People, Process, and Technology:
Posted on : June 3rd, 2011
5 Essential Questions to Ask when Choosing a Contact Center Outsource Partner.
When a business is considering a contact center outsource partner, they end up speaking with a lot of contact
centers and hear pretty much the same thing with each meeting. I know this because in my time as VP at American Express , I reviewed many potential contact center partners. The typical approach is to reference the “People, Process, Technology” equation, make a passing reference to how amazing the agents are, and then spend the rest of the presentation on technology. Personally, I have never entirely bought into that approach.
In my extensive career in contact centers,I’ve seen a lot of advances in technology to help deliver improved customer experiences. From advancements in call routing, to scheduling, and finally more recent advancements data analysis and voice analytics, there are hundreds of millions, if not billions, of dollars,
spent annually on technology to improve that crucial 5 minutes when your customer calls you.
But my question has always been: With all of this advancement, wouldn’t it stand to reason that by now the customer experience at the contact center level would have been perfected? Or at least significantly improved?
But the fact is that despite all of this technology, the average customer experience when calling a call center has
improved only minimally over the past 20 years. To provide you with a perspective on how serious this is: One in four calls to a call center results in a customer walking away from a brand.
Great Experiences
On the other hand, what about those times when the experiences are great? When customers call your company and have a great experience, they don’t later tell their friends, “Wow, the ACD was seamless,” or even, “The intelligent call routing technology was awesome!” What they say is, “The agent I spoke to was terrific. She was really helpful.” Then they might even add, “That company is great.”
When it comes down to it, it’s not so much the technology that makes a great customer experience, it’s the people using the technology that makes a greatcustomer experience.
So the next time you’re considering a company to outsource your contact center function, try to look beyond the technology razzle dazzle and see through to the agents and front line staff. To help you with this, here are some questions you might consider asking a potential outsource partner before signing on the dotted line:
- Can you speak with the agents?
- When you do speak with the agents, does management hang around menacingly?
- Are the agents and front line supervisors happy?
- What do they like best about their job?
-
Finally, and, most importantly,do they speak directly with their call center’s clients on who’s account they work? (This question will tell you the amount of access you will have directly to the front line. And while you don’t want to be talking to them every day, you may want to have the opportunity to hear how things are going directly from the front line, at least from time to time).
Answers to these questions will tell you alot about the “people” part of the “People, Process, and Technology” equation Imentioned above. There’s a reason“people” comes first in that list. Without that, nothing else matters. For more information on how Simpro’s approach to people is truly different,feel free to contact us here info@simprosolutions.com
It’s a good shame you don’t contain a donate press button! I’d most certainly donate to this fantastic site! That i think at this point i’ll are satisfied with bookmarking together with placing an individual’s Rss feed that will my best Msn balance. That i appearance ahead that will recent updates and definitely will promote the web site utilizing my best Facebook or twitter group: )
You have many helpful ideas! Perhaps I should think of trying to do this myself.
All comments are appreciated.
Took me time to read all the comments, but I actually enjoyed the write-up. It proved to be Very useful to me and I am sure to all the commenters right here
This post is very usefull thx!
Okay post. I just became aware of the blog and preferred to say I’ve actually enjoyed reading your views. Any way I will be subscribing within your feed and Lets hope you publish again quickly.
Digged google 30 mins,now i get what i need,appreciated!
You have many useful suggestions on this web site.
Your feedback is appreciated
Hey there I am so grateful I found your blog page, I really found you by error, while I was researching on Aol for something else, Anyhow I am here now and would just like to say kudos for a remarkable post and a all round entertaining blog (I also love the theme/design), I don’t have time to read it all at the minute but I have bookmarked it and also included your RSS feeds, so when I have time I will be back to read more, Please do keep up the fantastic job.
nice , very . I like it very much. I come acoss the blog by google search engine. I may read your site frequently and introduce it to my classmates. Please keep it updated. Keep on the good work. – A techie
I have really enjoyied reading your well written article. It looks like you spend a lot of effort and time on your blog. I have bookmarked it and I am looking forward to reading new articles. Keep up the good work!
Thank you for this article. That’s all I can say. You most definitely have made this blog into something special. You clearly know what you are doing, you’ve covered so many bases.Thanks!
Thank You for the feedback. We welcome both positive and constructive commentary.
37. F*ckin¡¦ remarkable issues here. I am very happy to look your post. Thank you so much and i’m having a look ahead to touch you. Will you kindly drop me a mail?
Thanks for your inquiry. Please share with us your website address to better understand your offerings.
You have a few useful pointers on this page.
Thank You for the feedback.
Looking forward to reading more of your articles in the future.Go for it.
Thank You for taking the time to read our blogs.
GREAT REVIEW! I agree with all your thoughts you said in your article, especially at the middle of your article. Thank you, this info is very useful as always. Keep up the good work! You’ve got +1 more reader of your great blog:) Isabella S.
Thank you for the feedback
The article was still worth reading. go for it!
Fascinating weblog publish. I know I am somewhat late in submitting my comment however the write-up was to the stage and just the information I used to be trying to find. I cannot say that I agree with all you mentioned however it was surely absorbing! It’s incredible how these goods ust keep acquiring better and greater.BTW?-I found your site via a AOL search. I am a returning visitor to your weblog and will be back soon.
Thank You for taking the time to read our blog and for the feedback.
Hello to the one who wrote this! Great work! I spent a month researching for this topic. I’m actually a highschool student. And thanks to you for making my study a lot easier since you compiled the facts i need in this page. I’ll be glad to bookmark your site and is looking forward for more of your posts. — Camille Desunham
Please let us know how we can be of any further assistance on this topic or others.
We would love to hear what subjects would interest you as related to outsourcing
Major thankies for the post.Really looking forward to read more. Really Great.
I was very pleased to find this web-site.I wanted to thanks for your time for this wonderful read!! I definitely enjoying every little bit of it and I have you bookmarked to check out new stuff you blog post.
Excellent Blog !!!! Thanks for your info