February is National Heart Month and February 14th honors St. Valentine and loving hearts everywhere. I would like to expand on the meaning and value of “heart” to include the Contact Center. When properly positioned and provisioned, the well-run Contact Center becomes the very “heart” of the enterprise.

Let’s take a quick look at how I have arrived at this conclusion. First of all, Contact Center has often more direct interaction with customers than any other department! For that matter the Contact Center also has more direct interaction with other departments than most … putting it at the “heart” of the enterprise. The types and frequency of contacts contribute to the rich information which, when properly analyzed, will take those willing to look on a journey through the enterprise as a whole. People, process, and technology will be assessed along the way.

Consider the power of information. Like the heart which pumps the blood that carries all the goodies we humans need to stay alive, the information-rich Contact Center carries all the data an enterprise needs to know how well it is meeting customer needs. The information also tells us whether those needs are being met in a way that bolsters the desired Customer Experience. The rub is that this rich information is available only to those willing to invest in the time, tools, and strategies necessary to get to the heart of the matter.

At the heart of it all is strategy. What is the company’s big picture objective? To be number one? To be the best? To lead the global charge? Whatever the strategic objective, tactical execution will include what happens in the Contact Center. Hence, the Contact Center must align to those objectives in operational terms. This assures that the people, skills, and tools associated with data mining, business analytics, and process analysis are present in the operation.

There are a couple of critical success factors that bear mention. First, the Contact Center must be “connected” to its cross-functional partners. Just as the arteries connect to the heart, many other departments “connect” to the Contact Center. This connection must be a healthy one. To this day I am struck by Contact Center managers that tell me they experience service level failures and other frustrations for reasons such as, “Marketing never tells us anything.” This is an indicator that the Contact Center is not strategically or cross-functionally aligned! My concern is that if Contact Center leaders actually know there is a communication gap with Marketing, why aren’t they moving to close it? The heart sometimes must reach out to meet the needs of the customer, assure their experience, and create the cross-functional partnerships that will minimize negative Customer Experiences.

Here is another requisite for success. A clear, positive identity must be embraced by all for the Contact Center to be the “healthy heart” of the enterprise. There are those that malign the characteristics of a Contact Center and  strongly declare, “We are NOT a Contact Center.” When I have asked about this negative perception, it is explained by describing the management practice of over-tracking the front line. In essence, there is a tremendous fear of a “big brother” type of oversight. While I know this happens, the fact that some managers have adopted tracking the agents as their single pursuit of Contact Center happiness is yielding massive rejection of the concept of all Contact Centers as a whole. What I see is groups previously burned by poor management practices, and there are poor managers in far too many operations. I understand that, but also see the overwhelming number of Contact Centers that sit on the good side of the spectrum rather than at the radical end points.

How does this negative perspective happen? The first thought to pop into my mind is the near-criminal practice of not providing training to Contact Center leaders, managers, and supervisors in the art and science of Contact Center management. This is the discipline (accompanied by accepted Contact Center elements and principles) required to even consider being able to effectively mine for relevant and actionable data! Without proper training and the development of Contact Center management principles and practices, it is unreasonable to expect often “new” leaders to be effective at a strategic level as well as tactically.

Next, is the relentless development by the vendor community of infinite reports on front line agent activity. Because these reports are so available, easy to get at (unlike the stuff that really matters), and relatively simple to comprehend at face value, they provide untrained Contact Center managers data they feel is rich enough to run an operation. What really happens is that if front line agent performance data is the primary management focus, the operation often runs aground. Negative belief systems are fueled with the misery of “micro-metric” management.

Maligning the concept of a Contact Center is a prescription for failure; it sabotages the ability to operate at a level necessary to be effective and impactful. So as we ask Contact Center leaders to maneuver as the “heart” of the enterprise we must provide the skills and tools necessary to succeed.

“Wherever you go, go with all your heart.” Confucius

My Best,

Kathleen