Who Owns Customer Experience? Part 2 of 4: Contact Center Operations

In Part 1, we concluded that regardless of the owner, EVERYONE in the organization is ultimately responsible for CX. Thus, Part 2 of this series changed the question! We also identified some challenges regarding that responsibility, the most important being lack of senior executive leadership to prioritize CX in a company’s mission and strategy.

A second critical challenge was the existence of silos that exist not only between different areas of the firm, but also within information systems used by those areas. In Part 2, we will begin to identify those silos, and, in the process, demonstrate how they impact the customer journey. Let’s start that identification process by examining Contact Center Operations.

One may think of the Contact Center as one single entity, but that is really not the case. Significant interdependencies exist with support areas that could create silos and disruptions in operations.

Let’s look at some of these support areas that the Contact Center is dependent upon and their specific responsibilities.

Human Resources	Contact Centers are always in a state of flux due to turnover, individuals who don’t make it through training, the need for different skillsets, etc. The Contact Center managers must have constant communication with Human Resources to make sure that the appropriate resources will be available when needed.
Training	Changing procedures and workflows must always be communicated to the training staff, and training materials must be kept current. Mentors who work with trainees before they assume full-time responsibilities must be constantly evaluated. It is imperative that these mentors deliver messaging and knowledge that is consistent with the training team and with the goals of the Contact Center management team.
Workforce Optimization	Responsible for staffing the Contact Center appropriately, this area needs to have real-time information regarding absenteeism, paid time off, staff changes as well as any special activities that may generate higher contact rates (e.g., a marketing campaign).
Quality Assurance	Standards for evaluating agents, including key performance indicators, must be consistent among the QA staff. These evaluation and performance measures must be agreed to by all Contact Center management, including direct supervisors, so that agents are given a fair evaluation and consistent messaging.
Business Analytics	What analysts are reporting on must be in line with the objectives of Contact Center management, as well as the Quality Assurance team. Reporting should also be aligned with business goals and objectives, driven by Senior Management’s definition of success.

In performing numerous operational assessments over the years, we have found that what “should be the case” (as described above) is very often NOT the case. Significant communication gaps and disparate procedures exist between the Contact Center and these areas. Those gaps and disparities are the cause of operational issues, inconsistent messaging, and ultimately, lack of continuity in CX.

In other words, we have seen things go terribly wrong. One can conclude that if there are that many potential issues in the Contact Center and its support areas alone, how many problems will we find as we expand the assessment to other areas of the firm. In Part 3 of this blog series, we will do just that.

The next step will be to examine the impact of Customer touchpoints — specifically, how they impact the Contact Center staff as well as the customer journey

Stay tuned!