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According to trendwatching.com, the feelings a Customer has when they are getting excellent Customer service are the same as the feelings they have when they feel love. I couldn’t agree more. Most excellent Customer Experiences leave Customers feeling valued and important, or, in other words, feeling the love. There are three things that great companies that have excellent Customer Experiences do in common to make Customers feel the love.
This original article was written by Steve DiGioia. Much has been said and written about the “ secret to customer service ”. Do this, don’t do that. Customers want this and don’t like it when you do that. Many offer some great, and probably very useful, ideas that will fix the issues of service. Well, I don’t know about “the secret” but here are my rules to end bad customer service. 1 ► If you can’t relate in a pleasant professional manner with people that want to giv
Customer Experience Management is a hot topic in many companies, who have realised that they are no longer ‘in control’ of all the channels, media or messages that their customers utilise to engage with their brand. Understanding and “managing” customers’ cross-channel journeys sits at the heart of Customer Experience theory, and numerous different approaches have been taken to map out the current and desired experience.
Speech analytics shouldn’t be a function of the contact center alone. Take a look at the importance and impact of speech analytics across the enterprise.
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.
In our previous post, we reviewed the keys to being an effective communicator. We start with a foundation of respect, empathy, reliability, responsiveness, and assurance.
Managing expenses in a contact center is tricky business. We have to remember that the transactions we handle are done in a partnership with our customers, so the changes we make directly impact the customer experience. Yes, there are opportunities to trim costs while also improving contact satisfaction—implementing better self-service options is a great example. […].
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Managing expenses in a contact center is tricky business. We have to remember that the transactions we handle are done in a partnership with our customers, so the changes we make directly impact the customer experience. Yes, there are opportunities to trim costs while also improving contact satisfaction—implementing better self-service options is a great example. […].
'Meet Nicole Miller! My name is Nicole Miller and I graduated in 1990 at Marymount University where I received a bachelors degree in business and fashion merchandising. Since graduation, I have always been in the retail industry and am currently the district manager for the Once Upon A Child stores. I am fortunate and proud to work for the original, owner and founder of resale, Lynn Blum.
'How do you balance a limited marketing budget while still attracting new customers? Is this even possible? Ideally, you’d crack the code and be able to put a $1 into your marketing machine and get more than that dollar out in profit from sales. However, when you’re just getting started and haven’t quite figured out that magic formula, you can still attract new customers even on a limited budget.
Bad customer service experiences don’t just impact one customer. The costs of bad service compounds as poorly trained agents continue to make critical mistakes in the customer relationship. According to a new study by New York Times bestselling authors, Joseph Grenny and David Maxfield bad customer service experiences cost the average company $54,511 annually per employee.
In the book Good to Great, Jim Collins writes that “People are not your most important asset. The right people are.”. Customer service is all about building relationships – relationships with superiors, direct reports, vendors and customers. Stephen Covey, author of The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, claims that success in any job is 20% knowledge and 80% interpersonal skills.
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.
Performance reviews are part of most employer/employee relationships. However, recent developments show that improving employee experience involves finding new ways to give employees feedback to improve motivation and success. Annual reviews are likely to get a resigned sigh out of most managers. After a less than insightful review, most employees might sigh as well.
It seems most organizations have a Customer Experience program and an increasing number have started Employee Engagement programs. The issue for me is these are not combined nor complimentary, which is a huge mistake. Why? Because the experience you give your Customers is the same experience you should give your employees. It’s not only good for employee engagement, but it can mean your Customers are more satisfied with you—and how much they spend with your brand.
Your brain makes up 3% of your total body weight. However that 3% of your body weight takes 20% of your body’s energy to run. As highly evolved humans, we are always looking for ways to preserve energy, and one of the ways we do this is relying on habit. It’s important for Marketers to understand customers’ habits when marketing to them. We engage in habits every day.
Social Media can level the playing field. It’s the equalizer between small and big businesses. Even solo entrepreneurial businesses can create a global presence using social media. With a strong website, optimized with the right words and phrases, a small business can make a big presence. Another benefit to social media is cost. Actually it’s the lack of cost.
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.
'I love watching what people, and Customers do. We human’s think we are so clever and sophisticated and yet much of what we do is totally irrational. When I am reviewing an organization’s experience I am on the look out for this type of irrational behavior as this will give me many clues on how to make it much better. What do I mean by irrational behavior?
'Music has a unique effect on our brain, especially concerning memory. Apple brilliantly capitalizes on all of them in its holiday ad. When it comes to branding there might be no better way than using music to help a Customer remember your brand promise. Here is the ad, in case you missed it: Part of the reason these studies showed the link is because music activates many centers across the brain, including the emotional ones.
A definite link exists between Employee Engagement and Customer Experience. In spite of this, many organizations choose to keep their Employee Engagement programs and their Customer Engagement programs separate. However, linking the two areas is key to having success in both. Aetna made headlines when they gave their lowest-paid workers a raise to $16/hr.
I often say people are irrational, but only because they are. We all do irrational things. We like to think we make logical decisions based on rational thinking all the time, but we don’t. The truth is, your mind plays tricks on you every day, and many times, it’s in one of three ways. In “ Thinking Fast and Slow ,” Professor Daniel Kahneman, Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences recipient in 2002, explores why our mind plays tricks on us.
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.
Big data is the gigantic data sets whose analysis could reveal predictions of human behavior. Big data is big news. If we can predict what people will do in a given situation, we can create situations that get them to do what we want. But Big data is only showing us a part of the big picture. The biggest part, WHY people do what they do is, as of yet, missing from Big Data.
'“You’ll Have To Call Customer Service”. As a customer, hearing this is, at minimum, a letdown. As a customer experience consultant, hearing this represents an experience failure. Organizations may try to whitewash it away by describing it as “something we’re working on” or “a service irregularity” or “service exception,” but it is simply, a fail.
If you had the choice of doing something the easy way or the hard way, and you didn’t have to do anything morally, ethically, or legally wrong to do it the easy way, which would you choose? My guess is the majority of you would say take the easy way. I certainly would. When it comes to brands and their related experience, it’s critical that you KISS it.
'There are many philosophies out there. The thing about philosophy is that it doesn’t always have much real-world application behind it. Anyone can claim a philosophy but can they make it work in the real world? I dedicate my career to helping organizations take their current Customer Experience to the next level, or Beyond the Philosophy of it and into the “real world.”.
Workforce challenges are accelerating, and leaders must be prepared. According to Gartner, “Executives today face a volatile business environment, sustained talent shortages, rapid technological advancements and intense change fatigue in the workforce.” 1 In 9 Future of Work Trends for 2025, Gartner reveals nine critical workforce trends that will define 2025 – from AI’s impact on productivity to evolving leadership roles and talent shortages.
I find it beyond belief how large organizations can cheat and lie to their Customers. Maybe it’s because I’m becoming old or maybe it’s just because it is happening more. Skechers lied to us that if we wore their (weird-looking) Shape-up shoes that we could get in shape without setting foot in a gym. BP lied about their compliance with safety regulations for their off shore Oil operations; a lie that resulted in 70 million gallons of oil spilled into the Gulf of Mexico.
People like the convenience of self-service. More and more of your Customers believe access to self-service options is essential to their relationship with your business. Knowing this, it is critical that you plan your self-service options well. Parature is a research and advisory firm specializing in communicating service-centric best practices. Their Customer Service Success Blog reported some interesting stats to consider about Customer’s self-service options, including: By 2017, Only 1/3 of
Science has begun to predict the intensity of emotions in others with accuracy. This fact is important because when you can predict emotions, you can also plan for them in your Customer Experience. Why do we need to plan for emotions? Simply put, because then we can manage them in others when necessary. Over 50% of any Customer Experience behavior is driven by emotions.
Richard Branson, Founder of Virgin Group, led the charge for better parental leave benefits this week for his employees. The new policy at Virgin allows new parents one year of fully paid leave following the birth or adoption of a child. With Virgin’s announcement on Monday, they are one of only a few companies that offer this kind of benefit for its employees.
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.
There are a lot of elements that must come together brilliantly for an experience to be perfect. One essential element often neglected, but essential is the training of your Customer-facing teams. In my view, there is a great lack of training on soft skills with Customers and when there is training available it is too basic and not frequent enough. There are, however, three major things your training must address to be successful.
Many of us would like to know the secret to lasting happiness. Everyone has ideas of course, and not a few of them involve material items. But science might prove that it doesn’t. Dr. Thomas Gilovich, a professor at Cornell University, believes that material items might provide happiness—but it doesn’t last. The problem is as soon as we have the item, we slowly get used to having it.
Most Customer Experiences are accidents—and unfortunately, they are not always happy ones. Why? Unless a company designs a deliberate experience that puts the Customer first and considers the Customer’s perspective, the message you send to the subconscious is rarely what you intend. The message you send will communicate how you are as an organization.
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