A Customer Access Strategy is a well-documented, overall plan that guides your contact center. It helps to think of it as a blueprint for your day-to-day operations.

It is “a framework—a set of standards, guidelines and processes—describing the means by which customers and the organization can interact and are enabled to access the information, services and expertise needed” (Brad Cleveland, Leading the Customer Experience, page 93).

It consists of 10 components that are there laid out and defined logically, step by step.

Why Do You Need a Customer Access Strategy?

As you develop customer service in your contact center, the need for a plan becomes very clear. There are many decisions your team is going to have to make around policy changes, new products, and new services – even more so if you’re in a regulated industry.

Having a Customer Access Strategy that’s clean, effective and well-documented helps you make far better decisions when faced with challenges and questions you need to answer.

Having a Customer Access Strategy that’s clean, effective and well-documented helps you make far better decisions when faced with challenges and questions you need to answer.

Covering everything from how your contact center should be organized, what your employees need, and more, it really helps to support the overall direction and longer-term strategy of your organization.

Those that don’t have a Customer Access Strategy in place risk decisions being more fragmented and haphazard and wasting a lot of time along the way. Developing and maintaining a Customer Access Strategy is therefore an investment in time that pays off handsomely. Read more of Brad’s article at Call Centre Helper.