Call Recording Featured Article

It seems that for a while now, customer relations have taken a back seat in terms of what organizations think is important. In fact, it has been said that customer relations are one of the top five challenges that organizations will face this year.

This can be seen as a two-way street. On the customer side, they want to be treated like people. If they experience the type of “I know what is good for you” attitude, they will not be happy and will look to take their business elsewhere.

The attitude that they should be experiencing is more of the “Talk to me like I am a real person” type. This will help to establish a personal rapport with potential or existing customers. The only honest way to accomplish this is to know what your customers’ expectations are, how they conduct business and what they expect in return.

Of course, the same can be said from the employee side of the equation. At one time employee satisfaction was hovering around the 60 percent mark. Unfortunately today, that number is just barely over 40 percent. Just as the customer needs to feel like a person, the employee does not want to be yelled at and treated like a doormat.

A contact center, which has also been referred to as a customer interaction center, is a central point in an enterprise from which all customer contacts can be managed. Contact centers typically include one or more online call centers; however, they may also include other types of customer contact.

For an organization to be successful, there is a more pressure these days to hire employees that have the right attitude. While most employers want to hire someone who already has the required skill sets, there should be a shift to hire for attitude. Skills are something that can be learned, but attitude is something that most people have developed over a long period of time and is almost impossible to change.

This would fall under the category of workforce management (WFM), which encompasses all the activities needed to maintain a productive workforce. Under the umbrella of human resource management, WFM is sometimes also referred to as HRM (human resource management) systems. This is usually the starting point where a potential employee’s attitude is first experienced.

A great customer experience depends on great employees. To get those great employees, you need to know what to look for in a worker whom you’re going to put in a position of dealing with customer service. It would seem that the real trick is being able to hire someone who understands this coming into the job.

If you were to ask a potential employee to define customer service, chances are pretty good that five people will give you about 20 different responses. There has to be a certain amount of understanding between what the company is offering and what the customers are expecting.

It is important to create the type of customer experience that not only keeps them coming back, but also one where they tell others about your company’s services, thereby gaining new customers. It turns out to be a win-win for everyone.