This is an excerpt from a Customer Think blog article by Donna Fluss. I added the italics.
“Now is the time for contact center managers to take advantage of a golden opportunity – during economic recessions, sales, marketing and senior executives turn to contact centers for help, as they are in communication with customers more frequently than any other part of an organization. When tough times pass, these leaders go back to business as usual. Contact center leaders should continue to push for involvement with sales, marketing and the company’s leadership team, and the best way to do this is by contributing to high-priority enterprise initiatives.“
Does this sound like what’s happening at your company? Your customer service and support took the brunt of the cuts, still stepped up to the plate and got it done, and now backs are being turned.
As Ms. Fluss notes, it doesn’t have to be this way. Keep their attention by continuing to offer your services. Don’t wait for them to come to you, nothing good will come of it despite that old saying.
And to keep their interest make sure you are armed with numbers and a workable plan for how you can help. The less they have to think about what you can do for them the better. After all, who knows your department’s capabilities better than you do?
Don’t get left out of the loop. Take what you have done in the past and put it right in the face of those who matter. Keep a dialog going with the C-Suite, especially the CMO and CEO. Make them sit up and take notice. Make friends in the right place so you will find out about these initiatives in time to get customer service involved.
Did you help retain 95% of customers throughout the recession? Tell them.
Did you increase revenue through up-sell and cross-sell opportunities while the economy was down? Tell them.
Can you show how you kept customer satisfaction rates high through first contact resolution? Tell them.
You don’t just sell to and support customers. You have to support and sell your department too.
If it sounds like job-hunting, it is. You are hunting down opportunities to let customer service and support shine.
Don’t let it go back to the dungeon of “Oh, that’s just customer support.”