Phil's Customer Contact AnecdotePhil's Customer Contact Anecdote

We increasingly expect customer service people to be resourceful knowledge workers, not order-taking drones.

In the Interop session on the new competitive landscape, Phil Edholm of Nortel recounted a customer contact anecdote that happened to him on his way to Vegas, and in passing he made some remarks that I think are worth calling attention to.Phil described having a problem with his airline ticket for the trip here, and said the ticket agent wound up having to get a supervisor to resolve the problem, a process that took five minutes. Phil said this type of scenario is made for communications-enabled business processes. Shouldn't the desk agent have been able to reach out to any supervisor at any airport in the world who was free at that moment, present the facts of Phil's situation to that supervisor and get resolution immediately, rather than having to wait on a person who was physically located at that airport?

Phil noted that the advantage of a CEBP solution would have been not only faster service, but the ticket agent could have handled everything via the UC/CEBP system, and "could have let me think that she had the power" to resolve the situation.

I think that last comment is really insightful. I'm sure that where frontline customer service people have that ability to resolve things without exposing the inner workings to the customer, they probably do that and we don't even notice. And that does present a much more efficient, professional view of the company than the "I'll have to talk to my supervisor" response. Even more so now than in the past; we increasingly expect customer service people to be resourceful knowledge workers, not order-taking drones.

Phil's comment was spot-on; UC can help frontline customer service people give a better impression of their companies--an impression of a company that empowers employees at all levels and lets them take the lead in solving problems.We increasingly expect customer service people to be resourceful knowledge workers, not order-taking drones.