Interview with Stephen Dawson of the Heritage Company and Speaker at the ATA Conference

In this podcast Stephen Dawson, Director of Communication and Strategic Planning for the Heritage Company, a full-service non-profit agency, talks with Customer Management IQ’s Blake Landau on how to improve call quality and customer satisfaction. In recent years, the drive for efficiency has been a major factor in business decisions throughout the United States, and perhaps nowhere has this trend been more evident than in call centers. The economic downturn has made the need for efficiency and quality more important driving call centers offshore and increasing the use of self-service tools and technology as means to reduce costs. Such moves are key to remaining viable in times such as these, but if not done properly, they could yield short-term gains and long-term losses through a loss of customer trust and acceptance. The call center may serve multiple purposes for its customers or parent companies—inbound/outbound sales, customer service, etc. While it is vital that the call center operate efficiently in all aspects of work, it is vital that the call center keep in mind the goal that the American Teleservices Association has described in recent years as delivering the Ideal Customer Experience (ICE). Reducing call center costs today at the expense of the long-term relationship with the customer is a sure way to guarantee that companies will not reap the benefits from a broader economic recovery in a manner the call center hopes to achieve. In this podcast Dawson talks about how he has achieved jaw dropping results with a focus on quality within the call center. Dawson will be presenting at the American Teleservices Association’s national convention on “Using What We Learned from the ATA: A Case Study on Agent Performance & Quality” on Monday October 5th at 11am in New Orleans.