Four tips for a sustainable workday in the contact center

When we asked the participants at the CX Roadshow 2022 what’s important for the customer facing employees 57% answered that they want to have the opportunity to work remotely. 54% answered that flexible schedules are important and 52% said that the work tasks are integral to feel happy on the job.

People who work with the customer meeting want to have a situation that allows them to achieve work-life balance, and to be able to focus on tasks that are perceived as stimulating and meaningful.

In this blog post we will present four tips on how technology can be applied to increase the level of personal sustainability and provide the personnel with what they need to feel happy in the contact center.

1. Remote work key to balance

Before the pandemic it was common knowledge that people who worked in a contact center worked best at the office. But the combination of cloud services, and the mindset shift that took place during the pandemic, has created a new reality. Now we know that contact center staff in many cases can be just as productive when they work remotely – and the tools that make it possible are becoming better and more numerous.

The cloud-based solution Telia ACE Interact allows the agent to log securely regardless of where they are located. And with our soon-to-be-released app ACE to Go the flexibility increases even further for the people who work in the contact center, or in a role where they receive calls that are connected via the contact center.

2. Don’t chase the wrong person

When we are faced with a problem or a question our first impulse is to do whatever it takes to solve it. If we aren’t exactly sure of what number to call to reach a person with the right competence, there is a risk that unofficial contact routes are established.

Our new app ACE to Go makes it easy to include experts and people who move around during the workday. Such as a medical specialist needed for a consultation, or the facility manager who can handle the water leak in the basement.

ACE to Go makes it possible to establish smart routing that works all the way out to the edges of the ecosystem. That means that you don’t risk disturbing people who have a day off, or are supposed to focus on other things. It also elevates the level of efficiency.

And of course: For customers, patients, and citizens it is convenient to have just one number to call regardless of issue.

3. Make it easier to find the right information

A greater level of complexity makes the job in the contact center more interesting, but there is also a risk that it will create stress for the employees if they do not have access to the right tools and information. The Swedish public transport provider Skånetrafiken won the trade organization Kontakta’s award for best customer service 2022 and have implemented the smart knowledgebase ACE Knowledge to make life easier for their employees.

Now all the organization’s information is stored in the same database and is available via a smart search, or the intuitive tree structure. Jim Nordqvist, unit manager for Skånetrafiken’s customer service, says that the knowledgebase gives the employees a sense of security as they never have to doubt their own competence. If the answer is not in the database, that means that it is a new question, and that none of their colleagues wouldn’t have been able to answer it either.

That knowing reduces stress, and thereby also the risk of conflict with the customers. Susanne Jonsson, Area Manager at Skånetrafiken’s contact center, says that it makes life easier for all employees who interact with the customers, and particularly for those who are new on the job.

4. Smart tools decrease stress and creates new career paths

In the contact center-survey that was conducted during the Telia ACE Roadshow 2022, 35% answered that they are exploring the possibility of creating new career paths in the contact center, and 34% that they plan to offer smart tools for making the workday easier. Robotization and automation may for example be used to reduce or eliminate repetitive tasks and speed up processes, which makes for a more fun and less stressful workday.

The emergence of new technology such as chatbots, voice bots and solutions for interaction analytics opens up for new roles and career paths. Working with data in a structured way will also turn the contact center into a source of insights that will generate value for the entire organization.

Further reading: Learn on how the trade union Byggnads transformed ordinary member advisors to chatbot- and voicebot coaches. “Byggnads constructs modern member services“