Renewing, enriching and enhancing relationships are the most effective methods for increasing innovation and productivity, reducing costs, increasing revenues, and growth. Even a modest relationship program can dramatically impact on the bottom line and produce significant results for any size organization.

WHY WE MATTER

Technology, rapid change and out-sourcing problems to third parties have resulted in separation between individuals, teams within organizations, and an organization and its customers. This separation cannot be solved by technology alone. In fact the double-edged sword of technology, when wielded inappropriately, actually increases separation. The toughest problem to solve is “The Customer Last Mile.” The Customer Last Mile is the separation of customer-facing personnel from the authorized problem-solvers (managers and experts) within an organization and an incorrect framing of the solution (blindness).

Rapid change and Social Media play a significant role. The status quo is inadequately prepared to solve these acute, symptomatic problems. Customer expectations are so high, and switching costs to a different system or corporation are so low, that all efforts – technology, humanity and environment – are needed to compete effectively in a Red Ocean of competition. Separation also greatly affects internal relationships and processes, creating The UnProductivity Industry.

Due to the Sink or Swim philosophy (creating the “Valley of Despair”) of most technology suppliers, most organizations “still do not get it.” They fail to deliver what they promise because of internal and external separation of individuals, departments and customer- facing personnel. They cannot deliver on the Customer Last Mile. There is a gap, a breakage.

The Digital Economy has created Social Media. This is empowering customers, employees and citizens to manage and control their worlds with greater power and efficiencies. Social Media has the potential to directly address and solve these tough problems. However, Social Media, based on technology alone, is not a panacea either. The result can be chaos, disconnect communication, and additional infomania.

Social Media is the latest incarnation of Web 2.0. However, there has been one industry that has been conducting “Social Media” for decades and is directly involved in The Customer Last Mile.

It is the Contact Center Industry. 

This is the person who answers the telephone, Email and other media within the organization. It is the customer-facing personnel (and internally employee-facing personnel) that ultimately manages the relationship between your business and the customer. It is the moment of truth, when this person either enhances your business (your Brand) or diminishes it. Unfortunately, many organizations perform this critical task very poorly.

The Contact Center Industry is a central part of the communications industry and employs 15 million people worldwide with another 10 million trained and experienced who have recently left this industry.

The Contact Center is now moving toward the center of the organization (Social Media). This movement (unification) is a $300 billion dollar annual expenditure on new people and new technology.

The Contact Center Industry is transforming into a multimedia connection directly addressing The Customer Last Mile. They are becoming the repository of an organization’s knowledge, acumen and information (private clouds)

The Contact Center Industry is the ideal starting point for Communications as a Service delivered by Wave Open World. Wave CaaS will catalyze the movement of the Contact Center into the heart of the organization.

Wave Open World Services Inc.