CUSTOMERS DON’ T WANT TO CALL. THEY CALL WHEN THE BUSINESS MAKES SOME- THING CONFUSING, RISKY, OR SLOW.
CUSTOMER CONTACT OPTIMIZATION
“ Why is our handle time up?”“ Why are agents struggling?”
“ Why is our digital self-service underused?”
Because the problem isn’ t the contact center.
It’ s the design of the bill.
And this pattern repeats in nearly every industry:
• Banking applications are too long.
And that’ s where most organizations still struggle.
THE POWER OF KNOWING CUSTOMER INTENT
Industry has finally caught on that“ tracking a score” or“ sending a survey” isn’ t telling leaders what’ s actually broken.
Instead, businesses must stop flying blind and get to the fundamental drivers of customer frustration, cost, and churn by asking“ Why?” at a deeper operational level.
The contact center is the only place in the business where customers tell you, in their own plain language, what’ s not working. But many organizations still bury those insights under hundreds of reason codes, legacy taxonomies, and inconsistent agent tagging.
If leaders want real change, they need a different lens:
Customer intent Not“ billing-issue-37A.” Not“ workflow exception.”
Intent Ask:“ What did the customer say about why they disrupted their day to contact you today?”
The answer, often revealed by customers within the first 30 seconds of a call, tells you whether the interaction should be:
• Eliminated
• Simplified
• Digitized
FIGURE 1
• Or elevated as a high-value human conversation.
This is the heart of CCO, built directly on the value – irritant matrix( VIM). This underused discipline separates what customers value from what irritates them, and what the business values from what irritates you.
When you analyze contact this way, patterns snap into focus. And those patterns reveal where your true ROI lives.
THE HIDDEN COST OF“ INVISIBLE” VOLUME
Let’ s start with a simple, painful truth: Most contact centers absorb the mistakes of the business.
Consider telecommunications. Studies from J. D. Power, Deloitte, and the American Customer Satisfaction Index( ACSI) consistently show that billing issues are among the top drivers of inbound call volume for telecom providers.
In my advisory work, these patterns commonly account for 30 % to 40 % of total demand, stemming from confusion, unexpected charges, expired promotions, or unclear fee presentation.
If the bills were clearer and easier to understand, many of those calls would disappear. Yet leaders still ask:
• Retail makes checkout or returns too complex.
• Tech companies hide support options behind login requirements.
• SaaS platforms bury core features three menus deep.
• Deliveries arrive late or incomplete.
• Products ship with broken or missing parts.
CUSTOMERS DON’ T WANT TO CALL. THEY CALL WHEN THE BUSINESS MAKES SOME- THING CONFUSING, RISKY, OR SLOW.
Customers don’ t want to call. They call when the business makes something confusing, risky, or slow.
DIGITIZATION WITHOUT DISCERNMENT WILL BACKFIRE
Digital containment fails when leaders deploy it to reduce cost, not to improve customer success.
One large North American telecom I worked with invested millions in automation, calculated savings from reduced call volume, cut headcount before launch, and then watched volume rise as customers grew angrier.
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