Perception encompasses the phases of information processing: contact, attention and understanding. The perception process goes beyond the mere intake of information, the recorded data are decoded and combined with other information to form a complex inner image.
Perception is a subjective, selective and active process. It is different with marketing, not the objective, but the subjectively perceived offer of a company is decisive for its success. A call center forms the interface and communication link between a company and customers and covers all outbound and inbound aspects of telephone marketing. The range of services that a professionally run call center should cover is very large.
Perceived customer service comes more and more to the front. In any case, products and prices are hardly suitable in many industries to enable perceptible differentiation. For the call center – the flagship of a company’s customer service – knowledge and analysis of customer expectations are the all-important factor. Many call centers regularly conduct customer satisfaction surveys or measure values such as availability or service level. Values may still be important; but can take a back seat in a rapidly changing world. New values such as easy access via chat, consistent information about the various contact points, time invested in solving a problem can move to the top from the customer’s point of view.
The speed at which markets and communication habits change is greater than the speed at which organizations adapt. Flexibility, rapid change, high speed in the adaptation of new media and creative chaos on the customer side are opposed to an organizational principle of order, controllability, budgeting, control and planning. Customer expectations and organizational principles have never been much more conflicting.
The individual employee and their interactions with the customer are becoming more and more valuable and important. Searching, shopping and customer service processes almost always involve digital interactions. Traditional customer service models that are based solely on a reactive, mono-channel approach need to be changed.
A basic requirement for setting up a modern customer service is to first understand all of the customer’s steps along the customer journey and to compare the requirements in each of the individual process steps with one’s own performance. The perception of the company usually shows many blind spots, as the impressions and evaluations of the customer always show a new perspective. Accessibility is a decisive factor for customers; but equally important is how quickly the call center handles the matter.
Even if the internet is busy guessing the future of the call center by mentioning automated chatbots, customers still want personal contact – which call center agents offer. And there will be increasingly complex customer issues that intelligent software cannot solve.