The Contact Centers of today are an extremely sophisticated environment. We have the IVR to record all types of phone related measurements, the CRM for customer information and quality management systems for all voice and written communication. As a matter of fact, the high performance Contact Center is inundated with so many different types of measurements that it becomes difficult to determine what is important and what is not.

Some of the measurements captured are Average Handling Time (Average Talk Time + Average After Call Work), Productivity (the actual time an agent is logged on and ready to handle a call over total time worked), Average Hold Time, Average Queue Time etc. With so many different types of measurements, what is important and what is not is not always easy to determine.

A solution to this dilemma is taking a look at the mindset of a customer.

Make a Gain or Avoid Pain - The reason why we are all customers to goods or services is because we want to make a gain or to avoid pain. We want someone or something that can give us a solution. When we are ill, we see a doctor to alleviate the pain. If we have a hot date, we shop for new clothing and look for a suitable place for dinner for the purpose of making a gain in the eyes of the date.

Quality – As customers, we want quality products. We want quality materials to be used and for the products to be well designed. At the same time we want the product to be at the lowest price.

Best Deals – Everyone loves a great bargain. How many of us tell everyone about the best deals we received and laugh at those who paid more for something similar.

NOW not later - When we want something we want it now. We do not want to wait or queue, it is now. Similarly whenever we call a contact center, we expect to be connected through not wait in a queue. Now, Now, Now is the way to go.

Whenever and Wherever– As a customer, we want the product or service to be available whenever we want them. A great example is shopping; we want the sales assistant to be available at all times but not tailing us everywhere unless that is our preference. That implies that we want the goods and services to be everywhere yet nowhere whenever we don’t want it.

Personalized solutions - We want personalized solutions, we don’t want to be treated as another anybody, we want to be somebody, and we want acknowledgement and recognition of that fact. We are individuals and we want organizations to treat us as such.

If the above are what we as customers want from our provider of goods and services; are we as provider of our customers, measuring and focusing on these Customer Performance Measurements? Admittedly we are in a business and profit is ultimately the aim, however if we are unable to provide the 6 key factors mentioned above, how are we to attract customers or retain them?

In our next article we will look at some of the key Customer Performance Indicators that we should focus on.