{"id":1765,"date":"2022-03-09T19:14:25","date_gmt":"2022-03-09T19:14:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.replicant.ai\/the-hidden-costs-of-the-contact-center-crisis\/"},"modified":"2022-11-01T01:17:33","modified_gmt":"2022-11-01T01:17:33","slug":"the-hidden-costs-of-the-contact-center-crisis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.replicant.com\/blog\/the-hidden-costs-of-the-contact-center-crisis\/","title":{"rendered":"The Hidden Costs of the Contact Center Crisis"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Underlying Effects of the Contact Center Crisis<\/h1>\n

Many of the causes for today\u2019s contact center crisis are sitting in plain sight: empty customer service seats, unpredictable spikes in call volumes, persisting pandemic-related challenges.<\/span><\/p>\n

For the customer, this leads to understandable frustration. But for the contact center, the costs are innumerable, and they aren\u2019t always obvious.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

As leaders in the industry focus on staffing and self-service initiatives in order to overcome workforce shortages, it\u2019s important they also make time to address the long-term effects of recent challenges.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Here are 5 of the hidden costs of the contact center crisis.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Customer Loyalty<\/h2>\n

According to the national <\/span>American Customer Satisfaction Index<\/span><\/a>, CSAT continues to decline across all industries and customer service centers. In the fourth quarter of 2021, the national index slipped 0.5% to 73.3 (out of 100). This is the lowest level for the index since 2005.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Contact centers have traditionally been viewed as cost centers, but when they\u2019re unable to perform basic tasks for customers in a timely manner they can do more harm than good. On the flip side of this, contact centers who can quickly pivot their systems to provide automation for tier-1 requests get an instant leg up on their competition. Customers are less likely to cancel, unsubscribe, or tell others about poor customer experiences when they know they can reach a brand immediately, 24\/7.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Training Quality<\/h2>\n

According to <\/span>ProcedureFlow<\/span><\/a>, \u201cCOVID-19 has significantly and possibly permanently altered the way contact centers train their agents.\u201d Over 73% of contact centers say their training protocols will continue to be remote even after the pandemic has settled down.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Conversely, when contact centers use automation to resolve tier-1 requests without agent intervention they allow their agents to focus on training for only the most high-value customer interactions. The longer workforce challenges persist, the more turnover contact centers will experience. Contact Center Automation ensures managers get the most out of their training time, and don\u2019t spend it on inefficient priorities that automation can handle.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Staffing Costs<\/h2>\n

These days, when an IVR system repeats to a customer, \u201cWe are experiencing unusually high call volumes, all our representatives are busy,\u201d they mean it. But the costs of staffing shortages go beyond just scheduling headaches and customer dissatisfaction.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

55% of contact centers<\/span><\/a> spend 6-12 weeks training and onboarding new agents. Combined with with an average annual turnover rates of 30-45% in the space, the costs add up quickly. Replacing <\/span>exiting workers<\/span><\/a> costs one-half to two times the employee’s annual salary. Assuming an average salary of $50,000 that replacement cost translates to between $25,000 and $100,000 per employee.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Agent Wellness<\/h2>\n

96% of agents<\/span><\/a> feel acute stress on a weekly basis \u2014 and significantly more say they\u2019re stressed multiple times per week. They\u2019re being asked to manage 7.2 more calls per day (and a similar amount in other channels). This is the human cost of the contact center crisis. <\/span><\/p>\n

Employees in every industry have had to sacrifice work-life balance as remote environments blur the lines between the two priorities. But for contact center agents, the stress is even greater. From a business perspective, it\u2019s hard to expect your agents to provide delightful customer service when they themselves aren\u2019t satisfied.<\/span><\/p>\n

Stale Technology<\/h2>\n

Companies stuck with legacy technology will end up losing ground to their competitors if they don\u2019t add automation to their roadmaps. Amid the <\/span>COVID-19 crisis<\/span><\/a>, the global market for AI in contact centers \u2013 estimated at $1.1 billion in the year 2020 \u2013 is projected to reach a revised size of $3.5 billion by 2026. <\/span><\/p>\n

By the nature of Contact Center Automation, first-movers will have a significant advantage as the technology accrues data earlier and improves over time. Contact Center Automation will also help organizations alleviate staffing issues, retain more agents, and eliminate wait times as the technology resolves tier-1 issues and allows agents to focus on more engaging customer interactions.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Our<\/a>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Underlying Effects of the Contact Center Crisis Many of the causes for today\u2019s contact…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":1766,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nThe Hidden Costs of the Contact Center Crisis | Replicant<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Learn about the downstream costs of the recent contact center crisis, and how automation can help improve your organization to overcome them.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.replicant.com\/blog\/the-hidden-costs-of-the-contact-center-crisis\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Hidden Costs of the Contact 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