OK, so I said I was going to write this yesterday (3/26). Sorry about that, you know how the day sometimes gets away from you. But, here I am today, and let's get started.
So, I said I was going to handle 3 topics on my blog today.
Topic 1 - What is a customer touchpoint?
The high level definitition is anything that touches your customer.
Touchpoints can be broken down into two categories - external and internal.
External touchpoints can be anything from Directory Assistance, your company website, marketing collateral, letters or invoices that are mailed to customers, your IVR, your queue announcements and music played to a caller while waiting to speak to your agents, newsletters sent out by your firm, and the like. In an insurance firm, this can include Provider Directories, Explanation of Benefits, etc. In effect, anything that your customers hear or see while interacting with your firm.
Internal touchpoints are tools used by your staff to help them interact with your customers. This can include agent cheat sheets, training materials, outbound campaign scripts, etc.
In my next blog, I'll discuss why touchpoints are important, and I will post a white paper that I have written on this topic.
Topic 2 - Purpose of the Customer TouchPoints Blog
Many of the clients who call us do so because their customers are experiencing issues in contacting the firm and getting their questions/issues resolved effectively. They believe in most cases that technology is the culprit -- that it has let them down, and that it must be replaced. Often, technology is only a part of the problem, and clearly not the only culprit. It our view, technology is merely an enabler -- it is not the endgame.
In the coming weeks, we want to explore this concept.
So, the main purposes of this blog are to demonstrate:
1. The role that touchpoints play in the success of a Contact Center.
2. The misconceptions about technology.
3. How technology can best be applied to enable your business to be successful.
We welcome your feedback, your insight, and your different points of view as we discuss these topics.
As an audience: If you work in the Contact Center space (consulting, managing, answering calls, responding to customer interactions), if you are a key stakeholder in a firm that interacts heavily with customers, if you are considering the implementation of new technology, and aren't quite sure how to do it, or WHY you are doing it, or if you have already implemented technology and things are not quite right in your customer interactions, you should join us in pursuing the topics that will be presented in this blog. As you can see, we are inviting quite a wide range of individuals to be part of this discussion!
Topic 3 - Future Blog Posts
I am exicted to say that in the Contact Center space, the topics are limitless. But, let's narrow down some topics that we will be discussing in the near term:
1. Setting the policies of the blog. This will be written by a senior member of my staff (Gary Wirth) over the next week.
2. The importance of Customer Touchpoints. A white paper will be posted on this topic.
3. Discussing trends that we see in the Contact Center. This will probably be a multi-post topic. Gary will be writing this one as well.
4. Effective deployments of Contact Center technology. Again, this will more than likely be a multi-post topic.
Summary of Today's Discussion
We are excited, and we hope you are too. Remember, your feedback is extremely important to us, and we hope that you will feel free to share your thoughts, your opinions, and your challenges.
Have a great day!
Diane
Friday, March 27, 2009
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
Welcome from Diane Halliwell
I would personally like to welcome you to the Align Customer TouchPoint blog.
Let me give you a little background on who I am.
I have been consulting in the voice arena for almost 30 years, first as a traffic engineer, and then as an evaluator of alternative telephony solutions.
Almost 20 years ago, I entered the Contact Center space, and have never left. I started out on the very technical end of the spectrum, evaluating alternative solution platforms for my clients. After the evaluation phase, our clients typically engage us to then design, implement, and provide end user documentation for the solutions we recommend.
While engaging in my work as a technical resource, I discovered one of the most important lessons in working in the Contact Center space. Technology alone will never get my clients where they need to be. Rather, it is a delicate balance of the right technology and the requisite processes, workflows, and communication within the organization that will ultimately bring success. Part of that delicate balance is having consistent and effective customer touchpoints.
This philosophy is what drives my consulting practice, and I bring this perspective to each and every engagement.
To complete my "biography", I sit on the Consultant Professional Advisory Councils of Avaya and Siemens, feeding back to the senior management of these firms the consultant view of the effectiveness of their organizations and the strength of their products. In addition, we provide to these firms the viewpoint of the end user customer -- helping them understand what they need to do to be effective in being a vendor partner to our clients.
I also am a long-standing member of the Consultant Liaison programs of Cisco, Genesys, Interactive Intelligence, NEC, and Nortel.
I lead the Contact Center practice at Align, and am extremely proud to have four of the most talented professionals in the world working on my staff.
I look forward to discussing with you pertinent topics regarding the Contact Center space, and in my next blog entry tomorrow morning, I'll describe the following:
1. Definition of a customer touchpoint.
2. Purpose of the Customer TouchPoints blog, and the audience we hope to touch
3. Future topics that we will be addressing in the short term
Stay tuned, and again, welcome.
Let me give you a little background on who I am.
I have been consulting in the voice arena for almost 30 years, first as a traffic engineer, and then as an evaluator of alternative telephony solutions.
Almost 20 years ago, I entered the Contact Center space, and have never left. I started out on the very technical end of the spectrum, evaluating alternative solution platforms for my clients. After the evaluation phase, our clients typically engage us to then design, implement, and provide end user documentation for the solutions we recommend.
While engaging in my work as a technical resource, I discovered one of the most important lessons in working in the Contact Center space. Technology alone will never get my clients where they need to be. Rather, it is a delicate balance of the right technology and the requisite processes, workflows, and communication within the organization that will ultimately bring success. Part of that delicate balance is having consistent and effective customer touchpoints.
This philosophy is what drives my consulting practice, and I bring this perspective to each and every engagement.
To complete my "biography", I sit on the Consultant Professional Advisory Councils of Avaya and Siemens, feeding back to the senior management of these firms the consultant view of the effectiveness of their organizations and the strength of their products. In addition, we provide to these firms the viewpoint of the end user customer -- helping them understand what they need to do to be effective in being a vendor partner to our clients.
I also am a long-standing member of the Consultant Liaison programs of Cisco, Genesys, Interactive Intelligence, NEC, and Nortel.
I lead the Contact Center practice at Align, and am extremely proud to have four of the most talented professionals in the world working on my staff.
I look forward to discussing with you pertinent topics regarding the Contact Center space, and in my next blog entry tomorrow morning, I'll describe the following:
1. Definition of a customer touchpoint.
2. Purpose of the Customer TouchPoints blog, and the audience we hope to touch
3. Future topics that we will be addressing in the short term
Stay tuned, and again, welcome.