Nothing Soft About It

by Rich Gallagher, Point of Contact Group

Could you imagine what Starbucks would be like if its CEO hated coffee? Or what if you started a rock band and never listened to rock and roll? These are examples of what, in my mind, is the single biggest problem with the customer support industry today.

About 18 months ago, I raised my hand at panel discussion of senior support executives and asked, "what trends are you seeing in soft skills for your operations today?" They hemmed. They hawed. Finally one of them said haltingly, "well, of course, it's important for people to be polite" before going on to the next question.

Before that, I spent two days at an executive retreat with support leaders from some of the biggest names in technology, as an observer. I heard lots of things about metrics, processes, and systems. But customers? Nary a word. So why is it that in a business that has "customer" as its first word, its C-level executives often seem to give a rat's patootie about customer experience?

I am biased, of course. I live and breathe in this world. I make much of my living teaching customer contact professionals how to communicate in their most difficult situations. When I last headed a 24x7 support center, strategically changing our communications and coaching skills was the linchpin of dramatically improving both our support metrics and the bottom line of our company. Its impact was in my view was greater than that of technology, even as we transitioned from pink pads of paper to CRM, remote support, and webinars. So here is what I would tell my colleagues in leadership roles today.


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