Expert insights. Personalized for you.
You made it. Your team made it. Another holiday season is behind you. MORE
The American Heritage Idiom Dictionary defines “to bet the ranch” as “to risk everything you have because you are certain of success.” This idiom most likely began at poker tables in saloons of the American Wild West. MORE
I always look forward to the new year and the enormous promise it holds. MORE
Contact Centers have always had an abundance of data about customers and performance. Unfortunately, that data is not being fully utilized to benefit the company, customers or agents. MORE
The winter holidays aren’t always “the most wonderful time of the year” for the contact center. Time-off requests and spikes in call volume, especially in the retail industry, can bring forecasting and scheduling headaches that rival those induced by too much eggnog at the office party. MORE
In 2016, I spoke at a customer conference and the topic was, “Contact Center 2020.” At the time, 2020 seemed like it was forever away, and I had carte blanche to forecast whatever I wanted to about the potential state of the contact center in 2020. MORE
According to thefreedictionary.com, “onward and upward” is an expression that is defined as “something that you say in order to encourage someone to forget an unpleasant experience or failure and to think about the future instead.” Ah, the future! MORE
When it comes to culture, lasting change starts at the top with the leadership team. MORE
The universal agent is certainly not a new concept for contact centers. Next-available agent routing models have long relied on the use of experienced agents who have been cross-trained to handle a wide variety of call types, from technical support to billing to sales. MORE
Everyone is talking about it—promising it, claiming it and marketing it. But what is the customer experience really? Is it a mystery, a myth, a mission or simply magic? MORE
“They are just temps,” said one contact center manager describing his seasonal agents. They will be gone in a couple of months!” That condescending attitude was reflected in the seasonal team’s environment. They were crammed into an abandoned conference room filled with computers, phones and wires. MORE
What does it take to deliver standout customer service? It’s a question on the minds of many business leaders since customer experience trumps price as the number one competitive differentiator in today’s economy. MORE
I’ve logged a few decades working with hundreds of contact centers. So, here’s one thing I know for sure: Contact center technology can be absolutely transformative. MORE
What will you remember about July 2019? Fireworks? Record-breaking heat? Amazon Prime Day? If you found yourself otherwise occupied this month and missed some of the insightful content published on the Pipeline blog, the following is a list of the five most popular posts in July. MORE
Every November since I began writing this column in Contact Center Pipeline in 2011, I’ve written about veterans and veterans’ issues in the customer service profession. As a veteran myself, and a veterans’ advocate, it was something I wanted to do. MORE
We just completed our fifth annual survey and had 275 participants chime in on their top three challenges and priorities. MORE
This has been quite a month! We’re closing out the year and the decade. MORE
Innovation is a requirement in most organizations. Without innovation, businesses will likely struggle to stay relevant and even survive. Most of us have a mandate (implied or explicit) to be innovative. MORE
As customer interactions continue to become more complex, the contact center industry is increasingly turning to mergers & acquisitions as an effective solution to expand scale, improve access to new technologies and enhance geographic coverage. MORE
Many of you reading this are likely in the throes of it right now: the annual budgeting process. You are being pressured to “do more with less,” and you will be held accountable for everything you agree to during this period (and yes, even some things that you never agreed to). MORE
Across industries, research reports are predicting that businesses can expect more change in the next five years than in the last 50. MORE
Early in my management career, I followed the Golden Rule: Treat others as I would want to be treated. I believed that if I treated everyone the way I would want to be treated, it meant I was a great manager. Yet, I had significant conflicts with some members of my team. Often, I felt […]. MORE
Remember Oscar the Grouch on “Sesame Street”? For some reason, he was our son Brendan’s favorite character. He even had an Oscar the Grouch Halloween costume! During that period, I would sometimes borrow the mask to alert the family to an emerging “grouchy” condition. MORE
According to Gallup’s recent polls, 87% of employees worldwide are not engaged. Think about that for a moment—that’s a staggeringly high number. If 50 people work in your contact center, that’s like saying only 6.5 of them actually care about what’s going on in your business. MORE
We have all at one time or another uttered the phrase, “Now what?” According to TheFreeDictionary.com, this phrase means, “What is going to happen now? What kind of new problem has arisen?” In these days, the question is asked frequently and not always as it relates to the contact center. MORE
I love movies. So, I was thrilled to win movie tickets as part of a contact center sales campaign back when I was an agent. However, the coworker sitting next to me hated movies and was not motivated at all by this contest. Everyone is different. What motivates one person may demotivate another. MORE
Our final installment of the differentiator series is perhaps the most important for customer service leadership. Our topic is selling and promoting the contact center. MORE
We embarked on a fun little survey this spring to gather input on the future of the contact center. Our focus was on which technologies are expected to have the greatest impact and what that impact might be. MORE
In the era of “five nines” of reliability, contact center leaders didn’t worry too much about the resiliency of their technology: It was always up. But with all the changes and permutations of technology, reliability can’t be taken for granted. MORE
In today’s highly dynamic digital economy, there is no set safeguard against uncertainty. We live in an era where a single tweet or photo can completely reshape a brand’s perception—for better or worse. MORE
I am not the biggest fan of Disney, but I have always had a warm spot for Fantasyland. A young friend of mine recently visited Disney World and among his tales of the trip was an expressed enthusiasm for Fantasyland. As I listened to my friend’s story I was reminded of a speech I delivered […]. MORE
Consumers are increasingly turning to virtual assistants to save time and effort in their personal lives. MORE
Contact center leaders often express dissatisfaction with their current technology. They think that if they’d just implement some new technology, they’d be primed to achieve their business goals. MORE
Contact Center Pipeline
JANUARY 22, 2020
In 2016, I spoke at a customer conference and the topic was, “Contact Center 2020.” At the time, 2020 seemed like it was forever away, and I had carte blanche to forecast whatever I wanted to about the potential state of the contact center in 2020.
Contact Center Pipeline
DECEMBER 13, 2017
What does it take to deliver standout customer service? It’s a question on the minds of many business leaders since customer experience trumps price as the number one competitive differentiator in today’s economy.
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Contact Center Pipeline
JANUARY 23, 2020
In today’s highly dynamic digital economy, there is no set safeguard against uncertainty. We live in an era where a single tweet or photo can completely reshape a brand’s perception—for better or worse.
Contact Center Pipeline
SEPTEMBER 12, 2019
Across industries, research reports are predicting that businesses can expect more change in the next five years than in the last 50.
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Transform your contact center to build relationships with your customers that will last a lifetime.
Contact Center Pipeline
JANUARY 21, 2020
Innovation is a requirement in most organizations. Without innovation, businesses will likely struggle to stay relevant and even survive. Most of us have a mandate (implied or explicit) to be innovative.
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Contact Center Pipeline
JANUARY 6, 2020
I always look forward to the new year and the enormous promise it holds.
Contact Center Pipeline
SEPTEMBER 20, 2017
“They are just temps,” said one contact center manager describing his seasonal agents. They will be gone in a couple of months!” That condescending attitude was reflected in the seasonal team’s environment. They were crammed into an abandoned conference room filled with computers, phones and wires.
Contact Center Pipeline
JULY 30, 2019
As customer interactions continue to become more complex, the contact center industry is increasingly turning to mergers & acquisitions as an effective solution to expand scale, improve access to new technologies and enhance geographic coverage.
Contact Center Pipeline
JANUARY 5, 2018
According to thefreedictionary.com, “onward and upward” is an expression that is defined as “something that you say in order to encourage someone to forget an unpleasant experience or failure and to think about the future instead.” Ah, the future!
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Learn 5 actions your organization can take right now to improve the customer experience.
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Contact Center Pipeline
OCTOBER 25, 2017
I love movies. So, I was thrilled to win movie tickets as part of a contact center sales campaign back when I was an agent. However, the coworker sitting next to me hated movies and was not motivated at all by this contest. Everyone is different. What motivates one person may demotivate another.
Contact Center Pipeline
JANUARY 16, 2020
You made it. Your team made it. Another holiday season is behind you.
Contact Center Pipeline
SEPTEMBER 26, 2017
In the era of “five nines” of reliability, contact center leaders didn’t worry too much about the resiliency of their technology: It was always up. But with all the changes and permutations of technology, reliability can’t be taken for granted.
Contact Center Pipeline
JUNE 26, 2019
Early in my management career, I followed the Golden Rule: Treat others as I would want to be treated. I believed that if I treated everyone the way I would want to be treated, it meant I was a great manager. Yet, I had significant conflicts with some members of my team. Often, I felt […].
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Contact Center Pipeline
NOVEMBER 28, 2017
Contact center leaders often express dissatisfaction with their current technology. They think that if they’d just implement some new technology, they’d be primed to achieve their business goals.
Contact Center Pipeline
JANUARY 15, 2020
We just completed our fifth annual survey and had 275 participants chime in on their top three challenges and priorities.
Contact Center Pipeline
NOVEMBER 9, 2017
Remember Oscar the Grouch on “Sesame Street”? For some reason, he was our son Brendan’s favorite character. He even had an Oscar the Grouch Halloween costume! During that period, I would sometimes borrow the mask to alert the family to an emerging “grouchy” condition.
Contact Center Pipeline
JANUARY 14, 2020
According to Gallup’s recent polls, 87% of employees worldwide are not engaged. Think about that for a moment—that’s a staggeringly high number. If 50 people work in your contact center, that’s like saying only 6.5 of them actually care about what’s going on in your business.
Speaker: Roy Atkinson, Senior Writer Analyst, HDI and ICMI
Workforce Engagement Management has many “moving parts” including onboarding, forecasting, Quality Management, employee recognition, coaching and more. Contact Center managers spend a great deal of their time performing tasks related to engagement, and often don’t have the requisite time to properly prioritize and monitor progress. In addition, the complexity of the work performed in the Contact Center has increased, as customer contacts span many channels. This complexity is currently at a stage where emerging technologies such as AI and Machine Learning can have substantial impact and real ROI.
Contact Center Pipeline
OCTOBER 9, 2019
Everyone is talking about it—promising it, claiming it and marketing it. But what is the customer experience really? Is it a mystery, a myth, a mission or simply magic?
Contact Center Pipeline
DECEMBER 19, 2019
Contact Centers have always had an abundance of data about customers and performance. Unfortunately, that data is not being fully utilized to benefit the company, customers or agents.
Contact Center Pipeline
NOVEMBER 21, 2019
I’ve logged a few decades working with hundreds of contact centers. So, here’s one thing I know for sure: Contact center technology can be absolutely transformative.
Contact Center Pipeline
MARCH 20, 2019
Consumers are increasingly turning to virtual assistants to save time and effort in their personal lives.
Speaker: Lynn Hunsaker, Chief Customer Officer of ClearAction Continuum
Join us for this insightful webinar with Lynn Hunsaker, Chief Customer Officer of ClearAction, who will show you how to zero-in on true leading indicators and describe how to connect business results metrics with employees’ workflow metrics.
Contact Center Pipeline
FEBRUARY 7, 2018
We have all at one time or another uttered the phrase, “Now what?” According to TheFreeDictionary.com, this phrase means, “What is going to happen now? What kind of new problem has arisen?” In these days, the question is asked frequently and not always as it relates to the contact center.
Contact Center Pipeline
AUGUST 23, 2017
Our final installment of the differentiator series is perhaps the most important for customer service leadership. Our topic is selling and promoting the contact center.
Contact Center Pipeline
SEPTEMBER 5, 2017
Many of you reading this are likely in the throes of it right now: the annual budgeting process. You are being pressured to “do more with less,” and you will be held accountable for everything you agree to during this period (and yes, even some things that you never agreed to).
Contact Center Pipeline
AUGUST 22, 2019
We embarked on a fun little survey this spring to gather input on the future of the contact center. Our focus was on which technologies are expected to have the greatest impact and what that impact might be.
Speaker: Laura Bassett, Senior Director Product Marketing, NICE inContact
Gartner predicts that by 2020, 85 percent of customer relationships will be managed without human interaction. We are well on our way and may even hit 90% by next year. With the increase in artificial intelligence tools we see in the marketplace, it’s important to understand how AI is transforming our contact centers. Join our live education session, backed by new independent studies to learn more about: AI: The basics. Why does my contact center need to adopt AI now? Introducing AI in your contact center: where and when. The effect on the Customer Experience. Successful implementation of AI support in your center. Recommendations for your AI superpower pack.
Contact Center Pipeline
JULY 31, 2019
What will you remember about July 2019? Fireworks? Record-breaking heat? Amazon Prime Day? If you found yourself otherwise occupied this month and missed some of the insightful content published on the Pipeline blog, the following is a list of the five most popular posts in July.
Contact Center Pipeline
NOVEMBER 7, 2019
I am not the biggest fan of Disney, but I have always had a warm spot for Fantasyland. A young friend of mine recently visited Disney World and among his tales of the trip was an expressed enthusiasm for Fantasyland. As I listened to my friend’s story I was reminded of a speech I delivered […].
Contact Center Pipeline
NOVEMBER 20, 2019
Every November since I began writing this column in Contact Center Pipeline in 2011, I’ve written about veterans and veterans’ issues in the customer service profession. As a veteran myself, and a veterans’ advocate, it was something I wanted to do.
Contact Center Pipeline
DECEMBER 31, 2019
This has been quite a month! We’re closing out the year and the decade.
Speaker: Roger Lee, Director Customer Success, Gridspace
Join Roger Lee, aka Professor CXi, Customer Success Leader with Gridspace, as he shares valuable insights that will help make you an informed buyer.
Contact Center Pipeline
AUGUST 28, 2019
The American Heritage Idiom Dictionary defines “to bet the ranch” as “to risk everything you have because you are certain of success.” This idiom most likely began at poker tables in saloons of the American Wild West.
Contact Center Pipeline
NOVEMBER 13, 2019
The winter holidays aren’t always “the most wonderful time of the year” for the contact center. Time-off requests and spikes in call volume, especially in the retail industry, can bring forecasting and scheduling headaches that rival those induced by too much eggnog at the office party.
Contact Center Pipeline
FEBRUARY 15, 2018
When it comes to culture, lasting change starts at the top with the leadership team.
Speaker: Randy Clapp, Chief Revenue Officer, Advantage Communications Inc.
You’re feeling the pressure of keeping your employees engaged and improving your customer experience, but you’re not sure if you’re ready or even know how to make a smooth transition to a contact center. Randy Clapp, Chief Revenue Officer of Advantage Communications, will lead you through an outsourcing Self-Assessment you can apply to your business in this insightful webinar developed to provide you with the building blocks to take your customer service experience to the next level.
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