ON THE SCENE: ICMI CONTACT CENTER EXPO 2018
Customer Service Has
Become a Key Differentiator
As contact centers gain importance, new tools help agents shine,
ICMI speakers asserted
N
ow more than ever before,
contact centers present a real
opportunity for companies to
differentiate and shine, speakers em-
phasized at the International Customer
Management Institute’s Contact Center
Expo in Orlando, Fla., in May.
ICMI senior advisor and founding
partner Brad Cleveland started the discus-
sion during his opening keynote when he
asked attendees to consider how they are
using their contact centers to differentiate
and help their organizations shine.
Cleveland cited online pet supply re-
tailer Chewy as one company doing just
that. In addition to responding to cus-
tomer service inquiries across channels
“lightning fast,” Chewy surprises cus-
tomers with paintings of their pets.
“There’s never been a more important
time to get customer service right and to
understand how to build relationships
with your customers that are appropri-
ate, that will keep them excited about
continuing to do business with your
organization,” he said in an interview
with CRM magazine. Because of that,
companies should think of themselves
as service organizations that happen to
ICMI’s group training and content director,
Fancy Mills, said that generational intelligence
is critical to contact center success.
10 CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT | JULY/AUGUST 2018
and connect with them because you don’t
see them every day.” Tools like Skype for
Business, Slack, and Zoom simplify the
process of employee engagement, she said.
As for inclusive intelligence, she said
organizations approach diversity much
differently today than they did five
years ago. It now encompasses different
learning styles as well as race, gender,
operate within a specific vertical, such and sexual orientation. “It’s really about
as transportation, healthcare, or finance. understanding the individual and what
One way for companies to differentiate makes us unique,” she added.
is through the use of emotional intelli- Companies can also differentiate by
gence, according to ICMI’s group train- crafting effective customer service mes-
ing and content director, Fancy Mills. sages via social media and SMS, according
Emotional intelligence has two com- to Leslie O’Flahavan, owner of E-Write,
ponents—generational intelligence and which specializes in online communica-
inclusive intelligence, according to Mills. tions. This involves these steps:
Generational intelligence is “the abil- • Write in a specific company brand
ity to understand the cultural outlook voice, ensuring that the tone in service
across generations and understand how communications is consistent with that
these differences impact behavior, learn- of the company’s website or marketing
ing, and communication,” Mills said. materials.
This is critical for contact center • Handle channel pivots gracefully,
teams, which can have members rang- letting customers know why it is bet-
ing in age from 18 to 80. Mills suggested ter to move certain interactions to pri-
that employees are disengaged “because vate channels and then walking them
maybe we’re not connecting across all through the process of doing so.
these generations,” and urged the audi- • Make templates easy to custom-
ence to explore how age groups differ ize, crafting them in a way that enables
and how this might affect how each team agents to insert information specific to
member prefers to be engaged. individual inquiries.
Generational intelligence is only be- • Avoid confusing abbreviations and
coming more crucial as contact centers use emojis sparingly because both can
shift to virtual environments with agents be distracting and create confusion.
working remotely, she said during an • Use personal pronouns such as “we”
interview with CRM magazine. “It be- and “you” to make communications
comes even more important to engage more conversational.
Successfully deploying home-based
ICMI CONTACT CENTER EXPO 2018
contact center strategies relies on hiring
the right agents and supervisors; cultural
connectivity; and technologies that make
it easy for employees to stay connected,
according to Michele Rowan, president
of Customer Contact Strategies, an orga-
nization that helps companies implement
home-based contact center strategies.
Agents should be comfortable shar-
ing knowledge, socializing digitally,
and working independently; managers
should be comfortable running virtual
meetings and using digital support tools,
Rowan said. —Sam Del Rowe
www.destinationCRM.com
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