"It's no secret, most consumers don't like dealing
with contact centers. Between being put on 'hold' to being
bounced from agent to agent, inadequate service and flawed
systems lead to a single result: Frustration goes up; customer
satisfaction goes down. And don't doubt it - customer satisfaction
is strongly linked to ROI. That's why COPC Inc. has committed
itself to changing the equation to: Customer satisfaction
goes up; customer retention and profitability improve. After
all, that's why contact centers are in business, isn't it?"
Alton Martin, 2006
Alton Martin is a co-founder and CEO of Customer Operations
Performance Center Inc. (COPC Inc.).
Through his participation in the development of a standardized
Request for Proposal for contact center services, Alton was
instrumental in laying the groundwork for the establishment
of COPC Inc. He worked with a team of leaders from customer-focused
companies for more than a year to create this tool, which
eventually became the first version of the COPC-2000®
CSP Standard. Team participants became the first members of
the COPC® Standards Committee, which was formally structured
in April1996 and was formed to act as advisory board in the
creation of a framework to meet and exceed end user requirements.
Alton has more than 25 years' experience and ground-level
involvement in the services industry. Prior to establishing
COPC Inc., he learned the business from the dual perspective
of buyer and service provider. Working with one of Dell's
largest suppliers of consumer printers in the early 1990s,
he located qualified call center and fulfillment operations
to meet the fast growing demand for these services. In 1993,
he joined a call center and distribution fulfillment company
as the General Manager, growing it to number two in its industry
segment.
The scope of his knowledge of service operations has been
Alton's major contribution to the COPC® Family of Standards.
He understands the industry from the inside out. He has worked
with buyers of services for more than twelve years, including
Microsoft, Motorola, Dell, American Express, Epson, Qwest,
Verizon, and Chase Bank. He has also worked with major third
party providers, including Convergys, Sykes, TelePerformance,
and many others in the US, India, and Latin America. Alton
uses this hands-on experience to assist COPC Inc. clients
in assessing the capabilities of their internally managed
operations and current and potential suppliers. He has conducted
several hundred operational assessments/ reviews in North
and South America, Europe, India, Singapore, China and Scandinavia.
Alton has published numerous articles in leading trade journals
and business magazines, including the Journal of Strategic
Performance Measurement, the Controller's Advisory, ContactCenterWorld.com,
CallCenter Magazine and TPI. He has spoken in global forums
such as BT Alex Brown, Outsourcing World Summit, UK Call Center
Association, and the Japanese Office Automation Conference.
He earned his MBA, as well as the faculty award for academic
excellence, at the Darden School at the University of Virginia
and his BA at Tulane University.
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