MANAGING CHANGE
ILLUSTRATION PROVIDED BY ADOBE STOCK
THE
RE-INVENTION OF THE TELEPHONE CENTER
HOW EMBRACING CHANGE HAS LED THE WAY .
BY DINA J . VANCE , ULYSSES LEARNING
“ CHANGE IS THE ONLY CONSTANT IN LIFE .”
--HERACLITUS
The above age-old adage came to mind as I reflected on the past 30- plus years in the contact center industry . As telephone centers ( yes , that was the original name ) started up in the mid 80 ’ s , terms like multi-channel , digital enhancement , customer experience management , and artificial intelligence ( AI ) were not a part of the vocabulary .
Fast forward to today , and not only have these terms changed how we do business in the contact center , but our industry continues to evolve into a service that cares for customers ’ needs and drives efficiency in business results .
20 CONTACT CENTER PIPELINE
Possibly one of the biggest changes we have seen in our industry is the customers ’ increasing expectations of service from our frontline representatives .
As innovative companies started to raise the bar on service - by introducing online , self-serve , 24 / 7 , CRM initiatives , and technologies like chat - we saw consumers raise their expectations for the rest of their service providers .
We ’ ve needed to prepare our people to meet and even exceed those expectations by focusing on their abilities to communicate and problem solve : their soft skills .
The coaching and training around those skills has evolved as well . But the core delivery hasn ’ t changed .
Visualize managers doing side-bysides , role-playing , and show-coaching : the happy people we see in recruiting brochures . Helping people improve transcends time and it ’ s all in that “ soft ” realm . But let ’ s dive into what has impacted and improved the coaching and training disciplines .
CREDIT : LESLEY REID CORYDON FOR ULYSSES LEARNING