AUGUST 2022CIOAPPLICATIONS.COM8CIO InsightsCXO InsightsIn My Viewhen you reflect on the often-touted corporate aphorism: "Our people are our greatest asset," what sort of emotion does that elicit in you? For some, this mantra will resonate deeply and passionately, others may greet it with apathy and some may land somewhere in between. Whatever your stance, the inescapable truth is that businesses are lead, operated, and administered by people. As working professionals, we likely spend a major portion of our waking lives working, so it makes sense then that we want to be valued as individuals; to feel like we have a voice within the corporate machine. But how loudly is your voice heard and more importantly, what outcomes are realised once it has been heard?Having worked in the contact centre industry for going on 19 years, I am continually impressed by the work frontline customer care agents carry out on behalf of the organizations they represent. These teams of brand advocates acting as the voice of an organization, often engaging in more one-to-one customer conversations than any other part of the company, and are relied upon to help customers in their time of need. Sadly not all of these conversations are pleasant; some are harsh and demeaning. Yet the expectation is that these frontline brand warriors remain resilient, composed, and professional. I can tell you from experience that at times, working as a customer care agent can feel stressful and isolating. When I worked on the frontlines, my world at work was viewed through the screen in front of me and almost every minute of my day was measured and scrutinized. It was tough to emotionally decompress between difficult calls and I constantly felt like I was battling slow and unresponsive IT systems. BUT, regardless of the challenges, I loved my job. I got a buzz from helping people and solving problems that others couldn't and liked that my peers came to me for answers. I held a wealth of information in my head about the most current product issues, what customers were asking of the business and which of our processes elicited specific emotions. As I've progressed my career in the customer services industry, I keep revisiting two important questions; how do we democratize the valuable information that resides within the minds of our agents and how do we retain them as brand advocates?Many businesses invest heavily in carefully curating and optimizing customer experiences. I have been fortunate enough to observe the amazing impact technology has had on some of these experiences; decreasing effort, increasing speed, and resetting customer expectations. Those organizations taking a strategic approach to customer service over the next 3 years are investing heavily in hyper-personalization, artificial intelligence, predictive analytics, and remote working, with the ultimate goal of increasing revenue and decreasing costs. The flip side of the proverbial experience coin is the employee experience and for the purposes of this article, the agent experience. An agent-customer conversation is a moment of truth in the customer journey. In the few minutes they spend engaging with a customer, they can directly influence the future brand loyalty of that customer. Just like customers, agents loyalty to a brand is influenced by their experience with that brand; what are the working conditions, how are they treated, are they valued as individuals? A poor agent experience is likely to translate to a poor experience for the customer. So how can businesses address this risk? BRUCE SWAN, EUROPEAN CUSTOMER CARE GENERAL MANAGER, PANASONICWEMPLOYEE EXPERIENCE IN THE AGE OF DIGITAL TRANSFORMATIONBruce Swan
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