rising need for always-on support mean that we can look forward to robots completely taking over the contact centre?

Probably not. According to one study into Contact Centre opportunities, strategies, and trends, the future of the contact centre agent will be linked to the arrival of the experience hub. In other words, human connections will become increasingly important as people continue to search for more customised experiences.

The main difference is that in the years to come, the contact centre environment won’t necessarily need to be a big room full of chaotic phones ringing and people rushing around trying to transfer calls to the right person at the right time. Instead, the future “experience hub” may be made up of distributed teams of proactive agents.

For instance, studies suggest that half of the UK workforce will be ready to work remotely by this time next year (2020). As cloud-based contact centres and team collaboration tools make it easier to access the workplace wherever you are, it’s likely that agents will become more home-based and remote. These digitally-savvy individuals will be able to provide support to customers at all hours of the day, from locations all around the world, using local numbers and high-quality communication strategies.

Additionally, the rise of intelligent routing means that the agents that are in the contact centre will spend less time transferring calls to the right person. Automated systems will ensure that the right call goes to the person with the right skills every time, improving the speed of resolutions.

Agents Become More Informed and Proactive

As well as becoming more dispersed and diverse, the contact centre agent also has the potential to become more skilled and knowledgeable too. As emerging technology like artificial intelligence, machine learning, and natural language processing enters the market, the contact centre is evolving.

On one side of the coin, automated solutions mean that repetitive and monotonous tasks can be easily managed by robots on the back-end. This means that agents have more time to focus on more complex queries and questions. While this requires agents to have a greater level of skill, company leaders can also support their agents by using state-of-the-art technology to empower them.

The same AI, machine learning, and automation can automatically deliver contextual information about a customer to an agent before they begin a call. This reduces the need for the customer to repeat themselves. Additionally, bots can immediately surface relevant company information to help agents answer questions, or direct employees to specialists who can answer their question over team collaboration tools.

Through centralised knowledgebases and AI support that gives agents information to the right information quickly, today’s advisers can be more proactive and efficient in helping their customers. What’s more, during a conversation, artificial intelligence systems can track the progress of a discussion, looking for markers or keywords that might indicate a new need. For instance, if a bot notices that a conversation is going poorly because of sentiment analysis issues, it could send a message to a supervisor who can step in on the back end and help.

Technology and Humans, Working Together

We’re rapidly moving towards a new era for the contact centre.

Today’s customer service agents aren’t the same as the people who would answer calls all day a few years ago. The agent needs to be active and knowledgeable on multiple channels at once. This means that it’s becoming increasingly important for humans and technology to work seamlessly together.

The good news is that it’s becoming obvious that robots aren’t necessarily going to take over the contact centre. Instead, human agents are growing increasingly empowered by their technology brethren. With access to the right AI and automation systems, today’s agents can answer questions and overcome hurdles faster than ever before.