3 Reasons why Innovating and Re-tooling your Contact Center now is an absolute must

By Michele Crocker

I had the opportunity to be a speaker at SOCAP's (Society of Consumer Affairs Professionals) annual conference in San Diego. The theme of the event was the "speed of innovation". One thing really stuck in my mind after leaving this conference - "The value of innovation melts away the longer we wait".


As customer support leaders we must innovate and retool our contact centers in order to provide effortless, seamless employee and customer experiences. Today, we have the biggest pallet of technology so the key question is what innovative idea can you implement to improve your customer experience? Don't wait to invest in in your customer support operation... it's too late when you are losing. Re-tool your people, processes, technology and metrics to improve your customer relationships.

3 Reasons to Innovate and Re-Tool your Customer Contact Center Now....

1. Our customer are ahead of us- Your customers are using the latest technologies everyday and we need to have conversations with them on the device, channel and time of day of their choice. - Digital personal assistants such as Alexa and Siri using conversational AI. What will your customer care support look like from these devices? How will you give them a seamless and frictionless customer experience across all channels?
2. Disconnect on how to engage employees- overall employee engagement overall is low in contact centers and attrition is the number one problem facing contact center leaders, According to a recent Gallup survey only 51% of employees are engaged. There is a new workforce today...the Millennial's and by 2025 they will make up 75% of the US workforce. We must take a different leadership approach to the millennial mindset and what matters most to them. Throw away those old fashioned "call center metrics" and start looking at ways to measure engagement, loyalty and a sense of belonging. How do you blend the digital employee with the human employee?
3. Timing- this is everything.... the problem today is that technology and people are changing at such a rapid speed, I have personally seem more changes impacting contact centers in the last 5 years compared to the total 25 years of working in contact centers. Don't wait to invest in your contact center, when you are losing it's too late.

Good News....The value of innovating and re-tooling your contact center is tremendous:

• Cloud Computing provides rapid scaling and seamless customer experiences with wider reach
• Blending digital employee with the human employee helps to lower costs, improve customer experience and employee morale
• Changing people processes that enables you to attract, develop and retain top talent will provide a huge "lift off"

So, final question.... what stops you from being innovative and re-tooling your contact center? Please reach out to me, I would love to help!

Editors note: This article was originally posted on LinkedIn.

Michele Crocker has the proven expertise to improve the customer experience and significantly reduce costs at the same time. She helps organizations to generate an effortless, rewarding customer experience, dramatically lower the cost per call, improve retention, grow sales and attract higher talent. Michele has over twenty years of "hands on" and strategic leadership roles within multiple Fortune 500 companies.

Connect with Michele on LinkedIn.