Workforce Management Featured Article
Preparing to Improve the Customer Experience
While “the customer experience” has been on most company’s radar for years, if not decades, most companies have had imperfect success when it comes to paying the concept more than lip service. The most successful companies do more than tout “customer experience.” They meet and even exceed the increasingly high expectations customers have today. So what is it that the customer experience (CX) winners to that other companies are not?
They collect CX data. To improve the customer experience, you need a realistic (and not rosy) picture of the current customer experience. This starts with plotting the customer roadmap and understanding the hows, whens, whys and wheres of customer first-contact as well as subsequent contacts. This requires measuring all data points and putting them into a map format so companies can see where they stand. The data will originate from a variety of sources, including telephony systems, unified communications solutions, call and contact recording and monitoring, web site interactions and the customer relationship management database.
They listen to the voice of the customer. One of the most critical elements of monitoring the customer experience includes monitoring and listening to call recordings and reading screen captures to hear what customers have to say about their needs. If you’re currently recording or capturing only a small percentage of calls and contacts, you’re not accurately hearing the voice of the customer. Many of today’s quality monitoring solutions use text-to-speech technology and artificial intelligence that can search all recorded customer calls and contacts.
They make CX an organization-wide concern. Too many companies believe that the customer experience begins and ends in the contact center, when in truth it touches nearly every department in the company. A CX improvement program limited to the call center is doomed to fail if it doesn’t involve accounting, shipping and fulfillment, marketing and advertising and operations.
They manage their workforces for the customer experience. Workforce management is a critical element of improving the customer experience. It’s one of the best tools companies have to ensure that the right number of staff with the right skills are deployed in the right channels at the right times.
They’re prepared for change. When new situations arise, they’re adaptable and proactive.
“When new customer needs arise, journeys change, and new players enter the market,” wrote Ryan Hollenbeck SVP at Verint (News - Alert), in a recent article for Forbes. “You’re prepared because you’re listening, sharing the right data, making informed decisions, identifying the signals among the noise and innovating on CX, not playing catch-up.”
Edited by Maurice Nagle
