Economic Challenges Create Window of Opportunity

Customer contact services are more important than ever during economic downturns… this is your chance to shine!

I recently talked to a group of managers from different verticals who are responsible for their organizations’ customer contact services. Many relayed a similar theme: That they have come so far; they understand and are meeting customer expectations better than ever; they have learned the art and science of staffing and scheduling; they have invested in technology, spent untold hours training their people; and, continue to improve processes. “I just don’t want that work to be for not [if we get into an economic slump],” summed up one.

My take? This is a season of great opportunity! Customer contact services are more important than ever during economic downturns… and this cycle is certainly no exception. Consider a recent (and obvious) example: Financial organizations that provide easy access and competent services reassure customers and add to their confidence – in a crises of confidence, that directly contributes to the organization’s continued wellbeing.

But you don’t have to be a bank or mutual fund to make a significant positive difference. When managed well, the call center’s contributions generally fall into eight areas. When you think about your call center’s ability to help the organization through this season, think through these areas – running on “all eight cylinders” is essential when the stakes are so high:

1. Boosting customer satisfaction and loyalty. The call center ensures that the organization is "easy to do business with," which helps measurably bolster customer satisfaction and loyalty. As customers shop around and competition for wallet share sharpens in an economic downturn, this becomes more essential.

2. Improving quality and innovation across the organization. By capturing a constant stream of data from individual contacts, the call center can pinpoint quality problems early and capture customer input that can lead to significant product, service and customer-communication innovations.

3. Better leveraging marketing initiatives. By tracking buying trends, capturing customer feedback and analyzing demographic information, marketing campaigns can be focused around a better understanding of customers’ real needs and wants.

4. Enabling more focused products and services. By capturing and analyzing customer comments and input, the call center can help the organization to design products and services that resonate with them.

5. Delivering efficient services. Efficient service delivery is a fundamental role of call centers, as they pool resources (people, processes and technologies) in order to provide on-demand assistance efficiently and effectively.

6. Encouraging the use of self service systems. Call centers not only provide support to customers who need help with Web or IVR services – they also capture information that can help improve the systems themselves, and are instrumental in giving customers the encouragement and confidence to use them.

7. Preventing further escalation. Think of this one in the reverse: One of the unintended consequences of cutting call center services is that customers find alternative routes into the organization – ultimately burdening individuals and departments with distracting workloads and resulting in poor or inconsistent service.

8. Contributing to additional revenue and sales. By enabling customers to reach agents who are trained in relationship building skills, the call center can provide powerful up-selling and cross-selling opportunities.

In a general sense, focusing on delivering quality services during these times will be an important enabler to maintaining service levels and an efficient cost structure across the board. Consider the impact on the organization's overall workload and quality when the call center helps manufacturing pinpoint specific glitches in products or manuals; or enables marketing to better address the evolving concerns and needs customers have; or helps IT design more elegant processes that encourage self-service use; or supports publicity efforts using customer-specific examples. When you have an eye on the larger implications of processes and services, that will positively impact the entire organization's workload, productivity, quality – and, ultimately, viability in a difficult season.

How far the financial crisis reaches into the real economy remains to be seen. Organizations will be impacted differently, and no one would wish for a bad economic climate. But the services that customer contact centers provide are never more important than when the pressure is on. This test is a window of opportunity, and my encouragement to you is to roll up your sleeves and go after it! How you perform now will impact your customers, organization, call center, and your own career far beyond the current challenge.

Please drop me a note with your stories, comments, feedback… I’d love to hear from you.

Brad Cleveland
Senior Advisor; former President/CEO ICMI

Brad Cleveland is considered one of the world’s foremost experts on call centers and customer service, and he has delivered keynotes and consulting across 45 states and in over 60 countries. Brad has appeared in media ranging from The New York Times and Wall Street Journal to NPR’s All Things Considered. He is author/editor of eight books, and received an Amazon.com best-selling award for his book, Call Center Management on Fast Forward. Brad can be reached at bcleveland@think-services.com..