Take Every Interaction and Make it Your Best

Each year, ICMI is assisted in its mission to provide the best advice and training on customer care by a group of contact center thought leaders. The ICMI Strategic Advisory Board helps our organization identify the important issues of the customer service industries and evaluate our training offers.

We’re asking a few questions of each member of the ICMI Strategic Advisory Board. Here, we chat with Richa Batra, VP and General Manager at Anthology, Inc. (which formally was known as Blackboard)

Thank you for agreeing to be a part of ICMI’s Strategic Advisory Board. Why do you think it’s important to give back to the contact center community?

The contact center community has given me so much. This is a unique industry where you can start in the front line and build a career in management. One of my favorite parts of my job is I can meet new hires and then see how they can grow within our organization.

What lesson did you learn from your biggest success in your career? And from the biggest challenge?

As I have had the opportunity to manage more people and grow my career, I have learned from that success that I am responsible for using my voice to fully represent my teams.

The biggest challenge, personally and professionally, was the beginning of the pandemic. We had to move 1200 employees to remote work, support all of our universities and colleges as they moved online, and support millions of students so they could continue going to school. And we had to do all this while we were trying to homeschool toddler twins. During that time I focused on the tasks, and I had to learn again how to focus on our people first.

In your opinion, what skill or skills will be most needed in the next decade in this industry?

The ability to communicate effectively and manage people will become an even larger need than in the past. As we have more dispersed workforces and use more technology, we will need to effectively connect and engage our teams so they flourish personally and professionally.

What are you most proud of in your career, and why?

I am so grateful and proud of the Student Success teams at Anthology. Their heart, dedication, and commitment are the best I have ever seen, and I am privileged to work with them.

You find yourself in a room full of contact center professionals and have the opportunity to give them just one piece of advice to set them up for success. What would you say?

Take every interaction you have with users and employees as an opportunity to make it your best and their best experience.