The Global Association for Contact Center Best Practices & Networking

For years we have asked Executives for their views and opinions in our annual new year feature - We caught up with Kathy Sisk and asked her to look back at 2011 and forward to 2012. Read the interview.

In your opinion, what has been the greatest challenge the contact center industry has faced in the last 12 months?
Offshore centers not putting forth the quality that our clients deserve. Clients expect experienced agents and managers to set up and service their accounts.


Why do you believe has this been a challenge?
Many centers hire agents even with no experience and with accents that you cannot understand. The follow through with management has been poor as well. My company spends more time micromanaging centers to try and make sure our clients get the quality and the results they deserve. This has been costly to us and our clients.


In 2012, what do you think will be the top priorities in the contact center industry for:
a) Contact Center Directors

b) Company Executives

c) IT Directors

d) Human Resources Directors

Hiring better talent, putting forth more investment in training and management. QA needs to know what they are doing and how to identify a good call form a bad call.


What technology do you believe will have the biggest impact on the industry over the next 12 months?
Better quality CTI, automated role play and testing to ensure agents understand what is expected of them and to follow through with what they have learned. This needs to be done prior to putting them on accounts. They must be well trained and achieve results before you exhaust clients investment.


What impact have "external events" even had on your company, and how have you adapted your business?
Clients are wanting quality and results far more than cost savings. There is no cost savings to the client if the center and or agents are not servicing clients satisfactorily. This poor servicing is due to many centers are not following through with our recommendations and therefore everyone suffers
(client has to start over again, money is wasted, center experiences short term accounts and we have to start over again to find better quality talent). Constant recruitment of agents and centers to find ideal talent to service clients properly. When we find a good center that center will stay on the account for years. This is refreshing for all parties.


Do you feel the service you personally get as a customer is better or worse than it was a year ago? Please share some examples to illustrate your view.
Its worse due to poor hiring, management and inferior training. Lack of follow through, agents not being honest in their approach, agents offshore seem to run the center and not management, management does not know what they are doing, QA cannot identify a good call from a bad call, and if they can recommendations given are poor. This is not to say all centers, but more has surfaced with these issues the last few years than before.


What developments are you planning to launch in 2012 and how will they benefit the industry?
We are going to offer elearning and training academies focused on training agents, team leaders, managers, QA and project managers.


What has been the most important contact center related conversation topic in 2011 and what are your views on this?
Better recruitment and management

Lastly, what do you think 2012 holds for the industry?
Pretty much explained it above in the other questions.

About Kathy Sisk:
Kathy Sisk is founder and president of Kathy Sisk Enterprises Inc. and Outsourcing International LLC. Kathy is an International trainer and consultant and has contributed more than 28 years of her expertise to the Telemarketing and Customer Service Industry. She is a published author with many manuals and books such as, “Overcoming Objections” and “Successful Telemarketing”, a 500 page handbook on how to set up and manage a successful call center, published by McGraw-Hill.

About Kathy Sisk Enterprises Inc.:
Consultant, trainer, project management, recruiter, script development, training curriculum