Category: Customer Experience

All about Customer Experiences that you ever wanted to know

  • Embed Trust, Energy and Joy in Work: A Case Study in Empowering Employees

    Have you ever played service roulette?  Here’s how it goes:  you’ve got a problem, and you call in or chat in, or tweet out the problem. The more urgent the issue, the more direct communication you want. During your first conversation, you explain your problem and get told immediately, the reasons for your predicament, the company’s stance on the matter, and the rules of the road.  You just reached a “policy cop.”
    These are good people following the rules of the road. But you’re hoping for a little more in the way of understanding your situation so you can try to get out of the jam you’re in. And so you disengage and begin again. Because you hope that if you keep dialing or texting or tweeting that eventually, you will find someone who starts with your life, and really listens.  And you can find a partner to help you figure it all out.
    This learned “service roulette” behavior that we all practice as customers costs companies in three ways:  service costs, customer value erosion, and employee disenchantment. The inconsistency of folks responding to these situations sends customers to hang up and start again. That increases costs.  Customers who repeatedly encounter company policy cops disengage and share the experience.  This leads to customer value erosion.  And employees put in the position of defending rules or escalating unhappy customers often seek more fulfilling work.
    Start with the Life, Not Company Policy.
    This is our opportunity to flip the conversation and give people permission to begin with the life.  It is to develop the front line to be able to understand the customer’s predicament. And it is to never put the frontline in the position of doing something to a customer; they would never do to their mom.
    You most likely know the main reasons that your customers need you and the rules that they bump into during those times.  Don’t make your frontline the policy cops in those moments. Give them the training and the tools that they need, and the opportunity to be a communicator and problem solver, instead of being a rule enforcer.

    Give your team permission to solve problems. This is our opportunity to flip the conversation and give people permission to begin with the life. Click To Tweet

    Case Study: SOL Decided to Let People Set Their Own Targets.
    A pioneer in encouraging employees to lead themselves well before the movement of Zappos and others, in 1992, when Liisa Joronen acquired SOL from the family business, she shook things up by stating that there would be no titles or secretaries.  She believed that status broke down the working unit where people govern themselves and the groups unite to govern their work.  Joronen gave all employees one single uniform…to make them one team…with people rising to what she believed they were capable of.
    Elevate People: Give Them Control.
    You may have encountered frontline people you interact with that don’t seem engaged.  People are given targets, process and rules that they dutifully perform.  But day after day this can become numbing…it is why you may not hear energy when you call a call center, or notice a spring in the step of someone working in a building. That is not the case at SOL – because they have a system to embed trust, energy and joy in work.  SOL establishes an accountability culture by asking teams to look at the work they do as their own. When SOL wins a contract, the field salespeople and local cleaning team are trusted them to set benchmark performance targets. “The more we free our people from rules,” Joronen says, “the more we need good measurements.” Like other companies that choose to think of trust as fuel for innovation, SOL finds that targets people set for themselves are often higher than what would have been set for them.
    Teams in the field have complete trust, and they step up, making themselves accountable. They include the frontline and elevate those ready to participate in budgeting, hiring and negotiating contracts, as people show their capacity and initiative to do the work. In other words, they remove the caste system of what someone can or can’t “do” based on the role they happen to have. To continue enabling people to take initiative and advance, SOL commits 2% of their annual revenue in training folks to achieve these elevated levels of individual accomplishment so they can meet those tough goals they set for themselves. SOL training is about upgrading mindsets — turning cleaners into customer-service specialists.
    SOL Trusts Its Employees to Set Performance Targets.
    Impact: Often people are surprised to see SOL teams at work without a manger present. Trust at SOL is what guides.  With that, they organize, check their own work, and succeed.  Under the path that SOL expanded under, it achieved 15 percent growth for over 22 years.  SOL has expanded to operate nationwide in Finland and in Estonia, Russia, Latvia, Lithuania and Sweden. SOL has nearly 10,000 registered customers.
    What rules can you diminish to give people the freedom to innovate, and permission to create a place where they can thrive?

    Want more case studies? Pick up a copy of my latest book, Would You Do That To Your Mother? Get more impactful brand examples, activities, and insights in the book.
    Learn more about the book and find out where to order »
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  • Three pillars of truly effective multilingual customer support

    Have you ever felt disoriented while shopping in a foreign country? If so, you know how confusing that can be. Now, imagine you’re the merchant and you’ve got a customer who doesn’t speak English. How hard can it be for them to find what they need without getting lost?  If we consider that 40% of…
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  • What Soft Skills are Important in a Call Center?

    Call center agents do much more than answer the phone. To achieve their performance goals, agents must be excellent problem solvers, expert rapport builders, and highly empathetic to the challenges of their customers.
    That’s why soft skills are so important in this line of work. To keep your customers happy, your contact center needs to know what types of transferable skills to look for in new hires, while also supporting the development of these same skills in your existing team members. Combines with the right technical skills and software, your agents can reach new heights of success.
    How to Foster Agent Engagement in a Hybrid Contact Center
    The most important soft skills for call center workers.
    Flexibility.
    Agents can’t predict every customer issue or behavior, so they must be flexible and resourceful, even with a live customer on the line. They must be able to think quickly and respond appropriately during the interaction to ensure their needs are met.
    Adaptability is another aspect of flexibility that is crucial for call center agents. They deal with a wide variety of customer concerns and personalities each day, and they must be able to interact off-script if the situation calls for it.
    Assertiveness.
    Every contact center agent has dealt with angry, indifferent, or downright horrible customers at least a few times in their careers. That’s why agents must be assertive and confident in their customer interactions, while still keeping a professional demeanor.
    Assertiveness helps build a customer’s trust in the support rep and establish them as the expert. Note that assertiveness should not be confused for aggression, which is the opposite of a positive customer interaction!
    How Tone of Voice Affects Customer Service
    Communication skills.
    Any call center leader knows how important communication is as a soft skill for call center agents. Communication between agent and customer is vital; but, so is communication from agent to agent, and agent to leader.
    Strong communication skills minimize room for misunderstandings and confusion. It’s also great for managing expectations with both customers and colleagues. Communication skills are one of the main ingredients for a perfect call center agent.
    Problem-solving skills.
    Call center agents are expected to develop solutions for every issue they’re met with. But this soft skill goes further than that – critical thinking is also necessary to weed out any solution other than what’s most effective. Agents should be able to work independently with the customer and confidently arrive at a solution that works for everyone.
    Empathy.
    Empathy and emotional intelligence are important soft skills for anybody in customer service. The need for empathy has been highlighted by the COVID-19 pandemic, where contact centers became a lifeline for members of the public during lockdown. Agents can demonstrate empathy in their customer interactions by personalizing the conversation, practicing active listening, and making customers feel understood.
    7 Call Center Empathy Phrases Every Agent Should Use With Their Customers
    Enthusiasm.
    You might think that agents can tone down the enthusiasm since the customer can’t see their face when speaking on the phone. Unfortunately, audio conversations still reveal volumes to a customer. If an agent is noticeably indifferent or bored, the customer will certainly take notice.
    And, that’s not all they’ll do. 60% of customers will cease business with an organization if they feel indifference from a representative. Don’t underestimate the power of a positive attitude. Enthusiasm, or at least a skillfully fronted enthusiasm, can make or break a customer’s experience.

    FACT:
    60% of customers say they will cease business with an organization if they feel indifference from a representative.

    Train your agents’ soft skills with these best practices.
    Training should be part of every call center education plan, and that includes training for soft skills. Here are some best practices to consider when training for call center soft skills:
    Set an example.
    You can’t expect call center agents to practice their soft skills if their own management team doesn’t display them. In your communications with your staff, make sure you demonstrate soft skills at every opportunity. Here are some ideas:

    follow up with them on project updates;
    show empathy towards their personal lives;
    offer flexibility in their scheduling;
    be enthusiastic about team and individual milestones; and
    show them how to find solutions.

    How can managers set strong examples of soft skills for agents? Start by demonstrating enthusiasm, empathy, and flexibility towards your agents! #CallCenterSoftSkillsClick To Tweet

    Invest in training.
    Invest time and money into training your agents. This could include anything from covering the costs of courses and workshops to establishing an employee program for ongoing learning. Check out our top call center training methods for more ideas.The post Blog first appeared on Fonolo.

  • Fill before empty

    When the cost of topping off your battery is less than the catastrophic risk of running out of juice, it pays to add to your reserves.
    That’s the entire point of having a tank. Going near empty isn’t nearly as effective as building up a cushion. Have your emergency on your own schedule.

  • HR Week: CXM partners with one of the biggest HR conferences in Europe

    The CXM team is excited to announce a new media partnership with one of the largest HR conferences in Europe. With 150+ exceptional speakers from various industries, this event is going to inspire leaders across industries to design workplaces where everyone can thrive. From 22nd to 26th November, Serbia and the Balkan region will turn…
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  • Reasons to apply for the Gulf Customer Experience Awards 2022

    There is no doubt the Gulf region is becoming a key player in the CX further development. With investments pouring into the emerging need for seamless digital services, maintaining a high-quality customer experience is taking its priority. It comes as no surprise that the Gulf Customer Experience Awards 2022 ceremony is taking place next February…
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  • Effort toward quality

    Quality is defined as consistently meeting spec. A measurable promise made and kept.

    Effort is what happens when we go beyond our normal speed. When we dig deep and exert physical or emotional labor and focus on something that is out of the ordinary. Effort is the opposite of coasting.

    Often we’re taught that quality is the result of effort. That if you simply tried harder, you’d come closer to meeting spec.

    And yet, when we look at organizations or brands or individuals with a reputation for quality, it’s not at all clear that they accomplish this with more effort. Because that’s simply not sustainable.

    The people who work at a Lexus plant aren’t more tired at the end of the day than those that make the Cadillac Escalade. It’s not about effort. The same is true for the Dabbawalla who never misses a delivery. In fact, focusing on effort (and the effort of your team) is almost guaranteed to ensure that your quality problem will persist.

    Persistent quality problems are a systemic issue, and if you’re not working on your system, you’re not going to improve it.

    “How do we do this work?” is a much better question than, “who isn’t trying hard enough?”

  • Elevate your 2021 Christmas marketing strategies with these four trends

    As we head into the Christmas shopping season, brands and agencies are looking to create strategies to reach consumers, generate awareness, and beat out the competition. While this task may seem simple, the shopping ecosystem is complex and can be daunting to navigate.  Some brands may assume that buyers will return to in-person shopping at…
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  • UJET Continues to Grow C-Suite with the Addition of Tom Puorro as Chief Business Officer

    Seasoned Poly and Cisco Executive Joins Rapidly Growing, Disruptive Contact Center Team to Accelerate and Strengthen Strategic Relationships
    SAN FRANCISCO, CALIF (BUSINESS WIRE)- October 27, 2021  – UJET, Inc., the world’s first and only CCaaS 3.0 cloud contact center, today announced the continued expansion of its executive leadership team with the appointment of Tom Puorro as Chief Business Officer (CBO). In his role as CBO, Puorro will spearhead UJET’s global partnerships and alliances, helping to further UJET’s position as the world’s most disruptive, advanced and fastest-growing cloud contact center.
    Puorro brings more than 25 years of experience in Telecoms, Unified Communications (UC), and Contact Center industries to UJET.  Prior to joining UJET, Puorro served as Executive Vice President and General Manager of Products at Poly, leading the global development of solutions for the modern workplace.  He also served previously as Vice President and General Manager of the Cisco Unified Communications Technology Group which included Cisco Contact Center.
    “The combination of UJET’s next-generation technology and the team that they’ve built has made them both a valued partner and a formidable player in the contact center industry,” said Tom Goodmanson, President and CEO at Calabrio.  “Tom Puorro is extremely well-respected in our space, known especially for driving synergies and growth through mutually beneficial partnerships, so we’re excited to work with him to continue developing and expanding Calabrio’s partnership with UJET.”
    Puorro joins the UJET leadership team as the company experiences explosive growth, significantly outpacing the market’s projected 20+% year over year growth through 2024 (based on number of seats), according to DMG Consulting LLC’s 2020 – 2021 Cloud-Based Contact Center Infrastructure Product and Market Report.  
    “UJET is one of just a handful of newer, more innovative companies that are really disrupting and modernizing CX in ways that the more established players haven’t been able to,” said Dave Michels, Principal Analyst and Founder of TalkingPointz. “Tom’s experience, visibility, and relationships in the market, along with a track record of successful, profitable technology partnerships will be an incredible asset to UJET, as it continues to grow awareness and consideration for its solutions.”
    “The cloud contact center space is experiencing a level of demand and growth that we haven’t seen since IP Telephony was introduced more than two decades ago,” said Puorro. He continued, “UJET is uniquely positioned to capitalize on that growth both because of the innovation that they’re bringing to CX, and the unprecedented security, scalability, and reliability they’ve achieved – all core requirements for Enterprise cloud adoption that have remained unmet until now.  I couldn’t be more excited to work with this team and our partners to bring these capabilities to market.”
    Along with the addition of Puorro, earlier this year, UJET added Kristin King to its leadership team as Vice President of Customer Success. King joined UJET after a 21 year tenure at Windstream Communications where she served in key leadership roles in both Sales and Customer Success.
    About UJET
    UJET is the world’s first and only cloud contact center platform for smartphone era CX. By modernizing digital and in-app experiences, UJET unifies the enterprise brand experience across sales, marketing, and support, eliminating the frustration of channel switching between voice, digital, and self-service for consumers. Offering unsurpassed resiliency and the flexibility to deploy across leading public cloud infrastructures, UJET powers the world’s largest elastic CCaaS tenant at up to 22,000 agents globally, and is trusted by innovative, customer-centric enterprises like Instacart, Turo, Wag!, and Atom Tickets to intelligently orchestrate predictive, contextual, conversational customer experiences.
    Learn more at www.ujet.cx and follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter.

    Media Contacts
    Holly Barker
    UJETpr@ujet.cx
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