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A new tutorial from Prosci's
Call Center Leadership Series (pdf)

taken from Prosci's new toolkit
Call Center Planning and Design Toolkit

 

Call Center Strategy Series: Module 2 of 3
The Mission Statement and Contact Strategy

Background

This tutorial, taken from the Call Center Planning and Design Toolkit, describes the mission statement and contact center strategy and gives tips for effectively developing these for your call center.

 

Call Center Mission Statement

Every contact center should have a mission statement. The mission consists of a few lines or a brief paragraph that describes the center and what it does. At a high level, some of the questions it answers include:

- What is our main function or purpose?
- How do we fit in with the overall business mission?
- What are our defining characteristics?
- How do we want to be recognized by our customers?
- What are our priorities?
- What is our market segment/industry focus?

At the planning stage of a contact center, a mission statement is a useful tool. It succinctly identifies the end result of your efforts, and it functions as a “sanity check” to ensure that all work and planning support the mission. After the center is in place, it provides employees at all levels with a quick reminder of what you are all about. The three main benefits to your organization and to employees are:

1. helps define and align strategies
2. focuses discussions
3. aids in decision making

Well-crafted mission statements share some common features:

- short and snappy
- easy to understand
- meaningful
- lasting

Everyone in the contact center should know the mission statement and understand how their role supports it.

 

Develop a customer contact strategy

A customer contact strategy defines the desired customer experience and how the contact center fits within the organization’s overall process of serving customers. The strategy document acknowledges the “today” state and identifies the future state (usually 2 to 3 years out) that everyone in the organization is working towards. A customer contact strategic plan is useful to:

1. Define the overall role of the contact center.
2. Align corporate strategies (e.g., technology, self-service, marketing, organization).
3. Provide a blueprint for change and create your vision for the future.

Your research with customers and benchmarking of competitors and non-competitors will contribute to this customer contact strategy development.

Topic list for a customer contact strategy

Some topics that should be addressed in your strategic plan are:

1. Overall contact center mission 
2. Relationship and role of the contact center with the overall organization
3. High-level objectives and benchmarks for performance
4. Products and services available
5. Target customers
6. Access methods and media (current and future)
7. Technology directions
8. Self-service options
9. Organizational structure
10. Operations and processes
11. Priorities and values

The customer contact strategy is a high-level description of the call center that can be read by anyone in the organization to learn about the who you are, what you will be doing and how to relate to the operation as a whole.

The viewpoints of a strategic plan

Four key viewpoints must be considered in any strategic plan: the customer, customer service representatives, the call center managers and the organization. By responding to the questions and concerns on the following worksheet you will begin to understand each viewpoint and be on your way to defining customer contact strategy:

Four Viewpoints

1. The Customer 

How can I contact the center?
When can I contact the center?
Can I talk with a person?
What alternate contact media/channels are available?
Will I get stuck waiting long?
Can I do it in a single contact?
Do I get good customer service?
How does this compare to the other companies I work with?

2. The Customer Service Representatives

What tools do I need to help customers?
What skills do I need to help customers?
What opportunities and career paths are available to me?
What do I have to do to succeed?

3. The Call Center Manager

How many contacts are handled?
Is there skilled staff available?
What metrics are in place?
How do we meet performance targets?
How do we drive CSR behavior?
Do the tools exist to support CSRs?

4. The Organization

What are our priorities?
Are all customers treated the same?
How do we drive more revenue or profitability?
How do we reduce operational costs?
What does the competition offer?
Do we want to be best in class?
How can we drive customer behavior?
What do we provide to other organizations?
What do we need from other organizations or departments?

The process

The steps in creating a strategic plan require gathering data and then developing the strategy.

1. Gather data and ideas from your research

- Document customer requirements (from your research on customer needs and expectations)
- Review best practices and look at the competition (from your benchmarking)
- Interview key stakeholders
- Brainstorm viewpoints internal and external to the organization

2. Conduct strategy design session

- Vision “x” years out
- Phased plan
- Follow up with business case or other actions as needed

3. Document and communicate the strategy using the topic list presented earlier in this tutorial.

 

Your contact center mission statement and strategy document are key components for planning a new call center or for introducing significant improvements into your existing center. These tools will help you communicate with your stakeholders (senior management), your peers (including other departments) and your call center employees. If you need additional information in this area, register for the next tutorial (see form below) or see the Call Center Planning and Design toolkit. Note: if you received notification via email of this tutorial, you do not need to register again.

 

The text of this tutorial comes from Prosci’s newest addition to the Call Center Series, the Call Center Planning and Design toolkit.  Developed by industry leaders in the Call Center field, Vanguard Communications and Prosci, the Call Center Planning and Design toolkit is the definitive guide for creating the best contact center possible for your organization. 

The toolkit provides:

More information about Prosci’s Call Center Planning and Design – A blueprint for building a successful contact center or you can download a toolkit abstract (pdf 214K).

Other resources:

Call center bookstore and reference library

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Send questions to callcenters@prosci.com

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