Presenting a Business Case
Although there are obvious benefits to deploying new technologies, C-level executives still might not be sold and want to know what the ultimate payout will be.
Schoeller referenced Forrester's Customer Experience Index, which segments leaders, middle-of-the-road companies, and laggards, and correlates that information against Standard & Poor's 500 Index's performance. While this information is above what happens in the contact center, Schoeller says it's a great tie-in to drive a C-suite discussion. "From 2007 through 2012, customer experience leaders were able to increase shareholder value by forty-three percent," he says. "But Customer Experience Index laggards lost thirty-four percent of shareholder value.
"Those are C-suite types of numbers, but they can land your discussion about investments in improving what you can do for agent performance and the technology for them to do a great job within your contact center. It should really help you make your case," Schoeller says.
Beard believes that when companies look at the ROI of making these technology investments, it's a "total no brainer.
"You can make an agent more productive, they save time and that translates into [saving] thousands or millions of dollars," Beard says.
"If you don't enable [agents] and they're not happy and the customer isn't happy, there might be negative word of mouth. The ROI around investing in what we're talking about is one of the easiest ones in my career that I've had to try to sell. I think that a business case is pretty easy. The awareness in the C-suite is starting to go up."