Driving Growth Through Accountability and Thought Leadership in Customer Interactions

Byline: This article is based on an interview with Harini Gokul, the Chief Customer Officer (CCO) of Entrust

Blog Post Introduction Text:

In this article, Harini Gokul, Chief Customer Officer (CCO) of Entrust, discusses the importance of accountability in driving growth in contact center teams. She emphasizes the need for teams to be accountable for numbers, quotas, and metrics that contribute to overall growth. Harini suggests using support and maintenance agreements as a powerful way to focus the team on their goals.

Additionally, she highlights the significance of capturing insights and learnings from customer interactions and using them to create knowledge-based articles and thought leadership. Harini believes that contact center teams have a unique opportunity to educate customers and help them think differently, ultimately leading to better products and services.

Key Takeaways:

Accountability is crucial for driving growth in contact center teams, and it can be achieved through setting and achieving numbers, quotas, and metrics.
Support and maintenance agreements can be a powerful tool to focus the team on their goals and accelerate growth.
Capturing insights and learnings from customer interactions is essential for improving products and services.
Creating knowledge-based articles and thought leadership can help contact center teams share their expertise and build respect for their work.
Contact center teams have the opportunity to educate customers and help them think differently, leading to better products and services.

Introduction

To achieve growth, contact center teams must be held accountable for meeting numbers, quotas, and metrics. Harini Gokul, Chief Customer Officer (CCO) of Entrust, emphasizes the importance of accountability in driving growth. She suggests that one effective way to foster accountability is by assigning contact center teams responsible for managing support and maintenance agreements. By delivering against these goals, teams are motivated to focus on the bigger picture and contribute to the organization’s overall growth.

Harini highlights the significance of quantitative accountability, such as carrying software maintenance quotas. This approach ensures that teams have clear targets to work towards, enabling them to measure their progress and success. However, accountability goes beyond just numbers. It also involves recognizing and rewarding teams for their thought leadership and organizational contributions.

Thought Leadership: Empowering the Contact Center

Thought leadership may not be commonly associated with contact center teams, but Harini challenges this perception. She believes each customer interaction is an opportunity for contact center teams to educate and help reframe conversations. By leveraging their technical expertise, contact center professionals can provide valuable insights on improving products and services to meet customer needs.

She emphasizes the importance of capturing these insights and transforming them into actionable knowledge. She suggests that contact center teams write knowledge-based articles and blogs and engage in thought leadership discussions with product teams. This helps the teams take pride in their work, share their expertise, and build respect within the organization.

Leveraging Customer Interactions for Continuous Improvement

Customer interactions serve as a rich source of information and learning for organizations. Harini highlights the significance of contact center teams in gathering customer feedback and helping them overcome challenges. These interactions provide valuable insights into how products and services can be improved to enhance customer satisfaction.

She emphasizes the need for a mechanism to capture and utilize these insights effectively. Organizations can address patterns and joint issues at scale by identifying patterns and common issues across multiple customer interactions. This involves writing articles and finding long-term systemic fixes to the problems identified. By leveraging the technical expertise within the contact center, organizations can continuously improve their offerings and better serve their customers.

The Broader Implications

The insights shared by Harini shed light on the critical role of accountability and thought leadership within the contact center. By holding teams accountable for numbers and metrics, organizations can drive growth and ensure that everyone is aligned with the overarching goals. Additionally, empowering contact center teams to engage in thought leadership activities allows for knowledge sharing and fosters a culture of continuous improvement.

The implications of these insights extend beyond the contact center itself. By leveraging the expertise and insights gained from customer interactions, organizations can enhance their products and services, ultimately increasing customer satisfaction and loyalty. Furthermore, the focus on thought leadership within the contact center can help bridge the gap between different teams and foster collaboration, ultimately benefiting the organization.

Conclusion

Accountability and thought leadership are critical pillars for driving growth and continuous improvement within the contact center. By holding teams accountable for numbers and metrics, organizations can ensure they are on track to achieve their growth goals. Simultaneously, empowering contact center teams to engage in thought leadership activities allows for knowledge sharing and identifying areas for improvement.

By leveraging the insights gained from customer interactions, organizations can enhance their offerings and better serve their customers. The contact center is a support function and a valuable source of expertise and insights that can contribute to the organization’s overall success.