-- JON ARNOLD
" LISTEN TO THE VOICE OF THE CUSTOMER AND THE VOICE OF THE EMPLOYEE TO UNCOVER FRICTION. THEN REMOVE THAT FRICTION."
FEATURE
Remember that customer experience( CX) is more than just the contact center. By the time your service team steps in, the overall experience has already failed for the customer.
Your first goal is to prevent those failures from happening in the first place. Start by mapping the customer journey. Track each touchpoint. Identify and fix failure points to reduce customer effort.
Listen to the voice of the customer and the voice of the employee to uncover friction. Then remove that friction. Begin with the easiest wins. Ask yourself,“ What is one common point of dissatisfaction you can resolve right now?”
Once the customer reaches your contact center, the next priority is to treat them with empathy and resolve their issue. That requires emotional intelligence and critical thinking skills.
To ensure your human agents have those skills, review your recruitment profiles, hiring practices, onboarding program, knowledge base, ongoing training, and coaching. Provide your team with the skills, support, and discretion needed to assist customers with their most frustrating challenges.
JON ARNOLD
J ARNOLD & ASSOCIATES
There’ s a good case to be made that the contact center space has never gone through such challenging times, and the worst thing a CX leader can do is stand still and hope the status quo will hold up.
On the other hand, knowing where to start can be just as daunting. Since there are so many different challenges, a good starting point is to understand the bigger picture, rather than trying to address each challenge in isolation, and without a plan.
To get that bigger picture, CX leaders must first distinguish between internal and external challenges. While the latter may be out of your immediate control, external challenges still have an impact on your contact center.
At a high level, here are the leading challenges for each type, all of which are likely problematic for your contact center.
INTERNAL CHALLENGES
• Staffing issues. These include not enough agents to support call volumes, high attrition from agents that don’ t last, it is hard to attract new agents, and there is the cost and time required to train them.
"... THE WORST THING A CX LEADER CAN DO IS STAND STILL AND HOPE THE STATUS QUO WILL HOLD UP."
• RTO mandates. This applies to contact centers as well, and with so many remote agents, it’ s getting harder to bring them into a centralized facility.
• Budgets. It is harder now to get capital expenditure( capex) approvals for modernizing premises-based systems even when there is a strong business case for them. Plus, contact centers are often viewed as a cost center, making it more difficult to get funding for badly needed new technologies.
EXTERNAL CHALLENGES
-- JON ARNOLD
• Rapidly changing technologies. IT and CX leaders have a hard time keeping current, as well as knowing how to make the right investments.
• Changing customer expectations. They want personalized service and efficient problem resolution, plus they are ahead of contact centers for adopting new technology like AI.
• Regulations and compliance. Many verticals must work within these ever-expanding frameworks, and legacy technology makes it difficult for contact centers to properly support customers.
HOW CX LEADERS CAN MANAGE
Adapting to change is never easy, especially with AI evolving so quickly. With so many challenges to address, CX leaders need an overall plan in order to prioritize actions and investments.
Before getting to the tactical responses for your plan, some guiding principles should be in place to support the rationale for your actions. Here are three that will serve all CX leaders well, regardless of how effectively they are keeping up with change.
" LISTEN TO THE VOICE OF THE CUSTOMER AND THE VOICE OF THE EMPLOYEE TO UNCOVER FRICTION. THEN REMOVE THAT FRICTION."
-- MIKE AOKI
SEPTEMBER 2025 7