The best contact center leaders I’ve seen all balanced 3 things at once.
Most people you’ll interview only care about one.
When you’re restructuring, outsourcing, or building a contact center from scratch
The person you appoint to lead it internally will make or break the outcome.
In my experience, candidates fall into one of 3 types:
The quality obsessive
Passionate about patient or customer satisfaction above everything else. Unrealistic about what it costs to deliver it. Will push for the best possible experience regardless of budget. Quality at any cost isn’t a strategy.
The technology purist
Believes the answer to everything is automation. Wants every interaction to be system-driven and transaction-based. Ends up building something robotic that neither customers nor agents want to use.
The cost cutter
Laser-focused on labor efficiency. Knows exactly how many seconds they can shave off a call and what that saves. Loses sight of the fact that cutting too deep damages the experience and ultimately costs more.
Each one brings something to the table.
But what you need is someone who brings all three.
They must understand that quality, cost, and technology aren’t competing priorities.
They’re interdependent. Pull too hard on any one of them and the other two suffer.
I’ve overseen thousands of contact center hires.
Most executives know when they’ve hired the wrong person.
Far fewer know what right looks like before they make the call.
I’m Mark Danielson, and I help healthcare leaders reduce support costs while improving patient satisfaction.
Follow me for practical insights on cutting contact center costs, improving service quality, and modernizing operations without the tradeoffs.
