Modern-day version of the factory

Thursday, 01 May 2008 00:00

People are becoming increasingly frustrated with contact centres, but Brett Butler thinks he`s found a way to improve the overall experience. Of late, I`ve been party to many conversations around how frustrated people have become with contact centres. I started thinking about ways to improve this experience, which got me asking: where does the problem actually lie?

Is the perceived lack of service delivery the fault of the contact centre team? Are they simply not in tune with their customer needs or is it the fault of other areas of the business? Why are customers unhappy? Do they have unrealistic expectations around what contact centres should deliver? Where does the responsibility for customer service lie? What should a contact centre look like? Where should it be located? Who should staff it? Who decides what is handled by the contact centre and in what fashion?

The solution I envisaged started taking shape in my mind as I started considering the history of the contact centre. Well-known management guru called the contact centre a "modern-day version of the factory" - and he`s right on the mark.

Historically, the main purpose of the factory was to concentrate resources around specific, repetitive tasks and, in so doing, drive costs down and productivity up. The same could be said around some of the prime objectives of a contact centre. Concentrate a team of administrative staff into a special purpose vehicle, provide them with front-ends to deliver answers to queries, and move these queries through the system as quickly as possible. Right?

This has worked well in the past, but in future, most repetitive queries will be directed into the self-service technology arenas such as web and voice portals, and customers will be able to serve themselves directly. This works really well for basic queries.

However, when customers present contact centre agents with complex queries, some frustration starts to kick in. Most organisations do not have a single view of the customer, and for complex requests, manual consolidation of information residing on disparate systems may be required, plus approvals may be necessary prior to release. This takes time and customers may be put on hold while agents try to access various systems. Even worse, customers may be told that the agent will contact them at a future date to provide the information. The bad news is that customers want answers immediately. This is the new service expectation.

My view is that this will be resolved in future, not with better systems, but with a new approach to customer service and contact centres. I see an evolutionary business model being built around (1) a contact centre environment for self-service and routine queries, and (2) an enterprise structured for service delivery, namely one where all employees are equipped with the right tools and information, and are accessible via multiple channels. Suddenly, the organisation`s entire workforce is mobilised for service.

Technologies will be introduced that will enable real-time access to information across multiple platforms irrespective of location, time of day, the type of network, platform channel or device. All employees can thus be empowered as contact centre agents ready to serve customers.

While this may sound like a pipe dream, it is the realm of where intelligent communications is moving. The reality is that the concept of having a dedicated utility in a specific location, with the primary function of dealing with customer issues, is becoming a thing of the past. It no longer delights our customers; they want more. We need to look beyond the factory and focus on building enterprises that are ready to serve.

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