Inspired by Bon Jovi's "Livin' on a Prayer" lyrics, I posted several months ago about how we're "half way there" when it comes to certain contact center implementations.  Here's another angle to the story, based on an experience I had just moments ago.

Because my internet connection was down, I actually called six different airlines today.  Throwing any brand allegiance out the window, I am simply looking for the shortest non-stop trip across the country possible for my toddler's first flight.  Using very effective speech automation, five out of six of those airlines engaged me in conversation and asked all sorts of details about my trip (e.g. Where do I want to go?  On what date?  Does the time matter?).  Then they transferred my call to agents. 

Get this: only ONE agent said "Hi, I see you're looking for a flight from San Francisco to Philadelphia next month."  The rest greeted my call with a simple "Hello, how can I help you?" which invited me to blurt out just about everything I'd just told the IVR.  Unlike the typical caller, I asked the offending agents if they received a screen pop with my data and they all had.  Most said something like "Yeah, I see you want to fly to Philly" and one even said "But I can't help you until I know your name."

We've all heard the complaints from customers, heck we've even complained ourselves, when an IVR fails to leverage CTI to pop information to the agent.  "<sigh> But I just gave my social security number to that phone system...."  Nobody likes repeating themselves.  Fortunately, those complaints have been loud enough that I've witnessed many an initiative to better integrate the IVR and the desktop.  But without a cultural shift within the call center, those efforts will remain futile.  So, I wanted to thank these airlines for listening to what I had to say, and for writing it down somewhere.  But please, go all the way by teaching your agents how to use the information!  Maybe the AHT was slightly reduced by saving some typing time, but until agents clearly indicate they know what was said the customer experience problem of unnecessary repetition still exists.