Call Center Management Featured Article
Call Center Managers Should Begin Future-Proofing their Organizations
While today’s call center managers may be fully focused on today’s problems – the immediate needs of customers should always take priority – any company hoping to remain successful in the future, especially during these times of technological flux, needs to have one eye on the future.
Most contact centers are busy building out new channels. They’re also adjusting to offering customer support to younger customers, who have more technological savvy and less patience. Social media, while useful for a company that embraces it successfully, can present serious pitfalls to any company unwilling to prepare itself. The call center management of today needs to be planning for the future, according to a recent blog post by Salesforce’s Andrew Konoff.
According to Konoff, companies need to start by asking themselves some questions:
Are we offering the necessary channels? Evaluate both synchronous (real-time) communication such as phone and chat, and asynchronous channels (in which each party waits for answer) such as e-mail and social media. According to Konoff, each communication technology carries its own challenges and benefits and will need to be adequately staffed, or else you’re just offering your organization another channel to fail in. Remember, that agents good in one channel may not be so great in another.
Is our product or service becoming more complex? If customers are becoming increasingly frustrated as products and services become more complicated, they will expect more than ever before from your organization. Are your employees prepared and trained adequately? Do you have a good internal collaboration system?
“More important than anything is the ability and willingness to collaborate,” wrote Konoff. “Building up internal social networks (like Chatter) can enable the right person to contribute their knowledge to the right problem at the right time. For instance, instead of bouncing a customer with a complicated question about his DVR around from agent to agent, the agent takes on the responsibility of finding the solution, which isn’t such a tall order when internal knowledge repositories can deliver her right to an answer.”
Are we focusing on the customer experience? Too many companies still consider their customers to be a series of transactions. Getting every transaction right doesn’t necessarily translate to getting the customer experience right. Focus on the customer journey, identify road blocks and other sources of frustration, consolidate processes, reduce the number of hands customers must pass through and ask for feedback from customers.
Are we measuring the right things? In order to measure success, companies need to be sure they’re tracking the right metrics. If improving the customer experience is the goal, measuring average handle time may not be the wisest choice. (Consider measuring first contact resolution instead.) Many organizations measure metrics the same way they did 10 years ago, which is a mistake.
Customers aren’t standing still, particularly in their expectations. Neither are your competitors. In between putting out fires today, it’s a great idea to consider planning for the contact center you hope to have next year, or five years from now.
Edited by Stefania Viscusi