In this benchmark report, we present data reflecting the views of customer experience (CX) leaders who attended Call and Contact Center Expo in Las Vegas, NV from April 26-27, 2023. Participants completed a written survey asking about their contact center priorities, challenges, the future, and their views on agent performance, knowledge management, and more.

Survey Results

Below are all questions, possible answers, and survey results from verified CX leaders. We specifically excluded all Shelf customers from this report, and have summarized this data to present our findings and takeaways.

Question 1: Is improving CSAT metrics like AHT, FCR, and NPS a priority for you this year?

Takeaway: The vast majority of CX leaders seek to improve common CSAT metrics like AHT and FCR. Despite significant investment in tools, technology, and training in recent years, most CX leaders still are searching for new ideas to make progress.

But how do CX leaders plan to achieve these metric improvements this year? We asked them to share their top priorities.

Question 2: Your biggest priorities requiring budget this year are (circle all that apply):

Takeaway: Collectively, knowledge management is the top budgeted priority among CX leaders, with ~⅓ reporting improvement needed in this area. Most leaders plan to prioritize KMS initiatives first, followed by 24.29% who plan to tackle agent efficiency.

Interest in AI/ChatGPT is double that of agent turnover and on par with interest in improved training, so we asked respondents to indicate how prepared they are in this area.

Question 3: How prepared are you for ChatGPT and Gen AI to transform contact centers?

Takeaway: Nearly 97% of CX leaders believe ChatGPT and Gen AI will disrupt the contact center. While around 3/4 surveyed are currently working to prepare for AI or have work to do, almost half still feel like they have a lot to learn and figure out.

AI has incredible potential to improve the speed and accuracy of answers in the future, so we asked about the current state of answer accuracy/speed for agents.

Question 4: How confident are you that your agents are consistently giving customers the right answers quickly?

Takeaway: Only 16% of respondents are certain that their agents can provide fast, accurate guidance. There is a very significant amount of doubt as to whether or not customers are getting good service. The majority (~60%) are not sure, only ‘somewhat confident’ their agents are providing correct and timely answers, while another ¼ of CX leaders don’t know.

To better understand the reasons behind the uncertainty, we asked CX leaders to pinpoint where improvement is most needed related to how agents provide answers today.

Question 5: If you could improve anything about the answers agents give customers, what would it be?

Takeaway: More than half of CX leaders report they would like to improve both speed and accuracy of answers their agents provide customers. While speed is important in many contact centers, the vast majority—83% of respondents —want to improve answer accuracy.

We wanted to then understand if the lack of a KMS + contact center integration could be a reason behind the speed concern…and one possible solution to their agent efficiency goal.

Question 6: When your agents look up an answer, do they have to open a separate application/window to do that?

Takeaway: Nearly 80% of leaders we surveyed admit their agents must switch tabs to retrieve information. This common practice adds a lot of time to each customer interaction and points to the reality that few contact centers integrate knowledge directly into the agent desktop experience.

Since many contact centers have knowledge management systems that are siloed off—forcing agents to switch tabs—we asked respondents to indicate their overall satisfaction with their KMS.

Question 7: How happy is your team with your current knowledge management system (KMS)?

Takeaway: Adoption is high, with only 17.25% reporting they do not have a KMS in 2023. But there is gigantic room for improvement: No one we surveyed reported they ‘Love’ their current knowledge management system; everyone with a KMS had sentiments ranging from ‘meh’ to ‘hate’.

Conclusion

CX leaders must continue to keep an eye on metrics like FCR and AHT, but knowledge management, agent efficiency, and better training are the highest priorities. ChatGPT and AI have quickly emerged as important topics; about ½ of all respondents have started planning and strategizing in response. In the contact center, there is a general lack of confidence that agents are providing good service—CX leaders would like to see answer accuracy improve, followed by speed. Nearly all (82.75%) of CX leaders have a KMS, yet most don’t feel great about it. The lack of integration between the KMS and other systems remains a pain point leaders must solve to better serve their customers.

Ready to prioritize knowledge management? Start here.

Book a demo of the Shelf platform and see the future of knowledge management for the contact center. You’ll see how a modern KMS ensures agents give accurate answers quickly and makes agents more efficient. We’ll show you how to ready yourself for the coming AI transformation by laying the groundwork with knowledge infrastructure.