ICMI's Customer Management Insight - January 2008 - (Page 18)

IN THE CENTER dors will be vetted, in most cases, through years of favorable interactions, and Cisco will share a set of standard contracting terms that allow all of its contact centers to benefit from the most favorable prices and pricing structure. 2. A common set of contact center tools, ranging from telephony and case tracking to workforce management and quality monitoring. It is understood that not all contact centers will use all the tools since some are just too small for the more sophisticated kinds of tools. In some categories, there will be more than one choice, again to match the different sizes and requirements of the worldwide centers. 3. A blueprint for new support centers that details steps to create a new center (or to improve an existing one) and guides the managers through all the resources the company has amassed through collective experience, from customer-handling basics to selecting tools and vendors. WHAT’S DIFFERENT ABOUT THIS INITIATIVE? Many support centers feel the need to standardize their processes, but this type of effort is usually accomplished under duress — after an acquisition, after reorganization or under severe financial pressure. Cisco’s strategy is different: The company is building a new way to do business outside the usual pressure scenarios, enabling it to make the changes at a measured pace. Another common characteristic of standardization effort is to push the changes forcibly through the organization, often following a reorganization that brings the various centers together. In this case, Cisco is taking the opposite approach, being careful to encourage the various centers to use collaboration rather than trying to force them into compliance using command and control. This started at the top level, circulating the idea of the CCUF among all the executives and asking key executives to serve as sponsors throughout the organization. The next step was recruiting a group of crossfunctional contributors, mainly contact center managers, to participate in the different aspects of the initiative. Getting the contact center managers involved allowed the standardization team to harvest innovative ideas, gain their trust and buy-in, and get their input in shaping this framework. Although the focus is very much on external customers, the company wants to extend the framework to all contact centers at Cisco, including those that icmi’s insight serve employees and internal customers. The same economies of scale will be at work for internal customers. In addition, the company will be able to improve Cisco’s employee experience and employee loyalty. The approach was to develop an initial “playbook” of standards and governance and the engagement model that will be used. This playbook will set the stage for how contact centers operate using the framework and will be supplemented with a small services offering. The services will help design new contact centers, optimize existing contact centers and align contact centers on a unified vendor strategy. The CCUF implementation team also wanted to put the framework in practice by doing a proof of concept — testing the engagement model and the initial set of materials. The lessons learned on this pilot will guide improvements to the first draft of the framework before it is rolled out across Cisco. At that point, the initiative ends, and the framework becomes a part of Cisco’s operations. A crossfunctional team, with a mix of dedicated and part-time resources, will work on managing the framework and will help existing contact centers migrate and adopt the framework. The team will then publish compliance reports to help promote adoption. The CCUF team believes that the initiative will take Cisco into the next stage of the customer interaction evolution — from ease of access to ease of interaction. It will bring cost savings in the form of increased firstcontact resolution and automation. It will help shift Cisco’s contact center culture from command and control to collaboration and teamwork. Most importantly, it will improve Cisco’s overall customer experience and reinforce the Cisco brand. • RAVI RAVISHANKHAR FRANCOISE TOURNIAIRE is Founder is Director of the Customer Interaction Network within the Customer Advocacy organization at Cisco. www.icmi.com and Owner of consultancy firm FT Works. www.ftworks.com | JANUARY 2008 18 http://www.ftworks.com http://www.icmi.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of ICMI's Customer Management Insight - January 2008

ICMI's Customer Management Insight - January 2008 Contents Customer Care Technologies Ad Index Editor's Page Contact Center Spotlight People: Prehire Tests In The Center Strategy: Video Contact Centers Show Preview Operations: Knowledge Management Industry Research Contact Centers Face Today's Realities: A Case for Consolidation 2.0 Is Your Agent Training Process Evolving with the Role? The Key to Innovation Is Maintaining Your Strengths Becoming Strategic: Using Customer Contact Analytics to Empower the Contact Center's Role

ICMI's Customer Management Insight - January 2008

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