When I arrived on the contact center scene, I knew relatively little about it. Honestly, I hadn’t really heard the term “contact center” not to mention related acronyms like “CX”, “WFO” or “AI”. To me, there were just “call centers” and I lazily imagined a warehouse filled with worker bees relentlessly taking phone call after phone call, circa the operators of the early 1900’s. I certainly didn’t think about all the behind-the-scenes planning and preparation that goes into each contact center interaction. This brings me to my point: your customers probably don’t know what’s going on behind-the-scenes either, nor should they concern themselves with how it all happens. That’s your job!
Allow me to elaborate:
Contact centers are constantly striving to make operations and procedures more efficient and more streamlined so that customers are that much happier with their experiences. And the professionals interacting with customers care deeply about how those objectives are reached. But the customer wants the answer to their question – and that’s it. They call in. They send you a chat. Or a Tweet. Or an email. They want your response quickly and correctly, regardless of the channel. Doesn’t really matter to them how you make it happen, they just want it to happen.
Customers pay very close attention to the QUALITY of the service they receive. That’s how they’re going to judge a contact center interaction. Once a subjective measurement, quality is now a highly tracked, thoroughly followed, decision-making and tell-all-determinant in the success of a contact center from all vantage points: customers, agents, management, analysts and stakeholders. No matter the size of the company or the contact center, your customers are watching and waiting to see how you work under pressure. If you don’t deliver, well, frankly, someone else will.
We all know oh too well that great customer experiences don’t “just happen”. It takes the right people, the right processes and the right contact center solution to make great customer experiences turn into loyal customers who will keep coming back for more.
