Category: Customer Experience

Clare, you have launched the world’s first global online membership community for Women in CX (WiCX community) on International Women’s Day, March 8th, 2021. Soon after, your LinkedIn page reached over 4.5k followers and in one year, your community membership has extended to +50 countries. Congratulations!  How are you feeling?  Thank you! Honestly, it’s been…
The post Women in CX: what does it take to build an empowering startup community? appeared first on Customer Experience Magazine.

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To make an album of music good enough to make it to the Top 40, it used to cost a million dollars. Now you can do it in your bedroom.

To make a commercial for network TV, a minute of footage cost about a million dollars…

And that same million was what it would cost to create an email engine for permission-based marketing in 1996.

And you needed a million dollars to build a website that could hold up under a lot of traffic, or to build a social media presence that would reach a million people.

All of these things are now incredibly cheap.

A veteran marketer’s first reaction is relief at how inexpensive so many tools now are.

But the reality is that the reduction in cost means that price is not a barrier, and when it comes to producing your message, your movie, your song, your site, your book–everyone else is now doing it as well.

And yet, more than a decade into this dramatic compression of the gap, big-time marketers and industry players are still acting as if the gap is still there, as if their ‘professional’ creations are only competing with each other for attention.

Abundance creates new kinds of scarcity.

Marketing makes change happen. And for humans, the change is rarely linear. There’s a moment before and a moment after the decision is made. Some people find the moment thrilling, others are unnerved by it.

When a salesperson fails to open the door for the leap, the customer is ill-served. The status quo is powerful and left to our own devices, many of us would fail to go where we hope to.

On the other hand, when the marketing and sales folks push too hard, trust is broken. People end up being manipulated into actions that they’d rather not have taken, and relationships fall apart.

Forward motion happens when individuals and organizations decide to adopt a posture of possibility. And that’s enabled by marketers ready to help them embrace that possibility.

With reports of almost 1 in 4 UK workers expected to quit their job and change employers in the next few months, in what has been dubbed ‘the Great Resignation’. Business leaders are now prioritizing employee experience (EX) as workers think more carefully about their work/life balance following the chaos and pandemonium caused by the…
The post EX trends in 2022: will EX replace CX as a top priority?   appeared first on Customer Experience Magazine.

There’s a mythology around people with famous resumes. Folks who have worked for brands we’ve heard of and on projects that have been successful.

We give the benefit of the doubt to someone who did “app development at Slack” or “sales at Google.” But what this generally means is that they were patient and pretty good at going to meetings.

Show us the code you wrote. Show us the difficult presentations you were able to produce. Most of all, show us the work you did when no one asked you to do the work. When you’re on your own, what is important enough to you to ship?

We need teamwork. But we also need people who can master their tools and ship the work.

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The map might be correct, but that doesn’t mean it will work.

The sign might be legal, but that doesn’t mean it’s going to be effective.

We’re surrounded by instruction manuals, videos, announcements and all sorts of other forms of instruction.

But a map only works if it helps.

Finding our way, getting the job done, changing our minds–these are forms of wayfinding. And our internal layout of the world doesn’t match the way it is actually built.

You can drive to your childhood home blindfolded, but you probably couldn’t draw a route of how to get there for someone else.

Realizing that our job is to help others find the way is half the job.

Call center management requires high levels of attention, coordination, and strategy, especially as remote work environments become more and more of a reality. 
In an article by Destination CRM, founding partner of International Customer Management Institute (ICMI) Brad Cleveland asserts that COVID-19 shifted 80% of in-person call centers to virtual call center environments. It is clear that completely outsourced, work-from-home, and hybrid models are all common call center scenarios these days. 

FACT:
80% of call centers shifted to remote work environments after the COVID-19 pandemic.

How can managers promote productivity, ensure employee engagement, and satisfy customers while managing a virtual call center? The first step we’ll take here is to help you understand the differences between virtual and in-person call centers. After that, we’ll share some virtual call center management tips to help you keep operations smooth, and keep customers calling!
What is Call Center Management?
Call center management is the group of strategies call centers use to handle daily operations, which, as call center leaders know, encompasses many moving parts! Here are a few of its common characteristics:

Customer satisfaction oversight
Metrics and data analysis
Day-to-day tasks and delegations
Onboarding
Training
Scheduling
… and more!

But call center management in an office versus a remote environment are two different things. 
Remote Call Center Management vs. In-Person
If you want to be an effective call center manager in a virtual environment, it is best to face the reality that your job will change and grow once your call center goes remote. 
Remote offices do have their benefits. For instance, in a remote workplace, employees experience better work-life balance and managers note an increase in agent engagement, which is known to translate directly into customer satisfaction. Companies might find some savings too because virtual work reduces costs for rent and office equipment.
But when it comes to call center management, remote work environments also pose a few challenges:
Security
Outside of secure office servers, remote work settings pose more security risks. From customer data to employee network connections, remote offices make your call center vulnerable to cyber hacks and malware. 
Maintaining Workplace Morale
Call center agents experience better work-life balance when taking customer phone calls from home. But here’s a negative flipside: managers may see decreased employee motivation due to reduced in-person camaraderie amongst team members. Moreover, company goals and values become watered down when agents are removed from the in-office environment. 
Technical Issues
Transferring company equipment and call center software from one place to another isn’t always seamless. Sometimes tech transfers result in blips that hinder team communication and customer service. Obstacles to call queuing or IVR assistance could result in reduced customer loyalty if not attended to immediately. 
5 Tips for Effective Virtual Cell Center Management
How do you overcome the above challenges that come with remote workforce management? Consider some of the following tips.
1. Maintain robust and updated call center software.
Companies that don’t invest in up-to-date, cloud-based call center technology won’t maintain their competitive place with industry rivals that prioritize strong tech tools. In a virtual work environment, cloud technology is more vital than ever, and allows managers to achieve the following even when off-site:

Reduced operational costs
Improved quality monitoring
Smoother employee communication

For example, Fonolo’s Voice Call-Back option is essential for virtual call center management. It helps customers receive quicker service and feel more in control of their experience.
2. Generate regular reports and data analysis.
Virtual call center operations might change company results and timelines. That’s why it’s so important to keep track of call center metrics and data to assess any areas that need improvement, or any new strategy needs. Fonolo’s Portal helps call center managers find real-time insights on both agent and call center performance through rich reporting, stats, and trend information. 
3. Check-in with agents regularly.
Technology allows agents and managers to stay connected even in virtual work environments, but studies show remote work can still lead to feelings of isolation. If your agents feel isolated and disengaged, their overall performance and customer satisfaction scores might suffer. Make a point to check in with your agents regularly to find out if they need:

Training
Flexible scheduling
Moral support
… or anything else!

4. Monitor customer interactions and collect customer feedback.
Sometimes metrics don’t tell you the whole story. If you notice any dips in customer satisfaction or increases in wait time, these are the moments to roll up your sleeves and join the floor. Take a look at real-time customer interactions to find out the source of any service discrepancies, or use software like Fonolo’s Portal to access call-detail records (CDRs). 
Fonolo’s Portal gives you access to call-detail records, real-time insights, and rich reporting to help with quality monitoring and effective call center management! #CallCenterSoftware #RemoteCallCenterEfficiencyClick To Tweet
5. Foster a strong company culture.
Fostering a strong company culture is difficult enough in an in-person office, let alone a virtual environment. Effective call center managers know that in remote work settings, it’s more important than ever to ensure employees have a strong understanding of company goals and values, and for them to feel recognized for their hard work.The post 5 Virtual Call Center Management Tips That Work first appeared on Fonolo.

“I’d like corn for dinner.”

So, six months ago, you’ll need to plant the corn so you can harvest it today and cook it tonight.

Or you can drive to the farmer’s market this morning, buy a few ears and have it tonight.

Or you can walk over to the supermarket and get a can.

Or you can press this button on your phone and dinner will be here in twenty minutes.

I write this blog but I didn’t program the website.

Everything we do uses materials and tools that were made by someone else. When we built Yoyodyne thirty years ago, we spent millions of dollars to build email servers that you could rent today for $50 a month…

The question that isn’t asked, but that must be asked, is: Which part are you going to do yourself?

If you’re a photographer, does it make sense to edit your own work, or should you send it out to someone who is twice as good, half the price and faster than you are?

We act as though we’re locked into this decision, but in fact, we make it again, every single day.

What are you doing today that only you can do? What would happen if that’s all you did all day?

PS Akimbo (my weekly podcast) is now over 200 episodes. You can find it all the normal places (Apple, acast, site)