As the CX industry embraces human-centered design, they are turning to technology to accomplish this objective.
However, despite the expansion in technology, there have been some concerns about how ready organizations are in accomplishing their objectives.
A recent survey revealed that over 48 per cent of CX leaders feel like their organization is not prepared; despite 81 per cent of contact centers increasing their annual software budgets.
The disparity between readiness and investment is a cause for concern because it could indicate that organizations are focusing on the wrong areas.
What is causing the gap between investment and readiness?
The lack of readiness from organizations despite expansive investments reveals a flaw in the tech deployment process. Organizations are not paying attention to how technology affects daily performance.
This is reflected in a decline in agent performance, with over 22% of organizations stating that their agents are not performing according to expectations.
Despite the benefits of technology, there are some hurdles agents encounter that can undermine their performance. For example, seven in every ten operations use more than two tools, forcing agents to switch between different solutions regularly. This undermines their ability to perform.
Furthermore, adding technology to regular processes tends to create a convoluted process that makes the process more complex and inefficient, leading to errors and leaving businesses vulnerable.
Moreover, organizations must rethink how they analyze customer interactions. Adding word processing documents and spreadsheets creates a great deal of confusion, further undermining the intended benefits of investing in technology.
What can be done to resolve the problem?
To close this gap between contact center readiness and technological investments, organizations need to be more strategic in their technological investment.
For example, investing in conversational intelligence tools can improve agent performance and optimize complex processes. This is supplanted by the fact that over 90% of contact centers have seen agent performance improve after using conversation intelligence tools.
Furthermore, it would be prudent for contact centers to invest in tools that can streamline workflows for CX agents as opposed to making them more complex. Automated platforms are a great example for they can improve productivity while reducing operating costs.
Yet, we don’t see many organizations making this critical investment. For example, more than one in five contact centers rely solely on manual interaction transcription and analysis processes, denying them the chance to improve efficiency.
With the CX industry becoming more tech-driven, organizations need to be careful about scope creep where technology becomes so complex that it hinders daily processes. Instead, organizations need to be smarter about their investments and place a greater focus on relieving the burden on agents and their daily tasks.