Engaging Stakeholders In Your Contact Center Transformation

Contact centers are the conduit between your customer and you. That moment when a customer first contacts you sets everything else in motion, everything you have invested in is for that interaction. Instant message, text, phone call, email. The means by which your customers have chosen to contact you change from contact to contact, and hopefully your contact center has evolved with that pace.

Stanton Smith, our Director of Consulting Services dives into what it takes to build an effective, engaging contact center that incorporates all of the stakeholders in your organization so that you are set up for success now and in the future.

Having the Director of IT involved is an obvious first step in building the right solution, and that is where we start a good number of our conversations. Additionally having those who are helping with the technology involved, think of the day-to-day users and help desk personnel who will be working to troubleshoot and get the most out of the solution. Having them involved is important because they have a real beat on the shortcomings of the current platform and what is needed to reduce time spent solving issues and troubleshooting as well.

Bringing in additional “voices” from all stakeholders is a great way to ensure you are checking all of the boxes. Of course that includes Customer Care/Customer service and those that are interacting with the platform and customer. When it comes to working with a contact center consultant, this is what we love to do, challenge the traditional line of thinking and involvement. Because who needs to be “at the table” has changed dramatically.

The contact center and who needs to be involved has grown exponentially over the past decade. Even defining what is considered a “Contact” and who needs to have insight into that contact needs to be considered.

For instance, thinking about the Marketing Team and the ever-evolving channels like social media is another stakeholder that is sometimes overlooked. How could automating the majority of those interactions free up time for the Marketing or Customer Service team? Are those interactions being documented in your CRM?

Having your collections team at the table brings a completely different perspective to light. For instance, how would it change the efficiency of scale across the organization if any current customer that had a past due balance was automatically transferred to the collections team? Compare that to having someone answer, verify information then transfer. You can quickly quantify the savings and ROI by implementing this through IVR, CRM integration, skills-based routing, and other tools.

Ensuring the proper time has been spent evaluating the proper stakeholders, all the departments from head-on and peripheral view have been considered, that is the catalyst for a contact center transformation. Not only understanding the business but understanding at a deep level how all stakeholders collaborate on a daily basis is a prerequisite of what we do.

At InflowCX we take a very different approach from the industry standard, especially when you have engaged the platform providers directly. Leading with the platform first, and trying to force-fit the solution to your needs is what can cause frustration, and organizations often add on tools later that don’t integrate or play well together. Like a jigsaw puzzle from multiple boxes, some things just don’t come together.

Having a complete 360 degree understanding of your business, what works well, the pain points, the deficits, the efficiencies, and inefficiencies that we have uncovered without a platform in mind is essential to providing a true contact center Consultation. It is only after this essential step that we are ready, to begin with, the vendor selection process.

Relying on our expertise, experience, and partnerships we are able to bring use cases along with platform demonstrations to the table. Identifying what solutions are best in your contact center, and many times it is utilizing multiple vendors to accomplish what is needed to truly transform your business.

Solving the pain points through technology has a significant impact financially on your business. We are able to deliver a true cost analysis incorporating hours saved within departments and what is on the surface. Additionally, we consider other impactful outcomes such as how IVR will allow your best agents to deliver a better customer experience, how workforce management means a less idle team, and having proper staff during peak hours.

These all add up to customer retention as customers no longer have to wait for answers, no matter how they are contacting your company. Allowing Quality Assurance to concentrate on agent development vs scoring means longer-term employee retention.

There are so many ways that working with a contact center consultant like InflowCX can impact your company, it is certainly worth a conversation. Reach out today to schedule your free assessment and let’s see how our experience and your business can work together on a true contact center transformation!