Workforce Management Featured Article
Process Improvements in the Contact Center Require Embracing Innovation
Most organizations seem to know instinctively that innovation is the lifeblood of a successful business. Various studies have found that as many as 90 percent of executives count innovation as one of the most important factors in success. We live in a world where changes, particularly in the ways we communicate, seem to happen on a weekly basis.
Contact centers should be no exception, particularly since communication is focused there. Customers have a changing array of wants, from what they buy to how they want to be spoken to what media they use to communicate with a company. Running a contact center successfully, therefore, requires keeping up with the pace of business innovation. According to a recent blog post by Chuck Ciarlo, CEO of workforce optimization solutions provider Monet Software, the changes are coming from all sides.
“As contact centers evolve from call centers, the challenges posed by globalization, technological and knowledge revolutions and other issues have forced innovation to become an important element in strategic planning,” he writes. “Unfortunately, some contact centers still choose to delay or forego such endeavors, having grown too accustomed to routine, or out of concern that change might ‘rock the boat,’ or because they associate innovation with investment, and are fearful of the cost.”
Allowing processes to lie dormant for too long allows competitors to capture more market share, it can turn customers off and it reduces the efficiency of operations. Cost concerns can be mitigated by cloud-based solutions, which require little upfront capital and allow companies to pay for only what they require.
Ciarlo identifies some of the areas contact centers can explore innovation today. These include the use of big data plus analytics to yield more insight into operations and customer preferences, and improved process efficiencies (which can result from the use of analytics). Anticipating customer needs and making customer service more proactive and less reactive is critical to save time and keep agents from having to reinvent the wheel. But one of the most critical areas is in the way managers approach employees.
“The objective is to open the lines between staff and agents, particularly when it comes to where the organization is going, and to avoid unpleasant surprises by providing advance notice,” writes Ciarlo. “Innovative solutions may involve regular meetings or matching the message to the agent – some prefer direct verbal communication in a one-on-one setting, others would be more comfortable with an email.”
Ciarlo notes that technology can also play a role in improving communication as well, such as in shift swapping and other areas where ease of access to data can eliminate issues before they arise, saving time, misunderstandings and extra work for managers.
Consider every process improvement you make to be not a cost, but a boost to efficiency that will pay for itself rapidly. The consequences aren’t simply extra work for your agents or wasted time: they are higher turnover, stagnating business processes and even reduced customer experience quality.
Edited by Stefania Viscusi