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Why is having a strategy for your contact center technology necessary?
How do you go about developing one?
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3 Answers
Strategy drives process, process in turn dictates both the organizational structure and how you train the team in their skill sets for the work. If you don't have a strategy, then you have no foundation for effective decision-making about any of the aspects of the center.
Strategy is about the Why questions. Why do you have a contact center? What is its role in the overall corporate profits-realization stance? Spending a ton of money on a Mercedes-Benz class phone system doesn't make a lot of sense, for example, if you are doing everything you can to divert or prevent phone calls.
--mikael
TheHotLineMagazine.com
There is a great conversation between the Cheshire Cat and Alice from "Alice in Wonderland" (the book I do not know if it was in any movies).
Alice came to a fork in the road. "Which road do I take?" she asked.
"Where do you want to go?" responded the Cheshire cat.
"I don't know," Alice answered.
"Then," said the cat, "it doesn't matter."
A strategy allows you to answer the Cat's question and decide which road to take. Without a strategy your contact center end up reacting. You want to be proactive and make others react to you.
To create a strategy, start with the corporate goals then find ways to support that. It should be a group effort of agents and management and it should go beyond metrics. Your strategy should answer the Cat but also answer "How" and "Why" (as Mr. Blaisdell recommended).
I'll take the points that Mikael and Michael made to the next higher level. Michael points out why you need to have a strategy. Mikael addresses the need for strategy within the the larger context. Many organizations do not include technology in their strategic planning, and it's a very short sighted mistake. Technology is expensive and it is an indispensable tool. Planning how to use technology, how to pay for it, and how it will drive process often is a major factor in how an organization operates. The wrong technology can hamstring an operation, frustrate employees and waste huge sums of money. Planning technological improvements aligns directly with an organization's strategic plan, and must be considered in the long range planning cycle. Just as those who enable strategy work with those who must implement it, those who own technology must partner with those who use it in order to maximize value.
Back to the original question, how do you develop a strategy for your contact center technology? The answer is: (1) the same way you develop your strategy for your contact center, (2) at the same time, (3) in total alignment, and (4) within the framework of the entire organization's strategy.
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