Low response times, the inability to answer routine inquiries, and the lack of a single platform for customer data are the biggest challenges to excellent customer service. When your customer support agents at call centers are unable to give accurate responses to customers looking for assistance, you need to employ data-driven approaches and adequate training to address their knowledge gaps about the customer and your products.
You may also need to look into updated technology for call centers your business uses.
Investing in your customer service agents is a long-term strategy that helps boost customer retention and reduces cart abandonment rates. Here are six steps to help you make your agents more engaged and productive so that you meet your customer service goals:
Understanding Agent Productivity
The business lesson “You cannot improve something you don’t measure” is the one to follow when you are trying to amp up agent productivity. And to measure agent productivity, you need to understand what goes into it:
Importance of Monitoring and Analyzing Agent Performance Data
Focus on talking to your customer support agents to identify the pain points and biggest challenges they face while completing day-to-day tasks. For example, are lengthy handle times due to disengaged agents or slow work systems?
Another factor you need to assess is the performance goal you are setting for your agent. If your goals are based on e-commerce industry trends while your company operates in the B2B space, they are likely not realistic.
Lastly, while analyzing agent productivity data, focus on opportunities to provide adequate training, especially when you notice skill gaps or knowledge deficiencies.
Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) to Measure Agent Productivity
When measuring agent productivity, the following KPIs will come in handy:
| Key Performance Indicator | What It Measures | Biggest Challenges |
| Average Speed of Answer (ASA) | Response times | Non-automated/inefficient call routing |
| Average Handle Time (AHT) | Average time spent per customer interaction, including talk time and idle time | Vague scripts, misunderstanding customer concerns, disengagement |
| First Contact Resolution (FCR) | Percentage (%) of customer inquiries resolved during initial interaction | Confusion regarding product specifications and demotivation leading to transfer |
| CES (Customer Effort Score) | Effort needed to use a product | No clarity over product specifications and customer inquiries |
| Customer Satisfaction (CSAT) | Customer satisfaction related to agent interaction | Same as the reasons mentioned above |
| Quality Assurance Scores | Performance of customer support agents | Lack of proper training opportunities, agent autonomy, and agent efficiency |
| Agent Utilization Rate | Percentage (%) of time agents in your contact centers spend on customer interactions (excluding hold-time and after-call tasks) | Increased manual work and efficiency issues with time tracking |
| Net Promoter Score (NPS) | Likelihood of customers recommending the company’s products/services to others (part of customer loyalty) | Inability to handle customer expectations |
Balancing Quantity and Quality in Agent Performance Evaluation
Though the above KPIs indicate a ‘need for speed,’ rushing your agents will not help them be more productive. Instead, dig deeper into the challenges they are facing that prevent them from providing customer satisfaction.
Proper training resources that balance an agent’s hard and soft skills will increase their productivity.
Empowering Agents with the Right Tools and Resources
Adding the right tools and technologies will help with customer agent efficiency. You need to ensure your business is:
Investing in Modern Contact Center Technology
Regardless of the industry you operate in, call center productivity will be instrumental. The following types of modern call center software is worth including in your tech stack to achieve higher productivity levels:
- Knowledge Management Tools and Systems: Lowers average handle time with a centralized repository of customer information, product specifications, or troubleshooting manuals for agents to refer to.
- Omnichannel capabilities: A customer’s buying journey includes an average of 8 channels, and agents should be able to serve customers on as many as possible with omnichannel capabilities stemming from a unified platform.
- Intelligent Call Routing: Use algorithms that study agent-customer interactions and decide which agent can best address the issue, thus reducing transfer rates with efficient call routing.
- Single Platform/Agent Desktop: This will give your agents a 360-degree view of the customer, including their interaction history, queries, buying preferences, etc. It will act as a singular point of service for your agents.
Providing Continuous Training and Coaching
Handing a customer support agent a script to follow without setting aside time to explain the product to them is a misstep that can cost a business customer loyalty. A customer faced with a clueless customer support agent is not likely to recommend the product to their network.
When agents know the product inside and out, they can efficiently help customers with all kinds of queries. Providing knowledge review sessions, investing in a central location for additional resources (such as real-time information about updates and iterations) about the product, and providing continuous learning opportunities can help agents learn the product.
Enabling Self-Service and Knowledge Management
Equip your website with self-service resources like guides, chatbots, blogs, and FAQs to help customers solve problems. Customer self-service options are vital for quick resolutions. When customers with easy problems can find solutions on the company website, the agent can focus on customers with more complicated issues that cannot be solved through self-service options.
For knowledge management, ensure the agent has access to customer data, buying history, product information, and troubleshooting guides.
Streamlining Processes and Workflows
To create a well-oiled workflow, focus on three core goals with the following steps:
Automating Repetitive Tasks and Reducing Manual Effort
Automating routine tasks allows agents to focus on complex deliverables while reducing human error that can easily slip through the cracks. 74% of IT leaders were able to save at least four hours per week with automation by:
- Reducing the administrative burden on the agents with AI tools for routine inquiries, data entry, ticket routing, and templates for scripts and automated messaging
- Training chatbots and virtual assistants to resolve simple customer inquiries and triage complex issues.
- Adopting robotic process automation (RPA) tools for data entry, form filling, and report generation. These are high-volume but low-effort tasks that are repeatable and can be easily handled by bots.
Optimizing Workforce Management and Scheduling
A primary goal of call center workforce management is to improve productivity while enhancing employee satisfaction, which poorly planned staffing and scheduling can prevent.
Using forecast tools based on historical data and predictive analytics will help avoid last-minute staffing issues. You can also use the following contact center software to distribute agent workload and efficiently boost center productivity:
- Automatic Call Distributor (ACD), which routes inbound calls to the suitable agents who are available to receive the call. For example, customers who are part of the loyalty program will automatically be routed based on who is available and has more agent experience.
- Exhaustive Knowledge Base so that agents with access to it can refer to updated product information and give accurate responses to customers.
- Peripheral software that helps with customer service operations, such as robust order management systems.
Implementing Efficient Quality Assurance and Compliance Processes
Data legislation, such as GDPR (data privacy), or industry-specific data rules, such as HIPAA (privacy of health information), demands consistent compliance to avoid heavy penalties. Use automated monitoring and reporting to ensure that you are meeting all legal requirements.
For quality assurance, track how the agents are using their tools and what parameters are improving and which are not. With a data-driven approach, you can quickly identify areas for improvement and execute additional training opportunities.
Fostering an Engaging and Positive Work Environment
A customer agent’s productivity over time will depend on how engaged they are as employees. To achieve enhanced employee engagement and employee motivation, keep in mind the following:
Promoting Agent Wellbeing and Work-Life Balance
Ask your agents how you can build a positive work environment and overcome their biggest challenges when it comes to work-life balance. For example, customer support agents need to sit for long hours while they field customer calls, so providing ergonomic workstations with comfortable chairs will help avoid physical strain.
Their communication tools should be fast and customizable according to their work process. If these are their common issues, gift cards or regular breaks may not help with agent satisfaction.
For mental health concerns, connect agents with employee assistance programs and instill mental health-friendly workplace practices to build a supportive environment. These may include flexible work policies, a four-day workweek, or frequent breaks with entertainment options in the middle of the day.
Recognizing and Rewarding Top Performers
Applauding well-performing agents with bonuses and commissions is not enough. Other strategies include taking their feedback on how they want to be recognized, gamifying the workflow with tangible rewards, and supporting their upskilling efforts with continuous learning opportunities.
Facilitating Collaboration and Knowledge Sharing
Building a collaborative environment among your customer support agents will also help with their productivity. You can also invest in social learning setups and peer learning mechanisms. Match experienced agents with business leaders who can help shape their careers. Coffee chats between seasoned contact center agents and new hires will also build camaraderie and knowledge sharing.
Your agents should also have access to a unified platform where they can freely ask questions, share struggles, share hacks and positive feedback, and just let their guard down. When they work as a collective rather than in silos, call center agent productivity and communication across the board will increase.
Leveraging Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Analytics
In 2024, there is no excuse for not tracking job performance metrics. Here’s how you can make the most out of machine learning models:
Applying AI and Machine Learning for Agent Assistance
We have already discussed efficient call routing and matching suitable agents with a customer to preserve customer patience. You can also use machine learning models to build comprehensive customer profiles that your agent can access for real-time suggestions during a call. AI tools can study your agent’s conversations with customers and support interactions with recommendations on what to do next to deliver exceptional customer service.
Customer service software with conversational AI picks up on verbal and nonverbal cues that the agents may miss. With such nuanced real-time assistance, agents will achieve faster issue resolution.
Utilizing Predictive Analytics and Forecasting
Anticipating customer interactions and behavior will allow your agents to serve consumers better and increase overall agent success rates.
This is where customer data and predictive customer analytics come in. By analyzing customer demand trends based on historical data and factors like launches, promotions (business-related), seasonality, or economic conditions (external factors), your agents can improve customer experience.
Enhancing Customer Experience with AI-powered Insights
AI-powered insights go deeper than just conversational analysis. Efficient agents can provide exceptional customer service if they have AI tools that can detect emotions and sentiments. Customers are expecting personalized service levels now more than ever, and when they buy your products, they are giving insight into their buying behavior.
Customer service agents armed with these insights through AI tools can help them better, leading to higher customer loyalty. They will be able to analyze customer feedback on a granular level, identify pain points, and anticipate innovative approaches to achieve excellent customer service.
Aligning Agent Performance with Business Goals
Your agent’s productivity is deeply rooted in business goals. Treating it as a part of your business parameters is vital for business growth.
Setting Clear Performance Goals and Expectations
Defining targets means providing context behind your key metrics. Your agent’s targets could be based on industry trends, historical data, and business goals. If they know what to target and why, the “how” becomes easy.
However, the “why” should also align with your customer service team’s objectives. If an agent’s goal is to prevent avoidable calls (by nudging customers to get answers on the website without agent involvement), but the business focus is on increasing the number of calls answered, contextual alignment between these two goals will benefit the agent and the business.
Transparency and open communication regarding evaluation criteria and job performance expectations will be instrumental in building a workforce of happy agents.
Implementing Effective Performance Management Systems
Performance management systems are not just about providing constructive feedback. You need to incorporate growth, continuous learning, and mentorship to show that you are invested in an agent’s progress. For high-potential agents, consider additional training opportunities that put them on the managerial track to ensure sustained commitment.
Encouraging Continuous Improvement and Innovation
Continuous improvement is not a one-way process. When your customer service agents feel empowered, they work on their processes, suggest ways to improve their workflow, and pitch innovative ideas to contribute to business goals.
Introduce channels for feedback wherein the agent recommends how the customer service team can improve. After all, they are the ones who field calls day after day. An agent’s feedback could include something as simple as getting better chairs to achieve bigger goals, such as contributing to a supportive work environment, improving employee retention, and ensuring job satisfaction.
Measuring and Optimizing the Customer Experience
Another approach for agent efficiency is to invest in technology and practices that help analyze customer experience better by:
Capturing and Analyzing Customer Feedback
Critical productivity metrics related to customers are customer satisfaction score, net promoter score, and customer effort score (refer to the table on KPIs). It is vital to measure these through post-call surveys.
Customers can help you identify which customer service agents need support. AI tools that use sentiment analysis can give your agents recommendations on how to make amends after negative feedback while also capturing customers’ overall perceptions. They do this by collating data from different sources, including social media, emails, calls, and other channels, and guiding the agents, thus improving agent efficiency.
Identifying Pain Points and Opportunities for Improvement
A deep understanding of customer pain points will ensure agents can deal with customer complaints with efficiency.
When you have an AI tool that can identify which part of the buying journey caused customer issues, your customer agents will ensure faster issue resolution by giving specific recommendations rather than needing a customer to explain the hurdle in detail. Faster resolutions are the easiest way to boost agent productivity levels, and mapping the buyer’s journey helps immensely.
Aligning Agent Performance with Customer Experience Metrics
See how ACH time, FCR rates, and other agent performance metrics are linked with customer-oriented metrics like CSAT and NPS.
Is the customer more satisfied because the call is short or because the first call resolved the customer query? Understanding the “why” behind a customer’s feedback allows you to set targets for your agents accordingly. When you create a loop like that, giving constructive feedback to agents based on customer experience becomes more manageable, and continuous training and service enhancement becomes easier.
How to Improve Agent Productivity with Teramind
Teramind is a leading productivity platform that helps businesses identify productivity gaps, monitor employee performance, and improve proceses. Here’s how Teramind helps improve agent productivity:
- Boost Efficiency with Real-Time Analytics: Teramind’s powerful real-time analytics track agent activities and performance, enabling you to identify bottlenecks and streamline workflows, so your team can handle more calls with greater efficiency.
- Enhance Agent Training and Development: Leverage Teramind’s detailed activity reports and session recordings to pinpoint skill gaps and provide targeted training, ensuring your agents are always improving and delivering exceptional customer service.
- Optimize Call Handling with Smart Monitoring: Use Teramind’s intelligent monitoring tools to assess call handling techniques and adherence to protocols, helping to refine processes and boost overall productivity across your call center.
- Increase Compliance and Reduce Errors: Teramind’s comprehensive oversight features help maintain compliance with industry regulations and minimize human error, giving you peace of mind that your team is consistently meeting quality standards.
FAQs
How to improve agent productivity in call center?
To boost agent productivity in a call center, provide comprehensive training and ongoing coaching to enhance skills and knowledge. Implement efficient call routing systems and user-friendly tools to streamline workflows and reduce time spent on non-customer-facing tasks.
How can the performance of an agent be improved?
To improve agent performance, start by setting clear, achievable performance goals and providing regular, constructive feedback. To boost motivation, offer incentives and recognition programs for meeting or exceeding targets. Invest in continuous skill development programs and provide access to up-to-date resources.
What is agent productivity?
Agent productivity refers to the efficiency and effectiveness with which call center agents handle customer interactions and resolve issues. It’s measured by various metrics such as average handle time, first call resolution rate, customer satisfaction scores, and the number of calls handled per hour. High agent productivity contributes to improved customer experience, reduced operational costs, and increased call center performance.
What are the strategies to improve productivity?Key strategies to improve productivity include optimizing scheduling to match call volume patterns, reducing idle time between calls through better forecasting, and leveraging technology like AI-powered assistants to handle routine inquiries. Implement quality monitoring programs to identify areas for improvement. Create a positive work environment that reduces stress and burnout, leading to higher engagement.
