with the addition of new agent-assistant automation (which eliminates the need for verbal authentication, issue identification, customer information – which are all done before the agent enters the discussion), the frontline job becomes easier, more satisfying, and in many cases more fun.
The Impact on Staffing Levels/Headcount
Over time, a typical DCS operation will likely require fewer agents as greater efficiency is achieved through OnScreen Enhancements. This reduction could be resolved through downsizing, but most organizations experience enough frontline turnover that headcount reductions can often be accomplished through attrition.
The message to your frontline needs to become crystal clear:
Yes, over time we will likely need fewer total people in our service operation than in the past, and this newer job isn't going to be right for everyone. For those of you who choose to remain and adapt to DCS, the image and impact of what you do will increase over time. The job will become different, but different in a better way.
DCS isn't about “the robots taking our jobs,” it's about “letting the bots do what bots do best” so that we people can “do what humans do best.”
Some companies are even choosing to redeploy a percentage of the cost savings achieved through lower call volume to escalate the pay rates of agents who excel in a DCS environment. How does that sound?
WINNER = Agents and Service Team
WIN #4: THE BENEFITS OF DCS FOR SERVICE EXECUTIVES AND LEADERS
Simplified operational management
Higher staff performance, ability to recruit higher-quality candidates
Positive impact on career trajectory
The Final Hurdle: What's in It for Me?
Asking this question might feel selfish at some level. Because if there is a new strategy or solution that will help your company, as well as your customers and your team – well, those should be reasons enough for you to be moved to action, right?
But (c'mon!) don't we always factor any decision or strategy around the question: “How is this going to benefit me?”
And, like the other hurdles, this one is also close to a no-brainer. Based on the experiences of those service leaders who are further down the road of digital transformation, creating a lower-effort digital experience for customers is also lower-effort for leaders, managers, and supervisors.
Because DCS creates a “channelless” experience, there is no need to manage separate teams – one for chat, one for phone, one for text/social, etc. You are managing an entire team of “superagents.” As such, you will begin to attract and retain better talent. The greater the job satisfaction, the easier it is to manage people.
Smarter Analytics = Easier Improvement Opportunities
DCS creates a natural opportunity to build a bridge between the service team and the digital team. Because analytics are now gathered within a single engagement format (instead of separately by interaction type) most companies discover that they can spot efficiency opportunities earlier. By learning the exact moments within a given process or interaction where customers are likely to need assistance, bots can be quickly adjusted to intervene before the customer even realizes they need help.
Plus, with agent-assistant bots proactively offering suggested next steps to the frontline and providing instant solutions for customer issues, reliance on supervisors will decrease correspondingly. Imagine if the role of supervisor were to transform into becoming a true mentor role instead of being a glorified tier II agent.
Consider Your Next Performance Review
Instead of constantly being in firefighting mode, leaders in a DCS environment are enabled to use design thinking to develop continuous improvements in digital customer journeys. This is not only more interesting and satisfying work, but you're helping to accomplish two of your company's most important goals simultaneously – greater operational efficiency and greater customer loyalty.
The next time you sit down with your supervisor (or if you're CEO, the next time the board reviews your performance), how would you feel if you came armed with a deck showing you've found a way to accomplish that?
WINNER = Leaders
CUSTOMERS HAVE TRANSFORMED; SO SHOULD YOUR COMPANY
The assumed solution to overcoming the challenges of creating an excellent experience for increasingly empowered (and in some cases entitled) digital customers has been: Companies must “meet their customers where they are.”
This has generally been interpreted as “meet them in the channel where they started their interaction.”
And of course, most likely that is not the phone anymore – but rather, your website, mobile app, or social media sites like Facebook and Twitter – so the conventional wisdom is that you need to meet them there. And while this seems correct, we are learning that it is an underintrepretation of the concept.
To successfully transform customer service in a digital world, companies must “meet their customers where they are” in two other ways as well:
Meet them where they are at a specific moment in a resolution journey. By the time a customer speaks with an agent, that customer has already been through some form of misadventure that very likely began online. Companies can no longer greet customers at the outset of a phone interaction like it's the starting point for that person's service journey, because it almost certainly isn't.Where they are – is in the middle of their digital experience.
Meet them where they are in their digital lifestyles. Most customers now instinctively reach for their smartphone, tablet, or laptop as the starting point for interactions of all kinds as well as to satisfy their information, entertainment, and recreation needs. Companies need to create service experiences that feel like the way their customers now live.Where they are – is in the middle of their own digital transformation.
Your ability to meet your customers where they are in all three ways should become the beacon for the digital transformation of your service organization.
As much as customer behavior has been transforming over the past decade, the underlying psychology and sociology that drives those behaviors has been changing even faster. What we've been learning is that the more you understand and appreciate why this is happening, the easier it will be for you to create a strategy that can meet and exceed ever-escalating customer expectations in the digital world.
Here's a preview of what you can expect in the chapters to follow:
In Chapters 2 and 3 we will explore the evolution of service over the past decade, and the corresponding evolution of customer expectations and psychology.Why do so many customers have a negative bias against customer service, how does that impact their online behaviors – and what can companies do to overcome this negative predisposition?How did the advent of self-service lead to the unexpected consequence of setting a course of an ever-increasing demand for more and better digital experiencesBy understanding why customer psychology and behaviors have been transforming, it becomes that much more clear why you have to transform.
Chapter 4 provides us with a common language and vocabulary for understanding the benefits of transforming to DCS. The integration of OnScreen Communication,