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How to infuse contact center operations with empathy to improve interactions, customer satisfaction and CX. Empathy is critical in customer service, especially amidst COVID-19. Many customers are feeling frustrated, distracted and otherwise in need of some extra support. And new challenges—such as job loss affecting the ability to pay a bill or confusion about the technical demands of a child’s remote schooling—mean they’re contacting companies with a wide variety of pressing needs.
Call center agents deal with dozens of customers each day, each with a unique problem to solve. As the face of your business, they’re the ones who best understand the wants and needs of your consumer base. As a manager, it’s in your best interest to understand the types of individuals your team deals with on a daily basis. This allows you to coach and train your agents to provide the best customer experience possible, no matter what challenges come their way.
Human beings are magnificent at holding onto two contradictory beliefs in their minds. It’s a psychological phenomenon called Cognitive Dissonance, and it’s why we sometimes think that things are good when they are, in reality, bad. We discussed this phenomenon in a recent podcast and how we all do this. For example, I think the Luton Town Football Club is the best team in the world.
AI adoption is reshaping sales and marketing. But is it delivering real results? We surveyed 1,000+ GTM professionals to find out. The data is clear: AI users report 47% higher productivity and an average of 12 hours saved per week. But leaders say mainstream AI tools still fall short on accuracy and business impact. Download the full report today to see how AI is being used — and where go-to-market professionals think there are gaps and opportunities.
We’ve all heard the expression surprise and delight. The intention is that we surprise our customers with better-than-expected service. The result is that they are delighted. But what happens when the intended surprise does not delight? That’s exactly what happened to my friend and fellow professional speaker, Beth Terry. She has a three-bedroom home.
For contact center businesses, unexpected changes such as unplanned downtime, massive call volume increases, facility closures or other issues can wreak havoc on a team’s ability to service the customer. This can, in turn, have consequences for the brand(s) that contact center supports: 32% of consumers say they will walk away from a brand they […].
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For contact center businesses, unexpected changes such as unplanned downtime, massive call volume increases, facility closures or other issues can wreak havoc on a team’s ability to service the customer. This can, in turn, have consequences for the brand(s) that contact center supports: 32% of consumers say they will walk away from a brand they […].
Written By Trey Fischer Trey Fischer of Kat Lan Tat Services spoke to members on how to help training teams go from surviving training with the remote agents to thriving when training remote agents. The video clip of Trey’s comments comes from a recent Town Hall meeting with members of CCNG. Many of the differences between on-site training and virtual training are identified as well as solutions to help your contact center overcome them.
Why What We Believe Is Sometimes Just Wrong! Many sports fans will tell you their team is the best. However, only one of the sports teams wins the championship and is definitively the best. Moreover, many organizations that never get close to the championship have fans who would say these teams are the best. For this last lot, the claim that their team is “the best” creates some serious conflict compared to reality.
Getting Inside Your Customer’s Imagination. Creating a Company with the Best Customer Experience Culture. Shep Hyken interviews Chip Bell , customer service keynote speaker and bestselling author. They discuss the 5 Secrets from his new book, Inside Your Customer’s Imagination , that can help organizations better understand their customers. Top Takeaways: Good customer service and experience principles can be applied in any relationship—professional or personal.
I’ve always told my staff that I’m not perfect, I don’t know it all, and that I make mistakes. I too have a lot to learn. Is this a mindset of a weak manager? I don’t think so. Instead, the humble manager is realistic and open to suggestions. I used to love watching the faces of new employees when I tell them that I want to hear their thoughts and views of “how we do things here”.
What does customer service excellence look like in 2024? According to our report with insights from CX expert Shep Hyken, customer expectations are at an all-time high, and there’s a bigger shift toward self-service and leveraging AI capabilities.
In the mad scramble to move more than 90% of our nation’s contact center agents to work at home, the focus was on technology—keeping our agents online, connected and maintaining service continuity. The next phase requires every supporting function to adjust their processes and technology to support and enable our employees as work-at-home moves from […].
This week we feature an article by Steven Van Belleghem , author, entrepreneur and international keynote speaker. He provides tips and insight on the future of your business and your customers’ expectations. This is a turning point. The world is at a turning point. Not just because of COVID-19. The pandemic merely accelerated a number of trends that were already emerging.
Right across the housing sector, tenants aren’t just seen as renters anymore – they are now considered clients. They want to communicate on their preferred channels, receiving personalized content and proactive services. This tenant-first philosophy applies to both the private and public housing sector and requires the creation of a new kind of digital tenant experience – everything from live chat and online knowledge resources to self-service portals.
Start building the AI workforce of the future with our comprehensive guide to creating an AI-first contact center. Learn how Conversational and Generative AI can transform traditional operations into scalable, efficient, and customer-centric experiences. What is AI-First? Transition from outdated, human-first strategies to an AI-driven approach that enhances customer engagement and operational efficiency.
Our workforce management (WFM) landscape is changing at breakneck speed. Many organizations are now 100% work-from-home or have a workforce divided between brick-and-mortar and virtual agents (82% are WFH since July 2020—Gartner). This presents entirely new challenges and opportunity for workforce managers. Workforce management professionals are still grappling with this epic change.
“How do we get ardent customers for our brand?”. “From where do we start?”. If you find yourself sharing the same concern frequently, then you need to build a customer loyalty program. Before turning into global names, brands like Starbucks and Amazon might have faced the same challenge. But with the awesome customer loyalty programs in place, they’ve successfully ensured that customers return to their store to make a purchase and earn more points.
Each week I read a number of 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. Winning means losing in the game of customer retention by Linda O’Grady. (CMO) All too often retention is a blanket goal.
Do you have a hobby that you cannot wait to get home to after work? Is there a way to monetize it and turn it into a profitable business? These are questions that many people ponder as they make their way home from another dull day at the office. If you think that there is a possibility that you could turn your hobby into a business, it might be time to stop daydreaming about it and make your vision a reality.
Harness the True Power of your Contact Center In today’s fast-paced business environment, selecting the right contact center solution is critical for enhancing customer experience, improving operational efficiency, and optimizing costs. This comprehensive guide will walk you through the essential factors to consider when choosing a contact center software that aligns with your business needs.
“You will be the same person in five years as you are today except for the people you meet and the books you read.” Charlie “Tremendous” Jones. Intent on learning how to “Deliver The World’s Best Customer Experience”, I have read more books by Chip R. Bell than any other author. Several of his 24 customer service books that I highly recommend include “Kaleidoscope: Delivering Innovative Service That Sparkles,” “Sprinkles: Creating Aweso
By Steve Offsey The goal of customer journey orchestration is to improve journey outcomes by enabling the most relevant interactions in the context of each customer’s goals and their overall experience. Customer journey orchestration enables enterprises to engage prospects and customers at optimal points along their journeys, in real time and through the most effective channels.
Due to the pandemic, 2020 has been the year where many organizations have transitioned to a work-from-home (WFH) model to ensure employee safety. In addition, businesses worldwide have experienced drastic fluctuations in customer demand, as COVID-19 brought uncertainty to a lot of industries. In some cases, organizations saw themselves dealing with more calls while transitioning to a WFH practice.
33% of Gen Z are already working full-time. Credit unions can’t afford to miss out on winning their loyalty. Even though credit unions and Gen Z appear to be a great match, there’s one crucial element that’s stopping most credit unions from making a connection: customer experience technology. We have put together an abridged version of our exclusive new industry report: Connecting with Gen Z: How Credit Unions Can Win the Battle for Gen Z’s Banking.
ZoomInfo customers aren’t just selling — they’re winning. Revenue teams using our Go-To-Market Intelligence platform grew pipeline by 32%, increased deal sizes by 40%, and booked 55% more meetings. Download this report to see what 11,000+ customers say about our Go-To-Market Intelligence platform and how it impacts their bottom line. The data speaks for itself!
While you definitely deserve a reward after completing a task, sometimes the reward can come before. While trying to write this article, and with its deadline looming in the horizon, I looked at the status of an order I placed a couple of days ago, I chatted to a friend about her new leggings, I searched for flights for my next trip, and I peeked at my Instagram notifications (big mistake – Instagram is the equivalent of a black hole).
It’s not up for debate—the 2020 election season is upon us, and November 3rd will be here before you know it. So what does your political call center procurement plan look like? You need to secure a quality outbound calling partner before it’s too late. That’s because political campaign telemarketing has become a nearly universal feature of campaign strategy for more than a generation.
The “Future of Customer Service” podcast features interviews of Customer Support and Service leaders to understand how things work, best practices, and the future of support. Hear their perspective on challenges and opportunities. The podcast is specifically designed for Directors, Vice Presidents, CEOs, Support Leaders, Support Engineers and Chief Customer Officers.
Acquire BPO’s domestic growth, service innovation and corporate responsibility were recognised at the 17th Annual International Business Awards® today—its fifth consecutive year in the winner’s circle. We won the Silver Stevie Award for the Company of the Year – Large category and the Bronze Stevie Award for Most Valuable Corporate Response in the COVID-19 Response category.
Faster response times mean happier customers Are your customers on hold too long? Nearly half of consumers find hold times unacceptable, and a quarter will leave your brand because of it. Our latest report reveals how companies are affected by wait times and the impact on customer satisfaction. Read the report to get insights into the impact of long hold times and areas for opportunities.
Latency is the time taken from when one person speaks to when the other person hears. There are many factors that can affect this time and the complexity of today's enterprise networks make it a challenge. When a customer service call suffers a poor connection due to latency, considerable customer effort may be required, whereas when a connection is of good quality, complete relaxation is possible.
The following post is a guest contribution summary from Kimberley Drobny of Waterfield Technologies. You can read the full post on the Waterfield blog, and register for an upcoming webinar featuring Calabrio’s Dave Hoekstra on September 15th. Let’s face it, the workplace will forever look different. Companies that would have never allowed employees to work from home – have now uncovered a well of productivity they didn’t know they had.
by Bruce Wedderburn. Virtual selling has changed the way that customers are choosing- or not choosing- to interact with salespeople, often in significant ways. While the fundamentals of selling aren’t different in a virtual setting, the dynamics are, and many salespeople are struggling to adapt. Businesses often struggle to make big changes, but as we learned earlier in the year, sometimes they literally have no choice.
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