A well-prepared project is a 50% guarantee of its successful completion and implementation. Every project, regardless of the size and the field in which you will conduct it, has a life cycle: the time from the beginning of the project to its completion. Therefore, to implement a successful project, it is necessary to carefully consider all stages of creation, nuances of business, and work of the customer company, and to adhere to the planned development plan and strategy. After all, the most common mistake when creating a project is poor planning. And to avoid this, it is worth following several steps.

This article describes only the main points that can serve as a good guide for what to consider when starting a project with a contact center. We offer to understand in more detail how projects are launched from the own experience of the A.R.C.E. contact center, which has implemented more than 600 projects over 15 years.

Satisfied and loyal customers are the foundation of any business’ success

Today, in the era of service, it is important to provide the company’s customers with an effective support service. This is quite essential because the quality of customer service can make or break a business.

A potential client or consumer of a product must be able to ask a question and receive a prompt response; get qualified help or advice regarding the company’s services; leave feedback on a product, service, or company employee, perhaps file a complaint or express gratitude; leave a proposal for cooperation to the company’s management without long delays.

One way or another, it is important for any client to be able to provide feedback to company representatives on an ongoing basis. For this, contact center services include processing and receiving calls in the role of support service.

After ordering service from a contact center, agents provide professional customer support for the customer company, record all suggestions and complaints, answer common questions and resolve minor customer issues on behalf of the company.

A carefully thought-out plan of action

We provide professional support to clients and partners. And to get the perfect solution for the business, we first need to define the key tasks of the business as a whole and the goals of the customer support team. Initial communication is very important as it helps to create the perfect road map for the future project.

If you take a look behind the scenes, then the working algorithm may look as follows:

  • First, the Project manager (PM) of the project is appointed (after an internal or external competition).
  • The PM gets acquainted with all the data related to the project, including those received from the customer.
  • PM organizes a joint meeting with the heads of all departments that will work with the project to discuss the information gathered and the launch requirements.

For example, it is determined whether it is necessary to make a forecast of calls, approximate terms for finding and obtaining the required number of agents, choosing a city, possible terms of training, and other issues.

  • It is determined which TK is needed for the IT department, their development, creation of reports, and approximate deadlines for the task.

According to all the processes prescribed in this knowledge base, the PM independently or delegates to the relevant departments to adapt all articles to the project. The goal is that all processes should be recorded and can be returned at any time.

Subsequently, there is a meeting with individual departments, where there may be additional discussion, after which:

  • HR specialist (or department) receives from PM a complete list of tasks, candidate profile, bonus scheme for agents, training program, etc.
  • OPM/TL receives the necessary instructions from the PM, the project schedule, and how the monitoring process will be determined.

Therefore, the main task of PM is to identify, record and monitor such factors as:

  1. The task is what exactly needs to be implemented.
  2. The responsible person is the name and surname of the person with whom interim meetings will be held and who will report on the result of implementation.
  3. The responsible department is the department that undertakes the task and to which the executor relates.
  4. Duration is the maximum number of days necessary for the implementation of a certain task.
  5. Start date — the start date of project implementation.
  6. The final date is the date of completion of the project.
  7. Mid-term review date — a meeting with the contractor will be scheduled on this date to review the results. If it is necessary to hold several meetings, after each of them, the next date of the meeting is set on the table, and notes from the meeting are filled out. The date of the interim review can be indicated by both the PM and the task executor, having agreed on a meeting in the work calendar in advance
  8. Status — The status of the implementation of a certain task changes during work on it.
  9. Comments — we can make notes during meetings or at the first additional arrangements.

What should be taken into account?

First of all, it is necessary to remove perfectionism. In reality, a project will never be perfect, and even more so, there will never be a perfect time to launch.

The most important outcome of all is the customer’s experience with the company. A successful contact center will foster a customer-centric view of the organization by planning the contact center journey from the customer’s perspective.

Over 15 years, we have gained experience working with projects of varying complexity. So we know how to find and implement projects to ensure an excellent customer experience and result for client companies and partners. So if you need professional advice or help with customer service, get in touch. Our manager will reply to discuss the details and help you.