Aria Solutions

MARCH 31, 2020

As we’ve come to know that understanding our customers and meeting their needs is one of the key building blocks for this new decade, it has also become one of the most competitive areas in business. Two-thirds of businesses surveyed report that they compete mainly on customer experience. The global call center market is predicted to grow to $481 billion by 2024 , propelled by the need for businesses to deliver customer-focused services.

Contact Center 62

Contact Center Agent burnout Self service Chatbots 62

Myra Golden Media

APRIL 2, 2020

In 1999 everybody was worried about Y2K. Will our computers boot up? Can we pay our employees? Will cars start? Do we have enough toilet paper? I managed a global call center during the Y2K fear, and my company spent a full twelve months contingency planning for everything that could potentially fail when the calendar flipped over to the new millennium.

Call Center 177

Call Center Service level Feedback Customer Experience 177

Nicereply

APRIL 3, 2020

Tough conversations are a part of life and in business, it’s no different. But tough customer conversations can be just that – tough. In customer service, you’re bound to come across a difficult situation or two. People have bad days, get confused, and things go wrong. Angry, difficult and dissatisfied customers aren’t necessarily a reflection on how well your business is run (because people are, well, people).

Morale 101

Morale Customer Support Customer retention Personalization 101

ShepHyken

APRIL 3, 2020

This week we feature an article by Nikunj Dudhdat, a digital marketing executive at SoftwareSuggest. He discusses the overall value that a good Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software can bring to your business. Customers nowadays do not lack for options when it comes to buying any product or getting a service. This makes for a very strong competitive environment among the businesses.

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CRM Marketing Management Call Center 174

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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.

Contact Center

Beyond Philosophy

MARCH 31, 2020

Just over a decade ago, just as the world was coming out of the deepest recession since the Greatest Depression, we carried out significant research across the globe with the largest container shipping company in the world. We repeated the research a year later when the economy was in full speed recovery mode and while some key drivers remained the same we found a noticeable and consistent change in every model we ran.

Airlines 499

Airlines Healthcare Government Self service 499

CX Accelerator

APRIL 1, 2020

Let’s face it, leadership in CX has never been a walk in the park. At the beginning of the year we saw some mixed predictions from Forrester that one in four CX professionals would lose their jobs whilst, in the same breath, stating that the number of CX execs would swell by 25%. What’s driving this paradoxical shift? Accountability. If you find yourself as a survivor of the cull or a newly empowered exec then here’s the brave new world in which we now reside: The Good News: The uphill battle to

Metrics 228

Metrics Morale Benchmark Government 228

ShepHyken

APRIL 1, 2020

Back in my high school and college days I worked at a gas station. We were a self-service station, so our role was that of cashier more than anything else. One very cold morning I noticed an elderly woman drive into the station. She was probably 80 years old. When I say it was a cold morning, I mean it was record-breaking cold. I walked out to her car and asked if I could fill her tank with gas for her so she could stay in her warm car.

Customer Service 295

Customer Service Coaching Self service Management 295

Beyond Philosophy

APRIL 2, 2020

Apple has an excellent experience. We could all learn a lot from how they approach business as usual to facilitate customer-driven growth. Why do I like Apple’s experience? Before I answer, I should have my guitar. I am just kidding. No one wants that. What we do want is to know how to facilitate customer-driven growth. Apple is an excellent example of how to do this.

Customer centricity 398

Customer centricity Customer emotions Consulting Consulting 398

Contact Center Pipeline

MARCH 31, 2020

What a difference a month can make. In February, we were looking at topics like growth and development, aligning strategy and technology, and tools for delivering an exceptional customer experience. We’ve now entered the strange new reality of the COVID-19 era. Our Top 5 most-read posts for March reflect the staffing challenges that contact centers […].

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Contact Center Technology Customer Experience Call Center 268

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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.

Analytics

Callminer

MARCH 30, 2020

Managing a call center caught up in the uncertainty of a worldwide pandemic is no small feat. However, there are a number of important guidelines and tips you can keep in mind to help ease your center’s workforce into remote working and mitigate contagion risks. Remote contact center operations have been around for some time now, but the need for such operational approaches has been magnified by the growing threat of Covid-19 and the heightened importance of social distancing policies to c

Best practices 207

Best practices Contact Center Call Center Interactive Voice Response 207

Steve DiGioia

MARCH 30, 2020

The actions of leaders should focus on common-sense decisions. A good “business-sense”, extensive life experience, having a good judge of character, and the ability to see-through-the-fog towards the intended goal will help most people make the “right” call as needed – when needed. As I’ve mentioned before, I’d rather act and make decisions based on the facts at hand than sit idle and wait for some arbitrary sign of approval later.

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Morale Personalization Customer Service 222

Myra Golden Media

MARCH 28, 2020

Are you interested in making and donating masks for Covid-19? Here are some resources to get you started. [link]. [link].

Customer Experience 256

Customer Experience 256

Contact Center Pipeline

APRIL 3, 2020

I hope our April issue finds you safe and well. You may have seen Mr. Rogers’ quote that is so applicable for our times: “When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are […].

Contact Center 264

Contact Center Call Center 264

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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.

Contact Center

CX Accelerator

APRIL 1, 2020

Let’s face it, leadership in CX has never been a walk in the park. At the beginning of the year we saw some mixed predictions from Forrester that one in four CX professionals would lose their jobs whilst, in the same breath, stating that the number of CX execs would swell by 25%. What’s driving this paradoxical shift? Accountability. If you find yourself as a survivor of the cull or a newly empowered exec then here’s the brave new world in which we now reside: The Good News: The uphill battle to

Metrics 182

Metrics Morale Benchmark Government 182

ShepHyken

MARCH 31, 2020

The Customer is Your Bottom Line. Creating Purpose for Your Employees and Your Business. Shep Hyken interviews Horst Schulze. They discuss his book, Excellence Wins: A No-Nonsense Guide to Becoming the Best in a World of Compromise , and strategies for hiring the right team, building the right service vision and delivering an unparalleled customer experience.

Morale 165

Morale Consulting Consulting Marketing 165

Myra Golden Media

APRIL 3, 2020

Keep remote employees’ skills sharp with our customized, engaging, live virtual training. We start with a video conference to learn about your challenges and goals. Once we agree on your training content, we set a date for live virtual training that includes breakout rooms, online hand-raising, polling questions, and PDF workbooks. Plus, we record the training and hand it over to you to use as you wish.

Customer Service 177

Customer Service Customer Experience 177

Callminer

MARCH 29, 2020

Read these tips and best practices for remote contact center managers and agents as businesses move to work-from-home workforces.

Best practices 182

Best practices Contact Center Call Center Management 182

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!

Customer Experience

Beyond Philosophy

MARCH 28, 2020

What You Should Learn from Apple’s Outstanding Experience. I am a huge fan of Apple products. If there were already a waiting list for the next iPhone, I would be on it. For me, buying Apple products is emotional, intuitive, and automatic—all the things a brands needs to foster customer-driven growth. Apple is excellent at incorporating principles of behavioral economics and psychology that are hugely influential on customer behavior in all the right ways.

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Construction Consulting Consulting Customer Experience 150

ShepHyken

MARCH 30, 2020

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. Maintaining Your Team’s Morale And Productivity During COVID-19 by Denise Graziano. (Chief Executive) The challenges posed to business by the novel coronavirus are unprecedented, but CEOs can help keep spirits up with these tips.

Customer Service 203

Customer Service Morale Marketing Best practices 203

TechSee

MARCH 31, 2020

Ensuring business continuity and the safety of employees and customers is top of mind for companies delivering essential services across industries such as utilities, medical technology and telecommunications. These are lifelines for millions of people and in field service, COVID-19 represents a unique challenge. With so many people currently at home – whether on a voluntary or mandatory basis – customers are likely to experience more issues than usual and need far more support.

Telecommunications 145

Telecommunications Enterprise outsourcing Surveys 145

ProProfs Blog

APRIL 2, 2020

Along with the global economy, how businesses operate is also massively hit, with the spread of COVID-19. This is forcing business owners to take major steps towards overhauling their existing workplace practices – work from home (WFH) is one of them – it has become mainstream in less than two weeks. Happy to share that we at ProProfs kicked off our continuity plans well in time and are glad to share how we cracked the code and are able to keep the ball rolling while still keeping ou

Surveys 151

Surveys Construction Time management Management 151

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Aspect

MARCH 30, 2020

Last week I discussed that Business Continuity for both Aspect as well as our customers has taken on a whole new dimension. Better yet, we have learned that the term “business continuity” has become an assumed deliverable by all companies. The true measurement of success is really whether your company has Technology Continuity as well as Workforce Continuity.

Government 153

Government Contact Center Education Consulting 153

Taylor Reach Group

APRIL 1, 2020

by JD Fairweather. If you asked any contact center manager two months ago about their business continuity plan, they’d likely opine on their facility’s readiness to address just about any emergency scenario. These same managers have seen their expertise and resolve put to the test in recent weeks due to COVID-19. And with effects of the virus being felt worldwide, contact center leaders are scrambling to support higher-than-projected call volumes in the wake of an ever-increasing risk of higher

Contact Center 137

Contact Center Average Handle Time Consulting Consulting 137

Fonolo

MARCH 30, 2020

Managing a contact center team is a challenge at the best of times. If your contact center hasn’t been driven remote by the pandemic, it will likely feel the impact soon — so prepare to go remote now. Besides the obvious technical issues, this presents to those still working on legacy systems, employees are getting more and more worried for their health , pointing the contact center conditions as perfect for transmission of the virus.

Contact Center 133

Contact Center Management virtual call center Call Center 133

ProProfs Blog

APRIL 3, 2020

With the constantly increasing expectations of customers, providing 24/7 support is no more a choice. Instead, it has become a need of the hour, indispensable to survive the intense competition existing in the business ecosystem. Unlike a decade ago, when customers were willing to wait for brands to act on their requests, modern-day customers lack such patience.

Self service 142

Self service Customer Support Customer Service Technology 142

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Customers expect to be able to interact with your organization whenever and however they want. They also expect your agents to have insights into their journeys so that they don’t have to repeat themselves as they move through various channels. And, if they’re not able to, they just might find one of your competitors who will offer the flexibility they are looking for.

Customer Experience

Aspect

APRIL 2, 2020

Is it time to question your assumptions about the signals and signs you use to manage your staff ? . The promise of work at home, or work anywhere, sometimes called “ smart working ,” is that employee s can work where they please, when needed, when the company and its customers require. The evaluation of a “ smart work ” employee then needs to shift to rating the impact of their work, the achievement of their goals and the quality of work output rather than other methods.

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contact center workforce Morale Contact Center Surveys 129

Transparent BPO

APRIL 3, 2020

Preface. Over the past two weeks, Transparent BPO has undertaken a serious initiative — to deploy 850 brick and mortar contact center agents to a work-from-home (WFH) environment. This was no small task, and I am beyond proud of how our company responded to the business impact caused by the pandemic and the amount of work and urgency that went into the rollout.

Contact Center 120

Contact Center outsourcing Transportation Government 120

CSM Magazine

MARCH 30, 2020

In just a matter of few weeks, the coronavirus has become an all-consuming global pandemic wreaking havoc in the business world and in our personal and professional lives. Businesses are now facing an unprecedented double bind – they not only need to look out for their employees’ and clients’ well-being but also ensure business continuity. The majority of the world’s population and large organizations have adopted remote working quicker than anyone could have expected.

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Government Airlines Coaching Personalization 119