February may be short on days, but not on thoughtful content from our expert authors. Our top 5 most-read posts for the month ranged in topics from an inspiring personal journey of career growth, the value of relationships and CX lessons learned; a look at the industry’s consolidation trend, the rule of 150 and impact on service quality; how to protect consumer data while reducing friction; advice for dealing with the Daylight Saving Time impact on call center forecasts; and a look at the latest advances and trends in predictive CX.
What Seven Years in Prison Taught Me About Managing and Respecting the Customer Experience
My first taste of customer experience (or what we referred to at the time as customer service) was in a bar. I was behind it, and I was really good. It takes a combination of personality, skill, savvy and charisma, and a strong knowledge of drinks, to be successful in this role. You also need an emotional toughness and thick skin. Clients aren’t always easy. They can be downright aggressive, at times even mean-spirited, particularly as the evening goes on. Your financial success is tied to tips though, so getting the customer experience right is essential.
The Consolidation Trend Will Further Hurt Quality in the Contact Center
I was talking to Jay Minucci, a long-time industry veteran, consultant to the industry, and contributor on these pages. He was telling me about the trend he’s seeing with his large clients—that consolidation is preferred because it’s becoming too hard to manage too many contact center vendors.
Balancing Customer Experience with Fraud Prevention in the Contact Center
Cybercriminals exposed 2.8 billion consumer data records in 2018. Breaches have given fraudsters an immense amount of data to work with. Criminals are taking data such as drivers’ license numbers and account numbers, and filling in the gaps with information from social media and other sources. With this data in hand, it has become easier for fraudsters to impersonate customers and use social engineering to deceive contact center agents who have limited identity verification tools at their disposal.
Springing Forward Might Affect Contact Center Forecast Accuracy
Daylight Saving Time (DST) starts in spring. That’s when we have to wake up earlier because the clocks shift forward one hour. Standard Daylight Time returns everything to normal in the fall. Forecasters can use this information to build a high-performing time-of-day arrival model.
Predictive CX Trends for Both Customer and Business Success
For years we’ve been obsessing over meeting the customer’s every need, answering every question, and simplifying every interaction. And yet we’ve largely overlooked a fundamental aspect of good customer experience (CX): solving problems before they occur. Doing more work behind the scenes can significantly impact the customer’s perception of your business, which is where predictive CX comes in.
