December 1, 2022
The COPC Customer Experience (CX) Standard is a performance management system for CX operations, including contact centers, unassisted transactions, face-to-face environments, and field service dispatch. Major brands throughout the world rely on the COPC CX Standard to manage and improve their CX management programs. The latest version of the COPC CX Standard is Release 7.0.
COPC Inc. maintains this proprietary CX framework which is co-developed and maintained by some of the world’s largest brands. In 1996, COPC Inc. founders identified a gap in the industry and brought global industry leaders together to establish guidelines, best practices, metrics and performance requirements that buyers of outsourced services should expect of their customer contact suppliers. This group included leaders from companies such as Microsoft, Dell, American Express, Motorola, Adobe, and Intel, establishing a 26+ year legacy of being at the forefront of CX best practices.
Cliff Moore, COPC Inc. Chairman and Co-founder said, “The COPC CX Standard has a rich and important history spanning over 25 years. This esteemed group of leaders was passionate about solving a pressing problem that organizations were experiencing. They met six times over a year to draft the first release of the COPC Standard. Once drafted, some of the founding members agreed to require their customer experience suppliers to adopt the Standard. COPC was then formed to train and certify these suppliers. This was the beginning of a long history of providing certification, training, and consulting services that help global organizations provide the highest levels of service to their end users.”
After the initial group of leaders met to create the COPC CX Standard, the COPC Standards Committee was formed. It has evolved over the years but continues to oversee the evolution of the COPC CX Standard. From its original purpose aimed at the needs of buyers of outsourced services, the COPC CX Standard has further developed to address the needs of all types of CX operations.
The use of the COPC CX Standard in practice helps organizations:
- Save time and money by quickly identifying performance and process issues
- Take corrective actions that produce tangible CX improvements
- Adopt and implement proven best practices to facilitate significant and sustained performance
- Ensure best practices are implemented that drive meaningful results
- Focus on the areas that have the greatest impact
- Consistently exceed high-performance CX and business targets
The COPC CX Standard is available at no cost to any organization that wishes to use this performance management system. Many organizations also seek certification, which provides internal and external validation that their CX operation is performing at the highest levels.
COPC Inc. and the COPC Standards Committee are always working to improve the COPC CX Standard and ensure its highly regarded framework continues to be the gold star used by organizations to improve operations that support the customer experience.
The COPC Standards Committee meets twice a year to discuss the state of the industry, review user input, identify emerging trends and determine meaningful updates to the COPC CX Standard. The group came together recently, in November 2022, to discuss how the following are impacting the CX industry and determine how they should be reflected in the standard:
- The Gig Economy and Its Impact on CX
With the growing reliance on the gig workforce, primarily for a select set of digital transactions, the committee discussed the implications to contact centers from a staffing, process and legislative perspective. The committee will continue to monitor the gig economy and evaluate potential adjustments that may need to be made to the COPC CX Standard when appropriate.
- Implications of the Permanent Shift to Work-At-Home (WAH) and Hybrid Working Models
Given the more permanent shift to WAH or hybrid working models, many organizations realize that some of the processes and approaches that work for “brick and mortar” are not always transferable to a WAH environment. Quality monitoring and business continuity requirements are a couple of examples. The committee will review the Standard and adjust it to reflect the maturity of key customer-related and support processes providing proven best practices for these models.
- Evolving Workforce Management (WFM) Strategies
Vendor management organizations (VMOs) and their shared services are increasingly taking on WFM roles and functions to effectively manage transaction volumes across their (often multi-vendor) enterprise. As this happens, metrics used to evaluate the effectiveness of a service provider’s WFM function are incomplete. The committee is assessing new metrics that reflect the adoption of additional WFM functions by VMOs to ensure accountability andmeasure the effectiveness of both the VMOs and the outsource service providers (OSPs).
- Impact of Emerging Technology on CX Operations
The committee received several updates, including the advancement of technology supporting data security and privacy (particularly for WAH) and artificial intelligence (AI) advancements in training and transaction handling. The committee continues to monitor potential necessary changes related to technology advancements and their impact on CX operations.
- Successful Employee Engagement Strategies
Many organizations are focused on employee engagement to improve retention, overall well-being and the customer experience. However, finding new ways to keep employees engaged is becoming increasingly challenging. A committee member presented advancements in addressing this challenge and how to impact employee feelings of community, care, connection, inspiration and recognition. The committee discussed the importance of measuring engagement throughout the employee lifecycle and the appropriate metrics that can enable continuous improvement.
“Once again, this engaged group came together to discuss the latest trends affecting the CX industry. Each member provides a unique perspective to ensure the COPC CX Standard is the industry’s most relevant and forward-thinking performance management framework. I am excited we will bring the decisions and concepts approved by the committee to life in the coming updates to the Standard,” said Kyle Kennedy, COPC COO and COPC Standards Committee Member
About COPC Inc.
COPC Inc. provides consulting, training, certification, benchmarking and research for operations supporting the customer experience. The company created the COPC Standards, a collection of performance management systems for customer experience operations, customer experience management, vendor management and procurement.
Founded in 1996, COPC Inc. began by helping call centers improve their performance. Today, the company is an innovative global leader that empowers organizations to optimize operations to deliver a superior service journey. COPC Inc. headquarters are in Winter Park, FL, U.S., with operations in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Asia Pacific, Latin America, India and Japan www.copc.com.