ICMI's Customer Management Insight - January 2008 - (Page 5)

Editor’s Page EDITORIAL OFFICE 11 West 19th Street, NY, NY 10011 212-600-3000 Fax 212-600-3080 PUBLICATIONS DIRECTOR | Susan Hash DESIGN DIRECTOR | Ellen Herndon CHIEF TECHNICAL EDITOR | Joe Fleischer CREATIVE PROJECTS COORDINATOR | Greg Levin ASSOCIATE EDITOR | Janie Iadipaolo CONTRIBUTORS | Greg Borton, Malcolm C. McCulloch, Jay Upgrading the Agent’s Role In this hyper-competitive, fast-paced business climate, contact centers have had to become masters at responding to market shifts and changing customer needs. One of the critical differentiators for managing the customer experience in the current economy is how well your center can leverage your frontline agents and their core skills. In the past few years, a number of factors have been converging to create a situation that is transforming the agent’s role within the center and the enterprise (e.g., globalization, virtual contact centers, outsourcing, technology). With this changing landscape come new challenges. The average contact center agent’s job is evolving into a higher-skilled position requiring a more advanced level of IT knowledge, as well as business and communication abilities, according to research by contact center analysis firm ContactBabel. We found this to be true in a recent ICMI study on agent empowerment, as well. A majority of the participants (78.4 percent) are increasingly relying on input from contact center agents to improve the customer experience — from seeking agents’ feedback during team meetings to getting them involved in the content and design of customer satisfaction surveys. Two-thirds of the contact centers responding to the survey also actively involve agents in improving the tools and applications used to provide a positive customer experience. The payoff is significant: 86.4 percent of centers say that the impact of agent involvement and empowerment has had a positive impact on customer satisfaction. Last month, I touched on the challenges managers are facing in attracting and retaining qualified candidates.The articles in this month’s CMI delve into trends, issues and practices that further illustrate the need to adjust agents’ job descriptions, activities, skill sets, and hiring and training processes to meet the requirements of a shifting economy. In our industry, it’s really true that it’s the people who make the difference. Contact center leaders will need to contend with market demands by reevaluating their agents’ function, and consider ways to move beyond the traditional job role to a position that helps the enterprise to maintain growth targets and increase customer and shareholder value. Susan Hash ICMI Publications Director Minnucci, Jason Mitchell, Matt Morey, Steve Morrell, Ravi Ravishankhar , Mike Stokes, Francoise Tourniaire BUSINESS OFFICE 212 Carnegie Center, 2nd Floor, Princeton, NJ 08540 609-759-4700 Fax 516-476-8275 VP GLOBAL BRAND DIRECTOR | Ruthann Fisher DIRECTOR OF OPERATIONS | Linda Harden INTEGRATED SALES MANAGERS | Bill Lange, Marge Genz INTERNATIONAL SALES/ISRAEL | Rhonda Abramson rhonda@marsmarketing.co.il SALES ASSISTANT | Maureen McGrath MARKETING SPECIALIST | Jaclyn Buchholz MARKETING COORDINATOR | Bill Anthony Lange CUSTOM REPRINTS AND PERMISSIONS | PARS International Corp. 212-221-9595 reprints@parsintl.com LIST RENTAL | Merit Direct, 914-368-1000 CUSTOMER SERVICE | 888-824-9793 or 847-763-9589 icmi@halldata.com CALL CENTER EVENTS SHOW DIRECTOR | Joy Sobhani ONLINE BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT MANAGER | Rick Luhmann CMP TECHNOLOGY LLC CHAIRMAN | David Levin CFO | Scott Mozarsky PRESIDENT, CMP BUSINESS TECHNOLOGY GROUP | Tony Uphoff PRESIDENT, CMP CHANNEL | Robert Faletra PRESIDENT, CMP ELECTRONICS GROUP | Paul Miller PRESIDENT, CMP GAME, DOBB’S, ICMI GROUP | Philip Chapnick CORPORATE SENIOR VP SALES | Anne Marie Miller SENIOR VP, HUMAN RESOURCES | Marvlieu Jolla Hall SENIOR VP, MANUFACTURING | Marie Myers SENIOR VP COMMUNICATIONS | Alexandra Raine icmi’s insight www.icmi.com | JANUARY 2008 5 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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