The New Multichannel Contact Center Is Changing the Course of the ATA

By Phil Grudzinski

December 2011

Our course is rapidly changing at the ATA, and it is headed toward the new ways contact centers are engaging customers. While technology is fueling an exponential growth in social media, chat, email, and online interactions, consumers are equally expanding the use of these channels to engage businesses on a daily basis – and all of this activity is finding its way into the midst of the contact center. The new “multichannel” contact center is more than just making and taking calls. It is now a center of almost all customer engagement for businesses and the primary source of driving customer relationships, experience, and satisfaction.

As you can imagine, the fast-paced evolution of technology-based customer touch points brings with it a vast array of problems. These are issues that ATA members and our industry will need to solve – issues like customer contact strategies and standards, customer service levels, customer privacy, and new regulatory guidelines and enforcement. Make no mistake, the FTC, FCC, and States Attorneys Generals (AGs) are all already contemplating how to address consumer privacy and protection in this high-tech world.

Does all of this sound familiar? Of course it does. The road of technology-enabled customer touch points is virtually identical to the phone-based environment. You have the same operational issues of workforce management, agent consumer skill sets, metrics, and reporting. Plus, one of the clear answers to consumer protection and privacy is the advent of the Self-Regulatory Organization (SRO). Only the ATA has advocated the SRO, which has forever improved our credibility and voice with regulators.

The good news in all of this is that no longer can contact centers be viewed as a simple calling commodity. Pricing levels will be reflective of extreme swings in competitive differentiation. Providing solutions to multiple customer touch points for businesses while adhering to a high customer satisfaction standard will be the new model. Solving issues for just one or the other will simply not be enough.

Be on the watch for new customer engagement strategies at the ATA. Our association is made up of the best-in-class companies that provide not only the technological solutions, but also demonstrate how to execute these solutions to drive exceptional customer experience for your business.

Come see the ATA’s value proposition for yourself at our annual convention, which will be held right on the beach at the Westin Diplomat in Hollywood, Florida, April 29 through May 2, 2012.

Phil Grudzinski is the new CEO of the American Teleservices Association.