Contact Center Directors: Profitability and customer satisfaction.
Company Executives: Extending operations with existing workforce
IT Directors: Cloud Computing, SAAS solutions
Human Resources Directors: agent retention, churn reduction

A. To be competitive, highly profitable and extremely effective.
B. Same
C. Having technology reasonable enough to produce savings and profitable business cases
D. Ensuring staff are motivated and show up every day to serve the customers, with the right skills and attitude

"The move towards home working is a major challenge that has implications across a variety of different job roles in the business during 2010.

a) Contact centre directors need to be sure that customers are having their frustrations of poor call handling removed at an affordable cost. They need to ensure that if they set up their staff as home workers there are no hidden costs. Remote worker solutions can often be expensive and complex, so directors need to ensure that any implementation is up to the job and isn’t going to hurt the bottom line. Ultimately this will reduce the cost of manning a central facility and enable the business to carry on as usual in the event of freak weather conditions.

b) Company executives will want to be reassured that they can still hit targets at home and will need to guarantee that they still have the same functionality as they do in the office. If there is an upsurge in orders company executives need to be assured that they are equipped with the knowledge and expertise to make the decisions to field the enquiries as efficiently from home. On top of this, company executives need to be able to have the ability to comply to legislation. For example, remote workers are not permitted to write down credit card details when receiving payment over the phone or they may risk being prosecuted.

c) Getting IT to work outside of the office environment is a major issue for contact centers with remote workers. It is essential that customers are unaware of any difference in the level of service that they receive, however it often proves problematic to ensure that IT continues to function exactly the same as it does in the office environment.

d) HR directors need to know that those employees working from home are actually at their desks and fielding calls. In the future we will see more call centers being run by remote workers so it is essential that HR managers are confident that staff are fielding calls and also where calls can be sent should extra resources be required at a click of a button."

"Directors must decide a detailed strategy to improve customer service. Managers must ensure that their agents, who are the first line of contact for their customers, are motivated and focused on success. Contact centre staff need to be confident that they know what they are doing, what is expected of them and that their targets are realistic. This comes with training and good management

There also needs to be closer monitoring of the reason for customers’ calls and a proactive response to the findings. As well as providing the right staff development and training, investment in better systems is a long-term solution to improving efficiency and morale. Contact centers should be asking: are our systems easy to use? Do we have the tools we need to manage properly? Can we monitor what staff is doing/saying in an unobtrusive and effective way so that we can make improvements which empower agents?

Making improvements does not have to be a massive undertaking. For example, companies provide management software which can be integrated with existing systems, is browser-based for flexibility and supports real-time/historical reporting of call activity and business outcomes.

Another issue that can be addressed is not having the right information available in the contact centre at the right time. This is one of the main sources of frustration for both agents and their customers and can be overcome by having a call scripting and process management application for the agent’s desktop. Software allows agents to follow scripts when they do not have full knowledge of the products or services being discussed, giving them support when they need it. It also enables them to make notes on the system for other agents who may have contact with the same customer at a subsequent time, so no one has to start from scratch.

Call Back software is also worth its weight in gold as it will make both staff and their customers feel valued."

Contact center directors will likely be focused on strengthening internal communications and ensuring that their staff have the technology necessary to do execute their functions well.

Company executives will be focused on considering the various ways they need to change/adapt their focus in order to be market leaders.

IT Directors will be focused on creating innovative and secure platforms and tools for the center to use that will allow them to be flexible and creative with respect to what they do and how they do it.

HR Directors will be motivated to truly develop and retain their top talent and closely monitor their engagement scores to ensure that they are putting the right people at the front line and delivering exceptional customer service to their client base.

A) Establishing the economic value of customer experience
B) Truly understanding that everything starts with the customer. No customer - No Business!
C) Defining which technologies can help really deliver a great customer experience
D) Understanding the true meaning of employee engagement and the value of empowerment

Contact Center Directors: Retention of the existing business and focus on the delivery.
Company Executives: Optimization of productivity and reduction in the cost.
IT Directors: Ensure that the upgrading of the technology from time to time in order to meet the requirements of the clients.
Human Resources Directors: Attrition control and recruiting the right people for the right jobs keeping in mind the cost effectiveness.

"Contact Center Directors will seek to be the customer champion and transform their contact center into a "Voice of the Customer" intelligence center that will be the heart of every customer-centric organization.

Company Execs will leverage the "Voice of the Customer" from contact center interactions for business planning and customer experience design.

IT Directors will move away from endless system upgrades that provide minimal business value, to embrace innovative applications built on open platforms and designed with usability and collaboration in mind.

HR Directors will utilize pre-hire assessment tools to better qualify candidates, and provide targeted coaching tools to supervisors to raise performance levels."

a) Consolidate, optimize and reduce expenses and enhance quality output.
b) Business expansion, new horizons, virgin fields exploration
c) Automation, fool proofing (Sigma standards and beyond).
d) Motivation, preparation for teams to accept change, challenge and live through stress."

"a) Contact Center Directors: Experienced staff retention as the markets start to ease a little bit and wage hike pressures could come back. There would also be an increased focus on acquiring new clients
b) Company Executives: Delivering exceptional performance effectively
c) IT Directors: Increasing technology to enable a higher level of service while focusing on cost rationalization
d) Human Resources Directors: Experienced staff retention and 'inclusive' employee engagement policies"

"2010 will hopefully be the year for recovery. And all executives will start investing again in the activities for employees as well as on customers."

"We will all have to do a better job of recruiting talent with a strong service mindset as well as a strong work ethic. If we're not focusing on customer satisfaction, we've missed the boat."

a) Keeping up with the changing environment experienced by companies
b) Retaining customers
c) Innovation"

"Accumulatively, the priorities will be to look at minimizing spending still further and operate more efficiently. Individually, Contact Centre Directors will be continuing to decipher customer requirements and its direct link to business performance. Working smarter rather than working cheaper is the core driver.

Company executives will be delivering the new methods of performance and customer satisfaction and monitoring and measuring standards to identify training and coaching needs.

IT Directors will be managing IT security and compliance / regulatory governance. They will also be managing the hybrid of applications and integration aspects, involved in managing the multi-channel.

HR Directors will continue looking at agent retention levels and in-house training and coaching needs. Stress management will also become a factor to consider, educating agents on how to maintain a healthy work lifestyle balance, due to the continued elevation of performance expectations and increased levels of individual customer interaction, for their agents."

a) Manage cost versus quality
b) Challenge financial crisis, change company strategy to avoid impacts of financial crisis
c) No investments to new technologies
d) Headcounts cuts

"Customer loyalty and retention will be high on the priority list for contact center directors and executives. It is vital in a shrinking economy to retain your existing revenue stream. Without customer loyalty, it is difficult for a company to grow additional revenue.

Key strategies will center around increasing customer satisfaction and Net Promoter scores, as well as through entrench associated with cross-selling multiple products or services."

a) Getting adequate support from other line managers
b) Getting various departments to perform to clients' expectations
c) Getting the best IT technology to meet the high demands of clients' interests and concerns.
d) Training call center operators to respond to new demands from clients

"Directors must manage the operations of workload and workforce and share the Scores.
Executives will need to listen to Callers requests, as every Agent takes an average of 60 calls per day! Have you heard what your customers ask and how we are empowered to reply?
IT and HR Services look to external resources to aid in top talent and tools. Systems are becoming tailored more to fit size and need, and Agents remain more stable in their job, yet expand in job roles."

a) Contact Center Directors - succession planning
b) Company Executives - rising cost of operations
c) IT Directors- technological infrastructure to withstand frequent changes/advances in technology
d) Human Resources Directors- sourcing quality people and retaining them

a) Contact Center Directors - Managing to a lower budget and exceeding goals with less resources
b) Company Executives - Investing in WFM professional and technology to yield the results stakeholders expecting.
c) IT Directors - Merging new technologies across multiple subsidiary companies in efforts to reduce costs while tying it all together to work as one consolidated company.
d) HR Directors - Will need to be more selective from a larger pool of under-employed and unemployed candidates.