Using customer experience as a competitive differentiator is a goal for many businesses, but many find it's easier said than done. As proof of this, more than two thirds of business leaders recently surveyed by Forrester Research stated that their firms have set this as a goal, but more than half lack a definitive strategy to do so.

That's because when it comes to improving customer service operations, many companies lack the right information.

In their attempts to determine the success-and ultimate value-of their contact centers, companies have traditionally looked at customer service purely from a financial vantage point. They have applied business-centered goals, like cutting costs, making money, and beating the competition, to their contact centers, and used indirect metrics, such as automation and containment rates, script adherence, and average handling times, as the guiding principles by which these contact centers were measured. "The basic concept of contact center management was how fast you could answer the call and get the customer off the phone. That was the driving [key performance indicator]," says Maggie Klenke, founding partner of the Call Center School in Lebanon, Tenn.

Metrics like these are out of step with the current prevailing business shift from a business-centric approach toward a customer-centric one, from one-size-fits-all experiences to hyper-contextualized experiences that focus on giving customers what they want, when and how they want it.

In light of these changes, should contact center leaders abandon traditional customer service metrics and move to a new model? If so, what should that new model be? If not, why do you feel that existing metrics should remain?