Empower Agents to Enhance the Customer Experience
Organizations know the value and importance of exceptional customer service. And, today’s customers expect that exceptional service to be available at any time and on any channel. This is why companies have implemented tools to help with this, such as Web self-service, live chat and others. But, sometimes, while focusing on improving the technology, organizations can overlook a still-critical piece of customer service — the agent.
Organizations must ensure that the agent doesn’t get overlooked when implementing new and improved customer service initiatives, and should also look to implement an agent desktop to improve agent efficiency and provide a better customer experience.
Improve agent efficiency
Despite all of the available ways to interact with an organization, many customers still prefer to contact a live agent, sometimes while shopping but usually when they have a problem. It is just comforting to speak to a person in a time of need.
However, that comforting feeling can quickly turn into frustration and anger if the agent isn’t able to provide answers or solve an issue in a timely manner. Or if an agent can’t find the necessary information and has to keep transferring the customer from one agent to another.
An agent desktop can help eliminate these issues, as it helps provide unified access to all the applications and information required by the agent across different channels. Agents no longer have to switch from screen to screen and application to application while searching for answers.
In addition, all of the various types of customer cases, be it a service outage, billing issue or another, are presented to the agent so he or she can quickly open a new case. Agents shouldn’t have to switch from one screen to another to simply open a new case.
An agent desktop can also provide scripts that guide agents through the entire customer service process. The information in these scripts can be updated live and in real time on the agent’s screen, helping the move through the customer request quickly or solving the issue on first contact.
Finally, managers can also take advantage of an agent desktop. Process management steps can be created to ensure that all customer cases are logged and monitored using service-level agreements. In addition, managers can monitor live interactions between agents and customers, helping ensure that the agent is not only working efficiently, but also providing the quality experience that your customer expect.
Provide a better customer experience
Organizations know that providing an exceptional customer experience is critical to their business. By empowering agents with an agent desktop, they can provide a better, more personalized customer experience.
When a customer contacts your organization, the agent can quickly and easily access all of that customer’s information, including the customer’s profile, a list of all previous interactions, and all of the products and services used by the customer. Armed with this information, agents can avoid asking redundant questions and quickly get to the heart of the customer’s issue. An agent at a financial institution, for example, won’t need to ask which type of account the customer has with them. That information will automatically be presented to the agent.
In addition, with a full customer profile, the agent can become a potential salesperson, providing proactive service or targeted offers. For example, when a customer contacts his or her wireless provider with a question about paying a bill online, the agent can see the customer’s data plan and offer an upgraded plan based on the customer’s usage.
Finally, with the myriad channels available to customers, an agent desktop can route a customer from one channel to the agent who is most skilled for that channel. When a customer contacts your organization via a live chat, for example, the customer expects that the agent on the other end is experienced in live chat and can quickly and efficiently navigate through the session.
Conclusion
Providing an outstanding customer experience is more critical than ever to a company’s success. While numerous tools and solutions are available to help improve your customer experience, overlooking the role of the agent could be costly. Provide your agents with the tools they need to give your customers the experience they want and deserve. 
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