Last week I spoke about agent wellbeing and the need for employers to have better analytics to ensure the mental health of their staff is monitored and regularly checked as we move further down the road to truly hybrid work.
However, that is only one part of this equation.
How about helping a hybrid-worker when they have an issue but don’t have easy access to a supervisor or co-worker? The person sitting next to you can be you friend, your tutor, your mentor and your backup on a daily basis in a Contact Centre.
What do you do when they are not there? Questions that were instantly answered now take too long to positively effect a client interaction in real-time.
So what can we do. in a way that doesn’t feel like there is someone “breathing down the neck” of an agent, but gives them support?
I’m going to advocate using NICE NEVA (NICE Employee Virtual Assistant)
This is a “learning bot” that provides a homeworker with real-time, specific guidance, as and when they need it during a live customer interaction, an after-call task or a back-office process. NEVA lives on the homeworkers desktop and is automatically triggered by their desktop actions (via the application or screen they’re on, or by keyboard strokes and mouse clicks). She provides next-best-action guidance, via on-screen callouts.
NEVA is available around the clock to execute the more mundane, time-consuming admin tasks (which are sometimes also prone to errors) – your homeworkers are freed up to provide customers with more human empathy and attention.
NICE have installed a version of this attended automation in the Swinton Group in Manchester, with great success (although they call their assistant “Winston”)
This type of automation makes a huge and positive impact on agent wellbeing. It learns and adapts as all the best bots do, but also gives confidence to the user that they are getting instant and even proactive, guidance.
I’m happy to discuss this innovation if you want to call me.
