A Good Contact Center isn’t a Contact Center
posted by: Nick Roman on 2/16/2010
Most people don’t enjoy calling a contact center. Granted, not everyone hates them, but I don’t know anyone who thinks “Ooh, good. I can call a lovely contact center to sort this out. What a treat!”
The thing with contact centers, is that they only feel like contact centers when you have a lousy experience. On the occasions when you get through to a human being, in a civilized fashion, and that human being is friendly and able to help you, you don’t think of it as being a contact center experience. It’s just two people getting something sorted out, and having a perfectly pleasant time doing it. It’s the times when you wait for ages in a queue, only to be cut off or get through to someone who can’t help you, that you find yourself muttering about “stupid contact centers”, often while cursing. Well, that’s what I do anyway.
Being able to make your customers forget that they’re calling into a contact center depends on many factors. You need engaged agents, the right supporting processes, and an understanding of the experiences you provide. Feedback from both agents and customers gets you on the path to achieving this by telling you what your agents need to do their jobs better, and how your customers feel about their recent interaction with you.
Were you a real person helping out, or a “stupid contact center”?