Go For The Gold With Your Customer Experience

Excitement is in the air with the Games of the XXXI Olympiad about to begin in Rio de Janeiro. And why not? We’re about to see approximately 10,000 athletes from 206 countries compete in what’s expected to be the most heavily televised and digitally broadcast Olympics in history. It has me thinking about what it takes to be a champion and win that well-deserved gold medal—and how can you apply those competitive traits to your contact center.

Dedication and focus are just two qualities of a champion. There’s no denying, however, that those who make it to the Olympic level possess many more. The same is true in our business—dedication to improving customer engagement, enabling employee engagement, and a focus on optimizing the business overall to deliver great a customer experience are some of the qualities of a great customer experience platform.

But what exactly goes into building an Olympic champion? A strategic plan, a great coach, the skill to compete globally, and teamwork are some of the elements.  And, of course, a healthy lifestyle to keep those bodies in top form! These are also some of the same elements we think about for delivering engaging and interactive customer experiences:

• A strategic plan for your contact center’s customer experience platform.
• A solution partner to guide you.
• The skills, capabilities, and support to deliver globally.
• A plan to address technology ecosystem spanning all departments, channels, and customer interactions.

There are 41 different summer games and there will be 306 events. There are events making a first-time appearance. Golf will be back for the first time in 112 years. Some sporting events you might not have heard of, and others you might have played yourself. We all have our favorites to watch and cheer on our own country for a medal.

If we take a look at some of the qualities that are important for these sporting events, we can see how they are also important competitive traits for your contact center:

Equestrian Event—This is a combined competition that incorporates many abilities to offer a complete discipline. It was originally devised to assure the horse and rider could address any challenges. The horse and rider need to work as one to complete dressage, cross country, and jumping events.  This demands skills such as agility, precision, ability to pivot quickly, and true harmony—much like a modern contact center infrastructure.

Modern Pentathlon—The Pentathlon was originally the climax of the ancient Greek games.  Competitors needed to compete in several different sports and it was the ultimate test for a champion to do well in the mixture of sports. The athlete needs to have skills and qualities that serve across the board that together make him the complete athlete. This is similar to what’s required to create omnichannel customer engagement to drive a great customer experience.

Volleyball—Volleyball relies on the right mix of players for the team working the front line and back line in order to interact well, work together as one, and keep that ball in the air.  These skills are similar to workforce optimization that address both front and back office tasks and dealing with all interactions at hand without dropping the ball.

Field Hockey—With its origins in Persia, hockey is perhaps the oldest known game using a ball and stick. It’s a fast-moving game and harder than it looks with an opposing team blocking, stealing, and presenting challenges along the way. The goal is to take the ball and move it up field, passing along the way to teammates without dropping or losing it, and then to the net for completion of a goal.  This is basically the same maneuvering done for work item routing in the contact center, getting an item and its contextual information moved as fast and effectively through the process as possible to the right agent at the right time.

Rowing—Rowing encompasses races of both individual rowers as well boats handling two, four, or eight rowers with single or double oars. The boat is steered by a small rudder, or larger crews may have a coxswain that directs. But whether single or a crew, their strength is through acting in a single, unified fashion. The infrastructure (the boat) and the workforce (the rowers) need to work as one. In a contact center, great strength is gained similarly from a single, unified platform that offers integrated workforce optimization capabilities.

The Olympics are a great time to celebrate those who rise to a level of greatness.  Regardless of where you are from, if you embody these traits, qualities, and have what it takes to compete with your international peers, you’ve already achieved the experience others can only aspire to.

If you want to learn more about winning the gold with your contact center, download a copy of our Are You Playing to Win the Customer Experience Game in 2016?