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Why the Customer Experience Matters

By Susan J. Campbell, TMCnet Contributing Editor

Do contact center agents really care about the customer experience? We like to think that they do considering we likely send them money for something, whether it’s a product or a service agreement. For the center that truly cares about the experience of the customer, they invest in options that deliver on customer experience management – but what exactly does that mean?

A recent Business2Community article took a closer look at the customer experience and what it should mean in the contact center environment. One great reference is to that of Albert Einstein and his statement that information is not knowledge, but instead the only source of knowledge is experience. Customers won’t believe a company is great just because they’ve heard it shouted through advertising; they will believe it because they experienced it. That said, the reverse is also true.

The customer experience is often mandated by the interaction with the contact center. If a customer is left on hold too long, has to have his or her call escalated, doesn’t get resolution in the first interaction or encounters a rude agent, this experience will form the foundation of their new perception of the company. As a result, it’s critical that the contact center agent focus less on the metrics that matter for their bottom line and instead focus on the metrics that matter to the customer experience.

For instance, the contact center metrics used to measure performance should always be customer-focused. This often requires the integration of the customer focus into the corporate culture, values and KPIs. The contact center historically has focused too heavily on average call handling times or the cost efficiency in standard processes. While these are still important elements to consider, they should not take precedence over the experience of the customer.

ContactBabel (News - Alert) issued a US Contact Center Decision-Makers’ Guide 2013 that found that 50 percent of decision-makers believe customer satisfaction is the most or the second most important metric in the contact center. Taking sixth place is the average call duration. This could be a very positive sign that the organizations participating in the study are more interested in the overall experience for the customer and less on standard practices.

To truly make customers satisfied when interacting with the contact center, a few key elements must be in place. For one, there must be a focus on personalization and customization. Customers should be able to engage with agents through a preferred channel. They should also have the opportunity to avoid interacting with an agent at all. It must also include a customer-centric culture, one where all decisions are made according to the customer’s best interest.

After all, it is these experiences that will form the relationship between the company and the customer. If that relationship is to last, the experience must be a positive one.