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What are some benefits of SSO in contact centers?

Contact center agents often need to remember a number of passwords to log in to multiple applications. Single sign-on can alleviate that pain point and increase productivity.

In many contact centers, agents sit at their workstations with up to three monitors on their desks and 10 to 15 applications running that they must navigate to resolve customer issues. In these contact centers, agents must sign on to each application individually, possibly using a different password for each system -- including following different rules for each password -- and in some cases different time-out rules for each system.

Most contact centers are years away from having a work environment where an agent only requires one monitor on their desk and a single application to resolve customer issues; but an initial step on this journey has been taken with single sign-on (SSO), enabling agents to sign into multiple applications via a single login.

Here are some benefits of SSO for contact center agents:

Improved employee experience

SSO can benefit employees by eliminating password fatigue. Agents no longer have to spend time at the beginning of the day -- in some cases in excess of five minutes -- logging into multiple applications or putting a caller on hold to log into a system that they have not yet used that day. SSO benefits agents by enabling them to log into all systems at the same time at the beginning of the work day.

Improved customer interaction

Sometimes, agents may decide that it is not worth the time to log into a system and may attempt to respond to a caller on the fly or may think they can update a system later in the day. In this situation, if agents don't remember facts correctly or don't update the system, errors are more likely to occur and customer experience can suffer. SSO benefits agents by enabling them to quickly log into all systems, avoid unnecessary errors and effectively perform their jobs.

Single sign-on graphic

Improved security

Agents who have multiple passwords are likely to use less secure passwords, or worse, write them down on a yellow sticky note. Because agents only need to know one password with single sign-on, businesses can establish rules -- such as requiring a mix of characters or requiring employees to change passwords more often -- to make them more secure.

Single sign-on enables agents to sign into multiple applications via a single login.

Reduced need to call the help desk

Contact center representatives with multiple passwords often reach out to the help desk to reset passwords because they can't remember which password goes with what system. Because single sign-on requires only one password, agents are less likely to require help desk assistance, freeing support staff for more important tasks.

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