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Question:

What contact center organizational structure is being used by enterprises to deliver an exceptional customer experience?

Answer:

While there is no “one-size-fits-all” alignment, many successful companies now include a customer experience (CX) executive who manages all customer-facing operations either directly or indirectly. To underscore the importance of this position, it typically reports directly to the COO or CEO, and is held by a politically skilled individual who is adept at getting people with conflicting agendas to work together. The responsibilities of this role vary from organization to organization, but can include influencing goals and compensation for managers of all customer-facing departments; making changes to products, processes, policies and systems; and re-allocating resources as necessary to improve the customer experience.

More important than the internal alignment of the enterprise, is instituting a culture that recognizes the fact that delivering a great customer experience is the responsibility of every person in the company. To develop this culture, enterprises need to break down organizational empires and silos that, in many cases, have taken decades to build. Companies must adopt a policy of delivering service in the manner and channels desired by their customers, instead of continuing to try to force customers to do business the way the company wants. All departments need to operate according to a standard set of shared primary goals including the number-one goal of making it easy for customers to do business with the organization. Because this is easier said than done, corporate governance, in the form of a CX executive, is often the answer.