The current state of the economy could be taken directly from the title of Winston Churchill’s sweeping account of World War II – “The Gathering Storm.”
Indeed, economic forecasts suggest that the coming year is not unlike a gathering storm, which has an eerie and steady drumbeat of darkening times to come.
Because just like a war, a recession is fraught with unknowns. And today, no one can accurately predict how bad it will get or what it will look like when we get to the other side.
Who will win? Which companies will come out stronger? Who will be so weakened that they will never recover?
Plans Are Worthless, But Planning Is Everything
Companies that prepare today with unflinching attention for the worst will survive and even thrive. And while the military planner’s adage that “no battle plan survives contact with the enemy,” it was Dwight Eisenhower who wrote, “Plans are worthless, but planning is everything.”
Eisenhower knew a thing or two about military operations. He oversaw the largest amphibious assault in history, D-Day, 6 June 1944.
Contact Center Survival with Automated Testing
There is no time to lose. It’s the perfect moment to examine where to get more efficiency out of your contact center. Prepare now to respond to volatile conditions. Plan now for the worst and increase your chances of coming out ahead.
Thankfully, as Kurt Dahlstrand, Director of Technical Sales & Services at Hammer, says:
“Automated end-to-end testing offers an efficient, cost-effective route to keeping projects on track by testing rigorously at each stage, avoiding costly rollbacks.”
It means cost savings, especially when budgets are under pressure. It’s a no-brainer.
So, What Is Automated Testing?
Automated testing simulates multiple calls to a contact center in a fraction of the time it takes with manual testing. It stress tests every part of the customer journey.
Deploy it during development or when introducing new infrastructure or software. It assures the IT team that changes, including patches, updates and new releases, aren’t compromising the customer journey.
A Worst-Case Scenario – Project Completion Delays
There are many bad outcomes in contact center changes. And project completion delays are particularly disastrous. They escalate costs and threaten future project plans.
In the worst-case scenario, systems are rolled back. After that, it’s a procession of bad events. Rollbacks mean downtime. Outages hurt the bottom line. Customer experience takes a hit. Daily operations are disrupted.
“In an ideal world, issues are identified and addressed in pre-production,” Dahlstrand said. “But stretched resources lead to shortcuts. That leads to testing approaches that don’t do the job,” he explained.
Insufficient or no testing increases delays and costs by as much as 79 percent of all projects, according to the Customer Experience Foundation (‘Testing Best Practice: Practical Advice to Avoid Project Delay in the Contact Center’). Automated testing will ensure that your contact center isn’t part of that project group.
Plan for the worst. And thrive. Automated testing offers a way to create a successful future in the contact center.
Run Each of These Tests for Free
Hammer offers a free one-week assessment of your contact center experiences, measuring SIP call connectivity, IVR responsiveness, and more.
You can find faults within your technology architecture which frustrate customers and could lead to systems outages.
For information about continuously monitoring contact center performance, the vendor also offers a customized demo. Visit the Hammer website to find out more.