Arming the Contact Center
Last week I spoke with Russell Kazeer, senior director of BPM marketing at Pegasystems. Earlier in the day he had called Sprint about a new product that was a result from the joint venture made in late 2005 between Sprint Nextel, Time Warner Cable, and Comcast. The agent had no knowledge of the product or the partnership, which was made to accelerate the convergence of video entertainment, wireless, and wireline data. Russell had to guide the agent through the deal. “Here’s a new product that was offered without training or support to the call center staff,” he said. “Companies need to accelerate new products to market that excel agent training.”
It may not have been the agent's fault. Without strategic alignment and cross-functional participation between operations and the contact center, success is often compromised. Technology, operations, and business strategies are not static; business drivers change, and operations and technology must continually adapt to address those changes. Those changes often are unmet in the contact center when information technology falls short of expectations.
Sprint Nextel isn’t alone. Many organizations need to look at their pain points as well as their key objectives; they need to drive visibility into the contact center and create an open dialogue. Contact centers are a company’s first line of defense, but if they don’t have the tools, information, or a basic framework to extend their value beyond their departmental boundaries, then the overall goals of the business fall short and the organization is left defenseless.
