One of the most memorable books I’ve ever read is called Bird by Bird. In it, author Anne Lamott tells the story of how her brother was once overwhelmed by a school writing project about birds. So their father advised his son to approach the task “bird by bird.” In her book, Anne advises young writers to do the same.
As I’m preparing to traverse the Grand Canyon rim to rim, I recently got similar advice from a fellow hiker. Don’t think about the entire journey. Instead, focus on making it to the next point within sight – and then the next, and then the next.
That’s good advice. And it can be applied to many areas of business and life. Customer service is one such area.
To position contact centers for the greatest success, it’s important for businesses to set and communicate specific goals for these environments and teams. And training and target metrics should be aligned with those goals.
MaritzCX says that research shows “the presence of certain processes, governance structures, technology tools, and underlying culture has a very significant impact on enabling the CX program to drive business outcomes.”
Having long-term goals and culture in place is important, of course. But so are setting and working to achieve very specific quarterly goals. And by reaching these goals, contact centers better position themselves to take the next steps.
“A useful technique can be to break up your plans into quarters,” writes consultant Heather Foley. “These are useful sprints that will help you to see that you’re on track and make all activities and objectives seem real and achievable.”
They say that life is a journey, not a destination. The same can be said for customer service success. And by setting small goals along that journey, contact center teams can move the companies they help support forward – step by step.