11 features customer care agents need from an agent desktop

In the world of customer service, one of the most crucial aspects of ensuring a positive customer experience is providing agents with the tools they need to effectively and efficiently handle customer inquiries and issues. A critical component of this is the agent desktop, the software application that serves as the primary interface for agents to interact with customers and manage their work.

By empowering your agents with the right agent desktop tools and features, they can efficiently manage and resolve customer inquiries across multiple communication channels, such as phone, email, chat or social media. This can include a unified view of customer data, automated workflows, knowledge management tools, collaboration features, and reporting and analytics capabilities.

Efficient and effective customer service interactions not only benefit customers but also reflect positively on your organization's reputation. With the right tools and training, your agents can deliver a high level of service, improve customer satisfaction, and drive customer loyalty and retention.

According to Gartner, businesses that provide value-driven customer service interactions rather than mediocre ones are likely to see significant benefits in customer behavior. The research suggests that customers are 86% more likely to make a repeat purchase, 82% more likely to remain loyal to the brand and 97% more likely to share positive recommendations about the business when they receive exceptional customer service.

By investing in a modern agent desktop solution, you can empower your agents to deliver value-driven customer service interactions that help to build long-lasting relationships with your customers. 

Here are some of the essential components that a modern agent desktop should include to achieve these goals.

1. Customizable desktop & workflows

A CCaaS agent desktop should allow agents to customize the desktop and workflows to match their specific needs and preferences.

It should provide a range of features to facilitate customization, such as a GUI dashboard editor, external widget library and open SDKs and APIs integration. These features allow agents to add, remove, and rearrange widgets to create a desktop that meets their unique needs. 

With the flexibility to design their desktop, agents can prioritize the tools and information they need most, reducing distractions and streamlining their workflow.

2. Quick and easy access to customer information

In order to provide personalized and effective customer service, it is crucial for customer care agents to have quick and easy access to customer information. This includes essential details like contact information, a record of previous interactions with the company and any relevant notes or information about the customer's account.

A well-designed agent desktop should provide a unified view of customer information, consolidating data from multiple sources into a single, easily accessible location. This allows agents to quickly understand the customer's history and preferences, enabling them to tailor their interactions accordingly.

To facilitate efficient access to customer information, agent desktops can leverage features such as integrated CRM systems, advanced search capabilities, and automated data retrieval. This ensures that agents can easily retrieve the information they need, without having to navigate between multiple systems or screens.

3. Integration with other systems

A critical component of a CCaaS agent desktop is its ability to seamlessly integrate with other systems and platforms that customer care agents use on a daily basis. This includes CRM systems, order management systems, and social media platforms, which can provide valuable insights and customer data to the agents.

By integrating with these systems, the agent desktop can pull in real-time data from multiple sources, reducing the need for agents to switch between different applications or screens. This reduces the time and effort required to access critical customer information, enabling agents to respond to customer inquiries more efficiently.

Additionally, integration with other systems allows agents to make updates and changes to customer information in real-time, ensuring that all systems are kept up-to-date and accurate. This is especially important when dealing with fast-paced customer service scenarios, where timely and accurate information can make all the difference.

4. Omnichannel communication capability

In today's fast-paced and digitally-driven world, customers expect to interact with companies through multiple channels, such as phone, email, chat, video, and social media. A well-designed CCaaS agent desktop should provide agents with the ability to communicate with customers through these various channels, ensuring that they can reach out to customers in the most convenient way possible.

Did you know that businesses that implement omnichannel customer engagement strategies are better equipped to retain customers, with an average retention rate of 89%? In contrast, companies that lack a strong omnichannel approach have a much lower customer retention rate of only 33%.

By leveraging multiple channels, agents can quickly respond to customer inquiries and provide real-time support, no matter where the customer is or what channel they are using.

Moreover, the desktop should be able to retain context across channels for the same customer. This means that agents can easily access a customer's previous interactions and inquiries, regardless of the channel they were made through.

5. Collaboration tools

Customer care agents often need to work with other team members, such as managers or subject matter experts, to resolve complex customer issues. A CCaaS agent desktop should include collaboration tools such as instant messaging, screen sharing, and video conferencing to enable agents to share information and work together in real-time to find solutions.

For example, if an agent encounters a particularly challenging customer inquiry, they can quickly and easily collaborate with a subject matter expert to provide the best possible resolution.

By providing agents with access to a wide range of experts and resources, collaboration tools can help agents provide more personalized and effective support, leading to higher customer satisfaction and loyalty.

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6. Advanced reporting and analytics

Advanced reporting and analytics tools provide agents with valuable insights into their performance, allowing them to identify areas for improvement and take corrective action as needed.

These tools should allow agents to track key metrics such as customer satisfaction, response times, first call resolution rates, and the number of resolved issues. Agents can use this information to identify trends and patterns in customer inquiries and adjust their approach accordingly.

For example, if agents notice that customers are consistently asking the same question, they may need to update their scripts or training materials to provide better information upfront.

7. Knowledge management tools

Knowledge management tools allow customer care agents to access the information they need to answer customer questions and resolve issues quickly and accurately, while maximizing their productivity.

A knowledge base is a repository of information that contains answers to common customer questions, step-by-step guides, and troubleshooting tips. By using a knowledge base, agents can quickly find the information they need without having to search for it manually, which can save time and reduce errors. 

Knowledge management tools can also include AI-powered chatbots or virtual assistants that can provide immediate answers to frequently-asked questions or guide customers through self-service options.

8. Multi-language support

Multi-language support is a critical feature for CCaaS agent desktops, especially for businesses that serve customers from diverse backgrounds or across different countries.

A CCaaS agent desktop with multi-language support should include features such as automatic language detection and translation, as well as the ability to switch between languages quickly and easily. This can help agents to respond to customer inquiries or issues in the language the customer is most comfortable with.

Additionally, the desktop should also provide access to language-specific scripts and knowledge bases to assist agents in responding to customer inquiries accurately and quickly. By supporting multiple languages, businesses can broaden their customer base and expand their reach, while providing high-quality customer service to all customers regardless of their language preference.

9. Mobile support

In today's fast-paced business environment, customer care agents need the flexibility to work from anywhere, at any time. A CCaaS agent desktop with mobile support can provide this flexibility, allowing agents to respond to customer inquiries, resolve issues, and access important information even when they are away from their desks. This can help to improve agent productivity, reduce response times, and ultimately enhance the customer experience.

According to Gartner, over half of customer service leaders (51%) have reported that the transition to remote work has actually resulted in an improvement in their employees' engagement.

Mobile support should include a responsive user interface that is optimized for small screens and touch interactions, as well as secure access to customer data and other sensitive information. In addition, the desktop should have features such as push notifications, alerts, and messaging, to keep agents informed about important events and customer inquiries in real-time, even when they are on the go.

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10. AI assistance

The use of AI in customer care is rapidly becoming a key component of agent desktop technology. AI-powered agent desktops can use natural language processing (NLP) to understand and interpret customer inquiries, reducing the burden on agents to manually search for solutions. Additionally, AI can be used to provide agents with recommended solutions, allowing them to resolve customer inquiries more efficiently. AI can also assist in tracking customer satisfaction in real-time and can trigger an escalation process if a customer appears to be dissatisfied.

Another important feature of AI-assisted agent desktops is the ability to provide agents with the next best action, based on previous customer interactions and data insights. Finally, AI can also provide feedback to agents when mistakes are made and suggest corrections, helping to continually improve the overall customer care experience.

11. Manage SLAs

A CCaaS agent desktop should have the ability to manage Service Level Agreements (SLAs) by enabling customer care agents to prioritize and track incoming queries based on their criticality. The desktop should automate time tracking, and send reminders to agents about upcoming deadlines to help them resolve issues before breaching the pre-defined SLAs.

Why Sprinklr’s Agent Desktop is your best choice

Sprinklr provides a flexible and scalable solution for agent unified desktop which allows individual agents to execute custom workflows to match their specific needs and preferences, add widgets from a pre-defined widget library and even external custom widgets via SDKs, iframes, etc. 

Sprinklr's AI-driven features are weaved throughout the desktop to help agents in solving queries in the first contact itself. The platform also offers a true omni-channel experience for agents and customers, retaining context across channels. 

With advanced reporting and analytics tools, agents can track their performance and identify areas for improvement, while knowledge management tools help them find answers to customer questions quickly and accurately.

Furthermore, Sprinklr's agent desktop solution helps agents manage SLAs, identify critical issues, prioritize incoming customer queries, automate time tracking, and remind agents of upcoming deadlines, helping them resolve issues without breaching pre-defined SLAs.

To top it all off, Sprinklr's agent desktop works seamlessly with other CRM systems like Salesforce, Microsoft Dynamics, and even custom applications, making it a scalable and flexible solution for customer care agents.

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