Set goals maps for your team and hold meetings for goals to be implemented:

As you know, data is the core of the call center. It is at the forefront of every decision made by thoughtful leaders and must guide the customer experience. Use customer feedback to determine agent performance. From here, you can set KPIs that align with your goals and targeted customer outcomes.

The main goal is to provide the best service to the customer. But under this umbrella, your agents must define goals and smaller goals. They also need to be able to measure and track their success along the way. Using data to support goals and KPIs allows your agents to understand the “why” of what they do.

 Know Your Agents and Promote Autonomy:

You have to get to know your team member to understand what is hindering your productivity. Where would you be without the agent? You must know where your team member’s strengths and weaknesses lie so that you know how to coach for better performance. Use the DISC Evaluation or the StrengthsFinder Test to determine how agents are developing and collaborating.

If recognized agents feel their strengths are being valued, their motivation increases. And you will learn agent when you plan for all the individual strengths that live in your team. By using the strengths matrix, you can identify the strengths and weaknesses of your team and have the chance to make the necessary improvements.

Then, monitor the agent’s performance. Digital tools provide more sophistication for analyzing your agents. You can see the impact of your past performance and industry standards on you with upgraded reporting.

With metrics and KPIs, you set the bar for performance in your contact center. Use metrics to find out where your reps need more coaching or training. You will see in the data where the inefficiencies lie. When you match KPIs to tests of your rep’s personality and strengths, you can place reps in roles for which they are skilled. Plus, with skill-based routing, your IVR can move specific calls to exactly the right agent, so your customers are dealt with quickly. Consider how this will help reduce call transfers and increase First Contact Solution.

If you know your team’s skills, you can act on them. Push agents into areas where they tend to grow and encourage greater Autonomy. Let them use their strengths to engage customers without having to hold your hand. This inspires and motivates agents to work more efficiently.

Take advantage of free time.

Of course, some idle time is required to avoid agent exhaustion. When we talk about free time, we’re not talking about bathroom breaks, rest and attention minutes, or your agent’s lunch. All of this is essential to creating a positive environment in your contact center (and helping agents maintain their sanity). No list of call center productivity tips should tell you otherwise. But as an administrator, you can fix high idle times to increase the efficiency of your contact center. Use these tenses to build customer interaction. Have your agents write thank you notes to your most loyal customers. Or, after reviewing and contextualizing an interaction, send them a quick 2-minute coaching lesson on their turn. Maybe you could even post a mindfulness lesson to help them refocus for their next interaction. Encourage representatives to meet when they have outages. At these team meetings, ask them to come up with creative ways to show customers some love. Or use this time to gather feedback from your agents and customers. Maybe when you have a slow period, then you can check in with your reps one-on-one to see how they are. Consult customer feedback to regulate processes that are not going right. So you can listen to your customers’ thoughts.

Go directly to customers to see what works and what doesn’t to increase call center efficiency. Agents can use their free time to submit customer surveys with questions about recent interactions. Then have agents review their feedback and satisfaction scores during the idle time to identify areas for improvement. Collect data to track your service level and see when your call center is busiest. Also, add task management software to track how much time is devoted to certain tasks so your agents can make good use of their time. Don’t let all your downtime go to waste. Use your free time to increase your call center efficiency and get the job done.

Coaching for a Better Team

When considering how your representatives should use their free time, consider how you should be involved. Use moments that don’t focus on your customers to build agent professional development.

Seize free time to train and coach agents. Consciously coach and train agents so they have the knowledge and skills they need to increasingly deliver excellent customer support.

Try to simulate certain high-stress situations and customer interactions with your employees. Offer real-time feedback as your agents work. Whether through your software platform or by taking the time to sit down and listen to the interactions with each of its agents. Watch as you talk to customers and show them where to use shortcuts or pre-made email templates to reduce inefficiencies.

Take time and space to listen to your representatives as they make decisions or try to resolve issues. And ask questions to guide them in problem-solving. This allows them to come to their conclusions, but with your guidance. Coaching should be available only to your agents.

Make sure to perform the right time management to prevent time loss. So you can also create time for the training of representatives.

Coaching is not a break from work but offers them a chance to learn and add variety to their daily tasks.

Multi-Channel Everything

Omnichannel support for your customers doesn’t just create a better customer experience. It increases agent productivity and inevitably helps increase your call center efficiency. True omnichannel requires putting the customer in focus, whatever the channel.

So you can communicate with your customers in real-time. Wherever you are in contact with customers, you can create an effective service area for them.

Every customer interaction is more efficient when seamless communication is integrated.

Automate What You Can Do

Automation helps your team prepare for every interaction by predicting how customers will respond to an email or call. It uses data to most effectively meet customer needs.