Companies have found that the technology behind customer interaction recording offers even more than training and development for agents, which years ago was its primary focus. By recording customer interactions, companies also can gain valuable insight into how well their processes are working. If management finds that average call handle times are continually up across the board, they might quickly learn that staff performance and training aren’t the issues at all … rather their business processes might need an overhaul. 

The effectiveness of screen navigation systems is a great example. If customer sales/service representatives (CSRs) are struggling to find pertinent information while assisting a customer, perhaps they need more training on the technology – but another option might be that the navigation needs to be re-vamped so it’s faster to get from point A to point B.

A new generation of workforce optimisation software suites that include customer interaction recording, performance analysis and e-learning have triggered a revolution in the contact centre – taking it to a new level and making it much more valuable and respected by the organisation as a whole. Because these technologies have evolved to a Web-based architecture, the “silos” contact centres once embodied are no longer. Now, the contact centre serves as the strategic hub of business intelligence into the enterprise. More information flows through these centres in a single day than through any other part of the company – raising their importance and strategic value.

As customer interactions are captured in the contact centre and shared throughout the organisation through the Web-based technology, individuals, groups and departments outside the centre now have access to immediate customer feedback. With this valuable intelligence, executives can make more accurate projections, engineering can respond more effectively to product issues and document future requirements, and marketing/sales can better gauge the success of their campaigns and special offers.

With a higher commitment now than ever before, companies are looking for ways to strike the fine balance of revenue growth, cost reduction and customer satisfaction with an acceptable ROI. To do this, they’re having to look at their customer relationship management (CRM) strategy in a whole new light. The key is to invest in technology that yields greater value.

Customer interaction recording, or quality monitoring, systems address the people side (staff training, development and career pathing, as well as retention), the process side (gauging and measuring business process effectiveness) and the technology side (ensuring the effective use of available systems). However, there’s much more they deliver in the way of strategic value, such as access to customer intelligence and competitive information. Today, companies are looking at the bottom line, which means getting intimate and measuring what really matters.

Analysts now conclude that the workforce optimisation market is maturing and that customers are demanding more integrated software and services. Now, more than ever, quality monitoring and workforce management are the focal points of successful contact centres, as well as thriving enterprises. As a result, capturing the customer experience and analysing its effectiveness, as well as managing to excellence through forecasting and scheduling, is critical.