This is a guest post from Ross Daniels, Chief Marketing Officer at Calabrio.

In our last two blogs, we introduced the concept of adding simplicity to the contact centre and outlined the major barriers to success. Along the way, we shared several simplification strategies including how to step-up staff engagement programmes and refresh leadership skills. In this final blog in the series, we discuss how to turn theory into practice using the latest Workforce Engagement Management (WEM) solutions.

Three ways to turn theory into practice

In a world of remote and hybrid work, traditional ‘walking the floor’ to spot problems and resolve issues is not an ideal option. Now, the emphasis is on how to diagnose and remedy issues remotely, a challenge that requires simplification. Fortunately, the latest advancements in WEM have simplicity built into their DNA. The best solutions unify call recording, quality management, workforce management, multichannel analytics and advanced reporting to connect the dots between organisations and changing customer needs.

Here’s how you can use technology to turn simplification theory into practice:

1. Keep it easy, personalised and smart – it is important to recognise that simplification applies equally to those running the show for example operations managers, supervisors and resource planners, as well as customers and advisers. To build simplicity in ways to satisfy all stakeholders adopt technology and processes that are:

• Easy – begin by removing unnecessary manual tasks to combat complexity. Why jump through hoops or spend endless amounts of time searching for data on customer interactions or manually managing internal roles and schedules when you don’t have to? Simplify processes and technology to spend more time on what matters most including your customers and employees.
• Personalised – think about providing advisers and managers with experiences that make sense for their individual work styles, needs and goals. When it comes to technology, look for a partner prepared to invest time and effort, to tailor solutions to your specific requirements, but with a focus on reducing complexity at its core.
• Smart – means understanding what your customers need before they even ask. Find ways to better predict customer interactions based on previous data and insights then train your people to align their skills and behaviours with changing requirements.

2. Maximise omnichannel capabilities – too many disconnected systems prevent advisers from focusing on what the customer wants first time around. Meanwhile, resource planners require easy-to-use, dynamic solutions that support the fast, effective development of flexible shifts and schedules that to accommodate different work-from-anywhere scenarios.

By predicting peaks and troughs in contact centre demand and handling multichannel interactions in terms of planning, the best technology provides a 360° view of all types of data and interactions regardless of where they happened. It then captures and translates this information into a single source of the truth, creating a truly omnichannel contact centre to deliver an exceptional customer experience.

3. Aim for all-round intelligence – the next step towards simplicity lies in capturing data from inside and outside the contact centre. Then applying it intelligently in three key areas – customer, employee and digital intelligence.

The latest WEM solutions offer advanced reporting and enterprise customer experience intelligence (CXI) to provide complete visibility of contact centre operations and ensure organisations have the right data to understand customers, aid decision-making and make meaningful changes to services and products. Behind the scenes, sophisticated desktop analytics deliver vital digital intelligence by unearthing any slow or badly designed applications, systems and processes that make advisers’ lives harder than they need to be.

It’s time to turn theory into practice and add simplicity to your contact centre. Learn more in our actionable guide to addressing the needs of a hybrid workforce.

This is a guest post from Ross Daniels, Chief Marketing Officer at Calabrio.

About Ross

As Chief Marketing Officer, Ross Daniels is responsible for Calabrio’s global marketing efforts, including digital marketing, demand generation and pipeline marketing, content strategy and creation, customer marketing, partner marketing, and corporate communications. Ross is also responsible for supporting Calabrio’s partners–driving strategic technology and platform partner relationships, channel programs and marketing, and developer and services partners. Prior to joining Calabrio in 2017, Ross spent 18 years at Cisco in roles encompassing product management, product marketing and marketing, including serving as the Senior Director of Collaboration Marketing for Cisco’s nearly $5B Collaboration business. Ross holds a BA in English from Harvard University and an MBA from Babson College.

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