Why Independent Consulting Advice Adds Value for Contact Centres and Customer Experience

If you lead a customer service function, when was the last time you got an independent and expert perspective on your operations? As you ponder this, let me share some context on why seeking such a perspective can be highly beneficial for your organisation.?

Over the past three years, I've worked with a variety of clients across Government, Private Sector, and Non-Profit Organisations (NFPs). My areas of expertise lies in customer service, contact centres, and customer experience (CX). Through my assessments of various operations - whether on-shore, off-shore, insourced, or outsourced - I’ve identified several common challenges that many organisations face.?

Common Triggers for Seeking Independent Consulting

Organisations often engage consultants like me for several reasons:

1. New Leadership Seeking Improvement Opportunities: Newly installed leaders often seek an external perspective to identify opportunities for enhancement in their operations.

2. Internal/External Pressure: Services are constantly being challenged, prompting leaders to seek insights for improvement.

3. Financial Challenges: With costs escalating and no clear path forward, leaders look for ways to reduce costs while improving services.

4. Curiosity: Leaders are curious to benchmark their operations against industry standards and best practices.?

Common Findings in Contact Centre Operations

1. Intentions vs. Outcomes: Great intentions don’t always lead to great outcomes. Leaders often get caught up in daily operations, leading to reactive rather than proactive strategies.

2. Voice Channel Focus: Many contact centres focus heavily on the voice channel and rely on time-based metrics or KPIs to define their success, often neglecting other inputs or channels.

3. Growing Pains: Smaller setups that grow over time can become complex and uncertain as new products, channels, and services are added without a cohesive strategy.

4. Knowledge Workers: Teams often lose sight of the fact that they are knowledge workers who need access to the right information at the right time. Tools, content, and context are essential but often limited or missing.

5. Under-utilised Investments: Organisations frequently fail to maximise their existing investments, particularly in people and technology. Lack of career pathways and development plans drive attrition, while technology benefits are unrealised due to insufficient continuous improvement and updates.

The Value of an Independent Perspective

An independent consultant can offer a fresh, unbiased perspective that internal teams might miss due to their proximity to the daily operations. Here’s why this perspective is invaluable:

1. Objective Assessment: Independent consultants can provide an objective assessment of your operations, free from internal biases and politics. They bring a wealth of experience from various industries and can offer insights that might not be apparent to those within the organisation.

2. Benchmarking: Consultants can benchmark your operations against industry standards and best practices, helping you understand where you stand and identify areas for improvement.

3. Strategic Insights: With a focus on long-term strategy, independent consultants can help you move from reactive to proactive management. They can assist in developing comprehensive plans that address not just immediate concerns but also future growth and scalability.

4. Cost Efficiency: By identifying inefficiencies and areas where resources are under-utilised, consultants can help you optimise your operations, leading to cost savings and better resource allocation.

5. Enhanced Customer Experience: Ultimately, the goal of any contact centre is to deliver exceptional customer experience. An independent consultant can help you streamline processes, improve staff training and development, and implement technology solutions that enhance the overall customer experience.

Investing in an independent perspective

Today’s contact centres and customer service functions must continuously evolve to meet changing customer expectations and business demands. Engaging an independent consultant provides a unique opportunity to gain a fresh perspective, benchmark against industry standards, and implement strategic improvements that drive efficiency, reduce costs, and enhance customer experience.

Whether you are facing financial challenges, seeking to improve service delivery, or simply curious about your performance, an independent consultant can provide the expertise and insights needed to take your operations to the next level.

If you would like an independent perspective, email me today at [email protected]

Who is Michael Clark?

Michael Clark is not the famous former cricketer! Michael is a veteran of the Contact Centre and CX Industry and was recognised in 2023 as one of the Top 100 Influencers in the Contact Centre Industry in APAC, and as one of Australia's Top 50 Small Business Leaders in 2022.

Michael is the co-founder and Principal Consultant at CXTT Consulting.