"For organizations that are aware of these challenges, consultants can serve as a validating partner, providing objective confirmation of what internal leaders suspect and giving them the confidence to move forward with solutions."
- by Boardroom Insight
Google’s cloud infrastructure business has what’s known as a follow-the-sun approach to customer support. If an enterprise client calls in about a crashed server cluster, the search giant will assign multiple teams of support engineers to the problem. Each team is located in a different time zone, which means that when one group of engineers punches out, another is just starting its shift and can pick up the torch. This allows Google to fit considerably more troubleshooting into each day than would otherwise be possible and thereby speed up resolution times.
Most companies’ customer service operations aren’t nearly as involved. But even the most cookie-cutter call center has a thousand moving pieces: there are people to hire, IT gear to set up and performance reports to write. When one of the cogs is not spinning as fast as it should, enterprises bring in a consultancy to look over their processes and figure out where to improve.
Boardroom Insight recently had a chance to get an insider’s look at this rather infrequently discussed part of the consulting market. We caught up with Joni Arison, the newly appointed CEO of Chicago-based contact center and customer experience consultancy Northridge Group. Arison brings serious credentials to the role: she was previously the senior vice president of financial services at AT&T. Between 2015 and 2017, she led the carrier’s customer contact transformation efforts, which placed particular emphasis on its network of call centers. Arison knows the market not only in her capacity as a consultancy CEO but also as a buyer of contact center consulting services.
Arison gave us a premier on what it is exactly that a contact center consultancy does. She also walked us through the practical parts of her firm’s work, such as managing client-side stakeholders and making sure that contact center investments are delivering a return.
Boardroom Insight: Can you provide a high-level overview of the contact center consulting field and what kind of challenges your team tackles for companies?
Joni Arison: Contact center consultants bring immense value by serving as impartial third parties with expertise in both contact center operations and overall business management. Their objective perspective allows them to identify and address pain points that internal teams might overlook, helping organizations achieve a variety of critical goals. These include improving customer and employee satisfaction, controlling costs, adopting and optimizing technology, establishing KPIs and ultimately driving higher ROI for the company. Additionally, consultants provide valuable insights into agent performance, process efficiency, and operational streamlining.
Every company’s challenges are unique, which makes a diverse team of experts essential in delivering tailored solutions. Whether the opportunity lies in enhancing coaching programs for frontline managers, improving agent tools, or streamlining workforce management, consultants bring a holistic approach to addressing challenges across people, processes, and technology.
For example, we might help a client develop and implement improvements to their workforce management programs or guide them through the complexities of selecting and adopting new technology. Each solution is as unique as the organization itself, ensuring both immediate results and long-term success.
Boardroom Insight: When does it make sense for a larger company to hire a consultancy to help with its contact center efficiency initiative instead of managing it in-house?
Joni Arison: Having worked for a Fortune 50 company, I’ve seen firsthand how bringing in a consultant can provide an invaluable perspective. Often, internal teams are so immersed in day-to-day operations that it becomes difficult to identify the opportunities or inefficiencies right in front of them. Consultants bring an external viewpoint that cuts through the complexity of data, systems, and organizational structures to uncover inefficiencies, modernize outdated processes, and address cumbersome legacy systems or inconsistent metrics across teams.
Even for organizations that are aware of these challenges, consultants can serve as a validating partner, providing objective confirmation of what internal leaders suspect and giving them the confidence to move forward with solutions.
What I valued most about working with consultants as an executive is their knowledge of industry trends. They bring fresh insights from benchmarking data and understand what’s happening across industries in the contact center space with the latest technologies and best practices. This expertise allows business leaders to leverage strategies proven successful in best-in-class contact centers and tailor them to their specific needs.
Boardroom Insight: How does the project workflow for a consulting engagement look like in terms of details such as stakeholder management and ROI measurement?
Joni Arison: Our consulting engagements always begin with a comprehensive project plan. This plan includes stakeholder meetings and steering team meetings. We leverage practices like the RACI model (Responsibility Assignment Matrix), which clearly defines who is responsible, accountable, consulted, and informed. This structured approach ensures that every stakeholder understands their role, stays engaged, and contributes effectively to the project’s success.
The project plan also outlines timelines, milestones, and recurring meetings to keep everyone aligned and accountable for their respective areas of the initiative. By structuring responsibilities and maintaining regular communication, we ensure smooth project execution and collaboration across all levels of the organization.
ROI measurement is an essential part of every project. These metrics are tailored to the nature of the initiative. For instance, in projects involving cost-saving measures, ROI might be calculated by comparing costs to income or operational savings. In less quantifiable areas, such as frontline team training, ROI might be measured using improvements in quality assurance scores, customer engagement metrics, or employee satisfaction. This flexibility ensures that our clients gain a clear understanding of the success and opportunities for improvement in each initiative. We also like to give recommendations to our clients utilizing the Do Now, Do Next, Do Later approach. So that they can implement some quick wins and decide the next big things to go after.
Boardroom Insight: What industry trends other than AI should executives with “customer experience” in their job descriptions be watching going into 2025?
Trend 1: Upskilling frontline employees
Joni Arison: As technology continues to transform business operations, the contact center space is no exception. Automation and self-service platforms are taking over simpler, repetitive tasks, leaving frontline agents to handle more complex customer needs. This shift requires a focus on upskilling employees, equipping them with advanced critical thinking and problem-solving skills. Customer experience leaders are increasingly prioritizing investments in training programs to ensure their teams can meet these new demands effectively.
Trend 2: Employee health and wellness
Joni Arison: The evolving work environment—whether hybrid, remote, or in-office—has brought employee physical and mental health to the forefront. Healthier, more satisfied employees directly impact customer experience outcomes. Hard data, such as customer experience scores and retention rates, supports this connection. Employees who feel valued, safe, and happy at work are more engaged and deliver better service. Leaders must continue to explore ways to support employee well-being as a key driver of customer satisfaction.
Trend 3: Multigenerational training programs
Joni Arison: With four generations now working side by side, effective training programs must adapt to diverse communication and learning styles. A baby boomer’s approach to learning may differ significantly from that of a Gen Z employee, for instance. Tailoring training to these differences ensures better retention, productivity, and job satisfaction. Furthermore, as we’ve seen with employee wellness, a satisfied workforce translates to happier customers and stronger results.
By addressing these trends—upskilling, wellness, and multigenerational training—customer experience leaders can prepare their organizations for success in an ever-changing landscape.
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