Contact Center Pipeline September 2025 | Page 11

-- MICHELE ROWAN

EVOLVING CUSTOMER EXPECTATIONS

Second, start by looking at your website through the eyes of your customers. Do you have a customer portal?

How are you presenting the products and services that you offer? Are you presenting what your company offers in a simple and logical way to satisfy customer needs? Do you have too many FAQs?

Long-term success with your contact center is realizing revenue, service rankings, and customer retention are crucial.

To achieve that, are you still following your path to service excellence? You need to remember the“ 3 R’ s”: Reinventing, Reconnecting, and Refreshing with your company’ s values, mission, and vision.

Now let’ s look at the challenges.

BUDGET PRESSURES

First begin with understanding your expenses. Do you have the ability to contribute to your contact center needs and if so, do you have plans on how to control these expenses on a monthly and annual basis?

1. Operating expenses:

• Personnel( payroll and benefits, salaries, taxes, healthcare), recruiting and turnover, employee relations, seminars, and incentives.

• Systems / software( technology e. g., contact center-as-aservice( CCaaS), payroll / attendance, CRM, collaboration / networking, workforce optimization)

2. Capital expenses:

• Leasehold improvements

• Furniture, fixtures, and equipment

3. Building operations:

• Rent

• Utilities

• Security

• Liability insurance

4. Other expenses:

• Consumables

• Printing and stationery

Nine out of 10 times I am extremely frustrated when I go to a website for the first time and try to use the search function. It once took me 10 times to get an answer to a new dishwasher issue that I was having!

Every interaction is an event that impacts how your company is perceived by your customers. So, think like your customers. They want to do business with you on their terms, when they want, on the channel of their choice, and they expect the same service regardless of the channel.

STAFF SHORTAGES AND TURNOVER

Finally, but not least, your employees are your company’ s best resource and greatest asset. Employee satisfaction is paramount; the happier they are, the better they treat your customers.

Remember the“ EXIT” interview. It will give you a heads-up on why staff is voluntarily leaving or why you’ re letting them go is your fault!

Brendan Read is Editor of Contact Center Pipeline. He has been covering and working in customer service and sales and for contact center companies for most of his career. Brendan has edited and written for leading industry publications and has been an industry analyst. He also has authored and co-authored books on contact center design, customer support, and working from home. Brendan can be reached at brendan @ contactcenterpipeline. com.

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