The Global Association for Contact Center Best Practices & Networking

"Talent, customer service skills, what's in it for the company and customer mentality vs. what's in it for me? It's gotten to the point where a consumer calls a contact center with the expectation of being frustrated. This makes the relationship an uphill battle. We need to change perception and execution."

"So much has been done to record and measure agent performance on the phone, but most Contact Centers still depend on little more than screen snapshots for managing performance on the computer. Several innovative Call Recording vendors have realized this, and are integrating our computer monitoring technology with their products. The result is to synchronize not only voice/screenshots, but also chats, emails, web & application activity, user & network activity, keystroke verification, document activity and more - far beyond what any other Contact Center solution can do today. "

"Training systems, Content management systems, Software that makes it easy to manage interactions, view history and solve problems."

"We need to clean up the image of contact centers. It has a stigma attached to it like "Janitor" or "Garbage Man.""

"The industry needs to do a better job at promoting the benefits (i.e.: career opportunities etc.) of working in a call center. We should also have a stronger representation when it comes to interacting with official representatives both nationally and locally."

"Self regulation and consumer respect are incredibly important to the sustainability of our industry. We need to measure ourselves based upon our ability to perform as a better agent for change than government."

"1. Develop feasible solution options - When customers and prospects are given an opportunity to make choices, instead of just one solution, they are more likely to remain customers and to remain great customers.
2. Do our best to incorporate prudent risk into our decision-making and problem-solving."

"[Amy Mortenson] Their outlook on training, many companies see this as an unneeded expense, but the reality is that sufficient training improves the company moral, productivity and commitment by all team members."

"Contact centers need to adopt the tools that will allow them to measure, control, and improve the customer experience. Part of this includes hiring and training the right agents to deliver exceptional customer interactions. Companies often neglect this area of their overall operations, while ironically these customer interactions have an enormous (possibly greater than any of their advertising or marketing efforts) impact on customer lifetime value, brand value, and bottom line"

"I think the industry as a whole would be served by treating employees and customers less like numbers and more like human beings. As a seasonal organization, I have the opportunity to meet so many agents who hop from one contact center to another. Many organizations create a culture of negativity where the primary objective is to maintain the bottom line at all cost or to exploit the customer as if to mine them for all their worth, then cast them away. I hear a lot about the desire to prevent churn, but actions always speak louder than words."

"In any industry, employees can make or break how a company succeeds. With the amount of outsourcing that is taking place, there is a lot of fear which at times turns to complacency in the work place. The firms that put employees and customers first will always be the winners in the long term. Certification to add credibility to contact center employees. Stop treating contact centers as cost centers, and use them as opportunity centers. Over the long term, this is our single source of direct contact with customers. It might be worth taking time to think about how we treat customers."

"There is no industry for Contact Centers. Each segment is totally different and stands alone! (Banking, Insurance, Government and Pizza are totally different)."

"Changing the perception of the general public with regard to both offshore and domestic stigmas."

"IN GENERAL, MOST CALL CENTER REPS CAN BENEFIT FROM DEVELOPING BETTER LISTENING SKILLS. WHAT THEY SAY MUST BE RELEVANT TO WHAT THE CALLER IS TELLING THEM. GET OFF THE SCRIPT. BE REAL. Chris DeVany"