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Service Excellence Starts At The Top
CIAC advocates that people are the key to service excellence because a contact center's performance is most influenced by the capability of its workforce. Moreover, it is the quality of leadership, more than any other single factor, that determines the success or failure of a contact center.
Increasing recognition of the contact center as the critical link between an organization and its customers is heightening awareness of the importance of quality leadership. The world's top performing contact centers share the common trait of talented and inspiring leadership. These centers have a team of executives and managers that make a demonstrable impact on the company’s success by positively influencing the behavior and performance of others and instilling a sense of commitment to excel.
CIAC, in collaboration with contact center practitioners and industry experts from around the world, has defined the characteristics of superior contact center leadership and management in the form of job role competencies. These competencies indicate mastery level knowledge, skills and abilities that when applied on the job result in outcomes indicative of:
§ Multi-disciplinary expertise that influences and contributes across the organization
§ A foremost focus on executing to accomplish business goals
§ Know-how to achieve and sustain performance that balances and increases efficiency and profitability (and productivity and performance)
§ Role model leadership that inspires and empowers people to do their best
In the past only those with many years of contact center management experience possessed expert competence. But in today's fast growing and changing contact center environment there is not time for a long learning curve. Instead, the competence underlying high-caliber contact center leadership and management must be deliberately cultivated. This is why CIAC Certification was created.
CIAC Certification equips contact center leaders and managers to excel in the disciplines critical to business success. By developing and validating mastery-level job role expertise, CIAC Certification is cultivating a new breed of executives and managers who create and sustain contact centers that consistently deliver exceptional service, optimize customer value, and contribute to the organization's success.
The first and only of its kind, industry-sanctioned, competency-based CIAC Certification is the benchmark for effective contact center leadership and management. It is the only accredited professional certification in the customer contact industry and the only certification program administered and governed by a not-for-profit industry body.
CIAC Certification is applicable to executives and managers in contact centers worldwide of every genre, size and industry segment. It is is built around a performance-driven framework that requires:
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Mastery-level competence of job role responsibilities and requirements. Competency is based on industry-defined knowledge, skill, and behavioral standards representative of superior job performance. The Competency Standards are specific to the management job role.
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Validation of knowledge, skills, and on-the-job application of expertise. The validity of the CIAC Certification Assessments was verified through comprehensive psychometric analyses to assure certification testing is industry relevant, universally applicable, non-discriminatory and unbiased. CIAC Certification’s is the only standardized and accredited testing that formally assesses and validates customer contact specific competence.
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Recertification to assure competency currency and promote commitment to lifelong learning and continuous improvement.
CIAC Certification is affecting a positive change in organizations around the world through a powerful validation of the contact center’s value to customer loyalty and profitability and the correlation between talented leaders and managers and business success.
Equally important, CIAC Certification is raising the stature of customer contact and support careers. By defining a career path and the competence needed for job success and advancement, CIAC Certification is helping to attract a greater number of skilled and motivated professionals to the customer contact and support profession.
CIAC Certification Leadership & Management Credentials:
Time to complete CIAC Certification testing depends on the credential, assessment requirements and pre-testing training/ preparation. Training is not mandated to test for any CIAC Certification credential, however, due to the mastery-level nature of the competency standards, most candidates train prior to testing. Some individuals complete the program in six months while the time for others ranges between six and fourteen months. Because of its emphasis on the application of knowledge and skills, persons with more years of job experience typically need less training and, therefore, complete the certification process in less time. Candidates are allowed two years to complete all certification testing requirements. Recertification is required every three years to maintain an active professional credential.
View and download the CIAC Certification Process
Download the article ‘Philosophies for Outstanding Leadership’
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