The New Nerve Network of
the Modern Enterprise

There’s a reason that behemoth Amazon is a non-stop retail juggernaut. CEO Jeff Bezos recognizes that a firm’s contact center technology— and the people who harness it— are the nucleus driving the modern enterprise. In fact, his whole business model is based on the concept that true disruption starts at the ground level. And that’s why Bezos— along with thousands of senior Amazon managers—takes a two-day training course at these synaptic hubs every year.

Higher profits are a by-product of his laser focus on contact centers, of course, but contact centers can also be a means to a bigger end. Businesses have no choice. They must undertake digital transformation to compete, and they need to use every tech tool at their disposal. How they go about it, however, is key. As Zeus Kerravala, author of The Digital CEO put it: “The big question on the minds of most CIOs I talk to is, ‘Where to start?’ Digital transformation has so many implications that deciding on how and where to begin can almost be paralyzing.”

Transformation on the front lines

Forward-thinking leaders know the simple answer: You needn’t go all in with dramatic changes. Scale up gradually, starting on the front lines.

The contact center is where the rubber hits the road. It’s where a company meets its customers—where it builds relationships and where its brand lives or dies. By taking gradual steps, contact center leaders will see successive progress and can manage their investment in new technology.

“Work with what you have, incrementally improving it and replacing it bit by bit,” says Geoff Land, managing director of the U.K. firm Infinity CCS. “This has a huge benefit as organizations can experiment with their CX delivery to find out what works and what doesn’t before committing to a large investment.”

Most businesses have already migrated to the cloud to help achieve agility. The next step involves automating processes and systems in order to achieve agility at scale, and that means deploying technology like AI, bots, and self-service tools—ideally, without a massive overhaul of your existing systems.

It’s important to keep in mind, though, that contact centers are more than jumping-off points. Traditionally, they’ve been seen as a reliable place to capture customer mood and alert companies to gaps in products that might lead to new business opportunities. But new technology is accelerating the contact center’s role. Collecting hard data about customers from online accounts, chats, emails, and social media interactions is just the beginning. Now, innovative tools can unlock soft data that lets you dive far deeper into customer emotions.

This rounded view of the market presents a great opportunity for contact centers to excel in their role as partners in business. When a company launches a campaign to reach out to new consumers, for example, contact centers can boost the effort with personalized discounts based on the daily data they collect about purchases. They can then measure customer response to the offers—soft data that indicates the success or failure of these initiatives in real time to further customize the customer connection.

Photo: Getty Images

A refreshed workforce and happier customers

There’s an important side benefit when you supply your contact center with the most advanced tools: newly invigorated contact center agents. Research shows that unhappy customers and dissatisfied agents are two sides of the same coin— and both are usually the result of broken processes. Part of digital transformation involves transforming the workforce by introducing digital tools— not to replace employees, but rather to free them up from routine tasks, ultimately allowing them to be more productive and add greater value in what they do.

In their shifting roles, agents become problem solvers, brand ambassadors, and producers of amazing customer experiences. With everything in one place on their desktop, fumbling for information becomes a thing of the past. They’re empowered to take initiative, identify areas for improvement, and make better-informed decisions that help build lasting customer relationships.

“Participating in these interesting, challenging, and beneficial activities increases the likelihood of maintaining an engaged and seasoned agent team,” writes customer care management consultant John Goodman, “and the result is more efficient and higher-quality service.”

That equates to happier customers, who get answers to queries and problems resolved far faster. You can be sure those customers will spread the word.

For all of these reasons, upgrading the contact center is becoming mission -critical. Its function is enjoying new status at the top of the C-suite’s to-do list. Deriving full value from a contact center, though, necessarily calls for a robust customer management platform. To bring your hub up to speed, you need a comprehensive, intelligent picture of every aspect of the social, digital, voice, and physical channels in play.

You can keep your edge if you begin a step-by-step transition now.