{"id":10949,"date":"2020-07-29T11:00:50","date_gmt":"2020-07-29T10:00:50","guid":{"rendered":"\/gb\/en\/blog\/?p=10949"},"modified":"2023-01-16T12:35:50","modified_gmt":"2023-01-16T12:35:50","slug":"contact-centre-and-customer-experience-expert","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"\/gb\/en\/blog\/contact-centre-and-customer-experience-expert\/","title":{"rendered":"The Importance of Being a Contact Centre and Customer Experience Expert"},"content":{"rendered":"<h4><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">How important is it that your Customer Experience Head be a Contact Centre Expert too?\u00a0 In this article, <\/span><\/i><a href=\"https:\/\/de.linkedin.com\/in\/daniellawrenceord\/de-de\"><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Daniel Ord, CCXP<\/span><\/i><\/a><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> considers the answer to this question.\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/h4>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In early June, I tried out the new LinkedIn polling feature for the first time. The poll I put up was: \u201cHow important is it that your <a href=\"\/gb\/en\/blog\/definitive-guide-customer-experience\/\">Customer Experience<\/a> Head\/Chief Customer Officer also be a Contact Centre Expert?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">There were 3 voting options (only one vote is allowed by the way):<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Extremely important<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Moderately important<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Not very important\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Before you read further, take a moment and mentally vote.\u00a0 If you had seen my poll on LinkedIn \u2013 what have you voted?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Now, take another moment. Assume someone in the industry were to ask you \u2018why did you select that option?\u2019 \u2013 what would you say? Take a moment to think about why you voted the way you did.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I chose the phrase \u2018contact centre\u2019 expert for the poll question deliberately.\u00a0 Not just someone who values contact centres or thinks that they are important \u2013 for example, someone in marketing.\u00a0 An \u2018expert\u2019 would be someone you would consider hiring to run your centre at a high level or an external consultant that you would bring in <\/span><b>to help bring your centre to a high(er) level.\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As any contact centre expert will tell you there is some <\/span><b>extremely<\/b> <b>specific<\/b> <b>know-how<\/b> <b>required<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> to run a great centre.\u00a0 Operations, people management, customer experience, leadership, and quality. That is what I mean by \u2018expert\u2019.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>Initial Results<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I allowed 7 days for the votes to come in.\u00a0 These were the final results after the poll closed:<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-11128\" src=\"\/gb\/en\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/importance-of-customer-experience.png\" alt=\"importance of customer experience\" width=\"600\" height=\"371\" srcset=\"\/gb\/en\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/importance-of-customer-experience.png 600w, \/gb\/en\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/importance-of-customer-experience-300x186.png 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Interestingly there were some qualitative comments on the post as well\u00a0 \u2013 which I\u2019ll get to in a bit.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>The Role of Qualitative Research<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Before I dive into the results and our findings and thoughts, a note on Qualitative Research. Clearly a LinkedIn poll isn\u2019t statistically viable.\u00a0 Results can\u2019t be confidently extrapolated across the industry.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But that\u2019s not the point.\u00a0 It was never the point.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Polls like these provide<\/span><b> interesting fodder for raising questions<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and pointing to where additional research <\/span><b>might bring more insight.<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0 That\u2019s the power of \u2018qualitative\u2019 research.\u00a0 And that\u2019s the spirit of this article.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-10954 size-large\" src=\"\/gb\/en\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/service-evaluation-concept-KBGC4U5-640x401.jpg\" alt=\"the-role-of-qualitative-research\" width=\"640\" height=\"421\" \/><\/p>\n<h3><b>So who were the people that voted \u2018extremely important\u2019?<\/b><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">After the poll closed we wanted to update everyone who voted. So I put out this short note \u2013 which we will tackle in pieces for this article:<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cThanks to everyone that voted!<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The results were more skewed than I expected with 50% voting \u2018extremely important\u2019 that a CX Head be an expert in Contact Centres.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">So we explored further by digging into each voting option to see \u2018who\u2019 voted for this option.\u00a0 Here\u2019s what we found:<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Of the 50% who voted \u2018extremely important\u2019, 72% of those voters work in a Contact Centre or Customer Service role.\u201c<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I was curious as to <\/span><b>why half of all the voters in the poll chose this option<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, so I decided to dig into the composition of \u2018who\u2019 these voters were.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">To do that I worked with a colleague to look at the LinkedIn profile of each person that voted to determine \u2018what they did\u2019 at work.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Sometimes it was obvious \u2013 for example, Head of Contact Centre for X organisation or Voice of Customer Manager for Y organisation. At other times <\/span><b>we needed to dig deeper<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> into the current job description.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The use of hyphenated job titles such as \u201cCX |Data Analytics | Customer Service | Employee Experience\u201d <\/span><b>seems to be popular in LinkedIn profiles.<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">We just had to work harder to figure what folks with these kinds of job titles in their LinkedIn profile actually \u2018did\u2019.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Equipped with our classification system we found that<\/span><b> 72% voted for \u2018extremely important\u2019<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0worked in the Contact Centre or Customer Service function at their organisation. A significant majority.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-10955 size-large\" src=\"\/gb\/en\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/smiling-young-attractive-brunette-businesswoman-LRBEDX7-640x427.jpg\" alt=\"contact-centre-customer-service\" width=\"640\" height=\"468\" \/><\/p>\n\t<div class=\"cta-banner  CID-2FdM5dTp IID-6a08744e3f14e\"\r\n\t\tdata-dl-custom-type=\"ctaButton\">\r\n\t\t<div class=\"cta-banner-img-wrap\">\r\n\t\t\t<div class=\"cta-banner-img\" style=\"background-image:url(\/gb\/en\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/portrait-of-a-beautiful-and-cheerful-young-woman-telephone-operator-with-headset-working-on-desktop-computer-in-row-in-a-customer-service-call-support-helpline-business-center-with-teamworker-in-background.jpg)\"><\/div>\r\n\t\t<\/div>\r\n\t\t<div class=\"cta-body\" data-dl-custom-type=\"ctaButton\">\r\n\t\t\t<span class=\"cta-sub-heading\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ringcentral.com\/gb\/en\/contact-centre\/overview.html\">cloud contact centre<\/a> technology<\/span>\r\n\t\t\t<h3 class=\"cta-heading\">Improve customer and employee experience together<\/h3>\r\n\t\t\t<p>RingCentral's cloud contact centre can help you improve first contact resolution and make your customers happier.<\/p>\r\n\t\t\t<a class=\"rc-cta-shortcode btn btn-primary btn-lg\" data-dl-element=\"button\"\r\n\t\t\t\thref=\"https:\/\/www.ringcentral.com\/gb\/en\/contact-centre\/overview.html\" class=\"btn btn-primary\"\r\n\t\t\t\ttarget=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" data-dl-additional-info=\"Improve customer and employee experience together\"\r\n\t\t\t\tdata-dl-name=\"Improve customer and employee experience together | Find out how\">Find out how<\/a>\r\n\r\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\r\n\t<\/div>\r\n\t\n<h3><b>What about the people who voted \u2018moderately important\u2019?<\/b><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Of the 26% who voted \u2018moderately important\u2019, <\/span><b>47% of those voters work in a Contact Centre<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> or customer service role. So if you combine the voters for \u2018extremely important and the voters for moderately important you get:<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote><span class='bctt-click-to-tweet'><span class='bctt-ctt-text'><a href='https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fringcentr.al%2F2Emwfaq&#038;text=76%25%20of%20all%20voters%20felt%20that%20it%20was%20extremely%20or%20moderately%20important%20that%20the%20CX%20Head%20be%20a%20contact%20centre%20expert.&#038;via=RingCentralUK&#038;related=RingCentralUK' target='_blank'rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">76% of all voters felt that it was extremely or moderately important that the CX Head be a contact centre expert. <\/a><\/span><a href='https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fringcentr.al%2F2Emwfaq&#038;text=76%25%20of%20all%20voters%20felt%20that%20it%20was%20extremely%20or%20moderately%20important%20that%20the%20CX%20Head%20be%20a%20contact%20centre%20expert.&#038;via=RingCentralUK&#038;related=RingCentralUK' target='_blank' class='bctt-ctt-btn'rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Click To Tweet<\/a><\/span><\/blockquote>\n<h3><b>Finally, the people who voted \u2018not very important\u2019<\/b><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Of the<\/span><b> 24% who voted<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> \u2018not very important\u2019, only 30% of those work in a contact centre or customer service role.\u00a0 The remaining <\/span><b>70% of voters<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> who chose \u2018not very important\u2019 work in a CX function or as a CX Consultant.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>Summing up the results<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">So while we know that <\/span><b>correlation does not equal causality<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> here\u2019s what we can say about this poll,<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote><span class='bctt-click-to-tweet'><span class='bctt-ctt-text'><a href='https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fringcentr.al%2F2Emwfaq&#038;text=%E2%80%9CThere%20is%20a%20positive%20correlation%20between%20how%20important%20it%20is%20that%20a%20CX%20Head%20be%20a%20contact%20centre%20expert%20and%20the%20percentage%20of%20voters%20who%20work%20in%20the%20contact%20centre%20and%20customer%20service%20industry.%E2%80%9D&#038;via=RingCentralUK&#038;related=RingCentralUK' target='_blank'rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u201cThere is a positive correlation between how important it is that a CX Head be a contact centre expert and the percentage of voters who work in the contact centre and customer service industry.\u201d <\/a><\/span><a href='https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fringcentr.al%2F2Emwfaq&#038;text=%E2%80%9CThere%20is%20a%20positive%20correlation%20between%20how%20important%20it%20is%20that%20a%20CX%20Head%20be%20a%20contact%20centre%20expert%20and%20the%20percentage%20of%20voters%20who%20work%20in%20the%20contact%20centre%20and%20customer%20service%20industry.%E2%80%9D&#038;via=RingCentralUK&#038;related=RingCentralUK' target='_blank' class='bctt-ctt-btn'rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Click To Tweet<\/a><\/span><\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Or put another way \u2013 the importance that the CX Head also be a contact centre expert fell as the percentage of voters who work in contact centres or customer service fell.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">We did receive some <\/span><b>interesting<\/b> <b>qualitative<\/b> <b>comments<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> from voters including these:<\/span><\/p>\n<p><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cI can&#8217;t imagine not being a &#8220;well-seasoned&#8221; contact centre manager, otherwise you will end up &#8220;well-seasoned&#8221; on a spit over an open fire on your way out as a failed CX Officer.\u201d<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cI voted extremely important not because I think they need to be hands-on with the contact centre but they have to know how to influence the contact centre managers in the grand scheme of strategic planning. If you don\u2019t fundamentally understand how a contact centre manager goes about their day, you will undoubtedly be destined to fail.\u201d<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cMaybe the word \u2018expert\u2019 is not the best, but CX Leaders absolutely need to know how best-in-class contact centres operate.\u201d<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Though the correlation wasn\u2019t as strong, as the percentage of voters in CX-related job roles increased &#8211; the level of importance that a CX Head be a contact centre expert decreased.\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote><span class='bctt-click-to-tweet'><span class='bctt-ctt-text'><a href='https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fringcentr.al%2F2Emwfaq&#038;text=Put%20simply%2C%20most%20of%20the%20voters%20in%20CX-related%20job%20roles%20didn%E2%80%99t%20think%20it%20was%20that%20important%20that%20the%20CX%20Head%20also%20be%20a%20contact%20centre%20expert.&#038;via=RingCentralUK&#038;related=RingCentralUK' target='_blank'rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Put simply, most of the voters in CX-related job roles didn\u2019t think it was that important that the CX Head also be a contact centre expert. <\/a><\/span><a href='https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fringcentr.al%2F2Emwfaq&#038;text=Put%20simply%2C%20most%20of%20the%20voters%20in%20CX-related%20job%20roles%20didn%E2%80%99t%20think%20it%20was%20that%20important%20that%20the%20CX%20Head%20also%20be%20a%20contact%20centre%20expert.&#038;via=RingCentralUK&#038;related=RingCentralUK' target='_blank' class='bctt-ctt-btn'rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Click To Tweet<\/a><\/span><\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Here are some verbatim comments received from the CX side of the house:<\/span><\/p>\n<p><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cThis is the conundrum of CX professionals far and wide <\/span><\/i><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">&#x1f602;<\/span><\/i><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> the dreaded contact centre box. CX is further reaching than just contact centre management.\u201d<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cYour chief customer officer has to be more aligned with the CEO than the contact centre. Perhaps at a lower level, it becomes more important &#8211; but a CCO has to be an expert in overall operations, marketing, strategy, product development, legal, HR, etc &#8211; before specific contact centre knowledge comes into play.\u201d<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cMy view has always been that the person at the top of the pyramid can\u2019t be an expert in everything. But they need to have trusted persons who do master the various aspects and who can advise. That doesn\u2019t mean that the boss shouldn\u2019t be a specialist in one or more aspects of the job.\u201d<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-10956 size-large\" src=\"\/gb\/en\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/business-colleagues-at-company-workplace-M6FVGZH-640x427.jpg\" alt=\"understanding-customer-service\" width=\"640\" height=\"412\" \/><\/p>\n<h2><b>Why did so many contact centre and customer service folks vote \u2018extremely important\u2019 to this question?<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As we shared earlier, <\/span><b>qualitative research is great<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> at bringing up ideas for what to study <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">next<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.\u00a0 I think this would be an interesting research to conduct in the future.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But even though we don\u2019t have that research in hand \u2013 we do have some thoughts on these results.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><b>1. Pride in the contact centre and customer service industry<\/b><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Whether you\u2019re sitting in the annual Contact Centre Awards gala in Singapore, visiting the bustling Call Centre Show in Berlin or just meeting agents and team leaders anywhere in the world \u2013 everyone\u2019s buttons are bursting.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This is <\/span><b>an industry that\u2019s full of (well-deserved) pride<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. Dealing with the mental and emotional labour of serving customers \u2013 and serving the folks who serve customers day in and day out \u2013 is rewarding.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But also pressurising. Imagine a lump of coal being relentlessly squeezed on all sides. On one side, you have customers. Not in aggregate or grouped into slices in a pie chart &#8211; as they tend to appear in financial analyses or reports.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">One by one. <\/span><b>Each with their own unique needs<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, expectations and wants. One after the next. It\u2019s a spout you can\u2019t turn off.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">On the other side, you have an organisation.\u00a0 There are KPIs to meet, metrics to conform to, quality standards to adhere to.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Senior management asks questions like &#8211; why are we taking so long to serve customers?\u00a0 Why aren\u2019t the CSAT scores higher?\u00a0 Why did this guy complain about X, Y or Z?\u00a0 Why is attrition so high? Isn\u2019t running a centre just a matter of common sense?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">We can\u2019t forget the pressure contact centre and customer service people put on themselves. Because when <\/span><b>you serve customers you want to do a good job.<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> You want it to go well. You want positive outcomes. When it\u2019s not \u2013 or not right now \u2013 it can feel very lonely. <\/span><b>\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n<h3><b>2. A lack of clarity on customer experience and the role of the CX Head<\/b><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Customer experience is not customer service on steroids. It\u2019s a glib statement.\u00a0 But it\u2019s true. I find that contact centre and customer service folks tend to rebrand much of what they do into \u2018Customer Experience\u2019.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">We are not contact centres \u2013 we are customer experience centres.\u00a0 our agents are not customer service professionals \u2013 they are guest experience officers.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>It\u2019s customer service on steroids<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. I get the power of branding and job titles.\u00a0 But this blurring of the lines between CX &amp; the contact centre confuses people.\u00a0 Not least, the ones who work in your organisation.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In workshops, when I ask a group of contact centre team leaders <\/span><b>for their definition of customer experience <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">they rarely answer a)\u00a0 the same way b) correctly.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Even contact centre directors and managers <\/span><b>often struggle to articulate what CX \u2018is\u2019 <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">and what it isn\u2019t in the context of what they do.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It\u2019s kind of hard to bring CX to life if people don\u2019t even know what it is.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><b>Definitions<\/b><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">So let\u2019s look at definitions.\u00a0 Not \u2018my\u2019 definition or \u2018my\u2019 take.\u00a0 But industry definitions that have been around a while.\u00a0 After all \u2013 we\u2019re talking about mature and maturing industries here. <\/span><b>There are existing and powerful definitions.<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">First off \u2013 what is the definition of a Contact Centre? I am an ICMI Certified Associate and this ICMI definition is the one I have used for years in my training work.\u00a0 It\u2019s as relevant today as it was almost 20 years ago.<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote><span class='bctt-click-to-tweet'><span class='bctt-ctt-text'><a href='https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fringcentr.al%2F2Emwfaq&#038;text=A%20coordinated%20system%20of%20people%2C%20processes%2C%20technologies%20and%20strategies%20that%20provides%20access%20to%20organisational%20resources%20through%20appropriate%20channels%20of%20communication%20to%20enable%20interactions%20that%20create%20value%20for%20the%20customer.&#038;via=RingCentralUK&#038;related=RingCentralUK' target='_blank'rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">A coordinated system of people, processes, technologies and strategies that provides access to organisational resources through appropriate channels of communication to enable interactions that create value for the customer. <\/a><\/span><a href='https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fringcentr.al%2F2Emwfaq&#038;text=A%20coordinated%20system%20of%20people%2C%20processes%2C%20technologies%20and%20strategies%20that%20provides%20access%20to%20organisational%20resources%20through%20appropriate%20channels%20of%20communication%20to%20enable%20interactions%20that%20create%20value%20for%20the%20customer.&#038;via=RingCentralUK&#038;related=RingCentralUK' target='_blank' class='bctt-ctt-btn'rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Click To Tweet<\/a><\/span><\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In this <\/span><a href=\"\/gb\/en\/blog\/how-contact-centres-can-compete-in-a-post-pandemic-world\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">new era<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, it\u2019s valuable to also add the employee into the mix here.\u00a0 But that was always implied and part of this definition anyway.\u00a0 It just wasn\u2019t specifically stated. So to boil it down \u2013 t<\/span><b>he contact centre is where we align resources to meet customer demands.<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Now let\u2019s look at the definition of CX.\u00a0 I am a CXPA Recognised Training Provider and though I present a few CX definitions in classes for discussion \u2013\u00a0 I think <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/brucetemkin\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Bruce Temkin<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> from <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.qualtrics.com\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Qualtrics<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> has the best one overall:<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote><span class='bctt-click-to-tweet'><span class='bctt-ctt-text'><a href='https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fringcentr.al%2F2Emwfaq&#038;text=Customer%20experience%20is%20the%20perception%20that%20customers%20have%20of%20all%20their%20interactions%20with%20an%20organisation.&#038;via=RingCentralUK&#038;related=RingCentralUK' target='_blank'rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Customer experience is the perception that customers have of all their interactions with an organisation. <\/a><\/span><a href='https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fringcentr.al%2F2Emwfaq&#038;text=Customer%20experience%20is%20the%20perception%20that%20customers%20have%20of%20all%20their%20interactions%20with%20an%20organisation.&#038;via=RingCentralUK&#038;related=RingCentralUK' target='_blank' class='bctt-ctt-btn'rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Click To Tweet<\/a><\/span><\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Right away you can see that the playing fields are different.\u00a0 CX folks have a mandate across the entire organisation.\u00a0 <\/span><b>Contact centres have a mandate for <\/b><a href=\"\/gb\/en\/blog\/remote-contact-centre-resource-hub\/\"><b>aligning resources<\/b><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> to customers who choose (happily or not) to use those resources.\u00a0 It\u2019s a subset of customer experience.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-10957 size-large\" src=\"\/gb\/en\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/creative-business-people-working-on-business-proje-ZMWU39D-640x427.jpg\" alt=\"when-you-hire-a-contact-centre-manager\" width=\"640\" height=\"415\" \/><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Earlier this year I wrote an article on \u2018What To Look For When You Hire A Contact Centre Manager\u2019. \u00a0 For purposes of <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.omnitouchinternational.com\/what-to-look-for-when-you-hire-a-new-contact-centre-manager\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">this article<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, an \u2018expert\u2019.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I recap those competencies here:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Operations &amp; Technology<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">People Management (today\u2019s Employee Experience)<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Leadership &amp; Business Management<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Service &amp; Quality Management<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But with the caveat that they already have an <\/span><b>extremely robust job role<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> \u2013 and can\u2019t be expected to take on the <\/span><b>CX job rol<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">e too. Of course, I support that a contact centre manager formally learns customer experience too.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">When contact centre management has <\/span><b>a solid understanding of CX<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, how their centre contributes to CX, and how they can work better with the CX Head and Team, that means only better outcomes for everyone.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Before leaving the contact centre competencies it\u2019s worth mentioning here \u2013 that even the contact centre head is <\/span><b>going to rely on others to have their own areas of expertise<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.\u00a0 For example, training, quality assurance, workforce management, tech or human resources.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Just because the contact centre head is \u2018in charge\u2019 of these special functions, it doesn\u2019t mean that they must be an \u2018expert\u2019 in them.<\/span><\/p>\n\t<div class=\"cta-banner  CID-2FdM5dTp IID-6a08744e3f379\"\r\n\t\tdata-dl-custom-type=\"ctaButton\">\r\n\t\t<div class=\"cta-banner-img-wrap\">\r\n\t\t\t<div class=\"cta-banner-img\" style=\"background-image:url(\/gb\/en\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/harmony-contact-desktop-edited.png)\"><\/div>\r\n\t\t<\/div>\r\n\t\t<div class=\"cta-body\" data-dl-custom-type=\"ctaButton\">\r\n\t\t\t<span class=\"cta-sub-heading\">Contact Centre 2.0: Rise of the<\/span>\r\n\t\t\t<h3 class=\"cta-heading\">Collaborative Contact Centre<\/h3>\r\n\t\t\t<p>Get the full report on how digital transformation is making contact centres unified, collaborative, and intelligent.<\/p>\r\n\t\t\t<a class=\"rc-cta-shortcode btn btn-primary btn-lg\" data-dl-element=\"button\"\r\n\t\t\t\thref=\"https:\/\/www.ringcentral.com\/gb\/en\/lp\/collaborative-contact-centre.html\" class=\"btn btn-primary\"\r\n\t\t\t\ttarget=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" data-dl-additional-info=\"Collaborative Contact Centre\"\r\n\t\t\t\tdata-dl-name=\"Collaborative Contact Centre | Get your copy here\">Get your copy here<\/a>\r\n\r\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\r\n\t<\/div>\r\n\t\n<h2><b>CX Management Competencies<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">So what are the competencies for CX? Since I\u2019m a <\/span><b>CXPA Recognised Training Provider<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, I draw on the CXPA standard as a guide.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">So the CX Head and Team will:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Act as a centre of excellence for a deep and fundamental understanding of CX<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Guide development and execution of the CX strategy<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Drive voice of customer strategies and methodology (which includes personas &amp; journey mapping)<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Implement experience \/ human-centred design principles and methodologies<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Educate &amp; drive metric and measurement strategies + practices<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Ensure good governance practices are in place<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Support culture-building efforts and practices<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Before leaving the CX competencies, let\u2019s repeat what we said about the contact centre head.<\/span><b> A CX Head is not going to be an expert in every CX competency.<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0 They\u2019re going to rely on other members of the CX Team \u2013 or outsourced partners &#8211; to bring specialised expertise to their CX objectives.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">For example, designing surveys, conducting analyses on VOC data and implementing experience design practices all require specialised know-how.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Interestingly, I do not find that CX people mix up their job roles with those of the contact centre or customer service folks.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">While they may not be \u2018experts\u2019 in contact centres and customer service (and many are not), <\/span><b>they understand the value of contact centres and customer service.\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Both as<\/span><b> important touchpoints in some customer journeys<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> \u2013 and as rich sources of voice of customer and voice of employee data and insight.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-10958 size-large\" src=\"\/gb\/en\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/business-people-working-together-in-office-UV3CVEH-640x427.jpg\" alt=\"contact-centre-management\" width=\"640\" height=\"427\" srcset=\"\/gb\/en\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/business-people-working-together-in-office-UV3CVEH-640x427.jpg 640w, \/gb\/en\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/business-people-working-together-in-office-UV3CVEH-300x200.jpg 300w, \/gb\/en\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/business-people-working-together-in-office-UV3CVEH-768x512.jpg 768w, \/gb\/en\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/business-people-working-together-in-office-UV3CVEH-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, \/gb\/en\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/business-people-working-together-in-office-UV3CVEH.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/p>\n<h3><b>What would I have voted?<\/b><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Earlier this year, I wrote <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.omnitouchinternational.com\/cx-lessons-we-can-learn-from-the-contact-centre-industry\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">an article<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> on what CX folks can learn from contact centre folks.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">So many lessons have been learned in the centre and customer service function that can be picked up and <\/span><b>brought to new heights in customer experience.<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I have a lot of pride in the 30 years I spent in contact centres and customer service.\u00a0 Along with 20 years conducting VOC research and teaching everything contact centre, customer service and customer experience.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">One voter wrote regarding the poll:<\/span><\/p>\n<p><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cAsking followers of a contact-centre authority, in effect whether contact centres have executive-level importance, is a recipe for confirmation bias! It&#8217;s like asking military officers, say, how important military experience is for the PM or asking car salespeople whether people should buy a new car every three years.\u201d<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I think I am the <\/span><b>contact centre authority <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">referenced in the post.\u00a0 The one that cooked up the recipe for (presumably my) confirmation bias.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Actually, I would have voted \u2018not very important\u2019.\u00a0 I don\u2019t think it\u2019s very important that the CX Head also be a contact centre expert.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Value the contact centre?\u00a0 Yes.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Evaluate and improve journeys that involve the contact centre?\u00a0 You bet.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Engage in voice of employee and voice of customer research interventions in the centre? Of course.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I think the real magic happens when contact centre folks \u2018understand\u2019 CX and CX folks understand the contact centre and they <\/span><b>work together<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> to the customer\u2019s mutual benefit as well as that of their employees and their organisation.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 24px; line-height: 30px;\">Learn more about how\u00a0contact centre technology can create a better experience for customers and agents<\/span><span class=\"text-center\" style=\"display: block;\" data-dtm-element=\"button\" data-dtm-context=\"bottom-cta\" data-dtm-additional-info=\"Learn more about contact centre tech\"><a class=\"btn btn-primary btn-lg\" style=\"margin-top: 16px; font-weight: bold;\" title=\"Learn more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ringcentral.com\/gb\/en\/contact-centre\/overview.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" data-dtm-name=\"Bottom CTA\">Learn more<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>How important is it that your Customer Experience Head be a Contact Centre Expert too?\u00a0 In this article, Daniel Ord, CCXP considers the answer to this question.\u00a0 In early June, &hellip; <a href=\"\/gb\/en\/blog\/contact-centre-and-customer-experience-expert\/\" class=\"more-link\">Read more<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;The Importance of Being a Contact Centre and Customer Experience Expert&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":244,"featured_media":11114,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"single-content-hub.php","format":"gallery","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[157],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>The Importance of Being a Contact Centre and Customer Experience Expert<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"How important is it that your Customer Experience Head be a Contact Centre Expert too? In this article, we will give an answer to this question.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ringcentral.com\/gb\/en\/blog\/contact-centre-and-customer-experience-expert\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"RingCentral Team\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"14 minutes\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The Importance of Being a Contact Centre and Customer Experience Expert","description":"How important is it that your Customer Experience Head be a Contact Centre Expert too? 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