Finding Answers to Customer Questions The Biggest Hurdle For Contact Center Agents, Study Finds

Finding Answers to Customer Questions The Biggest Hurdle For Contact Center Agents, Study Finds

Multinational survey also reveals that an overwhelming majority of agents want push-button problem resolution on their desktops

SUNNYVALE, CA--(Marketwired - May 11, 2017) - eGain (NASDAQ: EGAN), the leading provider of cloud customer engagement solutions, today announced the findings of an industry-first survey of contact center agents regarding their biggest pain points in providing service when the customer is on the line. The survey revealed that finding the single right answer to customer questions is the biggest barrier to providing good customer service, followed closely by different systems giving different answers. Having to hop from application to application during the interaction was the third biggest challenge.

Methodology
The survey was administered online to contact center agents in the US, Canada, the UK, Ireland, and the Asia Pacific region in the first calendar quarter of 2017 through SurveyMonkey®. Respondents were asked to pick up to two pain points, and findings were compiled from 465 respondents.

Findings
In identifying the main hurdles to smooth customer service delivery, agents interestingly mirrored the pain points cited by consumers in previous research. According to the survey, this is what agents find difficult:

  • Finding the right answers to customer questions: 26%
  • Different systems/information sources give different answers: 25%
  • Hopping from one application/window to another: 20%
  • Hard to keep up with all the new information/changes I need to know about: 14%
  • Other issues: 15%

Asked about the utility of push-button problem resolution that will invoke contextual knowledge or process guidance in the form of a "Solve" button, an overwhelming 86% of them rated it as a "stress buster" or "it will help me significantly."

  • Stress buster that will make my life easier: 35%
  • It will help me significantly: 51%
  • None of the above: 14%

Viewpoints
Michael Maoz, VP and Distinguished Analyst at Gartner, wrote in the foundational research note, "Knowledge Management Will Transform CRM Customer Service," "Improved delivery of contextual knowledge to an employee or customer reduces a provider's time to answer by 20% to 80%, raising competency and satisfaction. CIOs can reduce customer support costs by 25% or more when a proper knowledge management (KM) discipline is in place."1

"Next-gen agents don't like to retain knowledge, and prefer instead to simply 'look it up' for answers or get automated guidance," said Anand Subramaniam, SVP Worldwide Marketing for eGain. "eGain's recently-announced click-to-solve™ feature offers this capability as part of its reimagined agent desktop, called eGain Advisor™."

More information
Geography-specific breakdown of findings is available at: www.egain.com/contact-center-agent-pain-point-survey-2017.

1 Gartner, Knowledge Management Will Transform CRM Customer Service, March 2014, Refreshed November 2016

About eGain
eGain customer engagement solutions power digital transformation for leading brands. Our top-rated cloud applications for social, mobile, web, and contact centers help clients deliver connected customer journeys in an omnichannel world. To find out more about eGain software, visit http://www.egain.com/products/

Headquartered in Sunnyvale, California, eGain has operating presence in North America, EMEA, and APAC. To learn more about us, visit www.eGain.com or call our offices: +1-800-821-4358 (US), +44-(0)-1753-464646 (EMEA), or +91-(0)-20-6608-9200 (APAC).

eGain, the eGain logo, and all other eGain product names and slogans are trademarks or registered trademarks of eGain Corp. in the United States and/or other countries. All other company names and products mentioned in this release may be trademarks or registered trademarks of the respective companies.

Media contact
Tim Cox
Zing PR on behalf of eGain Corporate
Phone: 650-888-6116
Email: [email protected]

Jane Stewart
eGain Europe
Phone: +44 (0)1635 800087 - Ext 5118
Email: [email protected]