A few weeks ago, I curled up on my couch to watch one of my favorite sporting events of the year. Opening weeks of baseball? Nope. NBA Playoffs? Not with so much basketball left to play in the marathon that leads up to the NBA Finals. It was the NFL Draft that I was looking forward to, the same way I’ve looked forward to it every year in the past and will in the future.
Why do I bring this up? Well, hear me out. After thinking about it for a while, it became apparent to me how much the NFL Draft (and the various scenarios around it) are comparable to the current customer service and customer experience environments. Think about it for a second…
Fans of NFL teams expect to win, and win now – they don’t care with who, they don’t care how – offense, defense, coaching, special teams, even ownership and front offices. They just want to win, and fast. Now think about today’s consumer – they expect the same kind of winning customer experience and immediacy with the companies they purchase from or do business with. The product or service itself doesn’t even have to be far superior than others – but the support and engagement they receive does. Are you communicating with them in the manner they prefer? Are you getting back to them quickly? In other words, are they receiving instant gratification from your customer support the way NFL fans want instant gratification from their teams?
The challenge with these high expectations is that not all companies have the time, budgets or resources internally to build their best winning customer experience team. So what happens then?
In today’s age of contact center outsourcing, there are various layers that can be utilized to benefit companies that can’t get past the 50-yard line. There are tenured executives (front office) and supervisors (coaches) that have the experience to truly understand how to build, develop and execute strategies (game plans) and teams (literally) that adhere to a company’s culture and business goals. They fully engage and immerse themselves within the organizational philosophies and principals in order to train and coach the teams beneath them.
Equally important are the tools and practices they use to develop their teams around the clients’ needs. Do you need skill players that can make the big plays happen quickly, such as increasing customer satisfaction, generating sales, creating upsell opportunities – all of which will enhance customer loyalty (think of that as the Super Bowl)? Or do you need the lesser-known players who will fly under the radar, but will still make a difference over time with their blocking and tackling at the front lines? Either way, the model is in place in today’s outsourcing world that agents – i.e., the skill players and the linemen – will be long-term players and fan favorites on your team and will make a difference rather than being busts. This is due to the intricate and involved hiring, training, certification processes, and highly desired benefit packages that a select few outsourcers are now providing to these agents that make them want to be a part of the team in the long-term, as well as grow in their fields – i.e., become All-Pro’s – and win some big games while they’re doing it.
However, not everyone has the deep pockets of a Jerry Jones – some of the smaller markets may need to find creative ways to build their rosters. That’s why it’s more imperative than ever that smaller and mid-size companies consider outsourcing their customer service efforts. Today’s customer support demands and immediate expectations – via their preferred communication channels, no less – cannot be ignored. This can single-handedly make or break a business, and lack of budget or resources are no longer options in today’s customer-centric world.
With the innovations and quality of today’s outsourcing companies, it’s worth considering one as your team’s customer support General Manager to help build a championship customer support team.
Written by Jaime Weinsier