Customer satisfaction – it is that elusive concept that every company claims to want to achieve, yet many still don’t grasp the steps to reach the goal. Whether company leaders are too focused on what they want to tell the audience or the voice of the customer isn’t part of the listening guidelines, the key strategy necessary to achieve ultimate customer satisfaction is never truly developed.

In the call center, this is a focus for concern. The center generally exists as a primary channel to drive customer satisfaction. The problem is too many companies develop their call center strategies based on a responsive approach to customer care. Agents simply answer the phone, follow a script and try to satisfy the customer’s need. It falls very short of the competitive advantage and likely stifles growth.

In other cases, the call center leaders have developed a strategy around proactive customer care. This includes placing calls to current customers to ask how things are going, whether or not the customer in interested in additional products and promote the brand. This is a great strategy – if the customer actually wants to hear from the company. It’s a bad idea if the company never took the time to listen to the voice of the customer to determine whether or not this was even a desired activity.

What’s missing in each of these examples is the leveraging of this very valuable channel to capture customer information. The voice of the customer is essential in the way you develop your call center strategies, customer retention plans, new products, support channels and so much more. That voice, is often drowned out by what the call center and its agents need to accomplish in a given time period. They may be under pressure to keep calls to a certain length, or resolve calls within the first contact or reduce overall caller wait time.

Whatever the metric, it’s drowning out the voice of the customer. In turn, the company is losing access to the best customer intelligence available that can help it create a competitive advantage that other companies would covet. The tunnel to success in the customer service space is so limited by this short-sighted view that the call center is missing the important opportunity to truly drive long-term success.

If this scenario describes your environment, it’s time to slow down and reevaluate. Fortunately, there is a SONUS webinar that can help you weather this storm and come out better on the other end. Join SONUS on January 15 for 3 Ways to Increase Customer Satisfaction (and Profitability) in Contact Centers to turn the tide toward that elusive customer satisfaction and competitive advantage. Register for your spot today.