Ventana Research, a leading performance management research team, has unveiled the results of its recent study ‘Enhancing the Customer Experience within a Contact Centre Environment’.

The report – which was commissioned by Jacada Ltd – reveals that customer service is suffering, and calls are often long and complex because agents spend so much time navigating around different systems. 98 per cent of agents still have to trawl multiple screens to deal with a simple enquiry and 44 per cent use three or more systems to handle one call – often having to use entirely different monitors to access the systems they need.

The research finds that a Unified Service Desktop can dramatically improve the customer experience and reduce call times by as much as 50 per cent. This approach simplifies multiple applications into one usable screen that brings up relevant information so agents only have to enter data once. It can also prompt the agent as to where the call should lead by capturing any required data that the agent may not have thought of – helping to resolve issues quickly and reduce after-call work for the agent.

“For almost every company, contact centres are the most important aspect of determining the customer experience,” commented David Holmes, Executive Vice President of global marketing for Jacada. “One bad experience with a call centre and that customer could be put off for life. Yet this new research shows that many customers aren’t receiving the levels of service they should. A smarter desktop, however, means agents can spend more time listening to their callers, instead of focusing on the many screens of their computer system. Customers will be impressed that their issue is being resolved quickly, and agents will be happier knowing they will only need one application to do their job.”

“With the Unified Service Desktop, the majority of calls are solved first time. First-call resolution is an important performance measure for contact centres – it means greater customer satisfaction and happier agents who are more successful in their jobs. Saving time on calls reduces costs – as well as saving money on agent training. With just one desktop, agents will only need to be trained to use one system, making their lives easier and their daily tasks simpler. They are also more likely to stay in their jobs longer, reducing agent churn,” David Holmes added.