Originally published March 23, 2009

What you don't know WILL hurt you!

Why do contact center managers test their systems?

• So they don’t get fired when it all goes sideways 23 minutes into peak busy hour?
• So their customers won’t be inconvenienced when they use that new self-service, speech reco- enabled, web services-fed hosted IP voice portal
• So their customers won’t be frustrated when they opt-out and get CTI-MPLS-transferred to Krissy in Bangalore or dropped?
• Maybe all of the above?…

Everyone knows a well-crafted contact center solution is a thing of beauty. But it is also complex -- a best-in-class hybrid implementation. Kind of like Monster Trucks – designed to perform spectacular feats in a really cool way but most importantly to get the crowd to say “WOW! That was awesome! Let’s do it again!” Making sure the “Wow!” is really there is a big part of contact center planning these days.

Everyone knows they don’t know if the “Wow!” really is there. They know they won’t know whether or not their systems have been properly implemented end-to-end until they turn them on and take them out for a run. And they certainly would prefer the maiden voyage not be with live customers whose first use becomes their last use when the "Wow!" turns to "Whoa!" Those customers decide quickly that from now on they might as well 0-out & talk to Krissy in the first place.

But no one knows what they don’t know.

And that’s the real reason they test. The smart ones know there are things they don’t know they don’t know. But they know they want to know.

You wouldn’t believe the stuff we expose – stubbed out IVR apps that make it sound like you really did make a payment on your car loan (but didn’t), systems that go catatonic waiting for a recognizer to kick in (but only after 77% load is achieved), spans that are connected and look like they’re on, (but aren’t and apparently never were), servers that go bump in the night the first time they really spin up, and more.

I can’t count the number of times I’ve personally heard “If I hadn’t heard it I wouldn’t believe it – I had no idea!”

But how would you know? It all looked good on paper. You hired the best team possible.

It’s the stuff they didn’t know they didn’t know that keeps them coming back - especially the smart ones.

And Krissy is happier too.

Do you have any questions or comments about this blog? We would love to hear from you! Please send us an email!

Mike Burke

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