Question: What are some tools our supervisors can use to assist and coach our remote agents?
Answer:
Contact center technology vendors offer several capabilities to help supervisors work effectively with agents, whether they are on-site or remote. Some functionality is delivered as a core (no extra cost) feature of contact center infrastructure technology, e.g., as part of a contact center as a service (CCaaS) solution or a workforce optimization/workforce engagement management (WFO/WEM) suite. In other instances, they are offered as add-on capabilities or can be obtained from a best-of-breed (stand-alone) provider. Here are a few of these tools:
- Real-time monitoring – applications that allow supervisors to monitor agent/customer conversations in voice and digital channels while they are in progress. These solutions enable supervisors to silently monitor agents, provide coaching feedback only the agent can hear or see, or break in and take over the interaction.
- Bi-directional communication/chat – applications that enable a supervisor to provide guidance and suggestions to agents to assist them in performing their job; these capabilities can generally be initiated by the agent or the supervisor.
- Automated real-time coaching – artificial intelligence (AI)-enabled solutions that provide agents with easy-to-follow procedures, information, knowledge-base articles, and more, to properly resolve inquiries, handle objections and close sales, and increase collections, while ensuring they are communicating appropriate levels of empathy, professionalism, and other soft skills.
- Coaching/eLearning – new and enhanced coaching capabilities that can automatically identify areas of opportunity, by employee, and schedule personalized coaching and/or eLearning sessions. These applications also assess the effectiveness of coaching on agent performance by automatically comparing pre- and post-coaching results, and can evaluate the efficacy of coaches, including identification of their strengths and opportunities.