Observations from Call Center World

By Michael Smitheman, Senior Product Manager —

I recently attended the Call Center World conference in Las Vegas, where contact center professionals from around the world gathered to share and discuss thoughts and ideas about the industry. It was an interesting conference format with many short presentations given by everyone from call center team leaders to company CEOs, delivering a wide breadth of opinion of the current state of the industry.

A number of things stuck in my mind...

The first was that leaders within the call center are continuing to try and change the perception of the industry—not just to their customers but also to the people that they have to go out and employ. The role of "Call Center Agent" is now being positioned as a legitimate stepping stone to serious career prospects and management teams are putting more emphasis on nurturing their agents to succeed.

In the world of Customer Experience Management this strikes me as a positive move. Historically, organizations have used the Marketing and Public Relations functions to try and convince customers that they are putting effort into improving customer service. Only rarely, though, did "the rubber meet the road" when it came to the ensuring the experience customers actually had when they called in to the contact center.

Focus on the agent. Give them a career path and the tools to succeed as they deal with customers, and you will create a positive customer experience via the call center. Handcuff and blindfold your agents and it will be irrelevant what message your company gives about its customer service practices.

Given the current economic climate, there was also a general theme of cost management at Call Center World. The industry has tried to sideline cost over the past few years, bringing metrics around revenue and customer satisfaction to the forefront. Inevitably, though, cost has once again become a significant factor in setting call center strategy (did it ever go away?). One area identified as a way of driving down cost is to enhance self service channels such as web and mobile in order to deflect calls, and cost, from the call center.

A word of caution here... self service often generates service! Encourage customers to do something on their own, and inevitably they will struggle at some point and end up needing help.

Finally, I heard an acceptance of the impact that social media is having on organizations today. Ignore it and you risk an individual customer issue—one that you never even knew about—creating a serious impact on the perception of your organization's customer service. The discussion focused around how to be proactive in using social media to turn the negative into opportunities.

I see all these as positive moves for the industry, as organizations try to address the negative perception of customer service in tough economic times. Of course, it also highlights the importance of tools like Tealeaf.