Category: Customer Experience

We’d probably be better off if we could simply say, “I’m afraid.”

Our culture has persistently reminded us that the only thing to fear is fear itself, that confessing fear is a failure and that it’s better to lie than to appear un-brave.

And so we pretend to be experts in public health and epidemiology instead of simply saying, “I’m afraid.”

We fight possible change from the start instead of examining it on the merits.

And we make uninformed assertions about the causes and implications of global phenomena instead of acknowledging that change is scary.

Fear of being afraid keeps things on our to-do list forever, keeps important conversations from happening and shifts how we see our agency and leverage in the world.

The bravest leaders and contributors aren’t worried about appearing afraid. It allows them to see the world more clearly.

A week ago, our team hosted a CX roundtable titled CXM time machine. One of the guest speakers was Forrester’s VP Principal Analyst Joana de Quintanilha. During the talk, she introduced us to her interesting career path and shared glimpses of her current work at Forrester.  Joana’s latest research ‘Harness friction in customer journeys to…
The post Harnessing positive friction: an interview with Forrester’s analyst Joana de Quintanilha appeared first on Customer Experience Magazine.

Net Promoter Score has been one of the central topics in conversations between CX professionals for years now. If you regularly read CXM, you know we published many articles on this subject, both from positive and negative points of view. Whether we like it or not, NPS is still widely used for keeping tabs on customer…
The post Would not recommend – the scariest words a CX professional can hear appeared first on Customer Experience Magazine.

Emotional intelligence has always been a hot topic in the customer service world. As contact centers across the world continue to recover and adapt from the aftershock of the COVID-19 pandemic, it’s become clear that empathy isn’t just a trend customer support teams need to embrace – it needs to be part of your operational foundations.
Over the lockdown period, the public turned to their phone lines looking for human support, but instead found contact centers overwhelmed and in disarray, with little time to exercise the comfort and care that today’s consumers want. CX leaders were in agreement – empathy is a huge part of achieving call center success.
The question is, can call centers improve agents’ emotional intelligence through training and employee engagement strategies? Read on to find out.
How to Foster Agent Engagement in a Hybrid Contact Center
What does empathy look like in a call center environment?
If you’ve ever been frustrated after a customer service experience from not feeling heard, you know how much an experience like that can erode your trust in a brand. And you’re not alone – 89% of customers say they have switched brands after a single poor customer service experience.
On the other hand, an agent who understands you and follows through on resolving your issue in a timely manner can make you a lifelong customer. A customer service agent trained to use empathy in their interactions has the power to develop a relationship with you even over the phone.

All it takes is one bad customer service experience to lose a customer. Fostering a culture built on #empathy helps prevent this in your call center. #CX #CustomerServiceClick To Tweet

Why is empathy so important in customer service?

DID YOU KNOW?
US businesses lose $1.7 trillion a year due to poor customer support.

Empathy is a key tool in your call center agents’ toolbox that helps them to truly connect with your customers, leading to a more pleasant customer experience and fewer angry customers stressing out your agents.
Here are just a few reasons why empathy is so impactful in customer service:
It shows you sincerely want to help them.
Yes, your agents are paid to be there. But customers should never feel like their problems are a burden. Empathy in a call center is one way of showing your company truly cares about them as a person, and not just the money that they are paying for your product/service.
It allows you to understand their perspective.
Feeling heard and understood helps to bridge the gap between customer versus call center agent. It can be challenging to build a connection with someone you have never spoken with before – being able to stand in their shoes can help your agents find ways to build trust.
It humanizes the interaction.
Contact center work doesn’t involve a lot of face to face customer meetings, so it’s important to make sure their experience feels like an authentic conversation – not a Q&A with a bot. You can reduce customer frustration significantly by talking to them like a person, and not just an account number.
Train your agents’ empathy skills with these 5 tips:
1. Evaluate the scenario before responding.
When it comes to customer interactions, there are no one-size-fits-all solutions. Agents should exercise intuition for each unique interaction, rather than blindly following a script.
For example, if a customer starts the call enraged about long hold times, it’s better to let them vent while validating their frustrations (‘I hear you, and I’m so sorry you had to deal with that…’). Teach your agents to anticipate the customer’s emotional responses before taking back control and bringing the conversation back on track.

TIP:
Long hold times are one of the biggest sources of customer frustration. Call-back technology is a simple solution when your contact center is overwhelmed with high call volumes.

2. Always consider the customer perspective.
Agents who are able to balance their role and responsibilities with the perspective of the customer will have a better chance of developing a solution that suits both parties involve. They may even exhibit a greater sense of ownership towards each issue, and can better advocate for their customer’s needs to find a resolution.
3. Be an active listener.
By asking clarifying questions during customer interactions, your agents show customers that they are engaged and present in the conversation while gathering a full scope of the challenge at hand. Doing this at the beginning of the interaction will minimize small mistakes in the process down the line as well.
How Tone of Voice Affects Customer Service
4. Practice empathy skills through role playing.
Training in a classroom is one thing, but it all comes down to how your agents exercise these skills during real customer interactions. Role playing is a highly effective way to get your agents comfortable with these new skills. Practice tense interactions with angry “customers” and give them a safe space to make mistakes and learn.
Useful empathy statements for call center agents.
An “us” vs. “them” mindset can be toxic in a call center environment. Teaching customer service agents to use empathy phrases helps get everyone on the same page. Since your agents cannot use body language to communicate, it’s best to focus on tone of voice and key phrases they can use to keep their customers positively engaged.
First contact – evaluating the issue:

“I appreciate you bringing this to our attention.”
“I’m sorry to hear that you’re experiencing this.”

The above phrases are doing a few things all at once. It’s personalizing the conversation through “I” statements, by showing the customer that your agent is aligned with them, while also affirming that the customer was right to reach out about this.
Mid-interaction – clarifying details:

“Just so that I’m sure I understand, I’m hearing that…”
“I can definitely understand how frustrating this is, so let’s…”
Use acknowledging noises/short phrases: “mmhmm”, “okay”, or “I see.”

Reiterating the issue back to the customer ensures that everyone is on the same page. Once confirmed, your agents can proceed confidently with putting together a plan to resolve their challenge. Using acknowledging words and phrases also helps empower the customer and reassure them that the agent is fully engaged.
Final steps – wrapping up the interaction:

“Leave this with me.”
“We will get this resolved for you.”

If the issue can not be resolved immediately, reassuring the customer that the agent has their back will give them a sense of ease. Letting the customer “handoff” the issue to the agent shows ownership and alleviates their stress. Make sure you follow through – otherwise all that work to build that trust will be lost.
More Empathy Phrases Every Customer Support Agent Should UseThe post Blog first appeared on Fonolo.

Twenty years from now, you will have new skills. New customers. A new title and a new kind of leverage.

All of this forward motion requires a less celebrated element–all the things you’re not doing any longer.

To get a new job, you’ll need to leave the old job behind.

When you have a child, you’ve initiated a process that leads to an adult…

Often, we try to pretend that growth comes with no goodbyes, but it does.

Perhaps we can go in with our eyes open, understanding that what we begin will likely end. And when we plan for it, we’ll do it better.

The Zoom platform has helped our customers adapt and transform over the last two years. Soon, that same technology will reimagine how you interact with your end customers. Zoom Video Engagement Center (VEC) will be an easy-to-use, cloud-based solution that enables experts and end customers to connect over video. These video-optimized interactions will offer a new way to reach people so you can:
Engage with customers in a way that drives trust and loyalty
Instantly bring in experts for additional support or troubleshooting
Offer unique digital experiences to customers from physical locations like a brick-and-mortar store or digital experiences like a website or application
Full article: https://blog.zoom.us/zoom-video-engagement-center/
submitted by /u/vesuvitas [link] [comments]

The CXM team gathered many articles on the importance of CX in today’s world. With this comprehensive guide, we further develop that initiative by providing expert tips on developing a customer-first mindset. Following the economical and societal uncertainty, most brands now recognize the need to invest in customer experience, but some still fail to do it right. …
The post How to develop a customer-first mindset? appeared first on Customer Experience Magazine.

What social media trends should companies have on their radar as they move into the new year? Which platforms should marketers use to stay competitive and relevant? Hubspot, a leading customer relationship management platform, in collaboration with Talkwalker, published the Social Media Trends Report providing insights on how the pandemic influenced behavioural changes and created…
The post Is TikTok the next big thing in 2022 social media marketing? appeared first on Customer Experience Magazine.

The first mindset is pretty common. Take good notes. Make tiny changes. Repeat. Improve. Incrementally move along the asymptote. Test and measure.

The other mindset is rare indeed. Do things that might not work. Develop new assertions. Go past the edges to unexplored territory. Try to figure out why things are the way they are. Fail often. Blaze a trail. After all, it’s a test kitchen, not a Michelin restaurant.

When the world changes, we see lots of people lining up to do the first sort of ‘tests’. A lot of crib sheets, looking over the competition and trying to fit in all the way.

But real innovation comes from the science of “this might not work.”

Google Cloud Named the Preferred Cloud Partner for UJET, Customers can purchase and deploy UJET from Google Cloud Marketplace
SAN FRANCISCO, CALIF (BUSINESS WIRE)- October 20, 2021  – UJET, Inc., the world’s first and only CCaaS 3.0 cloud contact center, today announced an exclusive partnership with Google Cloud enabling businesses around the world to deliver exceptional AI-powered customer experiences at unparalleled scale and security in a trusted public cloud environment, with ease-of-management, and low network latency.
Highlights of announcement include:

Google Cloud is now UJET’s preferred Contact Center as a Service (CCaaS) cloud vendor 
UJET’s CCaaS solution now available on Google Cloud Marketplace 

UJET is now both a Google Cloud ISV Solution Connect Partner & Contact Center AI (CCAI) OEM Partner

“UJET and Google Cloud have come together to offer leading innovation and enterprise-grade security and reliability across contact center operations ,” said Vasili Triant, Chief Operating Officer at UJET.  “We’re extremely proud of this partnership, and deeply committed to using the best of today’s mobile, digital and cloud technologies to provide exceptional customer experience technologies that brands can rely on.” 
As contact centers continue to accelerate cloud adoption and digital transformation, they are seeking innovation, security, and reliability from their applications.  With Google Cloud as our preferred cloud partner, across core industries including retail, finance, healthcare, and marketplace economy, we will make it easier for customers of any size to buy and deploy UJET, accelerating the rollout of digital transformation and AI-enhanced contact center services.
“We selected Google Cloud and UJET because of their willingness to truly partner with us to personalize and tailor our service and communications to the unique culture and characteristics of the communities we serve,” said Teri Williams, President and Chief Operating Officer at OneUnited Bank, the largest black-owned bank in the country.  “As a mission-oriented business, we are grateful for technology partners we can trust to help us treat all customers with respect, dignity and personal attention – regardless of their account balances.”
“We are delighted to announce that innovative contact center solutions from UJET will be available on Google Cloud,” said Kevin Ichhpurani, Corporate Vice President, Global Ecosystem at Google Cloud. “UJET solutions on Google Cloud will enable organizations of any size to quickly deploy at global scale, with enterprise-grade security and reliability, and deliver game changing contract center experiences to customers”
Through this partnership, UJET will join Google Cloud’s partner co-selling program, and the two companies will work to deliver continuous customer service innovation across retail, finance, healthcare, and other industries.  Customers can purchase and deploy UJET with a single click from the Google Cloud Marketplace, and enjoy consolidated billing and draw down on their Google Cloud spend commitment. 
Additional Resources

Microsite:  https://ujet.cx/google-cloud-partner 

Follow UJET on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/ujetcx 

Follow UJET on Twitter: https://twitter.com/ujetcx 

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.

Media Contacts
Holly Barker
UJETpr@ujet.cx
The post UJET Announces Strategic Partnership with Google Cloud to Accelerate and Scale AI-powered Contact Center Innovation appeared first on UJET.