It’s Monday morning and Marie is already sitting in the call centre. She has put on her headset, booted up her computer and is ready for the first calls of the day. She knows it’s a tough job, but she likes helping people and solving problems. What she doesn’t like is the feeling of being under pressure all the time. The calls come faster and faster, and often it is dissatisfied customers who loudly vent their frustration. Marie does her best, but sometimes she still feels overwhelmed and burnt out.
As you know, customer service is a central department of a company. It is where customers come with their questions, problems and complaints. How well customer service works can make the difference between satisfied and dissatisfied customers. What is often forgotten, however, is the role of the employees who provide customer service. Their experience as employees, also called Employee Experience (EX), is just as important as that of the customers. Why? Because a good employee experience can lead to a better customer experience.
Employee satisfaction and customer satisfaction in the contact centre
Customer communication in the contact centre faces numerous challenges, which are intensified by the advancing digitalisation. The Contact Centre Trend Study by Damovo, RUF-Beratung and VIER shows that customer satisfaction is the most important issue for contact centre managers at 87 percent. However, increasing efficiency (60 percent), employee satisfaction (48 percent), increasing turnover (34 percent) and contact avoidance (32 percent) also play an important role for the contact centres surveyed.
However, it is particularly striking that employee satisfaction, at 48 percent, seems to be of less interest than customer satisfaction. Yet the employee experience in particular has a demonstrable influence on the customer experience. Companies should be aware that a high level of employee satisfaction contributes to the company’s success in the long term and also has a positive effect on customer satisfaction. It is a thinking error to assume that employee satisfaction does not matter – regardless of whether there is a staff shortage or not. One effective way to relieve staff is the AI-supported automation of customer enquiries. However, the study shows that this potential is not yet being exploited.
Another important topic is technology in customer service. Uniform processing and reporting are possible in less than half of the contact centres, because only 46 percent of the contact centres use a multichannel solution. Yet it is now normal for customers to shop or communicate via at least three channels. The use of CRM systems, which are considered the lynchpin of good customer service, is already widespread with 62.2 percent of respondents, but there is still room for improvement here as well.
Overall, the trend study shows that there is still a lot of room for improvement in many companies when it comes to digitalisation and employee satisfaction in the contact centre. It is important that companies invest in this area in order to remain competitive in the long term and achieve high customer satisfaction. Digitalisation can be an opportunity to improve customer service and make it more efficient. However, companies should not lose sight of employee satisfaction and the employee experience. After all, it is the employees who shape customer service and satisfy customers.
