In 2022, contact center agent turnover reached a historic high of 38%: a 12-point increase from only four years earlier, in 2018.
There’s a reason for this disconcerting trend. Agents have been dealing with high call volumes since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
But many contact centers don’t have the tools to help agents deliver the support customers expect. The result is a high-friction work environment that’s tanking productivity, fueling burnout, and ultimately driving turnover.
There is good news; with the right technology, contact center leaders can reduce workplace friction and keep turnover rates from climbing. Here I’ll share four digital tools worth the investment.
TOOL #1: Skills-based Routing Software
Most contact centers already use basic routing software to connect customers with agents in the right departments (e.g., technical support versus billing). These pairings, though, don’t necessarily factor in agents’ unique skill sets.
As a result, agents sometimes find themselves thrust into support interactions that are out of their depth. Maybe they’re paired with a customer who only speaks Spanish. Or needs help troubleshooting a hardware problem, even though they’ve mainly worked on resolving software issues.
Without a customer pairing tailored to their skill sets, it’s tough for agents to do their best work. What’s more, a mismatched pairing can heighten customer frustration, creating unnecessary friction on every call.
To cut friction, use advanced skills-based routing software, powered by artificial intelligence (AI), to pair customers with the most experienced agent for their needs.
Skills-based routing technology rates each agent in your contact center based on skill factors that you define (e.g., foreign language proficiency, subject matter expertise, company tenure).
When a customer calls in, the AI will analyze their call intent (based on their IVR engagement) and route them to the agent with the highest relevant rating.
For instance, if a Spanish-speaking customer needs help with a complex hardware issue, they’ll be paired with a Spanish-speaking agent with years of experience troubleshooting hardware problems. It’s a win-win for everyone: the agent is set up for success, and the customer has the smoothest possible support experience.
There’s a good chance your telephony system has some built-in skills-based routing functionality. But if you need more control over the routing process, custom software can be a powerful alternative.
No matter which approach you choose, skills-based routing can optimize your agent-customer pairings and set the stage for frictionless support interactions.
TOOL #2: AI-powered Sentiment Analysis Technology
Picture an agent who’s helping a customer troubleshoot an issue with their router. They ask for some device information and a description of the problem at hand before walking the customer through some basic troubleshooting steps.
What the agent doesn’t know is that the customer was on hold for 20 minutes before reaching the top of the call queue. As the call drags on, the customer’s frustration starts to bleed into their tone.
But the agent doesn’t clock the shift until the customer is completely fed up. Maybe the customer says something like “Can we hurry this up?” or “I don’t get why this is taking so long. Can I speak to your supervisor?”
...take your time to show agents exactly how a tech-powered contact center can make their lives easier.
Without the tools to detect and mitigate customer frustration, calls like this one can ruin agents’ morale, not to mention customers’ overall satisfaction. And at scale; back-to-back negative interactions are a recipe for agent turnover.
To reduce friction, use AI-powered sentiment analysis technology to assess the mood of every call and suggest helpful ways to ease tensions when they arise.
Sentiment analysis software evaluates conversations using a blend of AI capabilities, from automatic speech recognition to natural language processing. It looks for specific signals (related to tone, speech rate, intent, etc.) that indicate whether a customer’s sentiment is positive, negative, or neutral.
If the sentiment starts to sour, the software can prompt the agent to respond in a way that displays empathy for the customer’s situation. And if necessary, it can loop in a supervisor for more hands-on guidance.
In our earlier scenario, for instance, sentiment analysis software might pick up on signs of customer frustration at the start of the call. From there, it might encourage the agent to explicitly acknowledge how disruptive a router problem can be and emphasize their respect for the customer’s time. This way, the agent can keep the interaction from going south.
The bottom line? AI-powered sentiment analysis software gives agents the information they need to keep customers happy. And happy customers make for a smooth agent experience.
TOOL #3: Generative AI Copilots
Troubleshooting is often the most time-intensive part of each customer interaction. Agents have to narrow down the possible root causes before testing out potential solutions. In many cases, this process is an exhausting matter of trial and error. But it doesn’t have to be.
There’s a good chance that more than one customer has experienced the same problem before. And thanks to call transcripts and recordings, contact centers have that historical data at their disposal: including details about troubleshooting steps that resolved problems on the first call.
With the right digital tools, agents can easily tap into historical data to fast-track the troubleshooting process. And emerging Generative AI software is making that possible.
To slash friction, invest in a Generative AI copilot to put proven troubleshooting steps at agents’ fingertips.
You can train a Generative AI copilot on your contact center’s internal call data. When agents are on live calls, they can enter quick descriptions of the customers’ problems into a chat interface. The AI will suggest the most likely root causes, along with the most successful and efficient troubleshooting steps for the customers’ situations.
Over time, Generative AI will learn from each new support interaction and make more accurate recommendations. That’s huge for agents: an AI copilot can cut out a lot of the frustrating guesswork that comes with troubleshooting. Less guesswork translates to more first-call resolutions: a win for agents, customers, and your bottom line.
TOOL #4: App-free Remote Visual Support Software for Physical Product Support
Even with all the tools we’ve explored so far, agents still face a fundamental problem: there’s no way to actually see what customers are calling about firsthand.
Just imagine the clunkiness of troubleshooting, say, a broken modem or espresso machine over the phone. The effect is like driving through fog with a single headlight: agents don’t have enough visibility to quickly understand customers’ concerns, much less chart a smooth path to resolution.
This lack of visibility is creating distance between agents and customers. 36% of customers don’t feel like agents display enough empathy on calls, in part because they struggle to understand the exact issue at hand. That figure should be sounding alarm bells: customers care 2x more about empathetic support than low wait times.
Tackling this problem requires more than band-aid solutions. It demands a fundamental reimagining of the customer support model. As long as contact centers rely on voice calls and live chat to help customers, agents will continue to lack the visibility needed to deliver empathetic support.
To ease friction, invest in app-free remote visual support software that lets agents see what customers see.
Instead of receiving support via voice or text, customers can connect with agents over video using their smartphone or tablet. Here’s how it works:
- A customer receives a link to a video call platform via SMS: no need to download an app.
- Once the customer connects to an agent, they use their device camera to show the agent what they’re experiencing.
- The agent uses optical character recognition to pull important device information (like serial numbers, make, and model, etc.) directly from the visual feed.
- The agent guides the customer through troubleshooting, using augmented reality features to circle or point to areas of interest as they appear on the customer’s screen.
Remote visual support technology helps agents understand a customer’s situation in a matter of seconds. This creates what I call “visual empathy,” an immediate understanding between agents and customers that mitigates friction on every call.
A bonus: with app-free software, agents can spare customers the need to wait for yet another app download that eats up valuable storage space. It’s a small but impactful way to further demonstrate empathy: and smooth out the support experience for everyone involved.
A Tech-Powered Agent Experience Benefits Everyone
Each of the tools above works in tandem to mitigate the friction driving agent turnover. It’s worth acknowledging, though, that some agents may balk at the prospect of more contact center technology.
Before fully deploying any of these tools, take your time to show agents exactly how a tech-powered contact center can make their lives easier. Run software demos. Share feedback from early adopters. Set up Q&A sessions.
With the right approach, you won’t just convince agents of the value of new technology: you’ll help them feel invested in building a frictionless work environment. That investment could be the motivation agents need to stick around.