We all know the history of what we used to identify as “call centers.” They were originally created to handle the volume of customer inquiries and complaints by dedicated customer service agents to assure issues were handled without the need for intervention by executives and other staff. They were viewed as a costly but necessary evil.
We are also aware that in a connected world merely off-loading customer calls to customer service representatives to “handle” interactions is not enough. As technology has evolved over the years on both the product and service provider side of things as well as on the customer side with the advent of the Internet, social media and mobility, the function and value of contact centers has undergone dynamic and profound change. We are now dealing with the realities of customers armed with more perfect information, access to options and a real-time megaphone for instantaneously broadcasting this pleasure or distaste with a vendor. This has created rising expectations as to how customers believe they should be treated; providing a compelling customer experience has become a top priority for providing differentiated and sustainable value.
In short, using technology to enhance the customer experience has become a prerequisite to success. In fact, study after study has shown that those who leverage technology in our increasingly connected and real-time world to better engage customers are more successful than those who don’t or who are laggards.
Contact center technology and agent training transformations is changing the contact center from a loss leader to a profit center. While this for many organizations has been a journey with more than its share of challenges, whether talking about better handling of inbound interactions using omni-channel capabilities, big data and sophisticated analytics or integrations with CRM and other capabilities for better outbound interactions, enabling your “frontline” employees to not just handle but turn customers into loyalists and candidates for upselling is a journey worth taking.
This raises the question of how to turn a contact center into a profit center.
The answer is actually a set of answers to a series of considerations. After all, there are a lot of working parts. With this in mind, whether you have started the journey to making your contact center a profit center or are just getting started in your evaluation as to what to do, the webinar, How Next-Generation Customer Experience Can Turn your Contact Center into a Profit Center, to be held Tuesday, September 22, 2015 2:00 PM ET 11:00 AM PT, is an event you will not wish to miss.
You are invited to join myself and Steve Green, Vice President, Sales, Vee24, as we discuss best practices in all of the areas you need to consider so you can create engaging, consistent and valuable customer experiences. You’ll discover how to:
The session will also include real-world examples and will provide you an opportunity to ask the expert on questions you may have regarding steps forward for your organization.
There is an old automobile TV commercial that uses the tag line, “It is not your father’s Oldsmobile.” Realities are that it is not your father or mother’s contact center. There is indisputable evidence that creating compelling customer experiences is the path to profits and the time to realize the best way to do so is now.