What has been the greatest challenge the contact center industry has faced in the last 12 months?
Virtualization, off-shoring, and the increased number of technology platforms that are being offered by service providers in the last two years has brought some significant complexity to the contact centers, regardless of location and function (e.g. sales, service).
To this end, the industry is increasingly challenged to provide a complete customer service and sales platform that can be leveraged in and out of country, across various business lines, across several functions ranging from tech support to outbound sales, and handle various skill and role-based routing requirements. In other words, firms are challenged to provide a platform that works well for all their business needs regardless of: where the customer is, where the agent is, what product is being sold, serviced, marketed or distributed. This, combined with the increasing turnover rates of service and sales personnel and the increasing pressure from executives to provide more value for each corporate dollar invested, has been a great challenge for the contact center industry in recent months.
Why has this been a challenge?
Globalization of the marketplace, especially on the business to consumer side, has been and will continue to be one of the biggest drivers for this challenge. For example, rates for customer service personnel who speak several languages are much lower in India, so the United States and firms wishing to maximize profitability of their operations are forced to look at these alternatives. Furthermore, with a significant number of products coming from imports (versus manufactured in the United States), it's only natural for management to ask questions like; if we buy this product from another country, why can't we service it from another country?
A second big factor in this challenge is the continual reduction in the average tenure of customer service or care personnel. Only 10 or 20 years ago, it was reasonable to think that someone working for Verizon's customer care group might stay with Verizon for part if not all of their career - but the odds of this occurring today are dwindling. As a result, training cycles for call center personnel have increased, and skill-based routing and other technology based approaches to linking up the rep with the right customer are becoming more and more important in this new world.
Complexity of the product and the vast amount of information on the web makes a representative's job even more difficult today. Many customers do their own searches and support inquiries and even problem solving using the product/service firm's web site or just third party sites. While that might sound like great news for the call center operation since on one hand, customer are self-serving more, it actually makes for a more demanding customer in the end. Customers who have attempted or self-served are often more frustrated once they reach the point of calling into the call center. They often are not willing to go through the basic steps that they may or may not have executed prior to speaking with the agent and furthermore, they often consider themselves "knowledgeable" on the subject. As a result, the demands on the agent to be quick, knowledgeable, and "ready to assist" are increasing- again making virtualization and role-based capabilities even more important.
In 2008, what do you think will be the top priorities for a) Contact Center Managers b) Company Executives?
In 2008 and beyond, the top priorities for contact center managers and company executives are likely to come together - more than ever in the past. While there has been a long standing history of measuring contact center managers on items like average call handle time, number of repeat calls and sales success/call, there is an increasing trend to look at overall customer performance in light of the call center's actions.
In other words, just getting off the phone quickly or resolving a customer's complaint or technical problem is no longer enough. Executives are demanding more from the contact centers and realizing that contacts made, especially inbound, are a great opportunity to message the customer regarding the brand, an offer, or even a new rate plan, upgrade, or complimentary product. To this end, service and other contact centers that are not "sales focused" are increasingly being asked to contribute to the bottom line and leverage this unique opportunity.
As a result, sales to existing clients and moreover, increasing the tenure of a client through call center interactions is becoming much more important. Call centers are no longer looked at as a cost center - they are now expected to provide value to the shareholders and they are increasingly being measured on this basis.
What do you believe will have the biggest impact on the industry over the next 12 months?
A new wave of packaged solutions that provide dramatic lifts in the contact center are being developed and are likely to have the biggest impact on the industry in the next year or two. Increasingly, vendors and contact center executives are looking beyond simple product recommendation capabilities or "black box" software that suggests what a person can buy. Instead, they're looking for valuable insight into the customer behavior and a platform that provides recommendations that factor in the customer, product, pricing, and promotion; combining these critical marketing elements with messaging that is unique to the customer.
These solutions are likely to bring together the virtualization needs, messaging requirements and product recommendations in a unique manner that improves sales, customer service, and overall satisfaction in the call center.
What impact have "external events" even had on your company, and how have you adapted your business?The growing demands of clients and the recession type atmosphere has resulted in firms taking a more aggressive approach as it pertains to proof of value and pay-for-performance models in the industry. Customers are no longer looking for abstract customer service or sales consulting, they want and moreover are demanding, results from these engagements, or at least a significant hand in the process and implementation work - all in the spirit of bringing value to the bottom line.
From our perspective, this increased focus on performance and value is a welcome change in some industries that for far too long have had business-as-usual mentalities. We have adapted by providing measurable business cases at the start of our engagements and offering pay-for-performance pricing scenarios to clients, effectively taking the risk of failure off the table for the client.
Do you feel the service you personally get as a customer is better or worse than it was a year ago?
Worse. Over time, more and more systems are automated and while the move to the ACR and other approaches may help the firm and should feel like a better experience for the customer, the implementations are lacking and getting to the right person is as frustrating as ever.
Worst are the agents that are stuck providing service to me without the necessary background information. Just today, I reached the platinum line for a large US-based airline, only to find out that after typing in my number and confirming it, they were unable to pull up my itinerary for that same day. Instead, I had to find and provide my flight information, and then wait while they found my itinerary - so much for platinum status.
-small-logo.jpg){kind=logo}
