How Goats Could Help Make Contact Centers More Productive
How Goats Could Help Make Contact Centers More Productive by Jon Arnold
What does the humble goat have to do with contact center solutions? At face value, not much, but give me a few minutes, and you might be surprised. As you may know, Interactive Intelligence has been running a very interesting program that brings the worlds of technology and charity closer together in a unique way.
Their Goat Program is actually quite simple. Interactive Intelligence believes strongly in its technology and contact center solutions – and if you had the chance to experience this first hand, you would likely come around to their thinking. Being a very community-minded company, however, they want to do more than just sell you some technology. For those willing to get beyond a phone call or an online demo – and actually meet with the company, they will give back in the form of donating a goat via Oxfam to a developing country.
If this seems quirky, then you don’t know Interactive Intelligence. The program I just described is pretty simple, but it reflects on the qualities that make this a special company. Even casual observers will know that this public company has been successful for some time, is a leading innovator in applying IP-based technologies to the contact center, and hardly needs to resort to gimmicks to get your attention.
So, what does the goat have to do with this? Well, on a practical level, Interactive Intelligence is offering better tools to do your job. The demands on contact centers simply get harder all the time, and many companies struggle as customer service expectations keep rising and new options such as social media and mobility create a flood of new variables to manage. I’m not saying that existing tools are primitive or inadequate, but there’s a parallel here to the more basic challenges faced by developing countries in simply providing the necessities of life.
As such, when companies meet with Interactive Intelligence, the hope is they will learn about these new tools, and in return, they’ll donate a goat via Oxfam to help others do the same in terms of how goats help make their lives better. Interestingly, goats are a fitting choice here given their diversity in agrarian economies. Their docile nature allows them to help farmers manage their herds, and they provide a source of food at lower cost than cows or sheep. They also have a keen sense of balance and can climb almost anything, making them invaluable in tricky terrain. While the needs of developing countries are more pressing than those of a contact center, I would still note the parallel of the value goats provide in developing nations to the value Interactive Intelligence can bring with their advanced technologies.
On a higher level, this program is very much in character with Interactive Intelligence’s values. It’s a great example of acting both locally and globally, and the company has several other examples of this worth citing. Most of these fall under the umbrella of the Interactive Intelligence Foundation, which supports several ongoing initiatives. Two examples of local and global support would be the work they do with the Red Cross and FIRST. For the former, in 2011, Interactive donated to funds for both the earthquake and tsunami in Japan, and closer to home the tornadoes that devastated Joplin, MO.
The second pertains more to the company’s roots. The company offers support for FIRST – For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology – a foundation started in 1989 to promote participation in these fields from our youth. They have been supporting FIRST both locally in their home state of Indiana, but also across the U.S. and Canada.
These are good examples of a company that knows how to give back and be a good global citizen. In this regard, the Goat Program really serves two purposes. First, working with Oxfam provides a valuable resource in places where it’s truly needed; secondly, companies that come to meet with Interactive Intelligence will also have an easy way to participate in helping make the world a better place.
Having said all this, is there a downside to the Goat Program? Goats may have a high value in developing countries, but not in the U.S., which is where most of the company’s business comes from. There is a risk that those connotations will undermine the value proposition, giving potential customers the wrong idea. As such, the underlying cultural markers may not translate well for advanced, prosperous markets.
Trepidations aside, whether this leads to a bump in new orders is really just a bonus. Interactive Intelligence is happy if this simply helps educate more companies about what their technology can do. If you believe in karma, there’s nothing more to say – good deeds will always beget more of the same. Not everything in business is about making profits, and given Interactive’s recent history, it’s pretty clear they understand that maxim pretty well.
This paper was sponsored by Interactive Intelligence.