Executing a CEM Strategy
A Strong Focus on the Customer
Contact centers can contribute great value to organization wide CEM strategies by sharing customer insights. Center leaders need to start “evangelizing and sharing that data more widely,” says Henning. “Share what people are talking about, the top issues. Create presentations that include customer recordings. There is nothing more powerful than hearing from customers in their own frustrated terms, or in their own positive terms, about opportunities to improve. That type of feedback will be used to make decisions upstream that will make the center’s life easier downstream.” Henning recommends that leaders consider creating a full-time position in the center to focus on analyzing, synthesizing and disseminating insights to the larger organization.
Coaching is like the blood in our veins. We put a pretty high expectation on coach-ing because, without it, no strategy is going to work.
Donna Denehy
While customer feedback and data is important, company leaders can gather invaluable insights from contact center staff, says Hughes.
“Roll up your sleeves, go out into the contact center and talk to your frontline reps. The detail may be in the data, but the reps are the ones taking the calls. You can get to the heart of a problem much quicker by asking them what the challenges are from a quality and customer experience perspective.”
Change Management is an Important Component
Change management is a critical part of driving a customer experience management strategy, says Hartford Life’s Donna Denehy. “People underestimate the amount of change management associated with a good CEM strategy,” she says.
“When you’re rolling out new measures and new coaching programs, and trying to involve employees in different components of it, keep in mind that, in your staff’s viewpoint, it is a change from what they’ve been doing. To assume that it’s just going to happen would be irresponsible. We put focused effort on it with the team working toward set expectations.
“When you’re on this journey, you learn a lot along the way. You need to be honest enough with yourself to say, this is different than what I originally thought and I need to change it. If you don’t learn from all the people you’re dealing with along the way — your customers, your leadership team, your employees — and if you’re not changing and adjusting to what you’re learning, then your strategy is going to fail.”
Susan Hash is the Editor of Contact Center Pipeline.
– Reprinted with permission from Contact Center Pipeline, www.contactcenterpipeline.com
