Part 2: Webex enables contact center agents to thrive in the era of hybrid work

In this 2-part blog series, Jamie Romanin highlights the impact on the “new normal” to the contact center industry and provides practical insights into how organizations can navigate through the shift to hybrid work and enable agents to thrive and delight customers in innovative ways.

A new era for hybrid work and contact center leaders

As millions of Australians – myself included are tucked away in a leafy Melbourne suburb – continue to live and work within our own four walls, now’s the time to reflect on the pandemic and the new state of work and how the world of work may change forever. In fact, we’re living in a new age – an era of hybrid work – that’s rewriting the history books. Millions have been driven to a remote work lifestyle and lives have been profoundly reshaped right around the globe. Certainly, as we enter this new age of work, having the right technology in place has never been more important. Indeed, it’s imperative as the new era of hybrid work means people need to connect and engage with secure, smart and collaborative technologies. Welcome to Part 2 of my hybrid work blog series, which picks up where Part 1 left off, digs a little deeper, and reveals how we can help contact center leaders navigate through hybrid work.

Webex enables agents to thrive in the era of hybrid work

Let’s face it: the hybrid work lifestyle is all about choice. Webex, for its part, empowers people to work where they want, when they want – a world centered around the work we do, rather than where we do it. In fact, hybrid work is all about adapting to how teams work best and creating experiences that reach everyone. For contact center agents, it’s about empowering agents with more intuitive tools. Tools that bring agents and subject matter experts together with messaging, meetings, and calling tools for collaborating on customer engagements. What’s more, agents can now thrive (and de-stress) in several key areas, knowing their technology helps them:

Manage multiple dashboards
Communicate with back-office experts
Locate the correct information about a previous chat
Adhere to performance KPIs
Find information within seconds
Provide a single view of the customer

These features alone prove that this advanced technology is practical and meets the needs of today’s agents, and manages the employee experience more holistically – and not just from a pure technology perspective.

The 5 essential elements of hybrid work for employee experience

Webex powers five essential elements of hybrid work and beefs up the employee experience by being:

Flexible (adapts to any work style, role or environment)
Inclusive (equal experiences for everyone)
Supportive (focused on safety, empathy and wellbeing)
Secure (secure by design, private by default)
Managed (modern infrastructure, frictionless administration)

Ultimately, staying connected is the key – and today’s businesses need to connect like never before – with a host of players across different time zones, departments, and geographies. And these connections are now possible thanks to the latest advancements in UC technology. Meanwhile, for those in the contact center world, the latest technology transforms everyday agents into “super agents,” helping them rapidly solve customer challenges (through intelligent data and immersive functionality) and empowers them to create more connected and meaningful customer experiences. Indeed, this new and improved UC technology is boosting worker productivity across many market segments, including finance, retail, education, health, government, cities, and technology – yet another powerful benefit fuelling today’s growing hybrid work environment.

Historic moment for collaborative, inclusive technology

What’s more, this collaborative and inclusive technology couldn’t come fast enough – or at a more pivotal time in history. Building on Webex’s investments in the customer experience space, including Voicea (AI), Cloudcherry (experience management and analytics), and imimobile (omnichannel interactions), Webex is now able to provide the most comprehensive set of customer experience solutions on the market, giving businesses the technology they need to provide delightful customer experiences across the entire customer lifecycle. There’s lots of innovation on offer, from integrated Webex Calling, Webex Control Hub integration to a customizable, widgetized agent desktop and open APIs for additional flexibility. More importantly, what these and other tech advancements tell us is there’s a real and growing appetite for this form of enhanced technology – and companies need to prepare their organizations for a hybrid work future – and fast. As a remote worker myself, knowing that these and other collaboration tools are now at our fingertips is comforting. If the last 18-months have taught us anything, it’s that knowledge workers, in Asia Pac and around the world, are embracing collaboration tools like never before, proving humans crave connection to colleagues, family and friends, and are ready to navigate the new age of work with the right tools at their side.

To learn more about Webex Contact Center and the platform’s features and benefits, read the showcase brochure or get started with a personalized cloud contact center demo today.