CX Demo

Author: Franz Malten Buemann

  • A Guide to Fostering Agent Engagement in a Hybrid Contact Center

    Keeping an in-person team motivated is tough enough. But what do you do when half or more of your agents are working from another location?

    READ THE FULL GUIDE:
    How to Foster Agent Engagement in a Hybrid Contact Center
    (It’s 100% free, we promise.)

    This is the reality contact centers are facing right now, as they navigate the post-pandemic transition back to the workplace. But this ‘new normal’ comes with uncharted territory, and the success of your business hangs in the balance. According to Fonolo’s 2020 State of the Contact Center report, agent attrition is worsening. Contact center leaders are struggling to hire and train new agents as employee turnover increases.
    This is just one of many reasons why your contact center needs to prioritize agent engagement. Our new guide, How to Foster Agent Engagement in a Hybrid Contact Center, will offer you valuable insights and actionable tips so you can keep your agents motivated and engaged, no matter where they are working from!
    Read on for a sneak peek, or download it for free.
    Invest in communication.
    Strong communication is an essential foundation to any high-performing team. This is especially true for contact center agents, as they need to be in-the-know about any and all changes and updates regarding customers, products, services, and more.

    DID YOU KNOW?
    Replacing a single contact center agent can cost up to $20,000 USD.
    – McKinsey & Company

    However, fostering effective communication between teammates becomes significantly more challenging with a remote or hybrid contact center model. For this reason, you’ll need to invest in the proper resources and channels to help your agents keep in touch with the latest news. These channels can also serve to help your agents build stronger working relationships with one another, which is always a good thing for employee engagement!
    Optimize your onboarding.
    First impressions are so important, especially when it comes to employee engagement. This rule doesn’t change when your new hires are remote. A well-planned onboarding and training period will help set the tone of their work experience with your contact center and set the bar for engagement high.
    When developing your onboarding processes, always consider the new hire’s perspective. How can you bridge the connection between remote and on-location employees? How can you ensure they feel included in the company culture, even when removed from the physical workplace? How can you surprise and delight them on their first day to make them feel welcomed and valued? By taking these questions into account, you’ll help your new agents develop positive and memorable impressions of your contact center.
    3 Reasons Why Agent Satisfaction is the New Customer Satisfaction
    Give them real benefits.
    Let’s be real — compensation is a huge factor when it comes to motivating your employees. You may be tempted to believe that the best employees are motivated by things other than money. The reality is, if you compensate your agents well enough to alleviate financial strains in their personal life, they’ll have the bandwidth to perform better in their daily work.
    Aside from salary, benefits are another form of compensation that your staff will value. In fact, most employees use benefit packages to gauge how much their employer values them and their work. Ask yourself if your compensation packages reflect the quality and scope of work you expect from your agents, and if they are attractive enough to encourage future hires to join your team.
    Invest in tools and services to support your agents.
    Don’t send your agents on a mission without the proper equipment. Trying to solve customer problems without the right tools can be a downright nightmare, and will frustrate your staff quickly.
    This is even more essential for your remote staff, as technical support is more challenging to access. To ensure all your agents are fully equipped to handle customer queries, audit your current software and technologies and make plans to upgrade or replace any outdated or low-performing tools. Trust us, your agents will thank you.

    TIP:
    Has your contact center adopted call-back technology? If not, you’ll soon be in the minority. Learn more.

    Make excuses to meet IRL.
    Remember what it’s like to meet your fellow teammates face-to-face? As we enter the post-pandemic world, it’ll become even more important to touch base IRL (in real life) to foster relationships and team camaraderie.
    While remote work has its perks, it is definitely more challenging to embrace work culture from afar. These regular in-person touchpoints will help bridge that gap so your in-office and virtual employees can bond and fully support one another.
    Promote wellness together.
    Health and wellness aren’t just buzzwords, they’re valuable aspects of employee life. According to Harvard Business Review, more than half of employees surveyed (53%) say they feel more exhausted since COVID-19 reared its head. And it’s safe to say that the pandemic has has a significant impact on call center and contact center demand, creating widespread agent fatigue and burnout.
    Offering wellness programs and options for your agents empowers them better manage their own physical and mental health. This is especially crucial for remote and hybrid contact centers, as it’s more challenging to spot signs of exhaustion when your employees are working remotely. Setting up regular one-on-one check-ins can help if your agents feel safe opening up about health and wellness challenges.

    READ THE FULL GUIDE:
    How to Foster Agent Engagement in a Hybrid Contact Center
    (It’s 100% free, we promise.)
    The post Blog first appeared on Fonolo.

  • Meeting nullification

    Here are two policies it might be fun to try for a week:

    Meeting abstention: Anyone invited to an internal meeting has the power to opt-out. “Send me the summary, please.” If someone abstains, they give up their ability to have a say in the meeting, but most meetings these days don’t actually give people a platform to have a say. And then that person can leave the Zoom room and get back to whatever it is they were doing that was actually productive.

    Meeting nullification: If anyone in an internal meeting announces that the meeting is a pointless waste of time, it’s over. The meeting organizer is obligated to send everyone the memo that they probably should have sent in the first place.

    If you discover that you’re calling meetings where people abstain, or worse, call for nullification, perhaps you should be more careful about which meetings you call and who you invite.

    Does your organization have the guts to try this out? Do you, as an attendee, care enough to abstain?

    The fact that even discussing this idea is stressful helps us understand status roles and power.

  • What Does a Chief Revenue Officer Do?

    The Chief Revenue Officer (CRO) is responsible for gaining a competitive advantage by continually optimizing the ‘Lead-to-cash’ lifecycle and revenue retention. This executive is a relatively new figure in the C-suite, growing in popularity over the past five years. The CRO role originated in the… Read More

  • Permission-Based Selling: What Is It and Why Does It Work?

    Most people receive a lot of emails every day. Sifting through what’s relevant and what’s not is a big job that, for obvious reasons, has been dialed back into a rote process: Do I know this sender? Did I ask for this? No? Click delete and move on. This method works great for culling our…
    The post Permission-Based Selling: What Is It and Why Does It Work? appeared first on Benchmark Email.

  • Top 10 Marketing Strategies to Try in 2021

    Every business owner’s goal is to get the website ranked high in the SERPs, and they can generate massive ROI through search engine optimization. Creating data-driven and unique content around specific keywords can make your site more attractive to search engines and visible to potential customers. Network Events: Although search engine marketing is a great strategy in this day and age, not all marketing is online. The best results sometimes come from moving away from your computer screen and meeting people face to face. Contest Marketing: It is a type of marketing that benefits significantly from online platforms such as Facebook and Instagram. Everyone likes to compete, so you should be able to drive traffic to your website and thus increase your conversion rate.
    submitted by /u/fukatsoft1 [link] [comments]

  • 12 tricks to turn Command Center into a tool for marketing strategy execution

     

     

    Implementation of a marketing strategy is quite a challenge. Before you start reaping the rewards, you need to prepare and plan thoroughly. During execution of tasks you must also keep your eye on the ball, because while running several campaigns at once even the best marketing specialist can easily get lost. Command Center dashboard from SALESmanago, can help you arrange, automate, and optimize the campaigns that make up your marketing strategy. See how to do it!

     

    Marketing strategy is a crucial element of company development. It outlines the course of action and indicates how particular strategic goals will be achieved. On your way to the top, you should use technologies and solutions available on the market. Let it sink in: one of the biggest trends we are seeing in lead generation is the increased use of automation software. According to recent reports, 80% of marketers who use automation software generate more leads (up to 451% more), and 77% of them convert more leads than those who don’t use automation. (Source: APSIS)

     

    One of those tools is the Command Center by SALESmanago

     

    What is Command Center

     

    Command Center is the new UI standard for managing KPI-oriented, omnichannel, multipurpose and multitool marketing processes. It gives you a centralized view of all your marketing processes and goal-oriented solutions. It allows you to use advanced planning of campaigns to create their template, in a cockpit to manage all processes and mailings available in SALESmanago.

     

    How to use Command Center to execute your marketing strategy

     

    Despite its suggestive appearance, Command Center by SALESmanago is not JUST a marketing planner. Properly used, it can become a real management center and a great tool for executing your marketing strategy. Here are 12 tricks that will help you intertwine the Command Center with your strategy.

     

    1. List your marketing goals

     

    An essential part of any marketing strategy is to define its main objective. It may happen that the strategy is divided into several parts, such as lead generation strategy, retention strategy, sales support strategy, etc. Each of these parts will have a separate objective. Sometimes these goals will somewhat overlap or even stem from each other.  List all these goals and indicate the relationships between them. Determine which can be pursued independently and which are connected to the others. This will give you a clear visualization and the outline of your action plan.

     

     

    2. Break down goals into smaller steps

     

    Now that you know what you are going to do and in what order, work out what needs to happen for each objective to be achieved. This approach will allow you to be methodical and focus on logistical planning of resources. An additional advantage of outlining the steps to achieve each goal is that they no longer exist only on paper and instead take on a real shape. It is also easier to express them in figures and describe them as SMART goals. Use SALESmanago analytics to accurately describe expectations and run estimates. This will give you a realistic perspective on your dreams, and provide you with practical tools to turn them into plans that work.

     

     

    3. List the ways to achieve each step

     

    Every task can be solved in many ways. Marketing is no different – there is no single right way to generate leads or increase conversions. Marketing uses a myriad of tools and channels that help – together or separately – achieve individual strategic goals. So for each of the smaller steps, describe in as much detail as possible how you can achieve it. Consider what you will do in sequence, what tools you will use, and how you will measure progress. Target group analysis is very helpful in this context. It helps you identify the activities that will engage your audience the most and are most likely to get them to take action.

     

     

    4. Write down the scenarios

     

    After the planning stage, it is time to get down to implementation. This is the time to think about what needs to happen step by step for you to achieve your goals. Answer the questions:

     

    What resources will I need to accomplish specific steps (graphics, landing pages, templates, etc.).
    How long will it take to create them?
    Do I have the resources to do this internally or do I need to outsource?
    What should the customer path look like at each stage?

     

    Based on your answers, you can prepare specific paths that can be easily translated into a schedule.

     

    5. Gather resources

     

    Before putting tasks into the system, prepare the tools you will work with. Plan the creation of banners, emails, layouts of landing pages, etc. All these elements must be prepared to automate the execution of strategic goals.

     

    Consider the tools you are already using, such as:

     

    lead nurturing cycles,
    birthday emails,
    loyalty programs,
    Web Push notifications,
    on-page content.

     

    You may discover elements that have worked well for years and will fit nicely into prepared scenarios.

     

     

    6. Organize and group activities in folders

     

    It’s way easier to keep control of processes that are organized. You can immediately see what is already done and what is still waiting ahead. It also helps to implement recurring activities for multiple audiences.

     

    In SALESmanago Command Center, you can create separate folders for each strategic objective, and inside them add folders where you will plan each scenario.

     

     

    7. Add individual steps and schedule them

     

    In individual folders, you can now start adding the steps you want to automate. From the side menu, you can select and drag pre-made elements that you want to use. Remember that you can use the Command Center to quickly go to edit the selected item and, for example, link it with an automation rule, banner, or tag to another element from the scenario. This works very well in action sequences where one marketing action results directly from, for example, a user action.

     

    *Of course, some tasks will be performed outside the system, such as creating graphics for banners – and you won’t do them through SALESmanago.

     

     

    8. Make sure you don’t overload your audience with messages

     

    Even the best campaigns won’t work if you overwhelm your audience with messages. In Command Center you can quickly switch from campaign view to calendar view and see if you have 5 messages to the same groups scheduled for the same day. The system itself shows how many actions and what types of actions are scheduled for a given day. If necessary, you can optimize the schedule so that you have a smooth and natural communication.

     

     

    9. Measure KPIs

     

    Marketing can and should be measured. And I’m not just talking about PPC campaigns here. Every marketing activity gains a new meaning if you assign specific KPIs to it. Real-time analytics allows you to react in one go to actions that don’t bring the intended results. It’s also much easier to spot errors and missteps.

     

    Measuring your marketing efforts is key to achieving your strategic goals. Without it, you’ll have a hard time finding the tools and channels that work best and are worth investing in.

     

     

    10. Optimize your activities

     

    Less effective campaigns do not always have to be jettisoned. Often small changes can significantly improve results. Optimization of actions is permanently inscribed in a marketer’s life. A/B tests are a standard on CDP platforms. They help to adjust creations and campaigns to the tastes of the target group to the greatest possible extent.

     

    This seemingly simple operation has a huge power itself. You – as the sender of the marketing message – can only predict whether a particular action will influence your audience. It is their reaction that verifies whether you are right. A/B testing involves measuring how a group of recipients react to the same creation in two different versions. To easily interpret the results, limit yourself to testing one element at a time. For example, you should show the banner with different CTAs or place the recommendation frame in different places on the page and check which combination generates more desired reactions. Through elimination, you can then identify the best-performing ones.

     

    PRO TIP: When choosing actions to optimize, also make use of AI-powered Marketing Insights, which provide marketers with practical tips and data-driven recommendations

     

     

    11. Easily add well-performing elements from other campaigns

     

    The great thing about Command Center view is that without wading through several dashboards, you can easily supplement your campaigns with actionable items that you already have in the system. It’s a bit like a marketing buffet. It streamlines your workflow considerably.

     

    You simply select the items you want to add to specific folders from the side drop-down menu, drag them in and you’re done.

     

    12. Edit, copy and arrange actions from one place

     

    Once you have your scripts prepared and organized, you may decide that they will work well for other activities too. Command Center allows you to copy, edit, and freely combine all available elements within a single dashboard (it’s called Command Center for a reason). A quick preview of statistics, scenarios and sequences helps you compose campaigns that efficiently deliver on your marketing goals.

     

    Implementation of the marketing strategy – wrap-up

     

    Developing and executing a marketing strategy involves a considerable amount of money and time. However, it is an investment which in the long run brings great benefits. It sets a clear goal, organizes the chain of activities and gives executors a ready set of tools and instructions for conducting effective marketing activities. Additional use of software supporting these activities on many levels can greatly reduce the burden on marketing teams. And using software based on AI will allow them easier use of the full potential of the marketing strategy.See how easy you can prepare your Command Center – register to DEMO

  • Identity and ideas

    We rarely do or say something intentionally that surprises us. That’s because we are in intimate contact with the noise in our heads–we spend our days looking in the mirror, listening to our inner voice and defining our point of view. “That’s not the sort of thing I would say or do…”

    We call this internal familiarity our ‘identity.’ If it gets lost (when someone joins a cult, for example), it’s noteworthy and can be tragic.

    If our ideas are equated to our identity, then talking about ideas is very much the act of talking about yourself.

    And thus the tension is created. Our culture and our economy are built on ideas. Many of our society’s ideas get better over time (you don’t go to the barber for bloodletting any longer–it’s what probably killed George Washington) and yet some of them get stuck. Often, we need a generation to step away before an entrenched idea begins to fade, because the people who have been embracing that toxic or outlived idea see it as part of their identity.

    As the media realizes that they can improve profits by narrowcasting ideas to people who embrace them as part of who they are, it gets increasingly difficult to have a constructive conversation about many ideas–because while people are able and sometimes eager to change some of their less personal ideas, we rarely seek to change our identity.

    It doesn’t have to be this way.

    If you’re doing a jigsaw puzzle and a piece you thought fit in a spot where it doesn’t actually fit, that missed fit is viewed as useful information. Go ahead and try the piece in a different spot–that’s not a threat to your identity as a puzzle solver. In fact, your identity as a puzzle solver is tied up in the idea that if the evidence shows a piece didn’t fit, you simply try a new spot, you don’t feel threatened or disrespected.

    The most successful problem solvers are people who have embraced this simple method–your current idea isn’t your identity, it’s simply a step closer to a solution to the problem in front of you.

    One way to define our identity is to fall in love with an idea (often one that was handed to us by a chosen authority). Another is to refuse to believe our identity is embodied in an idea, and instead embrace a method for continually finding and improving our ideas.

  • What is Debug Mode for Lightning Components?

    Whether you are an adventurous admin or a Salesforce sage, you will have come across Lightning Components at one time or another. These wondrous little things are the powerhouse behind modern Salesforce and can be anything from an individual field on a page layout, to… Read More

  • A long lead time

    Books are written almost a year before they come out.
    Tweets take about 24 seconds to launch.
    Which world would you like to live in, book-world or twitter-world?
    If you were designing an ad campaign for your project that would run in three years, what would it say? Can you write the resume or Linkedin profile you’d like to have in seven years? Seven months?
    Long lead times force us to focus on the destination itself, not the bumps or the detours.
    The deadline for submitting your long lead time announcement is midnight tonight. A chance to hurry up and then stick with it.

  • “Take your time”

    It means two very different things.

    When a person or a marketer takes your time, they’re stealing. Something irretrievable is gone. If your time is taken for selfish reasons, if it’s wasted, there’s no good way to get it back.

    On the other hand, when you have enough confidence to take your own time, to take your time to be present, to do the work, to engage with what’s in front of you right now, it’s a gift.

    This is precisely what time is for.

    We’re not in a race to check off as many boxes as we possibly can before we are out of time. Instead, we have the chance to use the time to create moments that matter. Because they connect us, because they open doors, because the moments, added up, create a life.