Improve Customer Experience Through Agent Experience

Customer Support plays a big role in your customer’s overall experience

While some customer support improvement initiatives can be helpful, they might not deliver big shifts in how customers feel about their experience with your company.

Question: How can you fundamentally impact overall customer experience through customer support?

…by improving the experience of your agents

Develop an Agent Experience Map – agent experience maps are similar to customer journey maps, but from viewpoint of the agent

“Fix” the Problems – use the agent experience map to brainstorm and target opportunities where agents are most unhappy… and where their experience is adversely affecting your customers

Measure Agent Experience Efforts – Identify key metrics in the agent experience and collect ongoing feedback to test the impact of specific improvement initiatives on the agent experience

Create an Agent Advisory Council – establish a group of agents who are passionate about making changes and use the council to foster continued agent feedback and ideas

1

2

3

4

5

Conduct Agent Research – use research to learn about the day-to-day life of your agents

Conduct Agent Research

First, conduct research with your agents the same way you would your customers, educating yourself on the realities of their front-line experiences

Research Methods can include:• Agent Observations/Ethnographies• Agent Interviews • Agent Focus Groups • Agent Surveys

1

Focus on all elements of the agent journey just as you would with a

customer journeyTypical agent journey elements:• Hiring/Selection Process• Onboarding and Initial Training• Experience / In-Production• Reward and Recognition

• Career Development • Performance Management• Loyalty and Engagement

1

Research will help you understand the following for each part of the journey:• What agents do at each step in the journey• How they feel at each step of the journey• What they are expecting • Who or what they are interacting with• How they feel today and how they want to feel

1

Once all your research is complete, collectively map the agent journey with your team. This is typically done in a cross functional team meeting. This hands-on, collaborative mapping activity reinforces the research, gets buy in on the agent viewpoint from the team, and engrosses everyone in the agent’s voice.

An example of an Agent Journey Map is included on the next slide

Hold a Journey Mapping Session2

Hiring/Selection

On-boarding/ Training

Experience/In-Production

Reward and Recognition

Career Development

Performance Management

Loyalty/Engagement

AgentExperience

Emotion Graph

Agent Quotes

Opportunities

1 2

3 4

5 6

7 8

9 1

0 Delighted

Dissatisfied

AGEN

T EX

PERI

ENCE

MAP

EXA

MPL

E TE

MPL

ATE

Include agent quotes that support the emotion at each stage in the experience in this row

Identify opportunities for improving the experience at each stage in this row

Note the emotion at each step in this row – from dissatisfied to delighted

Identify process steps in theagent experience in this row

Note: The sample map template is intended to be an example based on best practices in agent experience; some organizations may want to customize it to reflect their environment.

2

As you map the journey, circle the gaps in how the agent feels and how you want them to feel as well as the gaps in what the agent expects and what they are getting today. Afterwards, conduct group brainstorming activities to determine what initiatives can be implemented to overcome those gaps.

2Map the Gaps

“Fix” the Problems

Agent Happiness

Cust

omer

Impa

ct

Low

Low High

High

Low Agent HappinessLow Customer Impact

Low Agent HappinessHigh Customer Impact

High Agent HappinessHigh Customer Impact

High Agent HappinessLow Customer Impact

Fix First

3

Use the experience map to identify the biggest challenges and quick wins

• Identify clear objectives for what you want to learn, develop baseline metrics, and ensure the insights gathered are actionable

• Measurement can be a combination of existing metrics (i.e. first contact resolution), and new metrics gathered through research conducted with the agents using surveys, interviews, and focus groups

• Combining quantitative and qualitative measurement tools can be very impactful:– Agent surveys and existing metrics: Provides baseline and tracking measures– Agent interviews, focus groups, and observations: Provides the “why” behind

the results as well as new ideas for improvements

Measure agent experience improvements

and correlate it to customer satisfaction

4

• Get regular feedback from all contact centers• Establish a venue for gathering feedback on new programs, tools and

processes by agents, BEFORE implementing them• Get agents involved and part of the solution

Create an Agent Advisory Council to…

Pick your agents… Pick your topics…

• Positive attitude about making changes• Respected by peers• Effective communicator• Mix of “old-timers” and “newbies”• Demonstrate leadership

• Feedback on the products, “what the customers are saying”

• Feedback on tools, training, processes, communications, support systems

5

Customer Support is a key driver in your customers experience. Improving your agent experience is just one strategic initiative that has been successful for many of our clients.

Ask us about how we have helped global support organizations create compelling experiences for their customers.

At Clearworks we help our clients connect with their customers to create clear and compelling products, services and messages. We get what it takes to bring a product or service idea to life and how to create an actionable plan to get there. We understand what you need to know and how you’re going to use that information to make decisions. Let us bring clarity to your products and services.

customers. connections. clarity.

Thank You.