Improve your contact center’s performance with data visualization

The world of customer service revolves around regular reports. These reports are necessary because data tells you fundamental things, such as volume of interactions, pickup rate, average handling time or customer satisfaction scores. Indeed, there are many different metrics that are relevant to your contact center’s operations, but quality should outweigh quantity. With data visualization, best reports make raw data both easily digestible and instantly actionable. However, the amount of benefits you can reap is limited by the technology you use to create them. 

Not all reports are created equal, but data-visualizing dashboard software can help make those reports better. A dashboard is a display of relevant KPI information, customer data and actions to be taken, available to contact center agents, supervisors and managers. They are highly customizable tools that both benefit and make real-time monitoring of analytics possible, which contact centers rely on heavily in this day and age. They can also be used on any device an agent or supervisor chooses. 

Getting granular with data visualization

One of the most attractive features of data visualization dashboards is their granularity, or the ability of a task to be broken down into smaller tasks. Granularity manifests itself here through the unique perspectives that dashboards give every member of your customer service team from top to bottom. Contact center supervisors can view the overall performance of agents and monitor aspects of customer experience (CX) such as success, effort and sentiment through KPIs like customer effort score (CES) and net promoter score (NPS). Managers on the floor can see how agents are performing by looking at target KPIs such as first contact resolution and problem resolution times. Agents, meanwhile, can know their total workload at a glance in terms of number of interactions and average handle times.

Even though they can display a wide array of statistics, it should be advised that contact center dashboard software should not be used for surveilling agents. Bad workplace habits such as excessive surveillance contributes to an overall negative atmosphere and could lead to contact center agent attrition. Instead, learning the ins and outs of data visualization should be thought of as a skill to motivate agents and supervisors to take ownership of their results. When reports are treated more as a collaborative effort, team members are more likely to strive for continuous improvement.

Data visualization helps you track metrics and make informed strategic decisions

Data visualization software can be instrumental in tackling situation-specific interaction loads. Let’s take one of the busiest days in all of commerce: Black Friday. There are lots of reasons for an increase in inbound interactions on this particular day: transaction-related issues, order mixups, and the like. With the help of data visualization, contact center directors can use dashboard software to drill down on certain metrics like cost per interaction and create reports that give them insight on exactly how, where and when to deploy agents to maximize contact center efforts to meet interaction surges. 

Whatever relevant data your contact center staff desires, your dashboard can be set up to look for it. Customer service departments can make use of customized dashboard software to see data that’s not only needed for smooth operation, but valuable raw data needed to gain an edge. Data visualization tools can extract that value by allowing its users to drill down on different KPIs to get the insight needed to take action. They are playgrounds for curious and efficiency-seeking contact center managers and directors. Knowing how to operate them could bring contact centers new insights and a better understanding of use cases that will help you deliver optimal CX and maximize your ROI. 

However, the capabilities of data visualization software only extend as far as those using it will take it. The more time you put into learning how to identify and prioritize actions through it, the more insights you’ll gain. Data visualization won’t necessarily make a poorly-performing contact center efficient, but it can aid in making a good contact center even better.

Is your contact center in need of dashboard software?

Odigo gives its users a point of truth by providing them with a Contact Center as a Service (CCaaS) solution with real-time analytics, reporting and visualization that provides actionable and connected data across channels and resources. Once our team expertly and properly sets up your dashboard to meet your needs, your contact center will begin reaping the benefits of the insights discussed in this post. From better insights come better customer experiences on all channels.