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 Guest Blogger: Lori Bocklund, President, Strategic Contact, and ACCE 2008 Speaker
There is a lot of doom and gloom about the economy and a variety of other topics out there if you want to find the bad news. I’m going to focus on the good news in this little blog, in the hope that it will get you to come to ACCE conference sessions – yes, even some technology sessions – with a positive outlook and an expectation that you will have fun learning!
I get to speak about technology at the ACCE conference, which is something I’ve done for quite a few years at various ICMI events. Note that I said “I get to…” not “I have to…” I think technology is fun, and call center technology is really fun. Sometimes people come up to me after a conference or training seminar and say something like “I actually enjoyed this…” – like they thought it would be like a root canal or something, so were pleasantly surprised that in fact, they found some joy in the event. You too can find the joy in this stuff.
Part of the reason many of us who stumbled into the call center profession (we rarely come of our own accord) stick with it is that it is such a rich environment – full of complex processes and operational challenges, incredibly dependent on people and all the good and bad that goes with that, and enabled by a wide range of interesting, complicated technologies. We sit in the midst of the enterprise and need to interact with many different areas – whether we depend on them (like HR and IT), are impacted by them (like marketing and product groups), or hand off to them (like back office functions). In the call center, we are truly connected, and we play a pivotal role in the success of the business and the customer experience. What’s not to like about that?!
So chances are that by the fact that you are reading this blog, you’re coming to ACCE and you are engrained in the call center profession (whether you chose to follow that path or not). And if you’re going to be engrained in this profession, you ought to have fun with it!
Now I recognize that the technology part of this puzzle is, for some, the easiest part to dislike, or at a minimum, label as “not fun.” Maybe it hinders you from really doing what you want to do. Maybe you don’t have the budget you’d like, or the technology you’ve bought in the past hasn’t lived up to your expectations (for functionality, reliability, return on investment, ease of use, or whatever). Maybe you are an IT/telecom person and you feel like you can never quite meet the users’ expectations, no matter what you do. Or maybe you’re tired of hearing the vendors set all these expectations that you don’t believe can be met. Regardless of your perspective, you can probably find some frustration, disappointment, or lack of fulfillment in your life for which you blame call center technology.
Well, I’m here to tell you it doesn’t have to be that way. Here are five reasons call center technology can make you smile:
- Regardless of what you have, chances are you can do more with it. I bet most centers use about 20% of what is possible with what they have. So without spending money on new stuff, you can probably find at least five things you wish you could do right now with the technology you have in place.
- Today’s market is full of new capabilities that can really have a transformational impact on your operation. Voice over IP enabling virtualization and home agents, speech analytics, knowledge management, speech recognition… these are just a few of the really cool and really powerful technologies to consider today.
- Yes Virginia, there really is a business case. In these tight financial times, if you take the right approach, you really can find a positive return on investment for the right tools to enable your center to grow revenue, enhance service, cut costs, or address whatever business goals you have to achieve.
- Even if you think you hate technology, it can be your friend to enable something else you want to do in the center. Do you want to optimize processes? Do you want your reps to be able to do new, better, or different things? Do you have a new strategic direction coming down from on high that you’re wondering how on earth you’re going to make it happen? I bet you will find some key enabling role for technology in any of these circumstances.
- We’re poised to take call centers to a new level. This is when it really gets fun. Centers are maturing – in their operational sophistication, strategic position within the enterprise (it’s not just a cost center anymore!), communications with other parts of the business, and their migration from insular, internal thinking (reflected in metrics, processes, organizational structure, and more) to an outward view. If you think you can reach that level of maturity without some enabling technology, I’m afraid you’re mistaken.
Some people think it’s all about the people and processes. Some falsely accuse those of us who like technology as being all about the technology. But I’m the first to say technology is just an enabler. It’s nothing without the people and process elements, and the strategies properly aligned. But if you want to make good things happen for your center, company, and customers, make sure you think of technology as your friend, not your foe. And then I bet ultimately, you will have fun with call center technology!
Join me and my crazy cohorts at ACCE to talk about these kinds of topics and what you can do (and what fun you can have) with call center technology. |
