Callminer

FEBRUARY 2, 2018

Call center managers are tasked with myriad responsibilities, and they maintain responsibility for ensuring that their call center operation runs smoothly and efficiently. With managers often having large staffs of call center representatives to manage, regulatory compliance requirements to address, customer satisfaction to uphold, sales targets to hit, and more, it’s no surprise that call […].

Call Center 318

Call Center Management Sales Best practices 318

ShepHyken

JANUARY 31, 2018

I’ve written about the customer service gap before. The first version referred to the gap between you and your competitors. You want the gap to be wide. It means you are putting yourself further ahead of your competition and picking up market share. The second version of the gap focused on narrowing the distance between you and your customers. The closer you are to your customers, and the more you are meeting their needs, the narrower the gap is between you and your customer.

Customer Service 257

Customer Service Surveys Marketing Personalization 257

Contact Center Pipeline

FEBRUARY 1, 2018

When it comes to creating an exceptional service culture, nothing is more important than a team’s ability to collaborate well. Both the agent and the customer experience will be exponentially better with 360 degrees of partnership—agents partnering with each other to share knowledge and solve problems, leadership partnering alongside agents to understand the front line, […].

Customer Service 246

Customer Service Customer Experience Quality management Contact Center 246

Myra Golden Media

JANUARY 30, 2018

Today I’m going to show you how to use the Feel, Felt, Found method to express empathy to your customers. What’s great about the Feel, Felt, Found Method, is, it gives you the perfect response when you can’t give the customer exactly what they want. It helps you to be more relatable, and to foster a sense of connection with customers. The Feel, Felt, Found method is easy to use.

Customer Service 209

Customer Service Contact Center Call Center Customer Experience 209

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Cut complexity and boost efficiency while empowering your customers with Nextiva's unified communications platform. Nextiva streamlines workflows and centralizes customer interactions, all while simplifying business collaboration, increasing productivity, and reducing employee burnout.

Callminer

FEBRUARY 1, 2018

Call center managers are tasked with myriad responsibilities, and they maintain responsibility for ensuring that they are running a call center operation smoothly and efficiently.

Call Center 182

Call Center Management 182

Beyond Philosophy

JANUARY 31, 2018

Michael Lowenstein, Ph.D., CMC Thought Leadership Principal, Beyond Philosophy. Companies are fond of saying that employees are their most powerful resource, and in many ways – especially their influence on customer loyalty – that’s been well proven. But, to understand what factors leverage employee behavior, most organizations have historically relied on satisfaction and engagement surveys, typically conducted through HR.

Surveys 170

Surveys Enterprise Consulting Consulting 170

Call Center Weekly

FEBRUARY 1, 2018

By Linda Sydow When building high performing teams, it is important to include the members of the team in the building process. If they do not feel included, the results will be less than stellar. They will either leave the team, or become disconnected, and distant. When I work on projects, I select individuals to work as specialists to assist in the success of the project.

Coaching 174

Coaching Finance Feedback Personalization 174

Contact Center Pipeline

JANUARY 31, 2018

It’s not surprising that contact center predictions for 2018 accounted for two of the most popular posts in January. What other topics piqued readers’ interest? A look at the common characteristics shared by award-winning contact centers; tips to help work-at-home agents stay productive and focused; and an update on the state of remote work in […].

At home agents 182

At home agents Contact Center Accountability Call Center 182

ShepHyken

FEBRUARY 2, 2018

This week we feature an article by Misa Chien who shares great lessons we can learn from the Southwest Airlines customer culture. This also reminds us that customer service doesn’t just happen on the front line. It happens throughout the entire company. It must be part of the company’s culture. – Shep Hyken. What comes to mind when you think of a bachelorette party?

Airlines 213

Airlines Customer Service Surveys Feedback 213

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Reports of the death of in-store shopping have been greatly exaggerated. This year’s retail survey found that more than 60 percent of consumers start and end their journey by visiting a store. Retail customers value price above everything, but the importance of other factors varies for different brands. In-store shopping is valued highly by grocery and home improvement customers Technology retail customers place less importance on in-store experiences – for them it only ranks sixth Digital exper

Surveys

Fonolo

JANUARY 31, 2018

It’s going to be a big year in the world of contact center and in customer service technology. Will Avaya soar upwards, freshly unburdened from its decade of debt? Will this be the year that messaging platforms from Facebook, Apple and others reach critical mass as a channel for customer service? Will the AI / chatbot hype start to live up to its promise?

Contact Center 141

Contact Center Chatbots Finance Healthcare 141

Call Center Weekly

JANUARY 31, 2018

Why is it important for customer service leaders to spend time on the front line? It is my opinion that leaders should regularly (monthly) schedule time with their front-line employees. Doing so can have a major impact within an organization. Here a several reasons why I feel it’s important to spend time on the front line. 1. Enlightenment – In today’s business environment, managing by the numbers seems to be the way to go.

Morale 136

Morale Consulting Consulting Management 136

Steve DiGioia

JANUARY 29, 2018

…so what’s stopping you? This original article was written by Steve DiGioia. Close your eyes. Imagine walking into a store and are immediately met by a pleasant employee with one goal in mind; to ensure you find the best product that suits your needs exactly as you wish. No need to look for help, she’s already there and knows the products like the back of her hand.

Sales 127

Sales Customer Service 127

ShepHyken

JANUARY 30, 2018

How Speaking Your Customer’s Lingo Makes You Irresistible. Shep Hyken Interviews Jeffrey Shaw, the LINGO Guy. What if you could speak your ideal customer’s language? . . ? <span data-mce-type=”bookmark” style=”display: inline-block; width: 0px; overflow: hidden; line-height: 0;” class=”mce_SELRES_start”>?

Marketing 207

Marketing Sales Customer Service 207

Speaker: Nicholas Zeisler, CX Strategist & Fractional CXO

The first step in a successful Customer Experience endeavor (or for that matter, any business proposition) is to find out what’s wrong. If you can’t identify it, you can’t fix it! 💡 That’s where the Voice of the Customer (VoC) comes in. Today, far too many brands do VoC simply because that’s what they think they’re supposed to do; that’s what all their competitors do.

Customer Experience

Contact Center Pipeline

JANUARY 30, 2018

I am fortunate to have raised two boys who are growing up to be fine young men. Some of the lessons I learned in raising them have carried over to my professional career as well. I may not be world-class at fatherhood or leadership, but I continue to learn new things about both roles every […].

Coaching 113

Coaching Contact Center Call Center Management 113

Call Center Weekly

JANUARY 30, 2018

By Dea Harrington From the article series, Strategy for the Real World Ask anyone for the definition of “strategy” and you will most assuredly get a myriad of subjective definitions. To keep us on the same page, here is a brief (and subjective) primer. Strategy (high level) is the plan developed by organization leaders to enhance the health and growth of the entity.

Schedule adherence 136

Schedule adherence Consulting Consulting Metrics 136

TechSee

JANUARY 30, 2018

“Gareth, the dishwasher seems to be clogged. Please fix it.”. “Affirmative sir, will check and repair.”. “Great, I’ll be out on the deck.”. It’s a beautiful day in 2030 and I’m relaxing with my entertainment system. I sit up suddenly. Sniff, Sniff. “Gareth, are you cooking something? I smell something burning.”. “Negative, sir, just flushing the dishwasher hose, sir.”.

Technical Support 116

Technical Support Entertainment Enterprise Customer Service 116

Toister Performance Solutions

FEBRUARY 1, 2018

I distinctly remember the first time I apologized on behalf of America. It was 1995 and I was living in Dublin, Ireland. I wandered into a gift shop near Grafton street to purchase some Waterford crystal to send home to my mom. As I walked around the shop, I observed another customer berating an associate. This lady was RUDE. She obnoxiously demeaned the employee while constantly stating that she was an American.

Customer Service 102

Customer Service Personalization 102

Speaker: Tim Buteyn, President of ThinkingKap Learning Solutions

💢 Do you find yourself stuck in never-ending review cycles? Are you wondering if your Subject Matter Expert actually got that last review request? Are you having trouble trying to decipher impractical or conflicting feedback? 💢 If any of these scenarios sounds familiar, you may benefit from a crash course on managing SME relationships!

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aircall

FEBRUARY 2, 2018

In the beginning, you and your co-founders bootstrapped solutions and personally attended to each customer like they were newborn kittens. Your internal messaging system was a tap on the shoulder, and your communal desk doubled as a ping-pong table (or was it the other way around?). Startup life can be gritty and romantic, that’s for sure. But now the product is selling like hotcakes, you’ve been featured on Product Hunt, and venture capitalists are sleeping in tents outside your apartment.

Customer Support 103

Customer Support Multichannel First call resolution Analytics 103

Call Center Weekly

JANUARY 29, 2018

By Diana Aviles The core part of Speech Analytics that sometimes gets lost amongst the high powered metadata and reporting functionalities are the audio insights themselves. The whole purpose of SA is to have the ability to analyze specific words and phrases mentioned in customer/agent interactions. To SA newcomers, I have found that once the dust settles from all of the extensive training, there’s this feeling of “What’s next for me?

Analytics 136

Analytics First call resolution Accountability outsourcing 136

Customer Guru

JANUARY 30, 2018

At Customer Guru, we believe that Customer Experience (CX) should be the number one priority for all the Indian businesses so that they become more sustainable and successful globally. Thus, we have started the initiative of sharing a series of interviews with top-notch CX experts in India to spread this awareness. Our guest for this week is Mr. Viraj Verma, a leading CX enthusiast in India.

Marketing 95

Marketing Customer Experience Entertainment Customer centricity 95

Fonolo

FEBRUARY 1, 2018

There are a few things to keep in mind when building an A+ team of call center agents. First and foremost, make sure that you’re hiring the right people (that’s of course more difficult than it sounds). Once the right candidates are in place, the training becomes critical. We already know how monotonous a call center agent’s role can be but, by making the training process exciting and fun, you’re creating a better environment for everyone.

Contact Center 92

Contact Center Call Center Metrics Feedback 92

Dive into the realm of contact center dialers with our infographic! Explore the various types – Preview, Predictive, Automatic, and Progressive Dialers – and unravel their roles in boosting call center performance.

Contact Center

Joe Rawlinson

JANUARY 31, 2018

You’re not alone in your struggles. In fact, companies the world over experience the same predicament: trying to repeatedly and successfully convey how their products or services can benefit consumers. But, believe it or not, uniting the forces of education and marketing can go a long way in your pursuit of happiness. Don’t just market to your customers, though.

Marketing 83

Marketing Education Morale Advertising 83

ijgolding

JANUARY 28, 2018

Last week I had a fascinating conversation with a peer of mine – a fellow Customer Experience Professional. James Dodkins is as passionate about transforming organisations to become sustainably customer centric as I am. Like me, James regularly comes across organisations who talk about ‘putting the customer first’ – a statement that is hard to immediately disagree with.

Employee engagement 78

Employee engagement Customer centricity Customer Experience Enterprise 78

UJET

FEBRUARY 1, 2018

A solid customer engagement strategy, when done well, increases reputation, customer satisfaction, and loyalty. After years in search of the perfect formula for building and maintaining successful customer relationships, we've uncovered a winning combination.

Customer Experience 74

Customer Experience 74

Method:CRM

JANUARY 30, 2018

It’s no secret that organization is key to running a successful business. This is especially true when your company creates quotes or estimates in QuickBooks for prospective customers. After all, you can’t start the work if you don’t know whether the customer has accepted your estimate. Ideally, your customers should be able to quickly and easily accept estimates online.

CRM 82

CRM Sales Technology Customer Service 82

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Over the next 12 months, what do you think will have the biggest impact on your CX automation efforts? When asked the same question, only 10% of CX leaders surveyed by Verint chose telephony. It’s no longer the engagement channel leading CCaaS conversations. The customer engagement challenges facing organizations have changed – so a new approach is needed.

Self service

Mindtouch

JANUARY 30, 2018

In the world of customer experience, there’s more than one way to shine a penny. Net promoter score (NPS) , customer satisfaction (CSAT), customer effort score (CES)—each of these KPIs provides useful insights into the customer’s journey. They help us answer questions like: How do customers find our help content? What kind of customer support experience do customers prefer?

Customer effort 77

Customer effort Customer retention Surveys Customer Support 77

NICE inContact

JANUARY 30, 2018

Are you one of the almost 40% of organizations that say reducing effort to improve the customer experience is their primary contact center goal for 2018? If you are, here’s our laundry list of the top five things that are absolute “must have” phone system features for your contact center in 2018 and beyond: Built-in Reliability and Disaster Recovery.

Contact Center 74

Contact Center contact center solutions Multichannel Self service 74

UJET

JANUARY 30, 2018

In today's competitive marketplace, how can you encourage customers to stay loyal to your brand and products when there are so many choices available? You have to provide an outstanding product, of course, and it must be appropriately priced, but there are a lot of companies that can do that. What will set you apart and build brand loyalty, however, is your customer support.

Customer Support 69

Customer Support Customer Service Customer Experience 69