Over the past several years, CX professionals have had a front-row seat to the fast-paced evolution of CX digital innovation and transformation. Contact center technology keeps improving and there are a vast number of solutions you can tap to improve your CX.
Recent data focused on consumer expectations indicate an increasingly sophisticated clientele with changing, unique, and varied needs — so a cycle of continuous improvement is absolutely essential to staying relevant and competitive. The question is, given ever-evolving consumer expectations, are technology solutions enough?
The movement toward humanized, one-stop CX
These days, CX isn’t limited to providing service and support. Consumers want a more personalized experience and they want to be heard. They’re feeling a disconnect between what they need and what businesses are providing them. That disconnect comes with significant implications.
A recent study by CallMiner indicates that performance at contact centers impacts both loyalty and churn rates. A whopping 90% of consumers said they’re likely to stay loyal after a positive call center experience, and 73.7% said they’re likely to switch after a negative one. According to the survey, three of the top four reasons people gave for switching brands involved emotional factors like feelings of frustration, lack of loyalty, and unfair treatment.
With this in mind, companies are increasingly turning to universal CX agents to connect with their customers and provide them with the level of personal interaction they want. Let’s take a look at the growing practice of integrating universal CX agents into the CX toolbox and how they can help you bridge the disconnect. We’ll break down who they are, how consumer expectations are driving the trend, and what these highly trained super-agents can do to level up your CX.
What — or rather, who — are universal CX agents?
Universal CX agents are contact center associates who have been given significant CX training and the necessary technology to deal with any issue a customer might have, whether they’re connecting through voice, chat, video, or email. Rather than bounce from department to department, person to person — chatbot to email to telephone — in search of a solution, consumers are assisted by an adept and empathic problem solver who is familiar with all aspects of their customer history and their current needs.
The super-agent skill set
Extensively trained in high-quality, omnichannel support, universal CX agents have a firm understanding of how to help out with the majority of customer issues — from tech support to billing and most things in between. They’re also often relied upon to take advantage of customer-interaction opportunities to promote sales.
Along with a heavy emphasis on ‘soft skills’ like empathy and de-escalation, universal CX agents have extensive digital training and tech proficiency. Their expertise extends to intelligent tools inside your customer relationship management (CRM) platform, including computer telephony integration (CTI), which delivers intelligent call routing, call history logs, integrated web services, and inbound screen popping to help direct calls and give agents all the information they need to help a customer.
People-proficient, tech-enabled
Part of what makes universal CX agents so powerful is that they have the right skills and the right tools to create quick, seamless, and personalized interactions with each customer via any communication channel. The ultimate goal is to have the right balance of technology and talent, where automation is in place to deal with repetitive and basic requests, leaving universal CX agents free to address more complex issues.
For instance, many customers appreciate the ability to connect quickly with conversational bots to restore their password or get a refund. And when things get more complex, being able to connect easily to a knowledgeable employee in real-time makes all the difference in quickly avoiding or alleviating the frustration a customer might experience.
How universal CX agents create happier customers
Click here to continue to the full article and learn more on how a universal agent program can benefit your overall CX delivery.
Guest blog post written by ibex.
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