Contact center management labors under constant pressure to do more with less… FASTER! The latter often results in hurried technology implementations that fall short of the benefits the center hoped to realize.
The following tables summarize the dos and don’ts of project execution and functionality deliver positive results.
Project Execution
| Don’t: | Do: | Business Impact |
| Launch during peak season | Launch outside of peak to allow issues to be resolved prior to peak; if implementation milestones are missed, alter plans (e.g., change phasing, delay implementation) | Better project outcome overall
Employee engagement and retention (and health, and sanity, and…!) |
| Require center leadership and support to implement while doing their “day jobs” | Dedicate project resources, with specific involvement and checkpoints with center staff | Project success along with ongoing operations success
Employee engagement and retention (and health, and sanity, and…!) |
| Assume success | Pilot (if appropriate) and test
Define phasing Adjust based on outcomes Consider a back-out plan |
Minimum interruption and impact if something fails |
| Assume vendor’s testing is adequate | Conduct thorough testing (e.g., call flows, dial plans, network, integration) | Better project outcome
Minimum corrective action required after go-live |
| Assume the vendor/partner “owns” all services | Understand any third-party roles, integration between the parties, and who is responsible for what | Clear delineation of responsibility with SLAs and enforcement
Avoid finger pointing during trouble resolution |
Project Execution
| Don’t: | Do: | Business Impact |
| Replicate old menus, skills and routing | Redesign all menus, including scripting and structure/flow
Redesign (and often, simplify) skills and routing |
Better customer experience
Shorter handle times Less misrouting and transfers |
| Ask vendor if they support a channel (e.g., chat, text) but never turn it on! | Incorporate new channels into project planning, with a pilot where appropriate
Define processes, knowledge content, standard responses, etc. Define where, when and how the channel is offered to customers |
Enhanced customer experience through channel choice
Employee engagement and retention |
| Recreate all old reports in new system | Take a fresh look and define a new metrics and reporting strategy to focus on the right goals | Improved customer service
Better performance on targeted KPIs Better decisions based on accurate, trusted data |
| Recreate old QM form in Excel | Revisit QM process and forms, taking a “fresh” look at all elements | Better quality
Employee engagement and retention |
| Continue to forecast through tool/process only one person understands | Assess if WFM can meet forecast needs and use it if possible (and if not, formalize the process and document)
Cross train on tools |
Greater accuracy and/or trust of results
Reduced risk |
| Buy analytics tool(s) and assign to someone to use “in their spare time” | Assess roles and individual skills in support functions and assign specific analyst duties or create new role | All the outcomes expected of such a tool – e.g., improved performance, cost savings, product/marketing insights, etc. |
| Pop screens but keep same old processes for greeting, ID&V | Modify greetings and Identification and Verification processes based on matched data and security needs | Better customer experience
Shorter handle times Reduced fraud risk Employee engagement |
We wrote an article on this topic in this month’s Contact Center Pipeline. Download your copy now »