Engaging today's workforce is a key to happiness. However, it is important to understand that employee engagement (having a tie to your job) does not have the same definition as employee happiness (feeling positive about your job) - although, it is a symbiotic relationship.
Agent engagement in particular is key to unlocking the happiness of clients and could therefore very well be the golden key to raised customer satisfaction.
Engaging agents means empowering them with the right tools and knowledge in order to build confidence while enabling them to offer the best service and solutions to customers' complex questions and requests.
Findings from our partner company Aspect's Agent Experience survey of 2017 showed agent engagement and satisfaction go hand-in-hand and "to increase engagement and satisfaction, companies need to make sure agents have a friendly work environment where they are respected and are a valued part of the team".
In his blog, "Five stats that prove your agents need better coaching", Robert Moore, who provides marketing, strategy and product management expertise for Aspect's Workforce Optimisation suite, highlights the following statistics from the survey:
"78% say engaged agents are the most satisfied in their work."
"42% of consumers want a live agent to help them with complex questions."
"89% of customers get frustrated because they need to repeat their issues to multiple representatives."
"Chatbot market to grow at 37% through 2021."
"Companies with strong omni-channel engagement strategies retain 89% of customers, compared to 33% for companies with weak strategies."
It's time to seriously start focusing on agent engagement in order to unlock value, both internally and externally. This is especially important in light of the fact that employee engagement is at an all-time low, dipping for the first time since 2012, as pointed out in the Aon Hewitt 2017 Trends in Global Employee Engagement Report.
As Moore says: "Famed football coach, Vince Lombardi once said: 'Perfection is not attainable, but if we chase perfection we can catch excellence." As a contact centre leader saddled with huge responsibilities and challenges, you may know this better than most.
"But having the time to impart your knowledge and experience onto your agents is another story entirely. Nonetheless, you should never stop striving to provide your agents with all the coaching they need to stay engaged, productive and provide a superior customer experience."
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