The expression “knowledge is power” is most commonly attributed to philosopher Sir Francis Bacon, although Thomas Jefferson also used this phrase once in a correspondence, adding that knowledge is not only power but happiness as well. When I’m considering a course of action, I often remember these three words: knowledge, power, happiness. Once you are armed with knowledge, you are empowered to take informed action, perhaps addressing an issue or improving upon a system. And making well-informed actions is key to cultivating success and happiness. Whether you’re building a skyscraper, writing your thesis, or arguing with your siblings over the best route to grandma’s house for the holidays, creating happiness starts with knowledge.

When thinking about your business, knowledge and information is critical when it comes to the contact center. Taking advantage of the information and insights gained from each customer interaction will give you the knowledge that can create happiness for your business. Happy customers, happy agents, and happy managers, which leads to happy supervisors and happy shareholders ... you get the point. The knowledge and the power to forge that happiness comes from analytics and reporting.

Now, analytics and reporting may not sound very exciting, but without them you’ll lack a complete view of the contact center and the ability to mine your interactions for information. This can leave your company with incomplete or missing data, which hinders your ability to effectively and efficiently serve your customers. By using analytics and reporting to fill those holes, you can provide the best possible customer service, creating happiness for your customers and your staff alike.

For example, let’s say that your company is running a very popular campaign for your latest new product. Phones are ringing off the hook and everyone is very excited. Great news! But hold on -- literally, *hold* on. Because of this sudden boom, your communication channels are clogged and potential customers are waiting on hold for way too long. The queue to speak with an agent is rising by the minute -- as are the tensions. Your customers are now extremely frustrated and either hanging up or furious by the time they speak with an agent. Does this scenario leave you feeling overwhelmed? If you were the manager, do you know what you’d do in this situation? Remember: knowledge is power. It’s time to look at analytics and reporting to figure out your next step.

If this situation happened at a company using 8x8's Platform, the supervisor wouldn’t need to worry about trying to figure out their next steps. They’d be automatically alerted that they need more agents to take calls, and they would be able to spring into action before things get too hairy. The supervisor can increase the number of agents taking calls, resulting in limited or no wait times, fewer customers being placed on hold, and, critically, more sales of your new product. This will lead to more happy customers that can enjoy your new product, less stress and more commissions for agents, added revenue for your company, and the perks of shareholders seeing a successful, massive new product launch. Feeling happy yet? Then it’s time to thank reporting and analytics.

At 8x8, we are continually enhancing our contact center offerings and working to ensure our customer service experience stays second to none. In this year’s fall release, we further strengthened our analytics and reporting capabilities to make reports easier to create, save, and share. Users can easily configure their dashboards to their unique requirements and create, customize, and share reports to save time by getting to the crux of the problem quickly and implementing the right solution. With reports readily available to your team, you can react to activity in the contact center and make the necessary changes to create the highest quality customer experience and spread some happiness.

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