The management team is implementing a desktop analytics solution in our contact center. As a supervisor in the area, I am hearing a lot of negative “big-brother” type remarks from agents about desktop analytics. How can we better prepare the agents for this implementation and assuage their concerns?
Question
The management team is implementing a desktop analytics solution in our contact center. As a supervisor in the area, I am hearing a lot of negative “big-brother” type remarks from agents about desktop analytics. How can we better prepare the agents for this implementation and assuage their concerns?
Answer
It is totally understandable that contact center agents, who are already some of the most rigorously scrutinized employees in the enterprise, would balk at having yet another application monitoring their every move. Desktop analytics is misunderstood as just another “gotcha” application. The lack of clarity about DA solutions is causing confusion and does not do justice to the complete range of DA capabilities. Sure, desktop analytics can track agents’ time spent on screens and in all applications (whether the usage is sanctioned or not). But that is only a small part of what DA applications offer.
More than most contact center applications, desktop analytics can significantly empower agents and transform their work experience. Agents benefit from the three primary uses of DA: real-time process guidance to help employees do their jobs correctly; performance monitoring to identify systems, process and employee operational and training opportunities based on an aggregate of all desktop activity performed by agents; and desktop automation to eliminate redundant tasks and reduce errors.
Desktop analytics can rapidly identify issues that are costly and prevent agents from delivering a consistently outstanding customer experience. For example, DA solutions can be programmed to identify and monitor compliance issues that can put the organization at risk. These issues can literally be either eliminated or controlled by using the real-time guidance features that show employees the steps they need to take to properly handle inquiries or accurately process their work. This directly translates into improvements in agent productivity, quality and compliance scores. Once agents are correctly informed about how DA automation and real-time guidance can be used to make their jobs easier and support their performance goals, it should be relatively easy to overcome objections and obtain their buy-in.
