ics-driven quality management within the next few years. And the quality management problem is particularly relevant to the measurement of agent “soft skills,” which lately have become a top priority to those responsible for hiring and evaluating employees. Unlike technical skills or acquired knowledge, soft skills tend to include somewhat esoteric qualities, traits and behaviors such as personality, emotional intelligence, adaptability, interpersonal communications and understanding. These types of skills, the thinking goes, are indicators of an ability to lead, creatively problem solve, understand the bigger picture and be persuasive influencers, among other advantages. As one tech executive in charge of talent acquisition recently told Fox Business News in an article on the importance of soft skills, “There is no point in being the smartest person in the room if no one wants to listen to you.” In the contact center environment, strong soft skills, such as empathy, effective communications, active listening and problem-solving, directly impact customer experience, argue executives at NICE, a provider of AI-powered self-service and agentassisted CX software for the contact center, which also recently released the aforementioned survey on contact center quality management. “When agents exhibit these positive behaviors, customers feel valued, understood and are more likely to maintain a long-lasting relationship with the brand,” stated the survey report. Consider, for example, a complex technical support interaction or a follow-up call in which the customer already is frustrated before picking up the phone. “In these situations, soft skills such as empathy can make all the difference to customer experience,” continued the study. Indeed, as much as 94 percent of respondents agree that agent soft skills are a very important factor to positive CSAT customer satisfaction scores, a top CX metric being measured today and where organizations currently are competing, said NICE researchers. However, only 41 percent of companies said that they assess agents based on any type of soft skills. That’s largely because soft skills – without AI and automation – aren’t easy to accurately measure. Due to the subjective nature of soft skills assessments and an inability to be consistent when applying descriptions and measurements, soft skills scores, up to this point, have been easily disregarded and often disputed by managers and employees, suggest the survey findings. When asked to name their greatest challenges in assessing contact center agent soft skills, nearly half of respondents cited “subjective analysis,” followed by “lack of buy-in from operations” (41 percent), “a driver of quality score disputes” (39 percent), and “agents think it is unfair” (37 percent). The larger the company, and the more stakeholders involved, the harder obtaining operational buy-in becomes, said NICE researchers. mployee work schedule? Subjective analysis Lack of buy-in from operations Driver of quality score disputes Agents think it is unfair Skills that are important agreement Lag time between interaction & feedback Calibration alignment Creating good definitions like empathy We don’t have any challenges Manual processes QA team’s goals don’t align with the company’s goals Not measuring across all channels Lack of dedicated resources Random sampling is not representative of agent performance Sample size not representative of agent performance Agent buy-in to feedback Inconsistent application of quality management eaders % % % CX leaders % % % Greatest Challenge in Assessing Agent Soft Skills Source: NICE benchmark survey, 2023 42% 41% 39% 37% 36% 35% 31% 28% 2% Top Challenges of Effective Quality Management Source: NICE benchmark survey, 2023 42% 42% 38% 38% 36% 35% 31% 30% Source: YouGov, November 2023 I would want to quit My morale would be negatively impacted My productivity would be negative impacted I would accept it grudgingly It wouldn’t make a difference to me I would be happy about the change Percentage of Funds Used Source: Brandmuscle HIGHEST SPENDERS HIGH SPENDERS MID SPENDERS LOW SPENDERS FUND UTILIZATION 90%+ = HIGHEST SPENDERS 75-89% = HIGH SPENDERS 50-74% = MID SPENDERS 25-49% = LOW SPENDERS <25% = LOWEST SPENDERS LOWEST SPENDERS NONE NOT SURE Plans to Invest in AI Analytics-Driven Quality Management Source: NICE benchmark survey, 2023 We already have it We’ll have it within 6 months We’ll have it within 7 to 12 month We’ll have in 12+ months No immediate plans 29% 28% 28% 22% 20% 14% 36% 10% 7% 16% 9% 9% 13% 14% 12% 29% 45% 1% 8 THE CHANNEL MANAGER’S PLAYBOOK
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy NTg4Njc=