The concept of Customer Experience is now well known in the Contact Center Industry, but many companies fail to deliver a great customer experience. Why is that?

There are many obstacles they might be facing, but to overcome them companies need to know what those obstacles are. We reached out to our favorite CX Experts on Twitter and asked them: What do you think are the biggest obstacles for delivering an outstanding customer experience?

This is what they shared:

Oh my. Where to begin. Not focusing on the employee experience and helping them understand what the experience is that they should be delivering for customers. Not listening to and understanding your customers. For starters...

— Annette Franz, CCXP (@annettefranz) March 20, 2018

Great question, CCSI. Lack of leadership CX understanding/buy-in. Outdated technology and processes. Organizational inertia. Poor understanding of customer effort. No attention to journeys. Siloed departments, processes, channels, thinking. Those are just a few I've observed!

— Kaye J Chapman (@kayejchapman) March 24, 2018

There could be many obstacles, but one of the most significant is employees who are not engaged, not excited about their role, and not empowered to drive the customer experience. Senior leaders need to build a culture that drives employee engagement. #LetsTalkCX #Custexp #CX

— Bill Gessert (@BillGessert) March 24, 2018

I would say bad internal process and disengaged employees for my top two ?. What do you think?

— Nate Brown (@CustomerIsFirst) March 25, 2018

Thanks to their answers we found 4 of the biggest obstacles your contact center might be facing:

Disengaged Employees
We like a quote by Sybil F. Stershic that says, "The way your employees feel is the way your customers will feel." Many companies keep thinking how to improve their Customer Experience, but they might not know that they also need to improve their Employee Experience. Contact Center Agents need to feel motivated about their work, receive proper training, and be empowered to solve customer problems. There are several ways you can promote your call center culture and improve your Customer Experience. Make it happen!

Poor Understanding of Customer Experience
You and some other leaders in your company might understand the concept and what’s involved in Customer Experience. But your Contact Center Agents know? Do your Training, Human Resources, and Finance departments know? It’s important that the whole team understands the concept of Customer Experience and what role they play on it. Companies need leaders that can make others understand the importance of Customer Experience and commit to it.

Read: How To Improve Coaching & Development Of Customer Experience Employees

Organizational Inertia
Siloed departments, processes, channels, and thinking in a company are a big obstacle for Customer Experience. It is hard to deliver a great Customer Experience when there is no will for innovation and improvement, when there’s bad organization, poor processes, and obsolete technology. In these situations, managers need to put an extra effort on improving the company culture and align it with Customer Experience.

Read: Simple Ways You Can Make Your Call Center Agents Happy

Not Listening to your Clients
The name states it: Customer Experience. But some companies sometimes forget to listen to their clients and fail to understand their needs, problems, and preferences. This could be because of forgetting to collect customer data, or not analyzing it correctly. The Customer Journey plays an important role in Customer Experience. Do we have it updated and well-mapped? In many other cases companies might have the information, but they are not using it correctly. We need to make sure that employees have access to customer information, so they can offer a better and more personalized service to our clients.

Identify your own obstacles and start working to overcome them.

Special thanks to Annette Franz, Kaye Chapman, Bill Gressert and Nate Brown for their answers and sharing their knowledge with us. Follow them on Twitter:

• Annette Franz, CCXP‏ @annettefranz
• Kaye J Chapman @kayejchapman
• Bill Gressert @BillGressert
• Nate Brown @CustomerIsFirst

At Call Center Services International, we are proud of having dedicated and experienced bilingual and bicultural agents that really care about delivering a great Customer Experience for our client’s customers. Discover more about our world-class call center agent workforce.