When we launched Start Page back in October 2021, we weren’t quite sure who would use it. We had a hunch, but it turns out we weren’t imaginative enough. Start Page has been used more widely than we could have possible imagined. From photographers to plumbers, baking sites to gig nights, seeing hundreds of new and different pages each day has warmed our hearts. (Scroll down to see our six favorite Start Pages). But, it’s also filled our inboxes, as heaps of you have been kind enough to reach out and provide feedback. That’s kept our team busy, building lots of new features and tools to improve Start Page.Five Start Page improvementsRather than work through a lengthy list of features, we thought customers might want, we decided to focus on specific features customers asked us to build. (This is among the many lessons we learned building a new product.) Fueled by your feedback, we’ve concentrated on building five new features we hope you all will love! 1. The GIF gallery Catch the eye by adding a GIF to your background. You can pick one of the 15 we pre-selected or browse thousands of different GIFs in Giphy’s library. From relaxing beach scenes to memorable memes, you can style your Start Page however you like. Our hand-picked GIFs were selected because they meet Accessibility Best Practices meaning they look great, while containing subtle motion, and no flashing animations.Create an eye-catching Start Page with GIFs.2. Promote latest YouTube uploads Many of us who publish regularly on YouTube struggle with one thing—gaining views for new videos. The algorithm is great at promoting old content that viewers like, but newer content often gets missed. We think Start Page can help. With the new YouTube Video block, you can link to your recent YouTube uploads. Now, every time you upload a new video, it’ll be showcased automatically on your Start Page. It’s a fantastic way to ensure your audience won’t miss your latest work.Displaying the latest Buffer YouTube uploads on my Start Page.3. Showcase links to products or content Ever wanted a simple landing page to link to your most-loved products, or best-performing content? Well, now Start Page can do just that. With the Image Links Grid, you can upload images to a grid and link them to the relevant web page. Personally, I might use this to link to some recent book reviews, but I can’t wait to see how else it’s used. Here are a few ideas. 💡Cinemas promoting tickets to the latest films. 🍿Yoga instructors showcasing a range of classes. 🧘♀️Fashion brands unveiling a new range of t-shirts. 👕Local builders revealing the services it offers. 🧱Taxi companies promoting discount deals. 🚕Cafes linking to upcoming events. ☕️Using the new Image Links Grid to link to recent book reviews.4. Embed songs & podcasts with SpotifyLast year, Spotify broke the 300 million users mark for the first time, cementing its position as the world’s biggest music streaming platform. So, working on a Spotify embed feature was a no-brainer for us.There are a few obvious use cases, like musicians looking to promote their songs, but also for creators needing to showcase a podcast. Perhaps you create a new Start Page to list your favorite new artists!Embedding four popular podcast episodes to my Start Page.5. Style your Start Page your way Picking a style that’s right for your brand can be tough, so we’ve developed 16 different themes to match your look. Each theme is styled with a unique background color, button color, and font to make the page stand out. Want even more control? No problem, use the hex code color picker to find the right shade for you.Selecting one of 16 themes for my Start Page.Six stand-out Start PagesSix months since launching, over 12,500 Start Pages have been created. Here are some of our favorites.Martha Stewart & Marley Spoon share their updated weekly menu with mouth-watering pictures.Forever Duke keep alumni connected with recent posts, a Spotify Playlist, plus relevant YouTube videos.Forever Duke Start PageWaka Bahule shares her latest music with fans.Non-GMO Project share latest news, collect donations, and grow newsletter subscribers.Dinnerly attract new customers with their latest dishes.Plumber Parts links to his latest YouTube videos.We want to promote your Start Page!At Buffer, we’re in the businesses of helping small businesses and creators succeed. That’s why we want to promote your Start Page on our site. Each month, we’ll be showcasing 10 of our favorite Start Pages in the carousel, helping you attract more visitors and boost your SEO. Want us to feature your Start Page? Fill out our 60 second survey. Create your own Start Page, for free, in three minutes(or less)!
Author: Franz Malten Buemann
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Switching your search engine
Make the choice to upgrade from Google.
There are many good reasons to do so, and few downsides.
Do it for your efficiency, for the health of the web and for the planet too.
First, a quick clarification because this is confusing to many people: The thing you use to browse the internet is not a search engine. Chrome, Firefox, Brave, Safari–these are web browsers. A browser is software that allows you to look at any web page–and these companies often make money by selling your attention to the search engine that bids the most. Apple takes billions of dollars a year from Google in exchange for steering you to their search engine.
And the reason that Google bids so much is that they make an insane amount of money. Billions of dollars a year from serving up ads and harvesting your data from your searches. That money needs to come from somewhere.
You can switch your search engine in just a few clicks. See a short video and find the links right here.
Here’s what will happen when you switch to Ecosia:
You’ll get faster and less cluttered search results, with far fewer ads.You’ll be diversifying the web, so SEO hacks can’t easily take over. Here’s Adam Savage ranting about this.You’ll be giving away far less data about yourself and maintaining more privacy.AND! You’ll be planting trees through a certified not-for-profit B corp… more than 100,000,000 planted so far.
If you don’t like the results, you can switch back in two minutes.
Faster, free, and more convenient.
If you switch and then you forward this to five more people who switch, we’re likely to plant another 100,000,000 trees in the next year. That’s a lot. If you switch and spread the word, search results will get better and Google will start to do a better job knowing that they don’t have quite the same scale of monopoly.
If you switch, we all come out ahead. Share a question or experience here and I’ll share in a future post. PS I wasn’t asked to post this or compensated to do so. I switched 9 months ago and I’m glad I did.
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Growth engineer interview
Hey guys, I got in contact with a company for a growth engineer opportunity and don’t know what to expect. The position is part of the Revenue Operations team. I’m currently working as a backend developer and was curios to see whether this opportunity could suit me. submitted by /u/therealdavidadam [link] [comments]
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Should I Use a Background Image
Great design helps your business stand out, builds your brand consistency, and captures your audience’s attention, amongst other benefits. Background images offer great design benefits wherever they appear, but there’s lots to consider when it comes to including them in your design. The use of background images allows you to layer on more design elements like…
The post Should I Use a Background Image appeared first on Benchmark Email. -
Hear me out: top five CX podcasts of 2022 (part 2)
The passion for doing right for users, employees, and the planet motivates CX leaders to constantly expand their interests and apply proven methodologies for solving wicked problems. Our insights and readership show us that the CX community is eager to learn, network, and make businesses better. It is no wonder there are so many brilliant…
The post Hear me out: top five CX podcasts of 2022 (part 2) appeared first on Customer Experience Magazine. -
Send A Direct Slack Message Using Flow
Big Idea or Enduring Question: How do you send a direct message to the account owner on Slack via Salesforce Flow? Slack is a messaging app for businesses that connects people to the information they need. Its workspaces allow you to organize communications by channels for group discussions and allow
The post Send A Direct Slack Message Using Flow appeared first on Automation Champion. -
Do Instagram Carousels Get More Engagement? (Yes, but it’s Complex)
We recently launched direct Instagram carousels scheduling in Buffer. Now you can scheduled carousel posts to be published automatically in Instagram—no need for reminders. Buffer customers have been asking for carousel direct scheduling for a while (it was the most requested feature in our last customer survey), and we’re not surprised! There’s lots of evidence suggesting that carousel posts generate more engagements than image or video posts.But is this really the case? To find out, we analyzed the 184 posts @Buffer published on Instagram over the past year. TL;DR, here are the results:Engagement rate for carousels was 2.37% higher than other posts.Our best performing post of the year was a carousel post.That’s despite only 1/4 of posts featuring carousels.Carousel posts were also saved 2x more than other posts.Looks great, right? Well, it’s a little more complex than that. On average, our carousel posts received fewer comments and likes. But that’s likely due to our posting schedule rather than the carousel itself. Read on to learn more. 👇Focus on engagement rate, not average engagementThe engagement rate for our carousel posts was 2.37% higher than other posts. Engagement rate for carousels: 3.45%Engagement rate for other posts: 3.37%And yet, on average, carousel posts received fewer likes and comments. Average likes for image posts: 129Average likes for video posts: 128Average likes for carousel posts: 87How can this be?Well, it’s important to look at impressions when analyzing engagements. Your audience can only like and comment on your posts if they see the post in the first place. If your audience can’t see it, they can’t engage. But, why might someone miss your post? Well the Instagram algorithm won’t show every post, to every follower. Instead they’ll show a custom feed based on when posts were published and how posts perform. This means our audience might miss our carousel posts if we don’t publish consistently, or if we publish at the wrong time of day. That’ll reduce the impressions, and the engagements. So, instead of measuring average engagements, we measure engagement rate: Engagement rate = (comments + clicks + likes + reactions) ÷ impressionsBecause the engagement rate takes into account impressions we can see how our audience acts once they’ve seen the post. Now we know that if our audience sees a carousel post (vs. a video or image), they’re more likely to engage with it.Consistently creating carouselsBefore Instagram carousel direct scheduling was available in Buffer, we had to set reminders to schedule carousels on Instagram—opening up the Instagram app every time we wanted to publish.Rather than making carousels a core component of our social media calendar, we had to shoehorn them in when we found time. With this infrequent posting schedule, we think our carousels weren’t always published at the optimum time. Meaning they didn’t get the impressions they deserved.Today, we can directly schedule Instagram carousels. We can add them to our Buffer queue to make sure they are published at the optimal time for engagement. Rather than publishing whenever we are online and available, we can let Buffer take care of the scheduling and publish at a time that’s right for our audience.We’d love your feedbackDo Instagram carousels perform better for your account? Will you use add carousels to your queue? Do you have any suggestions for what we should build next? Let us know by sending us a tweet @buffer or by dropping us a note, using our feature request form.
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Get Started With Salesforce Scratch Orgs
A Salesforce scratch org is a temporary Salesforce instance, typically used for a specific development. As part of the Salesforce DX collection of tools, these are aimed towards developers or architects with experience in Salesforce CLI and Visual Studio Code. In this post, I’ll attempt… Read More
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How to Cut Call Center Costs with Technology
Operating a successful contact center is an expensive endeavour. From agent hiring and training to in-house IT support, marketing, and HR, call center costs quickly add up. Though some folks believe cutting corners on equipment is a great way to save your call center some cash, we beg to differ. Employing the right technology for your contact center’s specific needs can cut call center costs incrementally, leading to more productive call center agents who stick around longer and improved customer satisfaction (CSat) scores.
When it comes to reducing call center costs, start here.
Before you get to chopping, it’s imperative that you first understand where your money goes—get an idea of your average cost per contact, so you know where you stand.
Start by calculating your total operating expenses. Then, add up the number of contacts minus abandoned contacts. Divide your total operating cost by your number of contacts minus abandons, and you’ve got yourself your cost per contact.
Ideally, depending on your business, your average cost per call or contact will be somewhere between $1 and $5. If it’s above this benchmark, your contact center’s operation could benefit from some better budgeting or the technologies in our Top 5 list below.
How to Calculate Cost Per Contact in the Call Center
Consider outsourcing
One way to start cutting costs is by outsourcing internal services like IT or HR. Often, outsourcing is cheaper than employing your own on-site or even remote staff since personal equipment costs will be reduced. Plus, outsourced employees’ hourly rates are generally lower than the average salary of your in-house team.
5 Technologies to Help You Cut Call Center Costs
Setting up your business with the right technology can help to alleviate costs associated with your daily call center operations. These are our top 5 technology recommendations for cutting costs across the board.
Workforce optimization (WFO) software
The right WFO software can help keep your front and back end working seamlessly, improving agent engagement and efficiency. By collecting and analyzing contact center data, WFO software determines the busiest times and predicts call spikes, so your agents are prepared. That also means agent surpluses rarely happen because slower periods are recognized in advance, potentially saving you thousands.
On top of optimized scheduling, WFO software often gives you access to eLearning tools that can help ensure every agent is trained properly for their role, leading to higher employee engagement and lower turnover rates.FACT
Only 30% of the American workforce feels engaged in and inspired by their work. Focusing on agent engagement will ultimately lead to happier agents that stick with your company for longer, reducing hiring and training costs.How you’ll save:
Happy agents mean long-term and loyal employees—you’ll save on hiring and training.
You’ll spend less on the unnecessary cost of having extra agents when call volumes are low.Voice call-backs
One of the most cost-effective ways to improve both the agent and customer experience is to start using call-back technology. Call-backs take pressure off agents by giving customers the option to hang up and be called once it’s their turn in the queue. This can reduce average handle time and increase customer and agent satisfaction. With Fonolo Voice Call-Backs, our software waits on hold in place of your customer. Once an agent picks up as they would any inbound call, the customer’s number is dialed, and they are connected with a live agent.
How you’ll save:Agents are less likely to experience burnout, leading to improved retention.
CSat scores will improve, and you’re likely to get more business from happy customers and the people they refer.Omni-channel solutions
Many inbound call centers have experienced the cost benefits of adding multiple contact channels for customers. From online chats to emails, giving customers communication options frees up time for agents because calls take longer to handle than online messages. There are plenty of social media options that allow agents to chat over Facebook, WhatsApp, and Instagram. Besides making things easier for your agents, you’re also empowering the customer by offering them a choice of how to get in touch.
When it comes to #accessibility, allowing customers to choose how to get in touch with your #business is empowering and will give your #customersatisfaction scores a boost—all while saving your #contactcenter some cash.Click To Tweet
How you’ll save:More contact channels mean lower call volumes and fewer agents to answer calls.
Better customer experience builds customer loyalty for long-term returns.Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems
Get to know your customers on a deeper level with a CRM system—collecting and analyzing customer data means you can tailor your services to their individual needs, leading to improved CSat scores and, ultimately, a better customer experience. Customizable reports help you overview how your contact center is doing, improving sales and customer retention.
Proper CRM integration helps your agents better understand the customer’s needs and journey, leading to a faster average call resolution time which contributes to keeping your costs in your call center down.
How you’ll save:Average First Call Resolution rates will decrease, lowering overall operating costs.
Agent workload will be simplified, contributing to retention.Help Your Agents Improve Their First Call Resolution with These 9 Tips
Cloud-based technology
Opting for cloud technology can also help you save money. Besides the simplicity of having all your data easily accessible to the exact people it needs, cloud technology is also scalable, eliminating the need for expensive upgrades. Plus, it’s one of the safest options available from a security standpoint.
How you’ll save:Infinite scalability means you won’t spend much expanding your functionality.
No need to purchase hardware upgrades.
Less hardware can lead to fewer on-site IT issues.DID YOU KNOW:
Fonolo firmly believes in the power of the cloud. All our services use cloud technology to ensure a scalable and seamless experience for your contact center.
The post How to Cut Call Center Costs with Technology first appeared on Fonolo.