Agents Report an Average Increase in Productivity By 50 Percent If They Are Empowered With a Single Screen, Integrated Multichannel Agent Desktop
REDWOOD CITY, Calif. – LiveOps, Inc., the global leader in cloud contact center and customer service solutions, announced the findings of industry-first research that provides a holistic view into the state of today’s customer service. Partnering with Harris Interactive and Social Business Builders, LiveOps evaluated the inter-dependency between the agent experience, customer experience and business bottom line. The research revealed four key points that are supported by the data:
1. Happy Agents Equal Happy Customers: 92 percent of consumers surveyed report that a customer service agent’s perceived “happiness” has a direct impact on their customer experience with the brand.
2. Integrating Social Channels on the Agent Desktop Is a Requirement: 85 percent of consumers surveyed feel that how a brand handles issues on their website or on social channels, like Facebook or Twitter, is a good indicator of a brand’s ability to deliver customer satisfaction and quality of support.
3. Most Brands Fail to Provide Consistent Service Across Multiple Channels: 89 percent of consumers surveyed believe it is important to be able to communicate with companies by any channel, including social media, and still receive the same quality and efficiency of response. Furthermore, 61 percent of social media users feel that brands do not effectively communicate with them on these channels.
4. Live Agent Service, Regardless of Channel, Is Preferred Over Self-service: 90 percent of customers surveyed value the ability to communicate with a live person on any channel–voice, email, chat, SMS or social.
“In this unprecedented research, LiveOps went directly to the sources—to the agents, to the consumers and to the brands—to obtain detailed insights that revealed surprises, validations and revelations about the state of customer service today,” said Dr. Natalie Petouhoff, CEO, Social Business Builders. “Social and mobile are rapidly changing the industry. As a result, there is tremendous opportunity and new revenue upside for brands that know how to leverage their contact center agents and multichannel technology platform. We found that when agents have a fully integrated social, multichannel desktop, they can not only improve their productivity by 50 percent or more, they can also deliver exceptional social customer service with a high social media ROI. The study revealed that for the companies in our agent productivity and universal queue research, the incremental profit contributions ranged anywhere from $815K to $2M per year. This research proves how much companies can gain by simply empowering agents with the right tools to interact with today’s customers.”
“As the leading provider of cloud contact center technology, it is imperative for LiveOps to stay ahead of the dynamic and fast-changing customer service requirements,” said Ann Ruckstuhl, SVP and Chief Marketing Officer, LiveOps. “LiveOps Research with Harris Interactive and Dr. Natalie Petouhoff allows us to understand and address the needs of the agent, customer and brand, while providing us with priceless information to help design best-in-class contact center technology, such as LiveOps Engage, the industry’s first integrated, multichannel with social agent desktop. We are continuing this momentum, knowing what is needed to enable brands to deliver extraordinary customer service for today’s social and multichannel-savvy customers.”
About The Research
To gain a 360 view of customer service today, LiveOps partnered with Harris Interactive to understand customer service from the customer’s experience, surveying 1,255 consumers aged 18 years or older. To understand customer service from the agent’s experience, as the provider of a brand’s customer service, LiveOps partnered with social customer service expert and CEO of Social Business Builders, Dr. Natalie Petouhoff. LiveOps conducted the research as part of the development for its agent application, LiveOps Engage, the industry’s first single, integrated, multichannel desktop, built with both the agent experience and the customer experience in mind.
For an in-depth illustration of LiveOps Research findings, visit the www.liveops.com/liveopsresearch
About LiveOps, Inc.
LiveOps is the global leader in cloud contact center and customer service solutions. More than 300 companies around the world, including Salesforce.com, Symantec, Royal Mail Group, and Amway New Zealand trust LiveOps’ technology to enable effective multichannel, social and mobile interactions with their customers. LiveOps’ award-winning platform has processed more than 1 Billion minutes of customer interactions and managed operations for the largest US-based cloud contact center of 20,000 home-based, independent agents. With 10+ years of cloud experience LiveOps is the partner of choice for companies wanting to migrate to the cloud. Headquartered in Redwood City, California with European regional headquarters in London, UK, LiveOps supports a wide range of industries including financial, health care, insurance, retail, and high tech. For more information visit www.LiveOps.com
