Optimizing Support Staffing in the Age of COVID-19
I think we may all be tired of terms like “post-COVID” and even “new normal.” But the simple fact is our reality has changed.
We are all facing new business challenges when it comes to providing the kind of service our customers expect from us. The more we embrace remote and distributed workforces, the more we must consider how working from home can affect the ability of customer service agents and other customer-facing employees to do their jobs. Not only should businesses consider how their role can be done in this work from home environment, but also, how to do it in the best possible manner to optimally care for customers and improve customer experience.
That is just one of the reasons why we are excited about some of the new capabilities in the Q3 2020 release of Sugar Serve. The latest edition of our flagship customer service and support solution brings two awesome new capabilities that will enable businesses to best ensure fast and effective customer response. These two new features are an awesome new Shift Management capability and enhanced lead assignment.
Sugar Serve’s new Shift Management capabilities make it easy to optimize staffing and account for spikes, downtimes, agent breaks, and holidays—all with a few simple clicks.
The new Shift Management tools are our initial foray into adding Workforce Management capabilities into Serve. With this new feature set, users can create shifts, assign workers, and even calculate for exceptions such as breaks, lunch hours, etc. Now, in our “new normal” (sorry!) of remote and distributed workforces, this can be a critical tool. More and more companies are using blended agent models, having product experts answer customer cases, and simply running virtual support centers. With Shift management embedded in Serve, you can always make sure you have adequate and expert staff at the beck and call of your customers.
This new capability really ties into our “time-aware” vision—where we look to add a time element to all we do to provide optimal insights, real-time alerts, etc. In that vein, my second favorite new feature in Serve is the Enhanced Case Assignment capabilities. Now, when a case is logged in Serve, the system leverages the “time-aware” aspects of Serve (calculations for average first response time, total response time, current agent case queues, etc.) to identify the best possible agent to handle the case at that time. This means you are never going to over-load an agent, and customers get an answer to their inquiries much faster.
These are just two of the great new features in the Q3 release of Serve. When you add to them the now fully configurable Service Console agent desktop experience (wherein you can simplify the UX even further for new, remote employees), and some great new email templates for customer response (streamlining initial response to improve CX when you can’t reach out personally) – it becomes clear how Serve can be a “one-stop-shop” for midsize businesses looking to create a smooth-running service and support operation that tackles the challenges of today, without needing to purchase multiple technology pieces.
And while Serve is a great solution for customer support on its own, now Sugar Integrate offers dozens of great add-ons to further enhance your CX initiative. Whether it’s more omnichannel communication capabilities, AI chatbots, ERP integration, or even e-commerce—Sugar Integrate has you covered.
