The News:
Real-time coaching and guidance solution provider Cogito has introduced a new EX measurement that leverages a machine learning (ML) model to determine how contact center agents are feeling after each of their daily customer interactions. The EX Score will help contact centers determine pain points in real time that could lead to agent burnout and turnover. See the complete press release from Cogito here.
Continuous EX Measurement Allows for Increased Ability to Make Positive Change
Analyst Take:
Real-time coaching and guidance solution provider Cogito has introduced a new EX measurement that leverages a machine learning model to determine how contact center agents are feeling after each of their daily customer interactions. The EX Score will help contact centers determine pain points, in real time, that could lead to agent burnout and turnover.
I recently spoke with Joshua Feast, CEO and Co-Founder of Cogito, to learn more about why this new score was developed and the way contact centers may use it.
“Cogito has long been focused on supporting agents, in the moment, to not only improve the customer experience, but to help the agent be successful,” says Feast. “Cogito’s development of the EX Score came from seeing a lot of the challenges that contact centers have had over the past few years such as attrition, lower agent engagement scores, and proficiency gaps. Retention rates are abysmal and it’s certainly costly. It can cost up to $15,000 to train and identify a single contact center agent. We also know that the impact of poor EX on customer experience is dramatic.”
Feast continues, “The development of the EX Score was done very deliberately, as Cogito broadens and moves beyond being not just a CX company, but a company focused on delivering EX as well.”
Cogito previously developed a measurement for CX, which was a real-time measurement of customer perception that was captured on 100% of calls. The EX Score is a “sister” measurement, designed to give executives and operations leaders a way to predict how agents will be feeling at the end of the day, and allow for faster identification and resolution of issues.
The EX Score joins human-aware Emotion AI and Conversation AI to offer real-time insights across single instances as well as trends across multiple calls. It can be measured over time by individual agents, specific teams, or the entire organization. Both positive and negative trends can be flagged to address or to celebrate.
This new score was just launched, and is in its early days in terms of operationalizing it. However, Feast pointed to three different examples:
- Micro case: An individual agent has a series of difficult situations that causes a change in their daily EX Score. That person can get support from their manager in how to better manage those particular types of interaction or simply get assurance that they should feel empowered to be a bit more self-protective when confronting hostile customers.
- Macro case: This could be an entire team, particular geography, or agents that support a particular product type that is suffering. This can be identified and appropriate actions taken.
- Systematic: Leveraging the rich data set for agents and operations to simply get better.
The EX Score is used by managers through Cogito Teams and by the analytics teams through Cogito Intelligence. This fast realization of how the interactions of the day affect agent sentiment has been particularly helpful during onboarding and early days on the job. New agents that use Cogito have been shown to achieve job proficiency up to 50% faster than those who do not use Cogito’s real-time coaching and guidance (that leverages the EX Score).
“Being able to ingest 100% of an agent’s daily customer interactions and turn that into a measurement that can predict if an agent will want to stay or leave is critical. Cogito wants to support contact centers by creating technology that really incorporates the human dimension,” says Feast.
When it comes to employee experience, there is certainly not a lack of data. That has never been the problem. And there are many measurements for EX including Employee Net Promoter Score (eNPS) and employee satisfaction. The issue often is that it is not quite the right data, or it is not actionable, or frankly, it is not tied to the bottom line. Employers will be looking for ways to demonstrate solid ROI for employee experience technologies. Scoring systems that can identify the risk of burnout and potential departure will be important tools for contact centers as they address the expensive retention issue.
Author Information
As a detail-oriented researcher, Sherril is expert at discovering, gathering and compiling industry and market data to create clear, actionable market and competitive intelligence. With deep experience in market analysis and segmentation she is a consummate collaborator with strong communication skills adept at supporting and forming relationships with cross-functional teams in all levels of organizations.
She brings more than 20 years of experience in technology research and marketing; prior to her current role, she was a Research Analyst at Omdia, authoring market and ecosystem reports on Artificial Intelligence, Robotics, and User Interface technologies. Sherril was previously Manager of Market Research at Intrado Life and Safety, providing competitive analysis and intelligence, business development support, and analyst relations.
Sherril holds a Master of Business Administration in Marketing from University of Colorado, Boulder and a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from Rutgers University.
