Finding: Contact Centers Need to Keep Lines Open
January 26, 2016
We’ve all seen the reports and heard the buzzword: ‘Omnichannel’ is the new way to go in the call center. Yet there seems to be one important point that everyone, in their rush to embrace the latest and greatest, is overlooking: Customers LIKE using the phone.
That’s the view of Joshua Feast, CEO and co-founder of Cogito Corp., a company that develops software designed to help customer service professionals deliver a more engaging and caring customer experience. In a recent article posted on CustomerThink.com, Feast explained why the telephone should still play a prominent role in a company’s efforts to make the customer experience as good as possible.
“Companies are turning to text messages, online self-service, instant messaging, and just about any other method they can find to deliver a better customer experience,” Feast noted. “But while all of those channels can be useful in retaining customers and building loyalty, too many brands are not paying enough attention to the most important customer channel they have: the telephone.”
He goes on to cite research from Forrester (News – Alert) which stated that the phone is still the most widely used tool for customer contact. Among Forrester’s findings was the revelation that customers want companies to value their time, with some 71 percent of consumers saying that doing so “is the most important thing a company can do to provide them with good service.”
Companies that fail in this area do so at their own risk. Feast cites an Arizona State University study that found, “Despite the rise of the Internet, people are still 11 times more likely to complain by phone than online.” And if they’re going to complain, wouldn’t you want the chance to respond directly and immediately?
“Omni-channel strategies can yield results to a certain extent, but there is still no substitute for a call center that provides superior customer service,” Feast adds. “Agents with excellent communication skills, who can build genuine connections with customers, are more valuable than ever in what Accenture (News 
– Alert) calls the ‘switching economy.’
So what's holding them back?
“Call center agents become disengaged over time and often feel powerless to help customers,” Feast says. “They fail to build the kind of strong rapport with customers that will ultimately provide a more rewarding experience for both the customer and the agent.” Furthermore, “Supervisors and call center executives face significant challenges in measuring performance. They currently lack an objective, automated, and comprehensive way to measure and teach the communication skills that are at the heart of a phone call,” he believes.
Still, all is not lost. The most important lesson from Feast’s observation is that the problem can be solved; it just takes savvy management to recognize the issue and take action.