According to a study from Customer Experience Management, 71% of agents do not have the authority to satisfy a customer. OUCH! With high attrition comes the need to limit the authority of agents—whereas experience generates knowledge and judgment as well as an understanding of what is best for the customer and organization. If allowed the opportunity to provide exceptional service, most agents would do whatever is needed to exceed a customer’s needs.
Are you scripted? Maybe even over-scripted? Too often, contact centers work vigilantly on their script trees, attempting to come up with every conceivable solution that could occur. Unfortunately, our customers do not follow a script and too often receive subpar service or solutions because their conversations deviate from the script.
My recommendation is to invest in developing a searchable knowledge base. There are many out-of-the-box knowledge bases available, or if you have the resources, they can be custom-created by your IT department. By giving your agents the knowledge tools they need to provide service and removing the limitations of a script, agents can better listen to the issues, search for a solutions and provide a few options to the customer—thus empowering agents to actually provide service!
