Communication is the key to a thriving contact center. It’s not just the meaningful conversations between agents and clients that turn the tide for a business. Exchanges between team members using a tool such as Buzzeasy Contact Center for Microsoft Teams bring together different perspectives and drive quicker solutions to problems.
Another vital business interaction occurs between agents and their leaders. Supervisors and managers can share an employee’s success on a contact center wallboard and immediately improve feelings of engagement. Communication from management can include one-on-one conversations, new hire training or support, and call barging which is vital when a team member needs help servicing a client.
While all of these methods of communication are valuable to the success of the team, one of the most important modes in this era of hybrid and remote work is the “whisper”.
What is the Whisper in the Contact Center?
In the contact center, a whisper isn’t just a way to share secret information; it’s also used for training, management, and team engagement. The “whisper” is often offered alongside the “barge-in” and “monitor” functions in a digital contact center to provide companies with a way to support their teams in real-time no matter where they are. Using real-time dashboard metrics such as poor sentiment or high churn, a supervisor can determine which employees are struggling and need additional support. A supervisor can then use “call whispering” to step in behind the scenes of a call to offer subtle guidance to the team member.
It’s as if you are giving your managers the opportunity to hang over an agent’s shoulder from anywhere in the world and provide tips at the most strategic times. If whispering guidance to an agent doesn’t help, the supervisor can then decide whether they need to take control of a call.
How is Call Whispering Different than Call Monitoring?
Call monitoring and whispering are essential components of a hybrid training, management, and support strategy for today’s agents. If you’re managing a team of remote and hybrid staff who you can’t necessarily reach in person, you can use both tools to improve their experience. Let’s explore the difference:
- Call monitoring: This allows you to listen to an agent’s conversation with a customer and gain a better understanding of how your professionals handle calls. This can be helpful when ensuring team members are following policies for compliance and service quality.
- Call whispering: When an agent needs additional assistance to solve a problem or make a sale, call whispering is key. Supervisors and managers can actually ‘whisper’ hints and tips to agents during that call, without the customer being aware of another person in the conversation.
What are the Benefits of Call Whispering?
Supervisors and managers have always needed a way to support, guide, and train their employees during complex customer interactions. In the past, this would often involve supervisors actively sitting in the same office space with an employee and listening to the conversation.
Unfortunately, this kind of support is no longer an option in the age of hybrid work. With team members working from anywhere a more flexible solution is necessary. Call whispering connects the contact center functionality of a business with important insights and analytics to ensure managers can support their teams fully- wherever they are.
With call whispering, companies can:
- Train new and existing contact center agents anywhere
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- Training an agent when they’re in a call helps them develop skills they can put to use in future situations.
- Coach agents through difficult calls
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- Supervisors can provide specific guidance to team members struggling with a complex call experience.
- Reduce the risk of churn
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- With a manager to guide them through the call, agents are less likely to lose a customer’s respect or investment.
- Impress customers
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- When every agent can deliver the same level of customer service (even if it means getting outside assistance), customers are generally happier.
- Improve employee engagement
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- With the option to dial into a conversation and offer support, supervisors can turn any call into a supportive, learning experience.
- Solve problems faster
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- When problems are complex, two heads are often better than one. Help your agent to think outside of the box and find a solution faster.
Do Your Agents Need Call Whispering?
Call whispering tools are growing particularly valuable in the remote and hybrid working landscape. With this technology and solutions such as Buzzeasy, supervisors and managers can consistently provide guidance and support to team members dealing with difficult calls, no matter where they are.
Not only do your agents benefit from contextual on-the-job training, but you improve your chances of giving your customers the experience they expect too.
