Top 6 Trends Revealed at the CX Summit
Targeted QA for Proactive Insights
Background:
MaestroQA initially focused on random QA to provide an unbiased sample of tickets for objective agent scores. In the modern era of CX, sifting through vast amounts of data to identify improvement areas is challenging. Traditionally, teams assessed CX across all interactions without prioritizing specific touchpoints.
Current Trend:
There's a growing shift towards targeted QA. Although random QA remains prevalent, businesses are increasingly interested in targeted QA programs to address specific issues or areas. QA practices are now honing in on high-priority customer touchpoints for deeper insights, employing strategies such as 'Targeted QA sprints' during product launches.
Examples/Benefits
Monitoring CSAT and survey responses.
Evaluating tickets with over 20 touches.
Analyzing tickets with extended Average Handling Time (AHT) for insights into processes, policies, and troubleshooting.
Gathering feedback from new product launches.
Companies can concentrate on key areas to ensure a consistent quality experience, saving time and resources.
Challenge
Targeted QA is often reactive, with businesses addressing emerging issues as they arise rather than proactively identifying them. The challenge lies in maintaining sufficient bandwidth, emphasizing proactivity, and continuously analyzing data to ensure the focus areas remain relevant.
Feedback
There's a growing appreciation for this method, with many highlighting its efficiency in the rapidly changing business environment.
Examples/Benefits
Empowered agents can:
Deliver better customer service.
Take ownership of their performance.
Identify top and bottom performers.
This empowerment makes agents feel more valued, leading to enhanced performance and customer satisfaction.
This empowerment makes agents feel more valued, leading to enhanced performance and customer satisfaction.
Challenge
It's crucial to ensure feedback is consistently positive and constructive, steering clear of any negative or demoralizing implications. Although we stress agents owning their metrics, for those accessing via spreadsheets, the user experience might not be optimal. Team’s may want to invest in a QA software that is streamlined for agent engagement.
Feedback
Agents have expressed a greater sense of belonging and purpose, fostering a more inclusive and productive environment.
Empower Agents with Direct & Actionable Feedback
Background:
There's an ongoing trend towards agent empowerment. Previously, metrics were limited to team leads, but now the emphasis is on giving agents direct access to them. Traditional QA acted more as a policing mechanism, highlighting mistakes rather than fostering improvement.
Current Trend:
QA's role is evolving to prioritize agent growth. Feedback, now centered on constructive criticism, serves as a tool for improvement, fostering an environment where agents are inspired to excel.
Data-Driven Insights to Enhance Agent Performance
Background:
Historically, teams relied on generic, one-size-fits-all metrics, offering a limited perspective on agent performance without insights tailored to individual agents.
Current Trend:
There's a growing emphasis on using data to grant agents access to their metrics, which facilitates proactive coaching and trend tracking. Gamification is emerging as a strategy to engage and motivate agents. Embracing a data-driven approach instills personal ownership among agents, promoting accountability and a culture of excellence.
Examples/Benefits
Promotes personal ownership among agents.
Fosters healthy competition.
Drives agents to excel.
Challenge
Company culture can play a significant role. While some companies might resist giving agents access to team or peer metrics, others might welcome it. It's essential to present data in a way that provides actionable insights without overwhelming agents.
Feedback
Participants generally wanted stats to be shared openly. They felt that being transparent could improve performance and teamwork. Agents liked knowing how they were doing and saw clear ways to get better.
Examples/Benefits
AI handles repetitive tasks and offers real-time assistance.
Humans can focus on more complex issues.
Challenge
Maintaining a balance where AI supports without overshadowing human input.
Feedback
Both agents and customers have expressed appreciation for the blend, experiencing faster resolutions while maintaining the human touch in communications.
Rise of AI-Assisted CX Solutions
Background:
The rapid advancement of AI in the business realm has sparked debates about its potential to overshadow or replace human roles in CX.
Current Trend:
Embracing AI as a complementary tool to human efforts in CX. While AI offers potential in areas like real-time assistance, human oversight remains crucial.
Emergence of Auto QA and "Hot Spots"
Background:
Traditional QA methods occasionally overlooked rapidly emerging issues due to predominant manual processes, leading to delays in identification and resolution.
Current Trend:
Automated QA rapidly spots "hot spots," helping businesses swiftly adjust to customer needs. It improves quality assessment by pinpointing these areas for quick adaptation.
Examples/Benefits
Rapid identification and resolution of issues
Smoother customer experience
Challenge
Keeping the automated system updated and relevant to changing business trends/needs.
Feedback
Participants expressed a sentiment that businesses could report faster turn-around times and improved overall customer satisfaction scores.
Examples/Benefits
Engagement Rate" and "Empowerment Rate" offer insights into customer interaction and agent autonomy.
"Overall Advisor Score" assesses incorrect refunds by factoring in attendance, CSAT, and AHT.
"Triage Rate" evaluates AI's routing performance.
Challenge
Ensuring these new metrics are easily understood and actionable.
Feedback
Companies are expecting to see enhanced decision-making, tailored strategies, and improved ROI with these blended insights.
The Next Wave of CX Analytics: Blended & Tailored to Fit Business Priorities
Background:
Sole reliance on traditional KPIs, often missing nuanced insights that could be derived from more innovative metrics.
Current Trend:
Custom metrics play a crucial role in providing actionable insights. Companies are blending traditional KPIs with innovative, AI-powered metrics to attain a profound understanding of customer sentiment and its underlying causes, with the goal of achieving a deeper comprehension of CX.
“We changed our team name from Quality Assurance to Performance Excellence”
MaestroQA Customer