April, 2023

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Call Center Technology Trends That Will Impact Customer Service

SQM Group

Learn about call center technologies that can help companies transform the way they deliver customer service more efficiently and effectively.

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Essential Automation Strategies for Contact Centers

Fonolo

Is your contact center staying on top of advancements in AI and automation ? There’s a lot to learn, but these sophisticated new tools can improve your operations in so many ways. New KPIs offer next-level insights into operations. Real-time agent assist helps agents understand customers’ emotions. Chatbots and call-backs create rewarding self-service experiences for customers.

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Remote Agent Training In Contact Centers: 5 Key Strategies

Playvox

Let’s confess — we’ve all nodded off during on-demand remote training sessions. The recorded talking-head, one-to-many format is a surefire way to put even the most highly caffeinated employees to sleep. How can you spice up remote agent training at your contact center to make it the most engaging and effective it can be? Here are five winning strategies. 1.

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Customer Service Is a Team Sport

ShepHyken

The other day I was having breakfast with 11 of my friends. The server came over, introduced herself, and said, “I’ll be taking care of you.” She took our orders, and a few minutes later, a different server dropped off three of our meals. Then, two more servers brought a few more meals a moment later, and another server showed up just after that with the rest of our meals.

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Enterprise ABM Marketing Tools: A Marketers Guide

Savvy B2B marketers know that a great account-based marketing (ABM) strategy leads to higher ROI and sustainable growth. In this guide, we’ll cover: What makes for a successful ABM strategy? What are the key elements and capabilities of ABM that can make a real difference? How is AI changing workflows and driving functionality? This Martech Intelligence Report on Enterprise Account-Based Marketing examines the state of ABM in 2024 and what to consider when implementing ABM software.

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Continuous Improvement in the Contact Center

Real Blue Sky

The contact center is the primary hub of contact between your organization and your customers. Ken Blanchard is credited with reminding us to “Take care of your customers or someone else will.” It is critical that contact centers operate effectively to efficiently meet customer expectations. Continuous improvement is essential for customer operations to remain competitive in today’s fast-paced omnichannel environment, yet in practice, we see organizations are not applying a continuous i

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Best Dialer Types for Financial Service Call Centers

Calltools

Financial service call centers are responsible for both inbound and outbound calls that deal with sensitive information. Often, these financial calls are time-sensitive as well. As such, financial service call centers must employ the right tools to allow their agents to reach clients most effectively. A predictive or preview dialer service can help improve efficiency for specific financial call centers.

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Contact Centers and IT Must Partner for Transformation: Starting with the Agent Desktop

LiveVox

CIOs are feeling the heat to deploy digital technologies faster to stay ahead of the competition. As companies strive to create meaningful connections with their customers through more interactive and engaging experiences, the lack of qualified IT workers is limiting how quickly they can execute their plans. By Patrick Summe, Chief Technology and Engineering Officer, […] The post Contact Centers and IT Must Partner for Transformation: Starting with the Agent Desktop appeared first on LiveV

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Top 6 Topic Analysis Use Cases For Any Contact Center

MiaRec

As you see Voice Analytic solutions promote their Topic Analysis capabilities, you start to wonder what is so special about organizing calls by topics. Because Topic Analysis is such a versatile tool, it is hard to give a simple answer on how to best use it. It can boost agent morale, reduce customer churn, catch potential problems before they happen, and so much more.

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What is product innovation? Strategies & best practices

Callminer

Product innovation is critical for companies to stay competitive. Read this blog to learn more about product innovation, the various types of strategies, and best practices for success.

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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.

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Tipping Used to Be For Good Service

ShepHyken

The other day I was at the airport and ordered a chicken sandwich from one of the “to go” restaurants. When it came time to pay, they didn’t ask me for a tip. For a moment, I thought, “Did I go back in time?” This is just my opinion, but the concept of tipping is getting out of hand. I go to a fast-food restaurant and order a burger and fries. The person behind the counter takes my money and gives me my food.

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Considering a career change? Here are 10 rules for building a successful consultancy

Beyond Philosophy

If you have been listening to us for a while now, you probably know about our “I’m in a Pickle” podcasts and the “5 Rules” series. If so, and you’re a fan, today is your lucky day because this podcast is a mash-up of both series. Not only that, but we also added in 5 more bonus rules for 100% more rules. It seems that quite a few people in our audience have a pickle.

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Your Hybrid Work Environment is Causing Stress and Burnout

CCNG

As we continue to navigate the post-COVID waters, one aspect is clear, hybrid work models are not going away. Employers learned, that in many cases, working from home can be very cost effective for business. Benefits to the employer include: - Co-workers can work longer shifts - Less absenteeism - Not having to maintain brick and mortar overhead costs Hybrid conditions offer perks to co-workers as well: - Flexible schedule - No commuting - Cost savings due to elimination or reduction in childcar

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At Least Acknowledge Me Before You Ghost Me

Steve DiGioia

Sure. Coming out of the COVID pandemic, many businesses are still having difficulties hiring enough employees to properly service their customers. I understand that. But, if that’s the case, at least find a few seconds to acknowledge the customers who enter your door, regardless of how busy you are. Example: The other day, my family and I entered a restaurant for a late lunch.

Surveys 162
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Frost Radar: Voice of Customer Analytics, 2024

Understanding and improving your customer experience (CX) can have a massive impact on your bottom line. Choosing the right voice of customers (VoC) solution is a critical step to elevating CX. Frost & Sullivan researched more than 50 leading VoC vendors, analyzing both their “innovation index” and “growth index” to independently select the top 10 performers in each of these categories.

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Do More With Less: 3 Effective Strategies to Maximize Your Contact Center’s Potential

Myra Golden Media

A whopping one-third of contact centers have laid off employees in the last 12 months, reducing their headcount by about 33%. Despite fewer resources and fewer employees, contact centers are expected to achieve the same or better results. With customer expectations rising and budgets tightening, contact centers are under pressure to deliver excellent service while reducing costs.

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25 examples of NLP & machine learning in everyday life

Callminer

NLP, ML and AI are everywhere in everyday life, and most people have encountered these technologies in action without even being aware of it. This blog shares 25 examples of NLP and ML.

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Act Like an Owner – Revisited!

ShepHyken

One of my favorite concepts to cover in my customer service keynote speeches is to act like an owner. I originally wrote about this in 2011 and shared the story of an 18-year-old server at a pizza restaurant who took so much pride in his work that the guests thought he owned the restaurant. In preparing for an upcoming speech, I worked with Anthony Demangone, CMO of the National Association of Federally Insured Credit Unions.

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Sales are down despite our research showing they should be up! Why?

Beyond Philosophy

One of our podcast listeners has a pickle, which, for those unfamiliar with it, is our term for a business problem. Our listener did their research, which gave them projected sales that made them proceed with their product launch. However, the sales after the launch haven’t been what the study predicted. Understandably, they want to know why. So, I figured we would also discuss our thoughts here since some of you had a similar problem.

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Your Roadmap to Successful AI Implementations in the Contact Center

CX leaders are in a gold rush for AI, lured by the promise of cost savings and a revolution in service delivery. But simply deploying AI in your contact center isn't a magic bullet. There are hidden dangers that can derail your AI dreams. Recent incidents, such as the missteps of an AI chatbot deployed by Air Canada, have underscored the complexities and risks involved in leveraging AI in customer-facing roles.

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THE ADDED VALUE OF TEAM EQUITY IN CONTACT CENTERS

CCNG

Does your contact center jokingly reference certain teams as “Bad News Bears”? I may be dating myself, but this 1976 movie depicts a little league baseball team of rejects and misfits that possess little work ethic and pride. They are a careless and lackluster team with a sarcastic coach who grows frustrated with the responsibility to produce a respectable team.

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Why Don’t You Come to Me with Solutions Instead?

Steve DiGioia

An old boss said this to me once. He was pissed at my “continual complaining” about “so many issues”. That was his take on the matter. Mine was different. I was pissed off too. He refused to address the many nagging problems that my team had to deal with every day. Service suffered. Morale suffered. We were refunding money back to customers for mistakes that could have been avoided.

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Breaking Bad News in Chat: A Contact Center Guide for Delicate Delivery

Myra Golden Media

Breaking bad news is one of the most challenging aspects of customer service. It’s always challenging to tell a customer that their product is out of stock, their order is delayed, or their service is canceled. However, as a contact center representative, it’s your responsibility to deliver this news in a way that’s sensitive, empathetic, and effective.

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Meet our April Wall of Fame Author: Leslie O’Flahavan

Contact Center Pipeline

Area of expertise: I am a plain language writing expert. I help customer care organizations improve the quality of their written communications with customers. I help customer service agents write better email, chat, social media, text, and chatbot content. I help companies create useful, readable knowledge content for internal and external customers.

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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!

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Guest Post: Customer Service Standards – Meet the Ones That Matter Most

ShepHyken

This week, we feature an article by Marcelle Santos, a copywriter at TextExpander , a software that helps individuals and teams communicate efficiently and consistently with their customers. She shares why customer standards matter and how your organization can meet them. Want to stand out from the competition? Raise your customer service standards.

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Why is my product not selling despite research that tells me Customers love it?

Beyond Philosophy

One of our listeners has a pickle. They did research that told them a product was just what their customers wanted, so they developed and launched it. But now, there are no sales. They want to know what went wrong. We suspect we might know. Research is a double-edged sword. It has the power to give us answers we want but not always the answers we need.

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Key Considerations for A Healthy Contact Center

CCNG

Demand and customer expectations are on the rise across all industries and those in the contact center industry can feel it. For an industry already facing labor challenges and the need to evolve the pandemic accelerated the need to overcome those challenges. Customers, with no other choice than to contact companies in any fashion other than face-to-face, found new ways to engage with businesses.

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Leading Teams To Deliver Exceptional CX Podcast

Steve DiGioia

When 2 “hospitality guys” get together, there’s bound to be many stories and CS/CX secrets to share. Thanks, Tony Johnson for having me as a guest on your podcast. Click here to listen. Some topics discussed: Be specific with your recognition Leadership isn’t about position, it’s about influence and impact Make sure that you work to train and empower your new managers The post Leading Teams To Deliver Exceptional CX Podcast appeared first on Steve DiGioia Customer S

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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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Mastering the Art of Signposting: A Guide to Controlling Calls with Ease

Myra Golden Media

When managing phone calls, signposting can make all the difference between a smooth and efficient conversation and a frustrating and confusing one. Signposting is the art of guiding the conversation using clear and concise language to let the caller know what to expect next. It’s a crucial skill for anyone who frequently takes calls, such as customer service representatives, salespeople, or receptionists.

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The Future is Now … Agents in “High Demand”

Contact Center Pipeline

The idiom “in demand” is defined as “greatly sought after, designed, or required by many people. Sometimes it is used with the modifier “high” before or in the middle of the phrase. I don’t know about you, but I am very happy to use “in high demand” when it comes to Contact Center agents!

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Top 5 Customer Service & CX Articles for the Week of April 24, 2023

ShepHyken

Each week, I read many customer service and customer experience articles from various resources. Here are my top five picks from last week. I have added my comment about each article and would like to hear what you think too. Spring Cleaning For Business: How To Embrace It In Customer Experience by Dan Gingiss (Dan Gingiss) Whether you have a Chief Experience Officer and official customer experience team or not, it’s important to periodically look at the entire customer journey from start to fin