Contact Center Customer Experience: 7 Tips for Success

What is Contact Center Customer Experience? 

Contact center customer experience is exactly as it sounds – this is the overall experience that a customer has with a contact center. This can be through a call, email, chat, or social media and encompasses the entire experience, from interaction initiation to resolution, and whether expectations were met.  

The Importance of Contact Center Experience  

The contact center customer experience can make or break loyalty, impact customer satisfaction (CSAT) scores, and even affect sales. Below are a few factors that contribute to a positive experience, and can improve call center customer service:  

• A fast response Customers expect to be able to get in touch with a company quickly and easily. If they wait on hold for a long time, they’re likely to get frustrated and give up. 
• A human connection Contact center customers should be treated with respect, professionalism, and courtesy. Some calls might involve a distressed customer, so agents must be empathetic. 
• Efficient resolution Agents should have the training needed to answer questions quickly and efficiently and find the best solutions for the customer. 
• Clear communication Agents should be as clear and concise as possible, ensuring that they understand the inquiry and that the customer understands the resolution or any needed next steps.  

Measuring and Improving Contact Center Customer Experience 

Measuring the contact center customer experience can include any applicable metrics, depending on the contact center, such as: 

• Customer satisfaction (CSAT) This indicates the level of satisfaction that a contact center customer has with their overall experience. Customers completing CSAT surveys typically rate on a scale of 1 to 10, with 1 being “very dissatisfied” and a 10 representing “very satisfied.” 
• Net promoter score (NPS) This measures whether a customer would recommend a company to others. Contact center customers will rate t on a scale of 0 to 10, with 0 indicating “not at all likely” and 10 indicating “extremely likely.” 
• Average handle time (AHT): This is a measure of the average amount of time it takes to resolve a customer issue. AHT is calculated by dividing the total amount of time spent on customer interactions by the number of interactions. 
• Customer effort score (CES): Customer effort score measures the ease of customer interaction. Customers will typically base their ratings on a scale of 1 to 10, with 1 being “very difficult” and 10 being “very easy.” 
• First call resolution (FCR): This indicates how frequently inquiries are resolved during the first contact. FCR is calculated by dividing the number of inquiries resolved that are on the first contact by the total number of inquiries. 

Consider measuring other aspects of the contact center customer experience, such as agent performance (agent availability, accuracy, and empathy) and technology performance (wait times, abandonment rates, and system uptime/unscheduled downtime). Use a variety of metrics for better insights and consider using industry benchmarks to compare performance with peers. Finally, consider using customer feedback as part of your evaluation process.  

How to Improve the Contact Center Customer Experience: 7 Essential Steps 

The contact center customer experience starts with the employee experience. Agents that are well-trained and know what they are being measured on will deliver an exceptional customer experience. Here are a few recommendations for improving call center customer service: 

Set clear goals 

Determine contact center goals and what success looks like. Are your goals to reduce churn, improve customer satisfaction, or increase sales?  Once those goals are set your team can plan strategies and train employees to meet those goals. 

Train your agents   

Agents are on the front line of the contact center customer experience. Set agents up for success by ensuring that they have thorough product and services training, and are familiar with processes and policies, as well as any regulatory requirements. Also ensure that agents have the “soft skills” (such as empathy, professionalism, and friendliness) which can be part of training. 

Reinforce agent knowledge 

Contact center agents have ever-increasing training requirements, including product training and updates, policy updates, and shifting compliance requirements, as well as upskilling and cross-skilling. Given these requirements, it is easy to fall victim to the “forgetting curve.” Supplement learning and development initiatives with microlearning, which delivers bite-sized learning at intervals to increase knowledge retention. 

Leverage AI 

With all the training requirements comes the need to create frontline training materials. But this need often exceeds bandwidth. Fortunately, there are solutions that enable the fast and scalable creation of learning materials by leveraging generative AI, such as ChatGPT.  

Offer transparency into performance  

Tracking employee progress identifies areas for improvement and increases agent motivation and engagement when they see progress toward their goals. Real-time performance insights enable agents to easily see where they are and have meaningful conversations about how to get to where they need to be.  

Evaluate quality assurance processes 

Quality assurance processes help improve the contact center customer experience, but they are often transactional, static, and not as effective as they could be. Explore ways to optimize your QA processes with flexible forms, a robust feedback loop, and better insights into root causes.  

Gamify the experience 

Adding gamification to the employee experience can boost motivation, engagement, performance, and ultimately, the contact center customer experience. Tie gamification goals and initiatives by using leaderboards, levels, badges, rewards and recognition, employee contributions, and more.  

The Future of Contact Center Customer Experience 

The future of the contact center customer experience is being shaped by new approaches and technologies, including: 

• Artificial intelligence (AI) AI is already being leveraged by contact centers for task automation, answering customer questions, and resolving issues. It is also increasingly being used for team training and development. 
• An omnichannel approach Customers increasingly expect a seamless, satisfying interaction that extends to more than a single channel. Whether by phone, chat, email, or social media, agents must be able to deliver an outstanding customer experience.  
• Personalization A modern contact center customer experience will need to be personalized. Leverage data and analytics to provide the information and assistance a customer might need at that moment. 

Centrical Can Improve Your Contact Center Customer Experience  

Centrical’s Performance eXperience platform elevates the employee experience, enabling a heightened contact center customer experience. The platform takes a holistic approach to the employee experience, offering AI-powered microlearning, personalized, real-time performance insights, augmented coaching, and tying these elements together with gamification.  

Watch the Centrical platform in action with a quick preview.  

Key Takeaways for the Contact Center Customer Experience 

The contact center customer experience is critical to brand loyalty. This experience can serve as the differentiator for customers who might consider taking their business to a competitor – or remaining with the brand. Below are a few key takeaways:  

• A positive contact center customer experience includes a fast response, clear communication, efficient inquiry resolution, and a human, empathetic connection. 
• Contact centers should use a variety of metrics for greater performance insight, including CSAT, NPS, AHT, customer feedback, industry benchmarks, and agent performance. 
• Steps for improving the contact center customer experience include setting the right goals, training agents and reinforcing their knowledge, leveraging AI and gamifying the employee experience.  
• Personalization, AI, and an omnichannel approach are increasingly shaping the contact center customer experience.

For over a decade, Centrical has partnered with organizations across the globe, including Microsoft, to boost the employee and contact center customer experience. Centrical customers have experienced a 15% increase in CSAT and FCR scores, 50% faster onboarding, and a 30% reduction in early attrition. Learn more about Centrical by watching a quick preview of the platform in action and requesting your personalized overview today.