POV

In today’s competitive business landscape, delivering a seamless customer experience (CX) is a priority for companies across industries. According to PwC, 73% of customers prioritize a consistent and seamless experience across digital and live agent touchpoints, demonstrating how essential a cohesive omnichannel CX strategy is for customer loyalty and retention.

From marketing to sales to support, each department shapes how customers perceive a brand and can add value at every step of the customer journey. But what happens when the contact center, one of the most critical touchpoints, isn’t fully integrated into the CX strategy?

The reality is that many organizations overlook a key gap: the disconnect between CX leadership and the contact center. While CMOs and CX leaders focus on the big picture, contact center agents are often left dealing with the daily grind, unaware of the broader strategy they’re supposed to support. This misalignment can lead to customer friction: inefficiencies, customer confusion, escalations, and churn.

This lack of integration doesn’t just hurt customer satisfaction; it limits the company’s ability to gather valuable insights from customer interactions. Without proper feedback loops between the contact center and other departments, CX improvements often miss the mark.

The Perception Gap: Big Picture vs Details
Let’s ask a simple question: Do your marketing and CX leaders believe the contact center is integrated into the broader strategy? Chances are, they think so. But if you ask the contact center agents, you might hear a different story.

This gap exists because CMOs and CX leaders tend to focus on enterprise campaigns, brand reputation, and overall customer journey mapping. Meanwhile, contact center agents live in the details, handling customer interactions one call, chat, or email at a time. The big picture may look straightforward to leadership, but agents often struggle with missing or outdated information that leaves them unprepared to offer the seamless experience leadership envisions.

Where the Gap Shows Up
How does this disconnect manifest in real-world interactions? Imagine a marketing campaign is launched promoting a new product or service, but the contact center doesn’t receive all the relevant details in time, or a particular use case wasn’t considered. Customers call in with questions, but agents are left scrambling to find information, leading to frustration on both sides and missed revenue.

Lack of alignment with the contact center can cause similar confusion on the web, where marketing drives customers through self-service portals. The web and contact center should be synchronized, but the gap often reveals itself in inconsistent answers or experiences when customers transition between digital and live-agent support.

The Role of Technology: Is it Helping or Hurting?
Technology is often seen as the solution to bridging the gap between CX strategy and the contact center. However, there is a human side to technology that has to be considered. Many companies invest in tools like CRM systems, AI chatbots, and omnichannel platforms to provide agents with the needed data. However, even the best tools can fail if the contact center isn’t part of the strategic discussions that shape customer journeys.

The problem isn’t just having the right tools - it’s ensuring that those tools are used in a way that supports both the big picture and the details. For example, a CRM system might be packed with valuable customer information. Still, if agents don’t have real-time access or aren’t trained to use it effectively, it becomes another barrier to delivering a seamless experience.

The Contact Center’s Critical Role in CX
It’s easy to view the contact center as a reactive department, only there to handle complaints and solve issues. But the reality is that the contact center is a goldmine of insights that can shape a company’s entire CX strategy. Every customer interaction provides valuable data on pain points, product issues, and service gaps that can inform marketing, product development, and CX improvement efforts.

The contact center not only has to help shape the CX strategy; it also has to be a part of the CX strategy. This means it should be treated as a critical touchpoint in the overall customer journey, not just as a separate department tasked with solving problems after they arise.

However, the contact center must fully integrate into the CX loop to unlock this potential. This means giving agents access to real-time information, involving them in cross-functional planning, and ensuring they have a voice in shaping the overall CX strategy.

Bridging the Gap: A Shift in Thinking
How can companies start to close the gap between CX leadership and the contact center? It begins with a shift in thinking. The contact center should no longer be viewed as a separate entity from the CX team but as an integral part of delivering a consistent and cohesive customer journey.

Companies that excel in this area ensure that the contact center isn’t just a “support team” but a full partner in customer experience. This often means changing the reporting structure so that the contact center reports directly to the CX leader. When this happens, team communication improves, and the contact center becomes more proactive, contributing to the company’s CX success rather than merely reacting to issues as they arise.

Conclusion: The First Step to Integration
Recognizing the gap between CX leadership and the contact center is the first step to closing it. By ensuring that the contact center is fully looped into strategic discussions and equipped with the tools and information needed to support the overall customer journey, companies can deliver the kind of seamless experience that customers expect.