LiveVox: Contact Center Agents Experience Unnecessary Complexity, Customer Experience Suffers

Contact center agents are struggling to address the needs of customers because the technology agents use often gets in the way. That’s according to a new study by research firm Omdia and contact center software provider LiveVox.

The organizations commissioned a joint study to understand if contact center agents have what they need to provide an exceptional customer experience. They surveyed 530 customer-facing agents across key verticals, including retail, health care and financial services. The study found big barriers to customer experience and agent productivity. These barriers involved unintegrated and inaccessible data, too much agent complexity and slow digital adoption.

LiveVox’s Louis Summe

Louis Summe is CEO and co-founder of LiveVox.

“The contact center has become the new digital storefront for brands and is often not only the initial touchpoint for customers, but frequently the only touchpoint — agents have an incredible amount of influence on the customer experience,” Summe said.

The study revealed how agents deal with an unnecessary amount of complexity. That might be too many applications or too much tech that’s hard to use. This can result in an inability to clearly see the data they need to personalize customer interactions.

“The next phase of digital transformation for the contact center must focus on creating a streamlined, agent-centric experience — including the use of practical AI and self-service solutions,” Summe said.

Invest in Technologies

Providing contact center agents with must-have tools and training to deliver digital-first, omnichannel engagements remains a challenge. The study found that only three in five (59%) agents have the right level of training and knowledge. Less than a third (31%) were able to develop a holistic view of the customer journey. Only one-half (50%) were able to access data across their company’s business units. The result? Two in three (65%)  agents said that customer experience differs across channels. One-half (49%) said customers call back repeatedly to resolve issues. Only about one-third (37%) said they are empowered to act in a customer’s best interest.

LiveVox and Omdia suggest the following areas of focus for contact center leaders:

• Invest in technologies that centralize data and make it accessible and actionable to agents when and where they need it.
• Enable AI-powered applications and educate agents on the pivotal role AI plays in alleviating routine tasks. This includes reducing workloads and creating a seamless experience for customers.
• Get buy-in from senior leadership by tying digital deployments to ROI to secure necessary budget and ensure customer support teams have the tools needed to navigate changing customer expectations.

Omdia’s Mila D’Antonio

Mila D’Antonio is principal analyst at Omdia. (Informa Tech is the parent company of both Omdia and Channel Futures.)

“Today’s customers expect digital-first experiences and personalized interactions. This requires service organizations to ensure agents engage with customers proactively across the web, social and chat,” D’Antonio said. “Achieving such personalized, omnichannel engagement depends on the accessibility of customer data, the tools to orchestrate the appropriate actions across all channels at the right time, and a culture that supports a customer-first strategy.