Call Center Management Featured Article
Why Call Center Management Should Focus on the Customer Experience
The technology available in a call center today significantly improves outcomes and makes the job a lot easier for call center management. Interactive Voice Response (IVR) allows customers to engage in self-service interactions; speech analytics makes quality monitoring much easier to accomplish; and automatic call distribution ensures the right agents get the right calls at the right time.
With so many tools at their fingertips, one may wonder why call center management can’t achieve perfect performance all the time. The answer is really found in taking ownership of the job and engaging their teams in the desired outcome. The ultimate goal for the call center is not to complete the most calls, drive the most in sales or even resolve the greatest number of issues. The goal is to optimize the customer experience.
Most in this industry would turn to the tools they have at their disposal when referencing the customer experience. Why not leverage investments you’ve made in order to turn up the numbers and make C-level executives happy? When the focus is only on technology, however, you’re ignoring the important investments you’ve made in people and how they can help you achieve your ultimate goals.
A recent Business2Community piece forces the reader to go beyond the buzzwords and the technology trends and instead focus on why the call center exists – to put the customer experience at the heart of the organization. When you take a step back and look at call center management, are the common themes centered on improving the life of the customer or competing in the market on the basis of the customer experience?
If you look around the global marketplace, there are a number of leaders who have made very bold statements. Innovators like Steve Jobs (News - Alert), Tony Hsieh (Zappos) and even Bill Gates have made lasting impressions, so much so that the world will know their names for generations to come. Apple made a statement with its customer care and Microsoft (News - Alert) gained market share through a proprietary model, more so than the customer experience, but still focused on the user. Zappos – now that’s a name synonymous with quality customer care.
The question is – where is it being led? Do company leaders exhibit the qualities they want demonstrated on the frontline? If you want success in the call center, you have to get your agents to buy into the quality customer experience and what it means to the company overall. This has nothing to do with the bottom line, but instead with how people feel about their experience with your brand. Is it meaningful? Is it lasting? Does it generate the kind of feelings that bring the customer back time and again?
If you want to reach the level performance where the bottom line is healthy on its own, you have to focus on the customer experience. Nothing else will produce the kind of returns you need to dominate in the market.
Edited by Stefania Viscusi