Keeping the Doors Open: How the CCO and the contact centre hold the keys to retail success

Retailers are in trouble. According to the Centre for Retail Research, in 2018 alone, 23 retailers have failed, affecting 1,851 stores and 20,891 employees. In a telling sign, that number is already greater than the 1,383 stores and 12,225 employees affected in 2017. Between increasing competition, both online and in-store, and increasing customer expectations, retailers are faced with an uphill battle simply to stay afloat.

It’s a new and complex ecosystem and, to be successful, retailers must have the right products at the right price while surprising and delighting customers with exceptional personalised experiences.

Delivering those experiences is a big job, and it’s changing the tools retailers use as well as the makeup of the C-suite. The CMO typically owns the customer experience, which has led to increased oversight on customer-focused technology selection and budget. However, the CIO has traditionally managed both technology spend and deployment, which can cause tension between the two roles.

But there’s another problem: CMOs and CIOs are deploying technology that is collecting customer information, such as purchasing behavior, but that data doesn’t tell the complete story.

The rest of that story is locked inside the contact centre. Our recent report showed that only 56 percent of senior leadership use data from the contact centre, and those leaders only use those insights occasionally. To unlock valuable information, the C-suite needs a new player: the Chief Customer Officer (CCO).

At Calabrio, we’ve seen how contact centre data can transform customer experience strategies because it allows retailers to hear the true voice of the customer. With the help of the CCO, retailers can make strategic adjustments, deliver on the brand promise and build customer loyalty. And listening to that voice starts with the right contact centre technology to understand customer sentiment and take action.

With Calabrio ONE, we’ve created a fully integrated customer engagement suite, allowing retailers to understand what customers want at every stage in the journey. With this information, the CCO can tear down data silos, bridge the gap in the C-suite and finally give retailers access to the voice-of-the-customer data driven by speech analytics that is critical to success. By allowing retailers to analyse customer interaction data, we are equipping and enabling them to truly listen—and deliver the experience that customers expect every single time. To learn more about how you can finally see the full picture of your customer experience, read our complete guide to customer interaction analytics. 

A customer-centric C-suite is imperative to a successful customer experience. However, many companies have blind spots, putting them at risk of losing customers. To learn more about what it takes to be truly customer-centric, read our full report here.

Magnus Geverts

Magnus Geverts is the Vice President of Product Marketing at Calabrio. He has over two decades of experience in the workforce engagement management and customer service space, working in a mix of roles and departments across the world: from R&D to consultancy to his role as Chief Business Development Officer at Teleopti. Today, he oversees Calabrio’s product go-to-market efforts. Magnus works closely with product line managers who shape the roadmap and strategies for the full Calabrio suite and oversees the product marketing team to offer software that enables users, engages frontline employees and elevates the end-customer experience.