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Create a Customer-Centric Environment by Bringing All Employees onto the Same Platform
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Create a Customer-Centric Environment by Bringing All Employees onto the Same Platform

November 19, 2014

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By Tracey E. Schelmetic,
TMCnet Contributor

Many companies today struggle to differentiate themselves from their competitors. The Internet has opened up a global marketplace, and physical proximity is no longer the most critical feature of a business. While the change has been good for customers (in many ways), it has presented a grave challenge for companies: how can you be heard above the noise of a crowded marketplace?


Gimmicks can go only so far. They might attract a short burst of new business, but they won’t allow a company to survive in the long run. Increasingly, there is evidence that customers make choices to do business with a company – and continue that business – based on the quality of the customer support they offer. Consumers are short on time today, and any company that makes it easy for them to do business will win and keep customers.

Many companies have been slow to grasp this, according to Jim Tierney, blogging for Loyalty360.

“Every organization understands how important it is to be customer-centric,” wrote Tierney, who recently attended a presentation by Diane Magers, Customer Experience Executive for AT&T (News - Alert), at the fourth-annual Loyalty360 Engagement & Experience. “But actually embedding the customer experience into the fabric of an organization, ensuring that is a priority and driving force, is another story.”

For starters, it’s a people process. According to Magers, company alignment is one of the first and most critical steps to creating a customer-centric environment and one which stresses employee engagement. This is correct: a high quality customer support initiative requires buy-in at the executive level,  coordination (and not competition and politics) across departments, robust and functional training of new employees, and rewards for jobs well done. But it’s also underpinned by the right technologies.

Collaboration across departments is often credited as the step that makes the biggest difference in a customer support initiative, but it’s rare nowadays, mostly because different departments are using isolated, siloed technologies that do not communicate with one another. For this reason, many companies seeking to improve their 360-degree view of the customer are instead turning to unified communications solutions and call center on demand technologies that can cross departments, remote offices and home-based and mobile workers. They allow for an unprecedented level of collaboration and a complete view of the customer.

It’s a great starting place for any company looking to truly improve the quality of the customer experience. To truly ensure that no customers get left behind – regardless of which channel they choose to communicate via or which department they approach – companies need to ensure their employees are all beginning on the same platform. It’s a way to achieve customer excellence while also bringing operations efficiencies to bear: and that’s good news for everyone. 




Edited by Stefania Viscusi
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