One of the most critical — and difficult — aspects of managing a contact center in coming months and years will be to provide services that satisfy changing consumer demands. Those who fall behind will pay a brutal price: dissatisfied customers, insufficient support from the organization and low morale in the contact center. But those who stay ahead of the curve will enjoy strong customer loyalty and the many benefits that come with it. The stakes are high.

Most organizations have discovered firsthand a basic reality of customer psychology. When you improve your service, customers rather quickly progress through four distinct stages:
1. They appreciate it.
2. They get used to it.
3. They expect it.
4. They demand it.

Consequently, continually improving services to meet evolving customer expectations is a mandate in today’s environment. In leading contact centers, the 10 customer expectations are an important part of the organization’s development and culture. The list is sometimes plastered to the wall — literally — and works its way into everything from strategy to process design to day-to-day planning and coaching activities.

In short, the best-managed centers have an incessant focus on evolving customer needs and expectations. They are continually redefining plans and reshaping services around those expectations. They know that what worked yesterday will not necessarily work tomorrow.

Excerpt from Call Center Management on Fast Forward, Brad Cleveland.

This blog post is part of a series on the 12 Characteristics of the Best Managed Contact Centers. Read about Characteristic #1: They Produce High Levels of Value, Characteristic #2: They Have a Supporting Culture and Characteristics #3: They Know that Their People Are the Key to Success.