*On September 1, Relia, Inc. merged with KDDI Evolva, Inc. to form a new company: Altius Link, Inc.
EX enhancement is one of the key challenges in contact center operation. We have been working on the improvement and it seems that the significance is assumed to further increase looking ahead to post-COVID-19.
In this article, we would like to introduce the necessity of EX enhancement and Relia's approach in Japan on the topic.
Reasons for EX enhancement
EX is the experience of employees through working environment, the content of their work, and workplace relationships. Operation quality enhancement through employee performance improvement and prevention of attrition can be expected if they found their workplace to be pleasant, promoted self-growth and the loyalty to their team/to the company increased. To secure service quality and improve recruitment, EX enhancement is an effective activity at the contact centers.
Stable contact center operation
While labor demand dropped due to the spread of COVID-19 impact, the number of job applicants increased. As a result, the chronic lack of resources in the contact center industry was temporarily resolved.
However, as the number of Covid positive people is decreasing and employment is starting to upturn looking ahead to post-COVID times, options of job applicants are widening and signs of shortage in staff resource as pre-COVID resurfaced. Currently we are experience hired agents resigning for jobs with better environments and difficulties in hiring new staffs. We must consider measures to prevent the attrition of enrolled agents as well as new staff hiring when it's possible. As an organization, it's important to come up with measures from mid-to-long term perspective such as organizing working environments and career plans and grasping the sense of values of agents.
Response to customer expectations
In the COVID-19 pandemic, contact centers were obliged to operate avoiding the Three Cs (closed spaces, crowded places, close-contact settings) and have continued to be busy. Since some companies advertised on TV to navigate customers to contact Web support in order to mitigate concentration of calls at contact centers, consumers became widely aware and reachability of the center and expectations for service level had temporarily dropped. However, it is anticipated that service providers will be expected high level services again post-COVID. And in order to respond to this, along with revision of center operation policies and KPIs, we must enhance agent motivation and their service skills.
Contribution as a social infrastructure
While face-to-face customer contact points are restricted due to the pandemic, contact centers play a significant role as non-face-to-face customer contact point. And as a result, contact centers are now recognized to have the role as a social infrastructure. Contact centers have been often regarded as cost centers in the past, but many companies are starting to invest in tool implementation and staff development based on the notion that contact centers can be profit centers where customer contact points are maintained even during emergencies.
Center operation that meets social expectations can be realized by making agents understand the significance of their operations and how much their work contribute to society, increasing loyalty to the company, as well as stable operation by agent attrition prevention. And for that reason too, EX enhancement is a critical activity.
How to aim for EX enhancement
Due to the reasons above, the significance of EX enhancement is expected to further increase in the future. However, when it comes to actually considering specific measures, many companies might find it difficult to make decisions. Here are EX measures that we have actually executed and found effective.
While we are still uncertain when the pandemic will end, we will still have a number of issues to face after COVID-19 such as agent hiring, supporting needs of customers and society that have changed through the pandemic. Why not give a little thought on post-COVID-19 approaches?
In the next blog, we will present the case study on activities to promote agent mental healthcare for stable operation.