Achieving maximum value from nearly every category of business expenditure is dependent on the performance of the enterprise's contact centers. Launching a $ multi-million marketing campaign that establishes expectations for customers without involving and aligning the contact center? — prepare for unpredictable or even diminished brand perception. On-boarding new business leadership without a platform from which their expertise, strategies and influence can be communicated, preserved and leveraged? — expect misfires, confusion and frustration. Implementing the latest Web 2.0 technology to enhance the customer experience without effectively tying the anticipated ROI expectations to quantifiable KPIs and related metrics at the front-line? — count on outcomes not materializing as envisioned, at least not in any meaningful, measurable way.
The contact center is vital not only to maximizing business investments, but achieving top line potential, too. So, the stakes (brand image, competitive position – financial and shareholder value most especially) are exceptionally high for organizations that ignore the astoundingly common disconnect within the contact center, where the customer experience is most completely and prominently impacted, and between other enterprise operations. In fact, a variety of surveys indicate that most organizations continue to rely on manual processes spreadsheets and multiple outdated, un-integrated technologies to align the enterprise and manage performance across the organization. It’s no wonder the stats on attrition, lost opportunity, engagement, profits and alignment are so abysmal. 2015 is the year to unleash your team's potential by letting go of old technology and inefficient implementation of people, strategy and process by making a SaaS-based Contact Center Performance Management (CCPM) solution the top priority of your 2015 budget. 10x ROI on CCPM investment along with peak financial performance are absolutely attainable through your contact center in 2015 – here’s why.
Cloud-based, SaaS CCPM solutions designed, developed and maintained by dedicated contact center operations domain experts are available, affordable, reliable, scalable and simple to use. Custom development of proprietary systems requiring expensive software licenses, servers, skilled internal developers, QA and ongoing maintenance is a costly, cumbersome and risky thing of the past. Initial setup and configuration modifications are simplified and can typically be managed by even a part-time resource - no IT required. Centralized web-based access provides a single, complete and accurate source for performance measurement, analysis and management for ALL - from agent to CEO — ANYWHERE - from Bali to LA to at-home agent Stella Thompson's attic office. And we're not talking just data collection and transparent reporting here, but a powerful blend of integrated tools like role-based dashboards, intelligent workflows, balanced scorecards, game mechanics, survey and quality monitoring and communications capabilities that can help you establish organizational alignment, drive progressively improved financial and operational performance, substantively deliver on a commitment to meaningful human development and enhance the customer experience like never before.
Contact Center Performance Management applications serve as the uber-maximizer of People, Strategy, Process, and Technology investments. They enable you to Align, Equip, Engage, Analyze and Modify your entire team to drive progressively improved levels of performance in every critical KPI from CSAT, Utilization, Attendance, Attrition, Sales, FCR as well as all your critical financial metrics. By aggregating and leveraging data from CRM, CMS, phone switch, WFO and other disparate systems, CCPM extends the ROI of each by serving as the foundation of a cohesive performance execution ecosystem. The positive financial impact achievable can be both profound and transformational. Even modest improvement in Attrition, Utilization, Attendance, Span of Control (Supervisor) and/or Adherence can deliver a 10x return on CCPM investment through associated increases in top and/or bottom line growth. Ask your prospective CCPM vendors to work with you to craft a business assessment and build an associated ROI calculator — then put it to the test via a pilot project implementation. By itself, the initiative of re-evaluating your current performance management strategy, processes and methodologies and systematizing them in CCPM will be deeply enlightening.
According to DMG Consulting, as of April 2014, the adoption rate of CCPM applications was 13.8% (up from 11.7% in 2012 and projected 14% growth through 2016), so your competition is catching on. CCPM is no mystery - you've been creatively employing its underlying principles forever. Further, you've invested in the best leadership, technologies and human capital sourcing and development partners available to formulate and perfect the "secret sauce" that makes your enterprise exceptional and successful. CCPM enables you to thoughtfully and pragmatically advance these principles and the lessons learned throughout your career in order to extend and compound this differentiation and record of accomplishment.
So, there you have it - the rationale to champion the evaluation and adoption of CCPM in your organization in the coming year. Identify your urgent points of pain — is it top-line growth, attrition, profitability, customer satisfaction? Then perform a SWOT analysis and isolate the gaps in people, process and/or technology and determine how CCPM can help. No one loses in this assessment, but ALL can win; agents/management and support staff through improved job satisfaction and greater compensation, execs through higher productivity and better operational performance, shareholders through increased profitability and enterprise value, customers through a better experience. And last, but not least - you'll benefit from initiating your organization's CCPM journey in the first place.
