August, 2017

article thumbnail

Secrets Revealed! How to Thrive in an Uncertain World

Beyond Philosophy

By nature, I’m an organized person. I like things clear and orderly, laid out in black and white. So, some years ago, as a new senior manager, I asked my boss to explain what my responsibilities would be after a company reorganization. I wanted to know, with absolute certainty. But my boss just looked at me and said, “Colin, in a senior position you need to deal with ambiguity.”.

article thumbnail

The Power of a Personal Handwritten Note

ShepHyken

There is a lot of power in a handwritten, personal note. This isn’t just about a thank you note to a customer, although those are important as well. This is also about the note of appreciation to someone who has done a great job or hit their goals. You get the idea. Anything you might want to congratulate them on. Ted Janusz is one of our amazing trainers at Shepard Presentations.

Insiders

Sign Up for our Newsletter

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Trending Sources

article thumbnail

Top Customer Experience Podcasts: 50 Must-Listen Podcasts on Customer Experience from Industry Experts and Influencers

Callminer

We’ve rounded up 50 of the top customer experience podcasts so you can spend more time listening to industry thought leaders and less time searching.

article thumbnail

3 Mistakes Contact Centers Are Making That Turn Away Millennial Customers

Contact Center Pipeline

When it comes to brands, millennials are not lacking for options. The first generation raised on digital tools, the ability to research and choose among thousands of search results is second nature. This has fundamentally changed the nature of their relationships with businesses, as they now favor experience over function. The 1:1 relationship—the interactions that […].

article thumbnail

5 Ways You Can Win Faster with Gen AI in Sales

Incorporating generative AI (gen AI) into your sales process can speed up your wins through improved efficiency, personalized customer interactions, and better informed decision- making. Gen AI is a game changer for busy salespeople and can reduce time-consuming tasks, such as customer research, note-taking, and writing emails, and provide insightful data analysis and recommendations.

article thumbnail

Do You Have Trouble De-escalating Angry Customers? If So, Try This.

Myra Golden Media

Four minutes into the call and I could see I was heading for trouble. The customer was a storyteller and a rambler. Plus, she was mad. She’d already spoken to an employee in the field and to one of my employees at the corporate office. Now the call had come to me. I got the call literally just as I was picking up my book to head to the park to enjoy a quick lunch and hopefully a couple of chapters of my novel.

More Trending

article thumbnail

Why Cash Is No Longer King!

Beyond Philosophy

A Canadian food chain Iq Food Co. is like most of the others. It has an assortment of food choices ranging from snacks to meals and even coffee and tea. But if you want to buy anything at their soon-to-be eleven locations, your money is no good there—quite literally. Iq Food Co. does not take cash. The restaurant’s founder Alan Bekerman said it was one less thing to think about when he made the decision back in February 2016.

article thumbnail

Which Customers Do You Want to Keep?

ShepHyken

There is an old joke in the dental world that a patient asked his dentist, “Which teeth should I floss?” The dentist answered, “Only the ones you want to keep.” Customer Service is the same. All customers are good customers. Okay, maybe not all. Every business has customers – or should I call them former customers – that companies choose not to do business with.

Sales 419
article thumbnail

What is Omnichannel Customer Engagement?

Callminer

Omnichannel customer engagement best practices and solutions empower companies to deliver consistent, personalized customer experiences.

article thumbnail

The Straight Scoop on Contact Center Analytics

Contact Center Pipeline

Most contact centers know they need a more analytical approach to understanding the customer experience. In our 2017 Workforce Optimization Survey, a high percentage of centers indicated that analytics falls within the “Have but do not use effectively” category. We also see many centers evaluating analytics offerings while others place them on their wish lists. […].

Analytics 206
article thumbnail

The Contact Center Manager’s Guide to AI

Step-by-step instructions on how to use AI for growth in your contact center Learn how AI can transform your contact center operations. In this ebook, dig into the different AI technologies, then see how each can help automate tasks, streamline service, and turn your contact center from a cost center to a profit house. Plus, we’ll give you practical tips on choosing the right AI tools, getting them up and running, and measuring their impact.

article thumbnail

Mobile Self-service Modernizes Your WFM

CX Global Media

Effective Workforce Management (WFM) in contact centers seems to be fairly straight forward. That’s until you have to deal with all of the exceptions. But when agents use their mobile devices to help themselves with managing exceptions, your burden becomes a whole lot easier. Mobile Self-service Modernizes your WFM Click to Tweet. While it does take a lot of skill and experience to develop good forecasts and schedules, the most difficult aspect of WFM has always been managing all of the schedule

article thumbnail

How to Create The Perfect Cold Calling Script For Call Centers

Convoso

When was the last time you sat through a cold call? Probably was a very, very, very long time ago. With today’s advanced customer expectations, you will be lucky to even get someone to answer their phone. With so many other channels that customers prefer like social media, texting, email, and automation it has become increasingly harder to convince customers to answer calls from unknown and unfamiliar numbers.

Scripts 154
article thumbnail

What Type of Employee Are You? Room For Improvement?

Beyond Philosophy

How committed are you to your present employer? Are you wild about what you do or simply content in your position? Do you hate your job or are you ambivalent? It’s an important set of questions to consider. How you feel about where you work has a lot of influence on the job you are doing there. This concept becomes even more crucial when you become a manager and assess your team—especially as it pertains to how they work with or on behalf of customers.

article thumbnail

Five Ways to Create the Customer-Focus Mindset

ShepHyken

Your people attend customer service training. They learn techniques and tactics on how to deal with complaining customers, angry customers or customers who just need a little support. They are taught the right answers to some difficult questions. This is what customer service training is all about. But…. What happens when something happens that is outside of the parameters of the training your employees have received?

article thumbnail

Gartner® Research: Boost Customer Service Performance with Smart Coaching Tools

Preparing for impactful coaching sessions shouldn't be a bottleneck to success. "Innovation Insight: Coaching Tech to Boost Customer Service Performance" from Gartner shows practical ways to turn this around. In the research, Gartner found that “customer service and support supervisors, who are responsible for coaching, often lack availability and only spend an average of 30% of their time on it.” 1 We believe this valuable resource offers an objective look at how technology can facilitate more

article thumbnail

Streamlining Contact Center Processes for More Effective Use of Human Resources

Callminer

Finding ways to streamline contact center processes is the best way to effectively increase efficiency and make better use of resources.

article thumbnail

Hot Trends Impacting Contact Centers: IoT-enabled Service Strategies

Contact Center Pipeline

In our mid-year look at five“hot” topics that have been garnering much attention recently, our last post offered insights into why employee engagement is so critical to modern contact centers. Next on our list, and equally vital to contact centers, are the challenges brought about by the Internet of Things (IoT) and the increased complexity […].

article thumbnail

This One Word Unleashes Contact Center Peak Performance

CX Global Media

People, process, technology, reporting, culture, competition, morale, data, automation, self-service – which word matters most? In my 20+ years in the contact center industry, the past three years elevated this one word to utmost importance. This word is now more important than any other word. And if your supervisors don’t have it, your entire frontline staff will never reach peak performance.

article thumbnail

Coaching Effectively: Curbing the ‘Principal’s Office’ Mentality

Call Center Weekly

By Jennifer Boston During my last transition over a tenured training team, one of my initial interactions with a member of my new team really struck a chord. I e-mailed a trainer with the subject, ‘Let’s Chat’ and to stop by the office when she could step away from the batch of new hires for 10 minutes. I expected to see her in a few hours or when the class was over for the day.

Coaching 179
article thumbnail

The State of Digital Customer Experience Report 2024

This comprehensive report explores the evolving landscape of customer and business expectations, with five key trends that will help you understand your customers and stay ahead of the competition. Discover how your peers are implementing AI to improve customer experience with granular insights into their CX investments and specific AI use cases. For the first time, customers prefer digital channels when interacting with a business.

article thumbnail

Exposed: How To Measure Your Customer’s Loyalty and CX

Beyond Philosophy

Many organizations measure their Customer Experience (CX) in the wrong way. Chances are, you are too. So, what is it? How are you inadvertently thwarting your efforts to improve your CX? It is how you measure it and it’s one of the fundamental failures of many CX programs. Measuring is a critical part of any effort to quantify progress (or failures) when you have a goal of improving your CX.

Metrics 331
article thumbnail

Guest Blog: How to Get Customer Obsession to Start at the Top

ShepHyken

This week we feature an article by Borge Hald who writes about the importance of being a customer obsessed company and how it is the key to success. We need to obsess about creating such an amazing customer experience that our customers will want to do business with us and nobody else. – Shep Hyken. In a recent letter to shareholders that went viral, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos talked about customer obsession and its criticality to remaining a Day 1 company.

article thumbnail

The Importance of Contact Center Efficiency and Customer Experience as Energy Pricing Faces Scrutiny

Callminer

With energy prices rising, the UK government recently announced an independent review into the total cost of electricity and factors that could be driving up the cost.

article thumbnail

Coaching? Don’t Make Your Agents Defend Stupidity

Contact Center Pipeline

I knew I was in trouble! I was driving down the highway with my lovely wife, Jana, when we spotted a traffic jam up ahead. I suggested we stay on the highway, since it was the most direct route to our destination, and slowdowns like this usually clear up within a few miles. However, my […].

Coaching 200
article thumbnail

Mastering Remote Onboarding: Proven Strategies for Seamless New Hire Integration

Speaker: Tim Buteyn, President of ThinkingKap Learning Solutions

Join this brand new webinar with Tim Buteyn to learn how you can master the art of remote onboarding! By the end of this session, you'll understand how to: Craft a Tailored Onboarding Checklist 📝 Develop a comprehensive, customized checklist that ensures every new hire has a smooth transition into your company, no matter where they are in the world.

article thumbnail

Dear Food Delivery Company, You Should Assume Customers Ordering From a Hotel Will Need a Fork.

Myra Golden Media

One of the best things about travel for me is going to local restaurants and cafes and enjoying the food. I love tasting the food, seeing the local people and really experiencing the town’s vibe. My amazing brunch at Mesa Verde in Santa Barbara, CA: Potato Latkes: tempeh bacon. avocado. dijon. cornichon. pink lady apple. pea tendril. I read an entire novel sitting here at the beach.

article thumbnail

Customer Satisfaction is not Always an Indication of Customer Service

Call Center Weekly

By Sean Hawkins Let's face it, CSAT (customer satisfaction) is a vital measurement of customer service performance, and rightly so. In my opinion, there are 3 metrics that best measure a contact center's performance, and success. Along with the CSAT, the others are ESAT (employee satisfaction) and quality. Now, don't get me wrong, there are many metrics that one could track, and they all have their importance.

article thumbnail

Remarkable! What Invisible Influence Controls Your Behavior?

Beyond Philosophy

Why did you buy the shirt you are wearing today? What about the car you drive, how did you choose it? Why did you go with the financial advisor you did? If “because I felt like it” wasn’t the answer to each of these questions, you are missing the biggest reason that you did these things at all —and the reason you do almost anything for that matter. It isn’t your fault you got it wrong, however.

Airlines 325
article thumbnail

Pay Attention! Don’t Just Go Through the Motions!

ShepHyken

A friend of mine went to the airport rental car agency and had a chance to upgrade to a Tesla. He had never driven a Tesla so he was happy to pay the upcharge to have the experience. If you’ve ever rented a car at the airport, you typically are stopped at a gated exit where the car rental employee looks over the paperwork, checks your driver’s license and sends you on your way.

article thumbnail

How to Optimize Call Monitoring: Automate QA and Elevate Customer Experience

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? 🤔 It's time for a change! The traditional method of manual call monitoring is no longer cutting it in today's fast-paced call center environment. Industry experts Angie Kronlage and April Wiita from Working Solutions are here to explore the power of innovative automation to revolutionize outdated call review processes!

article thumbnail

Can Bandwidth Be Your Customer Experience Advantage?

CX Global Media

Are you a seeker of new things? What about re-discovering the old? I sure do get excited when these two things happen simultaneously. That’s exactly what happened when I realized that bandwidth could be your customer experience advantage. Can bandwidth be your customer experience advantage? Click to Tweet. I got the chance to see something old in an entirely new perspective when I met up with Jason Sommerset from Bandwidth (the company) at Call Center Week.

article thumbnail

Differentiator Series, Part 5: Selling and Promoting the Contact Center

Contact Center Pipeline

Our final installment of the differentiator series is perhaps the most important for customer service leadership. Our topic is selling and promoting the contact center. This activity starts at the highest levels, and the objective is to help all key decision-makers understand how valuable a contact center is to a successful enterprise. Getting to this […].

article thumbnail

What a Makeup Artist Taught Me about Customer Service

Myra Golden Media

Look at the magic Christina worked with me today! This week, I’m filming video training for a client in Southern California. Each morning before we shoot, I get treated to makeup art by Christina, a talented, gorgeous and charismatic makeup artist. The first day I worked with Christina, she asked me about what I teach in my videos and training classes.