Workforce Management Featured Article
WFM Empowers Agents and Boosts Productivity
The unfortunate reality of call centers is that most agents are always thinking about their next career move. You’d be hard pressed to find a little kid who dreams of becoming a call center agent, and that doesn’t change as those kids grow up and become adults. With agent turnover rates so high, it’s important for workforce management teams to engage staff and make sure all WFM systems are up to date and as efficient as possible. After all, the more enjoyable the job, the more likely agents are to stay.
That being said, there are countless benefits to workforce management (WFM) systems and teams in the call center. One of the keys of WFM software is that it allows agents to self-manage, rather than having to be micro-managed by supervisors. WFM is all about empowering agents to do their best each day, and that’s not possible if agents are constantly being told what to do and how to do it. By giving them the proper WFM systems, agents are being empowered to handle calls efficiently on their own.
As Patty Isnor points out in an article for Blue Ocean, “Process will successfully deliver 80 percent of customer experience. But the other 20 percent comes when the agent is able to make autonomous decisions about the best way to steward a client’s resources. Ultimately, doing right by the agents is the best path to taking care of the client.”
WFM empowers agents by giving them the right tools to handle all manner of issues. From keeping customer information up to date, to presenting it to the agent when someone calls in, to neatly organizing all contact channels so that agents can better manage the omnichannel experience, WFM is all about making life easier for agents.
The thing is that, when life becomes easier, agents are able to be more productive. Without WFM, agents have to scramble to find information about callers and may have a difficult time switching back and forth between contact methods. It’s a disaster waiting to happen, quite honestly. However, with WFM in place, all of the issues agents face on a daily basis are taken care of for them. This leaves them open to be more productive and better handle customer calls.
