November, 2021

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Cloud Based Solutions, the Contact Center and Future of AI

CCNG

Ten years after we were told that Software is Eating the World, we’re now well aware that The Cloud is Eating the World. Hosted contact center software offerings continue to grow in number and sophistication, while legacy players rush to transform their products accordingly. CRM has long been in the cloud. COVID sent agents to work remotely, and the current job market will keep them there.

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Virtual Contact Center Jobs Provide Opportunities for Workers with Disabilities

Contact Center Pipeline

More than a year after COVID-19 was declared a global pandemic, the impact has greatly affected how all of us work and live. Due to the need for social distancing, many businesses closed—some for good. Other companies turned to remote-work models. This has affected some groups of workers more than others. A Look at the […].

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And the winners are…congratulations to our LISTEN 2021 Award recipients!

Callminer

We recently announced our LISTEN 2021 Award winners, including seven LISTEN 2021 Analyst Award winners, and Top Partner and Top Customer of the Year. Read the blog to learn about the recipients.

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When Your Customer Experience Hits a “Bump in the Road”

ShepHyken

One of our faithful subscribers sent in a question. While he’s in the hospitality industry, this could apply to any type of business. There have most likely been times that many of us have fallen short in taking care of our customers. It could be an isolated incident, which is easy to fix. But what happens when it becomes a trend? With that in mind, here’s his question, followed by my answer and comments.

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Manual Call Reviews? There's a Better Way!

Speaker: Laura Noonan, Chief Revenue Officer at CallFinder + Angie Kronlage, Director of Program Success at Working Solutions + April Wiita, Vice President of Program Success at Working Solutions

Are you still manually reviewing calls? 🤔 If so, this webinar is for you! What was once a common practice in the call center is now a barrier to success. Manual call monitoring is no longer an option if you want to proactively coach your agents to ultimately improve the customer experience using data-driven insights. Join this webinar with Angie Kronlage and April Wiita of Working Solutions to discuss how you can modernize outdated, manual call review processes through the power of autom

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The 5 Rules to Dramatically Improve the Way You Deal with Customer Complaints

Beyond Philosophy

Lately, my Customer Experiences have been lousy. At the beginning of the pandemic, I was more understanding when Customer Experiences weren’t great. However, 18 months later, my patience has run out, and organizations should have sorted things out by now. So, since the state of things is such a mess at the moment, we did a podcast on the 5 Rules to Dramatically Improve the Way You Deal with Customer Complaints, and I thought I would share them here as well. .

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Getting Data from your WFM System

Call Design

Which is better Direct Query or Webservice? This is a question that is asked a lot in businesses where data needs to be extracted from various sources and collated. As technology and security increase, so too does the tightening around access and use of said data, especially within the contact centre. Traditionally, this access was analogous, and extracts could be run either by direct user access or via an application middleware, but these processes are changing.

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Avid Readers Make Better Leaders

Contact Center Pipeline

I have grown up (personally and professionally) over the past 30-plus years working in the call/contact center business. I began in the early ’80s when my husband David and I owned an “interconnect” telephone company. Interconnect companies sold premise-based telecommunications systems to businesses and hooked them up to the Bell System operating companies.

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How to Measure Customer Satisfaction

ProProfs Blog

Have you ever heard, “Customer Satisfaction isn’t necessary for a business success?”. Probably not! Because without satisfying the customer’s needs, you cannot offer them a delightful experience, which inevitably results in customer churn and poor revenue generation. Hence, if you aren’t strategically thinking about customer satisfaction, you’re probably following a risky approach.

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A Fast Answer or the Right Answer

ShepHyken

Recently I was talking to a customer support rep. She was amazing. She was personable, genuinely cared, and I felt that she understood my problem. That said, we were struggling to get the problem resolved. She said, “I know you want to get this resolved right away. I can give you a fast answer or I can give you the right answer.”. Next, she explained why.

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Reimagine Your Communications With A Unified Platform

Cut complexity and boost efficiency while empowering your customers with Nextiva's unified communications platform. Nextiva streamlines workflows and centralizes customer interactions, all while simplifying business collaboration, increasing productivity, and reducing employee burnout.

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The 5 Rules to Dramatically Improve The Way you Deal with Customer Complaints

Beyond Philosophy

The 5 Rules to Dramatically Improve The Way you Deal with Customer Complaints. A lot of the behavioral sciences can feel intimidating. However, it doesn’t have to be. The Five Rules Podcast Series is our attempt at giving you an easy entry point into the complex and messy world of Behavioral Science. Does your organization like to pretend that complaints never happen?

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“Satisfaction Guaranteed” Does Not Lead to Customers Guaranteed

Bill Quiseng

When you are working in customer service, you have been happy that your customers leave satisfied. You have sold them a product or service that meets their wants or needs. Or you solved their problem for them. You were happy because, in the end, they were satisfied. But their satisfaction does not guarantee their return. The good news is that your satisfied customers didn’t complain.

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4 Easy Ways to Make Call Center Training More Fun

Fonolo

When you think of the phrase “call center training”, does the word fun come to mind? If it doesn’t, you’re probably not alone. After all, workplace training has a reputation for being dull with endless PowerPoint presentations and the occasional role-playing exercise. But now, with agent engagement becoming a growing priority for call centers, it’s a great time to reimagine your approach to training your team members.

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The Hybrid Contact Center

Contact Center Pipeline

As COVID-19 restrictions ease, contact center leaders are planning what their future work environment will look like. The hybrid work model, in which agents work at home but come into the center a few times a week, is gaining prominence as a way to meet agents’ demands for more flexibility, better work-life balance and the […].

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The Verint Experience Index: Retail

Reports of the death of in-store shopping have been greatly exaggerated. This year’s retail survey found that more than 60 percent of consumers start and end their journey by visiting a store. Retail customers value price above everything, but the importance of other factors varies for different brands. In-store shopping is valued highly by grocery and home improvement customers Technology retail customers place less importance on in-store experiences – for them it only ranks sixth Digital exper

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70+ Business Survey Questions You Should Include in Your Next Business Survey

ProProfs Blog

Entrepreneurs wishing to scale their business often fall prey to expensive consultants and time-consuming PR experts. The result? A few of them experience positive outcomes while others don’t. What if I tell you that you could achieve the same by sending out business surveys questions while spending negligible time and money. . Yes! You heard that right.

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Amazing Business Radio: Kiel Harkness

ShepHyken

What the Holidays Mean for SMB’s. The Opportunities and Challenges Small and Medium-Sized Businesses (SMB’s)Will Face This Holiday Season. Shep Hyken interviews Kiel Harkness, Head of Global Marketing and Business Intelligence at UPS Capital®. They discuss how SMB’s can compete with giant brands when it comes to problem resolution for delays, theft, and problems during the holiday season.

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This is the Most Powerful Tool in Your Armory, But Do You Understand Why?

Beyond Philosophy

Consumers do insane, possibly dangerous things when they feel a threat to their resources. In particular, highly commoditized resources we perceive as necessary for basic functioning. Unfortunately, panic buying shows that the difference between everyday life and chaos has a thin margin. However, it also reveals a powerful tool in your customer strategy: Scarcity.

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Making Personalization the Center of Your Customer Retention Strategy like Spotify

SharpenCX

Long-term customers are more valuable to your company’s growth than you may think. A study from Harvard Business School found that increasing customer retention rates by even 5% can boost your company’s profits by 25-95%. And, when compared to the cost of customer acquisition, customer retention costs almost 5x less than bringing new customers under your umbrella.

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Strategic CX: A Deep Dive into Voice of the Customer Insights for Clarity

Speaker: Nicholas Zeisler, CX Strategist & Fractional CXO

The first step in a successful Customer Experience endeavor (or for that matter, any business proposition) is to find out what’s wrong. If you can’t identify it, you can’t fix it! 💡 That’s where the Voice of the Customer (VoC) comes in. Today, far too many brands do VoC simply because that’s what they think they’re supposed to do; that’s what all their competitors do.

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Improving Customer Experience by Empowering A Compassionate Workforce

The Northridge Group

Empathy is a desirable trait for customer service associates; however, compassion takes empathy to the next level. While an empathetic associate will try to comfort a customer, who calls in with an issue, a compassionate associate will not only offer comfort but go beyond that by offering practical solutions and taking appropriate actions to improve the customer’s situation.

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Low-Code/No-Code AI-Enabled Chatbots

Contact Center Pipeline

When the world went rapidly digital, customer engagement solutions such as intelligent virtual assistants (IVAs) became invaluable pandemic frontline first responders in the customer service realm. Today, IVA technology is revolutionizing how customer service is delivered and is changing the game for many organizations as they strive to come back stronger in the post-pandemic era […].

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How to Use a Customer Journey Map to Keep More Customers [+ Real Examples]

Nextiva

Of all the problems that plague growing businesses, the most frustrating is trying to understand user behavior. But then, when you think you've figured it all out, loyal customers begin to leave without warning. Or, new visitors spend hours on your pricing page only to leave without buying. Every team — from support to sales […]. The post How to Use a Customer Journey Map to Keep More Customers [+ Real Examples] first appeared on Nextiva Blog.

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“New-Style” Digital Versus “Old-Fashioned” Human Interactions

ShepHyken

Here’s a question, and I think I know the answer. Would you do business with an airline that didn’t offer the ability to book a ticket online, check-in online, and get your boarding pass online? . Assuming that every other airline has these self-service digital options, what if one didn’t? Would you be willing to call for a reservation, wait on hold, pull out your credit card to verbally give your payment information, and stand in line at the ticket counter to check in on the day of departure?

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SME Relationships: Proven Solutions for Seamless Collaboration and Success

Speaker: Tim Buteyn, President of ThinkingKap Learning Solutions

💢 Do you find yourself stuck in never-ending review cycles? Are you wondering if your Subject Matter Expert actually got that last review request? Are you having trouble trying to decipher impractical or conflicting feedback? 💢 If any of these scenarios sounds familiar, you may benefit from a crash course on managing SME relationships!

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Concentrix Announces Acquisition of PK, a Leading Global CX Design Engineering Company

Concentrix

This acquisition marks an evolutionary milestone for Concentrix, supporting the growth strategy of investing in digital transformation to deliver exceptional customer experiences. The post Concentrix Announces Acquisition of PK, a Leading Global CX Design Engineering Company appeared first on Concentrix.

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The Future of Remote Agent Call Centers

Outsource Consultants

Are remote call center agents a part of your future plans? Depending on your industry, the shift to remote environments might be a boon or a bust for your business. But no matter what, you’re looking to optimize for what works and solve for what doesn’t. In a short time, businesses that rely on call center agents found their teams dispersed across remote home offices.

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Best Practices of Great Coaches

The Northridge Group

Customer loyalty is earned by being great and consistent at the basics and finding ways to delight your customers in unexpected ways. Coaching contact center associates to drive a differentiated customer experience that delights customers is a tall order for their managers, who must continually strike a balance between associate development and sustained business outcomes.

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12 Better Ways to Start a Customer Service Email

Contact Center Pipeline

“Thank you for contacting us.” There’s nothing wrong with that little email starter sentence, but it’s not great, either. Think about it. In most cases, you’re thanking customers for doing something they wish they didn’t have to do: email you to complain about a problem or to get help. Sure, that opener is polite enough, […].

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Contact Center Dialers Demystified

Dive into the realm of contact center dialers with our infographic! Explore the various types – Preview, Predictive, Automatic, and Progressive Dialers – and unravel their roles in boosting call center performance.

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Your Holiday Reading List to Get Ahead in the Customer Service Industry

SharpenCX

If you’re like me, you’ve already started mentally preparing for the holiday season. You’re tying up loose ends, finishing end of year projects, and looking ahead to what 2022 will bring. As you prepare for the new year, you’re setting goals and thinking through how to get ahead of your competitors. So, to help you, we’ve put together a reading list to get you through the holiday season. .

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Guest Post: Exceptional Customer Service Doesn’t Start Where You Think

ShepHyken

Christan Hiscock is the CEO and co-founder of Kardia Financial Group , an organization that believes that the financial services industry should not be solely focused on dollars, but on helping people truly get to the heart of their financial goals. He shares the foundational guide for everything a company does, the reason why the company was started and its values.

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The secrets to driving up First Contact Resolution rates

Eptica

Date: Friday, November 19, 2021 Author: Pauline Ashenden - Demand Generation Manager The secrets to driving up First Contact Resolution rates. Published on: November 19, 2021. Author: Pauline Ashenden - Demand Generation Manager Today, customer service is central to differentiating your company. And being able to resolve customer queries on the first call is one of the hallmarks of good customer service.