Frost & Sullivan's Customer Contact Research, Analysis, Trends & Great Content : PERSPECTIVES

Frost & Sullivan, Customer Contact eBulletin, Vol. 7 Issue 1

It Can Be a Wonderful Life for Enterprises that Leverage and Nurture Contact Center Capabilities

By Jacqueline Plair-Rushin
Director of Global Deployment
and Corporate Services in Global Technology
InterContinental Hotels Group

Driving sales of a company’s products and services is a business imperative. It is not an option or desire, but an absolute requirement to exist. As such, it is surprising that many businesses still do not totally get it that contact centers matter, and, until they do, their brands can never reach their full potential. In the classic, “It’s a Wonderful Life,” the main character contemplates taking his life since he believed his family would be better off without him. As the story continues, an angel shows him what things would have been like if he had never been born and he realizes that so many people were better off because of him, and that he really mattered. What does this have to do with contact centers? Everything! To understand how important the contact center is to your business, travel back in time to its formation and contemplate where the company would be without it. It’s a sure bet that it looks pretty dismal. The point is, contact centers are not a nice to have, they are a must have. These entities are not loss leaders, but growth enablers. They are as much part of your success as the very product itself and with the proper nurturing, can catapult your brand.

Contact centers can and do provide the competitive edge corporations need when properly nurtured. Professionals in this part of the business are wildly passionate about service. They understand the value of maintaining good customer relations and ensuring that products perform as promised. While marketing and advertising play a key role in creating awareness of the brand and its relative services, contact centers personify it. It is the one place where customers can go to engage in a two-way dialogue and get problems resolved, have their voices heard, and “hear” first-hand the care and concern about their experience. This connection can be the difference in whether a customer is retained or lost.

Contact centers are a wealth of information. Its people, processes, and tools enable the capture of reliable data that can be used to improve current product performance and develop new ones to better advance its position in the marketplace. Continuous investments in contact center operations can also advance future market positions by taking advantage of new opportunities using the long arm of the contact center. Leveraging the power of this relationship powerhouse provides a broad and continuous pipeline of opportunity to transform data into dollars.

Enterprises that take the time to look back at its formative years to understand the pivotal role their contact center played in its growth should now begin to look forward to determine how it can sustain and advance its future outlook through this amazing vehicle. This means, (a) investing in innovative contact center solutions that align with future growth, (b) providing a “seat in the suite” for contact center leadership, and (c) developing the next generation of contact center professionals.

There is a science to molding the natural abilities of people to become professional agents. Customer care is a not an easy job; it requires a heart to care, selflessness, mental toughness, and the ability to continuously pursue service excellence, regardless of the varying temperaments that will be encountered. As such, we cannot lose sight of the fact that the future workforce will require a different style of management to inspire and motivate them. Therefore, collaboration is needed with our educational systems to assist them in developing curriculums that prepare contact center agent professionals.

Finally, enterprises must provide a C-level seat for contact center executives. Why would a role that holds this much influence over customers not be included at the level where high-stake decisions are made? Many companies have begun this process, signifying their understanding of this role, but too many have not. This role is not a sales or marketing job, rather one that requires the ability to understand the relationship between the contact center ecosystem and customers, and represent it from the heart. It truly can be a wonderful life for companies that embrace these concepts and proactively use them as a strategic component of their growth strategy.

About the Author

Jacqueline Plair-Rushin is Director of Corporate Services in Global Technology for InterContinental Hotels Group, a leading global hospitality company and one of the largest by number of rooms. She has been with her current employer for 15 years where she led their global support organization for 10 years. Under her direction, IHG received the 2008 Stevie Award for International Contact Center of the Year, recognition as an American Business Award Finalist, and 2010 Best Customer Service Department – Leisure and Tourism. Ms. Plair-Rushin is also President and Founder of Power of 3, LLC, a multi-faceted grassroots organization focused on the economic and educational development of low-income and at risk people and communities in the Southern Region.