“Digital disruption”: it sounds like something out of an action movie. Is it a technique used by international spies? A deft method of disarming an opponent using only wifi wavelengths?

Well, the CIA may know more than we do, but as far as we’re aware, digital disruption is neither of those things. In fact, it’s just a fancy term for the way our analog, physical world is quickly becoming more and more digitized.

Along with books, we have e-readers; along with check-out clerks we have self-check-out machines; instead of multi-volume, hard-bound encyclopedias, we have Wikipedia. Even the digital disruption is being disrupted, as tablet and mobile use outstrips that of laptops and desktops.

Digital disruption is a hot topic in business, as it refers to the way that digital technology is disrupting the traditional market. Take the retail industry, for example. Formerly, most people’s first interaction with a clothing store or electronics store was by going inside an actual brick-and-mortar location. The only other real option was to use a mail order catalog.

Today, of course, an overwhelming number of people first interact with a brand online, whether by visiting an online store, checking out its social media feed, or looking for reviews. As we all know, this has irrevocably changed retail, and countless other industries too—including contact centers.

So how does digital disruption apply to contact centers? One major way is the number of channels through which customers now expect to interact with companies. Instead of just calling, customers want to be able to text, email, chat, and interact via social media with the companies they contact.

There’s even a possibility that in the future, customers will move toward abandoning phone contact all together.

Forward-thinking companies are already offering these capabilities, giving their customers multiple ways of communicating. But, like anything, multi-channel communication comes with its own set of challenges that must be addressed if contact center agents are to be set up for success.

One issue that many companies are seeing is that in order to access all the communications a customer has made—say, an email and two phone calls—agents have to have, on average, three screens open at a time. Toggling back and forth and searching for necessary data to move the call forward can take up precious time, resulting in the very thing multi-channel communication is supposed to lessen: customer frustration.

To avoid this, some companies are putting in place desktop optimization software, which allows agents to access data from multiple channels on a single screen. This can help lower average handle times, which makes the customers happy, but it’s also good for contact center agents.

After all, many of them are Millennials who are just as accustomed to instant, easy access to information as the customers their companies serve. Having to search for and manage various pieces of data on different screens or through different programs, only makes their jobs harder. It can even become a contributing factor to agent turnover, which is already high in the industry.

To combat this, smart companies are using an analytics-driven approach that results in both happier customers and more satisfied employees. Speech analytics, customer surveys, and Enterprise Feedback Management and workforce optimization software can be pulled together to create a true Voice of the Customer program that allows companies to gain a more in-depth view of what customers think of their company. This can be what differentiates customer-centric companies from the ones who are just continuing to do what they’ve always done.

Is your contact center ready to face the digital disruption head-on? To help you get started, read our whitepaper, Fundamentals of Contact Center Analytics. And if KOVA can help you give your agents the tools they need to succeed, contact us!