By
Craig Idlebrook
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Date Published: October 26, 2021 - Last Updated October 26, 2021
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Comments
Each month, we’re featuring a member of ICMI’s Strategic Advisory Board. This group of industry thought leaders, practitioners, and solution providers helps ICMI keep tabs on customer insights and contact center market developments, and ensures that our content offerings are aligned with industry best practices and that our products evolve at pace to serve the community, and grow industry relationships.
This month we’re featuring Lark Will, Director of Customer Care for ADT Security.
Could you describe your current role?
I am the Director of Customer Care for ADT Security. As such, I’m responsible for all digital care, as well as our HOA and VIP customers.
What, in your opinion, are the characteristics of someone who is successful long-term in this industry?
By far the most successful people in this business who have maintained longevity have one trait in common – adaptability. Technology and customer choice evolve at a rapid pace and if you are unable to shift your focus to meet changing conditions, you will not be successful.
What is one piece of advice you would like to share with those who are just setting out on a career path in the contact center industry?
You will make mistakes. The important thing is to learn from them and let the mistakes work for you.
There have been so many changes in the contact center industry, both because of new technology and because of the COVID-19 crisis. How do you feel those changes will shape the industry in the next decade?
Its impact is significant, not just for contact center employees, but also for our customers. Work-from-home employees are here to stay, which means collaboration tools will become more important. Training is becoming more learner-led than instructor-led, as employees can now be hired anywhere in the country or world.
It’s clear by your participation on the board that you believe in the role of mentorship in the contact center industry. Can you share a valuable lesson you learned from a mentor, and share who that mentor was?
The most valuable piece of advice I received was from a Director of Call Center operations to whom I never reported. He advised that if I ever had a good idea, the worst thing I could do was advertise it. “Build your support from the outside in and wait till you have critical mass before taking any significant action.”
To this day, I pay attention to my relationships, especially those that are outside the contact center as I find we are living in a rapidly changing matrixed environment.