It was Leonardo da Vinci who once said: “Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication”. But 500 years later, the customer service sector is still too complex.
The best companies today are keeping things simple. They’re striving to deliver frictionless customer experiences where every phase of the customer journey is easy, convenient and effortless. Need a quick bite to eat? They’ll deliver it to your door. Finished your favourite TV show? They’ll suggest five more.
But providing hassle-free customer service requires having smooth internal processes. This is especially true for today’s busy, omni-channel contact centres where enquiries flow in at all hours of the day and via multiple different channels. It’s why many centres now invest in a Workforce Management (WFM) solution to help roster their agents strategically and ensure they’ve got the right people in the right place at the right time. But finding a solution that’s easy for employees to use and that fits your budget can be tricky.
What users want in a Workforce Management solution
People who use WFM solutions want just four things from their suppliers:
- Easy, user-friendly software
- No high or ongoing software and hardware costs
- Effective customer support
- A non-invasive solution that fits in seamlessly with their processes
Sounds simple, right? But the reality is many legacy WFM solutions fall at the first two hurdles.
When it comes to cost, in most cases the infrastructure and resources required just to install and run a WFM solution can add up to more than its overall value. Legacy solutions, for example, can command a high price tag as well as require the hiring of costly experts to run and maintain the software. Contact centres can inadvertently find themselves forking out wads of cash not only for the initial outlay, but also for special hardware to support it and for regular, required updates.
Ease-of-use also becomes an issue when centres have to schedule and pay for days, even weeks of training and repeat training due to attrition, just to onboard users. It’s easy to see how budgets can quickly get out of hand.
So what’s the solution?
As our friend Leonardo da Vinci said, keep it simple!
Investing in a cloud-based solution can help to keep costs down. Cloud-based WFM solutions offer the latest technology on a pay-as-you-go-basis with limited initial costs. They are also typically quicker to set up than legacy, on–premises solutions and are easier to use, cutting down on training.
Puzzel’s cloud-based WFM solution was able to be set up in just days for Simply Business, one of the UK’s biggest business insurance providers. “We saw the value of WFM immediately because of how agile and simple the product is – it made deployment much quicker than anticipated,” resource planner Joshua Kirkbride said.
Faster deployment and fewer training days leaves contact centre staff with more time to focus on the important stuff: delivering frictionless experiences, developing new offers and services, retaining existing customers, and winning more sales.
To find out more about Puzzel’s cloud-based WFM solution, book your free trial here.
