January, 2022

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Ensuring Agent Performance and Engagement

Contact Center Pipeline

“That looks crazy!” I thought, watching a TV performer spin a plate on top of a pole. Then he added a spinning plate to a second pole, and then another spinning plate to a third pole. Suddenly, he raced back to the first pole, whose spinning plate had slowed down and begun to wobble. He […].

Feedback 264
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Customers Are Changing. Are You Ready with The Next Best Thing is Customer Strategy?

Beyond Philosophy

The late Steve Jobs said at a 1997 Apple World Worldwide Developers Conference, “You’ve got to start with the Customer Experience first and work backward towards the technology.” Now, in 2021, this quote couldn’t be any more pertinent than it was nearly 25 years ago. However, customers are changing how they have experiences these days, and organizations that don’t keep up will be left behind.

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Five Lessons On How To Personalize the Customer Experience

ShepHyken

I love to receive great examples of outstanding customer service. I’m always on the lookout for great stories, whether I personally experience them, or they are sent in by our followers. What I share with you today is a great example of personalized and proactive communication. While I provide the lessons, the example comes from one of our subscribers, Dawn Mushill, who shared a letter that BarkBox wrote to one of its customers.

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De-escalation Q & A Day!

Myra Golden Media

Did you miss my latest Live Q & A? You’re in luck. Here’s a replay of our conversation. 3:29 How do you deal with an angry customer because we won’t give in to their demands? 5:31 Do you have a list of negative priming words and positive priming alternatives? 6:41 What are some warning signs that a call will be escalated? 11:38 How do I make soft sales when my customers are angry over a billing issue?

Sales 379
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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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7 Customer Expectations and Why I Shouldn’t Have to Ask for a Napkin

Steve DiGioia

We all speak about expectations, customer expectations. They can be reasonable or extreme, and sometimes achievable or bizarre. But usually, they are appropriate. As a customer, I expect a basic minimum such as: The product or service should work as expected. The product or service should be reasonably priced and in line with similar products. The product or service should be safe to use.

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Customer-Centric Self-Service

Contact Center Pipeline

The pandemic exposed two significant insights about the state of customer service: A poor customer experience coupled with pandemic-fueled emotions can push customers to the brink of tears; and Customers don’t have much faith in conventional self-service options. Research released by software company Pegasystems found that the pandemic created extraordinary challenges that intensified customers’ longstanding […].

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Customer Relationships Are a Waste of Time! Is This True? What Do You Think?

Beyond Philosophy

Our listeners have problems and they let us know about it. For our I’m in a Pickle feature on the podcast, Tina in New Zealand wrote to us because the engineering firm she works with thinks customer relationships are a waste of time. She wants to know how to convince the engineers that customer relationships are what get the customer strategy gears turning toward long-term success.

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A Small but Powerful Surprise

ShepHyken

I love a surprise. Think about the last time you received a surprise from a friend or loved one. It doesn’t even have to be a big surprise. It could be something small – just something that proves the other person was thinking about you. . Has this ever happened to you in business? I receive surprise appreciation gifts from clients. I’m enjoying a box of chocolates a client sent as I create this post.

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Top 3 Ways to Calm Angry Customers

Myra Golden Media

I had an inspiring video meeting with a long-term client I started working with in 2018. My client is now at a new company, and she reached out for de-escalation training. It turns out I’m already working with her new company for de-escalation train-the-trainer. My client, thrilled that my training is already available to her at the new company, shared her favorite tactic from my training with me.

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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 You Confirm? How Uncertainty Costs You Money

Steve DiGioia

There are 2 kinds of people. One never asks for directions. One always asks for directions (or at least is not hesitant to ask). In a past Tips on Thursday newsletter , I wrote about taking the initiative, finding your own course of action, and making a decision based on experience, availability, practicality, etc. This mindset seems to match those who never ask for directions because they can make their own decisions.

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Your 2022 Customer Experience Plan: Strategies, Videos, & Resources

360Connext

Imagine yourself a year from today. Your company has surpassed its annual goals for customer retention, referrals, and satisfaction. C-level leadership is thrilled, and the customer experience program you helped develop was instrumental to this success. How did this happen? It started with a plan – including immediate foundational steps to take, secondary growth, and longer-term strategies for continued success.

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Contact Center Pipeline Magazine: Inside Our January 2022 Issue

Contact Center Pipeline

Welcome to 2022 and the January issue of Contact Center Pipeline. I hope the new year brings much health and happiness. This is an exciting month. We are sharing our board members’ thoughts on what 2022 will bring for our contact centers in Brendan’s article this month, Moving Forward: What Will 2022 Bring for Contact […].

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The Critical Steps to Ensure Your Program Is Not Seen As Something Soft and Fluffy

Beyond Philosophy

One of our listeners in Finland is in a pickle. Anna wants to operationalize journey mapping to make their Customer Experience more customer centric. Perhaps more importantly, she wants these improvements to prove practical and effective rather than viewed as a “soft and fluffy” exercise that is not practical for the organization to continue to support.

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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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Amazing Business Radio: Genefa Murphy

ShepHyken

Intelligent Virtual Assistant. The Opportunities and Fears Surrounding Intelligent Virtual Assistant. Shep Hyken interviews Genefa Murphy, the Chief Marketing Officer for Five9. They discuss how to use AI and automation to increase efficiency, capacity, and effectiveness within your contact center and ultimately deliver a better customer experience.

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Yep, Holiday Returns Will Make Customers More Difficult

Myra Golden Media

After the busy Christmas and Boxing Day shopping season, returns start. And if you’ve ever worked in retail or a contact center, you know how challenging this time of year can be. Returns and exchanges make things more complicated because customers making returns are more likely to be already unhappy. So, we need to have a strategy for handling these situations.

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When It All Comes Down to Business, It’s “People First”

Bill Quiseng

For many years, there has been a stranglehold of the “Profits over People” mentality on business. Senior executives care about revenue dollars, market share, the stock price, bottom-line profits, even their competitors, more than their people. Listening to the sweet cha-ching sound of profits, these bad bosses do not hear their grumbling employees and complaining customers many hierarchical rungs below.

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Ratio Scale: Definition, Characteristics & Examples

ProProfs Blog

While collecting data from various types of surveys and questionnaires , marketers often make use of 4 types of data measurement scales, namely: Nominal, Ordinal, Interval, and Ratio Scale. Among all, the ratio scale adequately serves the purpose as it possesses all the qualities of other measurement scales (Nominal, Ordinal, and Interval scales). However, the classification among the four is crucial because they determine the characteristics of the variables and the type of statistical analysi

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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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Taking Care of Contact Center Business

Contact Center Pipeline

The expression “taking care of business” is defined by Merriam-Webster as “to do what needs to be done.” This is a more elegant definition than I expected when I looked it up! To do what needs to be done…that says it all and is why we go to work ultimately. Isn’t it? (“Takin’ Care Of […].

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Is This The Future? Great Practical Examples of the Beginning of the Metaverse

Beyond Philosophy

By now, you have probably heard of the metaverse. If you haven’t, Fortune.com describes the metaverse as a digital universe that users access through virtual reality (VR). This metaverse concept is poised to change everything, from how we interact online to how we buy things to the way brands market themselves. . We hosted an expert on a recent podcast to tell us how the metaverse will change brand marketing.

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Stop Sending Me Surveys Unless You Care What I Have to Say!

ShepHyken

I’m getting survey fatigue. But it’s different than it used to be. In the past, companies have sent me surveys that were so long I became tired – or fatigued – at some point during the survey, and as a result, I wouldn’t complete it and therefore the company never received my feedback. We’ve covered survey length before, and that’s not what this is about.

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13 Most Inspiring Marketing Quotes and Questions to Live By in 2022

C3Centricity

Are you like most businesses? Do you have a plan you are following that will (hopefully) enable you to reach your goals? In order to meet them, we are often looking to make changes, large or small, in our organisation. At times like these I find it useful to motivate with some inspiring quotes from people much wiser than I. If you are looking for ways to motivate and inspire your own team, then I am sure you too will enjoy these.

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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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Building the Right Path to Cloud

ConvergeOne

While many organizations have begun their cloud journeys, most are nowhere near complete. No matter where you happen to be in your cloud journey, it is important that you set priorities and identify optimal outcomes before advancing any further. By taking the time to develop—or refine—a comprehensive cloud strategy that addresses your specific business needs, you will ensure that you are receiving the greatest possible value from your cloud investment.

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90+ Market Research Questions to Ask Your Customers

ProProfs Blog

Market research questions can help you capture the best insights when you are up for launching a new product or a feature. Sending out such surveys about market needs and preferences enables companies to understand how their target market feels and behaves. But why market research surveys ? Because market trends change with the change in opinions and preferences of your customer base.

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Providing Resiliency During Challenging Times

Contact Center Pipeline

During the first quarter of 2020, I recall when COVID-19 started appearing more prominent in the U.S. we as a call center weren’t sure how everything would play out. Though we had several plans in place for business continuity/disaster recovery (BC/DR), it didn’t involve an entire workforce working from home (WFH) as we were a […].

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My Customer is So Annoying! How to Rationally Decide if the Time Has Come to Sack Them

Beyond Philosophy

We all know that feeling when you see which client is calling and you inwardly groan, What is wrong now? Some customer relationships are more difficult than others, for sure. That is to be expected in any organization. However, there are other customer relationships that have moved beyond difficult. The costs of the resources it takes to manage the many aspects of doing business with them has outgrown the revenue the generate.

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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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The Omnichannel Experience – What the Heck Does That Mean??

ShepHyken

There is a term in the customer service world that is often misused or misunderstood. That term is omnichannel. I have had many conversations with clients about the omnichannel experience, and I’ve even shared content about it with our subscribers in the Shepard Letter and my videos. It’s time to bring it back with what may be the perfect example. .

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How to provide more personalized customer experiences

GetFeedback

Insights and steps on how to deliver a better personalized customer experience based on key findings from The GetFeedback 2022 State of CX Report.

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The State of the Call Center Industry with Corey Kotlarz

Outsource Consultants

As we enter a new year, Outsource Consultants Founder & President Corey Kotlarz shares his thoughts on the state of the call center industry. Looking back on 2021, what surprised you the most about the state of the call center outsourcing industry? I continue to be amazed at how resilient the industry has been as it has faced many significant challenges over the past two years.