Forrester's Kate Leggett recently blogged about the business benefits of improving the Agent Desktop experience, and I was inspired to add additional color commentary to this as I am currently working with a client who has some significant Agent Desktop challenges. So below is a summary of the Top 6 KPIs and Business Benefits associated with improving your Customer Service Agent's Desktop experience. The 6 KPIs are below: Improving Agent Handle Time. Increasing First Call Resolution. Improving Agent Satisfaction & Turnover. Improving Training & Ramp Up Time. Improve Customer Satisfaction. Increase Revenue.

1. 6 KPIs & Benefits to evaluate when
Improving the Agent Desktop
Experience
Best Practices for Providing Customer Service in The Cloud
John M. Perez
Customer Service In The Cloud
http://www.customerserviceinthecloud.com
Email: jperezpgi@gmail.com
Template Date: 031510

2. Improving Agent Handle Time & First Call
Resolution
KPI / Metric
# Benefit Expected Benefit How To Achieve The Benefit
Impact
Consider consolidating and
integrating your Agent Desktop
Focusing on improvements on the Agent
Applications.
desktop can improve and yield a 2 - 20%
Average Talk Time Improvement in Handle Time for a
Utilize Workflow and Automation
Improving business.
Tools to reduce tasks that agents
1 Agent Handle Average Hold Time
need to perform while on the phone
Time Your customers benefit from quicker
with customers.
Calls Per Rep support calls, and your agents are more
productive and available to take on more
Integrate Computer Telephony
calls.
Integration to deliver customer
information in advance of the call.
A Seamless, easy to use, and integrated Integrate Knowledge Management
knowledge management into your agent directly into the agent desktop.
First Call desktop experience typically can result in a
Resolution 1 - 3% improvement in First Call Associate Knowledge to Call
Increasing Resolution. Dispositions and Caller History.
2 First Call Problem
Resolution Resolution Time. 5 - 20% reduction in escalations of Incent Agents to produce &
support issues. Document Knowledge.
Escalation Rate
5 – 50% improvement in reducing Create a Knowledge Management
Problem Resolution time. Culture.

3. Improving Agent Turnover, Customer
Satisfaction, and Customer Loyalty
KPI / Metric
# Benefit Expected Benefit How To Achieve The Benefit
Impact
Ensure your agent desktop applications undergo
Companies that provide a usability and agent testing prior to deploying.
best in class agent desktop
Agent Turnover experience typically achieve a Minimize the amount of desktop apps and
Rate. 5 – 20% improvement in functionality related to supporting a customer.
Improving Agent Turnover.
Agent Agent Enable Dynamic workspaces to make it easier for
3
Satisfaction & Satisfaction Shrinkage Rates associated to agents to profile customer segments and customer
Turnover Rate. time that staff is unavailable products.
when they should be available
Shrinkage Rate. can also improve upwards of Enable Automated Guided Decision Tree logic into the
5% or higher from current Agent Desktop to prevent agents from manually
shrinkage levels. having to figure out complex business rules for a
customer issue like Billing or Credits.
Segment your customer base according to value, and
There is a direct correlation
product segment.
between an agent’s ability to
interact seamlessly with the
Ensure your agents see customer segments in the
desktop and customer
Customer Profile on the Agent Desktop.
Net Promoter satisfaction surveys.
Improving
Score
Customer Prioritize and align Service Levels according to
4 Best In Class companies
Satisfaction & Customer Segment.
Customer typically see a 5 – 10%
Loyalty.
Satisfaction improvement in their Phone
Automate business processes that qualify customers
CSAT Scores and 1 – 3%
for discounts.
improvement in their loyalty
when making improvements
Automate Surveys to be sent to customers via email
to the desktop.
once a call is completed via the agent desktop.

4. Improving Agent Turnover, Customer
Satisfaction, and Customer Loyalty
KPI / Metric
# Benefit Expected Benefit How To Achieve The Benefit
Impact
Automate Cross Sell and Up sell
recommendations and discounts using
integrated workflow and business rules directly
in the agent desktop.
Customer Lifetime Companies that provide a best
Integrate Email Marketing Campaigns into the
Value. in class agent desktop
Agent Desktop to enable a 360 view of
Increasing experience with a goal of
5 company offers to the customer.
Revenue Customer Order selling typically achieve a 5 –
Value. 10% uplift in sales from calls
Utilize Dynamic Workspaces to get a view of
received into the call center.
Customer Order History, Marketing Campaign
History, and Products.
Train your agents to be knowledge of offers and
products.
Ensure you establish a Training/Staging
An intuitive agent desktop Environment for your Agent Desktop that
experience enables your agents directly replicates the functionality of the
to quickly adopt and learn how Production Desktop.
Improve to support your customers.
Training Time
Agent Training Consider capturing agent feedback on Desktop
6
Ramp Up Time Best in Class Agent Desktop tools before and after training to continuously
Ramp Up Time
& Proficiency. Experiences can improve Agent improve the experience.
Ramp Up time and proficiency
upwards of 5% or more. Ensure your Agent Desktop can enable Hot Key
shortcuts to reduce the time it takes to produce
repetitive text or agent desktop tasks.