Wave Goodbye to First Call Resolution: It’s Time to be Friends
posted by: Nick Roman on 4/23/2010
Good news for contact center customers (which at some point or another, is most of us). According to a recent article in the UK’s Call Centre Focus, the idea of investing in, and prioritizing trust and customer retention has filtered upstairs to executive management. The article references a Gartner report that suggests that a focus on enhancing customer relationships is starting now, and is likely to remain a priority for the next 5 years as customers recover from the recession and start to spend more freely.
It’s very pleasing to see that plans to focus on improving customer relationships are getting some grown-up attention (as well as some money thrown at them). Programs that aim to better engage customers on the front line are often well intentioned, but without high-level buy-in, middle managers struggle to make much headway. This means that customer-facing staff simply dismiss it as the latest fad, roll their eyes, and keep their heads down until it’s all blown over. Hard to blame them really, we’ve all done that at some time. Well, I have.
The relationship most of us have with contact centers is one of gentle dislike, or at best indifference. We tend to assume that it’s going to be a tedious, possibly mildly painful experience, so focusing on improving these interactions is a good plan. It will, however, take more than good intentions to make a difference. Contact centers will need to understand how their customers feel about their interactions now, and look at how they can be improved. There’ll be some quick fixes and some more painful changes, and involving agents while giving them some autonomy in the process will be crucial. They’re on the front line, and the combination of front-line perspective and high-level buy-in is pretty powerful.
I’d love to hear if you have any positive stories that suggest this goal is being achieved (or, naturally, any horror stories which might not be great for the industry, but which are infinitely more entertaining!)