Those working in the call center industry find themselves in an interesting situation. There is a lot of pressure to contain costs and standardize the support being provided, but we are not in a “One Size Fits All” business. Most organizations support customers in multiple generations, each with their own preferred way of obtaining assistance – from traditional voice calls, to chat, and even self service options.
Unless the customer does not have an option, they will tend to find a company who communicates using their preferred channel.
There are also differences in how we serve the various generations, including the speed of conversation, the use of technical jargon, and the comfort level with technology in general. Our agents must be trained to quickly identify the customer’s preferences and adapt to meet their needs.
Another development in the call center industry is the level of interconnection between what used to be a self-contained call center to all the other areas of a business, including sales and support. Customers are more educated on your products and services than they have ever been, and they expect each contact at your company to contain a broad level of knowledge. This includes the documentation of customer interactions in a company-wide CRM tool and access to delivery schedules and product details.
Finally, there is a heightened concern over data security and privacy. We live in a time of cyber threats being in the news every night. Customers must feel confident that they are interacting with an official representative of the company, and they expect their data to be protected. This is especially true when dealing with personal health information and credit card numbers or other financial data.
It is a challenging time to be supporting the customer, but we also have the technology and capability to succeed as never before.
David is a regular contributing CCNG member who started his practice Customer Centered Consulting Group over 20 years ago to improve customer service and process efficiency. He believes that excellence in these two areas, along with creating a positive work culture, are required to be world-class at delivering your product or service.
