Last week, I discussed some of the transitions that our industry channel has undergone, including overcoming the labels of telemarketing and call centers, and now being referred to as contact centers. I mentioned some of the services that have been deployed to cater to the needs of our constituents, as well as talking about how these additional services fall short of delivering the experience that donors and consumers want.
At Incept, we believe that the front-line worker is the best source of information for identifying what stands in their way regarding building relationships and producing meaningful results. Incept leadership also recognizes that in order to deliver world-class performance, we need to attract the best talent the market has to offer. Attracting employees who are bright, compassionate and tenacious in their efforts to satisfy clients takes a culture that gives them more than just the training and tools found in typical contact centers. We believe that the fundamental requirement for consistently building relationships is a culture that gives employees the opportunity to take advantage of their strengths, as well as their values.
Consequently, we created focus groups of the people who talk with the blood donors and commercial clients every day. We listened very carefully to their concerns and accompanying recommendations. Then we took it a step further. We didn’t stop at just asking for input. We responded by making the front-line employees part of the solution. Some leaders in this channel might think that’s a bold move to have the producers actually design both the work and the culture, but, to us, it makes perfect sense. We listen to blood donors and commercial customers every day to identify what they need and want. Some of the world’s leading organizations have proven that it also makes sense to listen to those who interact with them daily in order to identify roadblocks.
Actually, that’s the name of one of the committees that we formed:“Removing Roadblocks.” These team members told us that roadblocks to building relationships and producing meaningful results come in different shapes and forms. Incept had already recognized that today’s donor/consumer doesn’t want to be read a telemarketing script. It wasn’t really that bold of a move for us to distance ourselves from script reading and to invest training into team members who wanted to become conversational marketing experts (CMEs). The Removing Roadblocks Committee is also tackling other cultural challenges, such polices and procedures.
Here’s a good opportunity for you to share some of the roadblocks that you have seen, or perhaps even personally experienced, when dealing with a business or customers. Heck, they might be the same kinds of things that our employees identified! Or, they might be something we haven’t tackled yet. In return, we’ll be more than happy to share some of what we’ve learned along the way.
What hindrances to building relationships and producing meaningful results have you encountered? If left up to you, what would you do to remove them?