The field of customer service is undergoing a change that hasn’t been seen before. Customer support, once viewed as a transactional, back-office function, is now at the forefront of driving retention, loyalty, and growth, and this has necessitated a shift in business. However, even as technology is infused into more areas of the business, humans still have a crucial role to play, and as such, investing in training customer service agents should be a strategic imperative for businesses.
Customers expect personalised service on their terms, not the brand’s, and they want convenience and a consistent experience across all touchpoints. These increased demands have made traditional service approaches obsolete. Customer support can no longer be seen as a transactional back-office function, but as a driver of retention, loyalty and growth. This shift requires that businesses move away from a reactive call centre model and towards a proactive Customer Experience (CX) Hub that brings together humans and technology.
The advancing capability of artificial intelligence (AI) and automation is changing the role of the human service agent. With technology now capable of handling mundane, repetitive, and transactional tasks, self-service FAQs and intelligent chatbots are essentially becoming the first line of support. This capability is critical, as high-volume, low-complexity interactions are ideal candidates for automation. For example, local bus operator Intercape saw automated FAQ conversations jump from around 30,000 per month to over 190,000 per month in just three months after implementation.
How can organisations ensure that their automation initiatives have a higher chance at success? Find out more in this video with David Meintjes, Telviva’s CEO.
Becoming masters of orchestration
This proliferation of digital communication channels means agents require training to become ‘orchestrators’. Omnichannel capability is becoming the norm, and mastering this requires agents to manage transitions, ensure consistency between channels, and manage the critical handoff between automation and humans, and vice versa.
This depends heavily on integration: without proper integration, businesses operate in silos, forcing customers to repeat themselves as they move between channels or agents, resulting in a degraded experience. When integration is done right, the customer enjoys reduced friction and a consistent, seamless CX.
For agents, proper integration means empowerment. They are provided with context and a full history of the customer’s past interactions, allowing them to have personalised, better quality conversations. Furthermore, AI-powered tools, such as Generative AI services for transcription, can eliminate manual note-taking and summarise action items to be added directly into the CRM, thereby augmenting and enhancing the agents’ capabilities.
With technology – including self-service FAQs and intelligent chatbots – now handling first-line support, agents must undergo further training to become more knowledgeable regarding the products or solutions they support or sell. Organisations should also establish a shared knowledge base and invest in training on how to troubleshoot, understand a problem, and apply the best solution. This foundation enables the ideal approach to modern customer service, which is “digital when you want it, human when you need it”.
Antony Russell, Telviva’s CTO, says that despite technological advances, there will always be a requirement for a ‘human-in-the-loop’ in the contact centre environment. Watch the video to learn more.
Better servicing customers with EQ training
With technology increasingly taking care of the mundane, agents are freed up to focus on resolving issues that require a more human-centric approach. As such, the role of contact centre agents is evolving from simply processing transactions to providing more personalised and complex customer service, focusing on highly emotional and complex problem-solving scenarios.
Consequently, merely having the technology in place accounts for less than 10% of success; the remaining 90% is attributable to agent behaviour, emotion, and motivation, as addressing these more difficult issues requires responding with empathy, applying their judgement, and moving beyond simply reading out a scripted response.
And, with agents likely to be handling these types of interactions more regularly, training opportunities exist on the emotional quotient (EQ) side. This includes equipping agents to listen to the customer, understand their situation, diffuse highly emotional scenarios, and solve problems as quickly as possible. For these complex, nuanced matters, human agents remain indispensable, making training all the more critical.
Did you know that Telviva has put together extensive training modules consisting of videos and documentation for agents, managers, administrators and others? Learn more about our Managed Contact Centre Service here.
Driving loyalty and growth through the human experience
When reviewing their investments in employee development, businesses can examine numerous metrics to measure success. These include better resolution times, increased self-service adoption, increased sales, increased customer loyalty, and marketing metrics such as Net Promoter Scores (NPS) and Employee Net Promoter Scores (eNPS). Retention of employees also becomes a critical measure of success, given the investment in skills development by the business.
Numerous studies indicate that happy and engaged employees are more likely to create happy and loyal customers. Loyal customers, in turn, are more likely to recommend the brand to others. Ultimately, both employees and customers thrive in an environment that is safe, supportive, and caring.
By proactively investing in both the technical skills necessary for channel ‘orchestration’ and driving seamless human-machine collaboration, and the emotional skills required for complex problem-solving, business leaders can ensure that the human experience remains central to driving loyalty and growth.
By Kate Shead, HR Executive at Telviva.
Telviva boosts business efficiency and customer satisfaction by automating repetitive tasks and workflows. Our experts tailor solutions to your communication strategy, freeing employees to focus on strategic initiatives and giving your business a competitive edge. Contact us today.