A Business Age feature: How to unlock the hidden power of Contact Centres by Sat Sanghera
Business leaders have an ever-growing list of responsibilities and challenges to navigate. The cost-of-doing-business crisis, supply chain issues, geopolitical unrest and environmental concerns remain genuine causes of concern for all leaders. At the same time, customers remain under their own pressures, with the cost-of-living crisis continuing to bite, yet unaffecting their expectations of the brands they interact with.
Given this, business leaders must carefully navigate these macro challenges without compromising customer service. An efficient customer experience (CX) is so often the difference between customer satisfaction and customers detracting to other brands altogether. It’s not surprising to find that businesses are beginning to take serious note of its potential – with Forrester research revealing that 64% of CX leaders expect to have larger budgets in 2024 for CX initiatives. With a host of pressures facing businesses at present, it’s integral that customer service and CX is done right. And it all starts within the Contact Centre.
Contact Centres: The heartbeat of modern brand loyalty
Modern-day customers want an engaging, seamless customer experience when interacting with a brand. Contact Centres are often the first touchpoint for customers seeking support or solutions and its agents the “voice” of the brand. Put simply, the interaction between agent and customer can shape the overall brand perception. An agent’s ability to resolve issues quickly and effectively reflects directly on the brand’s competence and care. By prioritising the performance of its Contact Centre operation, businesses can foster stronger relationships, enhance customer loyalty, safeguard their brand reputation and ultimately drive revenue growth.
As organisations prioritise this delivery of service excellence, brands too should start to move towards elevating the status of Contact Centre agents to that akin with other professions. Why? Because every day, agents walk the tightrope of acting as the ear to every customer interaction, but also acting as the voice of the brand. This means that from their inception within a business, agents have a solid understanding of a brand’s customer base – what they want, and how well the brand does in delivering it. This birdseye view of the business means agents have enormous potential to enact positive change throughout the wider business.
Read the full article at Business Age where Sat continues to talk about how businesses must invest in Contact Centre agents’ growth and well-being, providing clear career paths, agent training and opportunities to transform.
Sat joined IPI in an advisory capacity for business growth in 2019, before moving to the role of CEO in December 2020, bringing over 20 years of multinational tech leadership experience to the role.
Prior to joining IPI, Sat co-founded European Contact Centre solutions and services organisation, DatapointEurope, which was sold in 2017. Previously, Sat has held global sales leadership and product development roles, has held a number of board advisory roles at leading technology organisations, and has worked as a technology M&A advisor.
As CEO at IPI, Sat follows five key guiding principles: people, clients, propositions, fiscal and operational brilliance. IPI is shaped around these principles, enabling its people to create intelligent and innovative Contact Centre solutions that deliver exceptional experiences to its clients and customers.
