Category: Customer Experience

We regularly interact with family, friends, and business colleagues using video. But companies have fallen behind at promoting video when it comes to communicating with their customers — whether for sales, support, or customer service. Zoom’s Video Engagement Center (VEC), announced at Zoomtopia, will address requests from customers and agents. It also will provide the framework that allows companies to deliver a better customer experience. The cloud-based solution will be available in early 2022, and it will allow companies to implement video-optimized workflows using templates provided by Zoom. Videos can start from digital channels or physical locations and integrate with other interaction channels, while leveraging AI applications along the customer journey. Full article: https://www.nojitter.com/contact-center-customer-experience/zoom-aims-improve-cx-video-engagement-center
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With businesses reopening after COVID-19 closures, US economist Mark Zandi asserts that retailers benefited significantly from the reopening economy. Moreover, retail spending is expected to increase by 19% this year.
These predictions represent significant opportunity for retailers. That’s why it’s more important than ever to have a superior customer service strategy — that includes ensuring your retail contact center operations are optimized for a smooth customer experience.
The Contact Center Guide to Managing Spikes in Call Volume
Why retail call centers are so important.
Competition for retailers is fierce, both brick and mortar stores and online retailers. Retail customers have more options than ever to purchase a product — often even the same product!
When you have multiple retailers that sell a product at similar price points, the decision-making power goes to the consumer. We know that 75% of customers prefer a personalized shopping experience, so your retail call center needs to focus on developing a customer experience that is so good, they won’t even think of leaving your brand.
How to Prepare Your Call Center for a Crisis: Black Friday and
Cyber Monday
Customers want solutions immediately, even when they’re not shopping in-store. That’s where your contact center needs to deliver — if your contact center experience falls short, you leave yourself open to negative reviews and poor service reputation, which can seriously hurt your sales. Quality customer service is essential for customer loyalty and satisfaction.
Today’s biggest challenges for retail contact centers.
Staffing levels and agent attrition.
Contact centers are notorious for high turnover rates. Pair that with the great resignation of the post-COVID-19 pandemic, and you may find yourself with a serious staffing problem. With the rise of remote work, retail contact center leaders have to pivot their recruiting and hiring processes to accommodate this growing trend. With all this change, it’s no wonder that 44% of operations leaders cited staffing as a challenge this year!
Technology to support remote work.
Staffing isn’t the only thing that took a hit from the pandemic. Contact center leaders quickly realized their technology needed major upgrades as they shifted from in-person to virtual operations. Technology limits posed obstacles to business growth for 25.7% of retail contact center leaders.
Data security.
When dealing with customer data, security plays a critical part in the contact center space. The shift to virtual work posed new security risks for retail contact centers. 36.2% of contact centers cited security risks and fraud prevention as a challenge for 2021. It’s more important now than ever for contact center leaders to invest in security to protect customer and company data.
Common challenges for retail contact center agents.
High customer expectations.
Customer expectations are higher than ever, especially when it comes to service and support. Without the proper procedures and training in place, retail contact center agents face higher levels of frustration with customers, especially during the holiday shopping season.
Limited tools and technology.
Although technology limits pose challenges for management teams, the impact is even greater for customer-facing agents. Without the proper tools to leverage, agent productivity and engagement will plummet, affecting customer satisfaction.
4 ways to survive working in a retail contact center.
With so many challenges looming this year for retail contact centers, it can be intimidating to lead your team with so many variables in play. Luckily, there are ways to overcome them:
Be customer-obsessed.
Customer-obsessed businesses grow revenue faster than their competitors. This entails having a special focus on retail customer experience. All your operations should be tailored to consider your customer’s needs first.
For example, Fonolo’s programmable call-backs empower customers to opt for a call-back instead of waiting on hold. This empowerment is especially valuable for retailers during the holiday shopping time, when call spikes are common.
Stay flexible and adaptable.
The COVID-19 pandemic taught businesses that innovation is key to survival. That means losing rigid processes and adapting to the changing landscape. For example, customer expectations continue to rise, as they expect retailers to be available to support them quickly, at all hours. Flexibility helps your retail contact center meet changing customer expectations to continue growth and make sales.

FACT:
Depending on your business, contact center outsourcing may help you find significant cost savings.

Explore tools and technology.
Retail contact centers must update their tools and technology to manage changing customer needs. For example, customers now expect immediate, real-time service. So, you might consider investing in a chatbot function or Fonolo’s Visual IVR, to give customers around-the-clock access to service.
Invest in training.
As a contact center leader, you likely know that effective training is essential for agent performance. This is especially true for remote agents. Remote call center agent training might include a standardized virtual training program, with a special focus on fostering agent engagement.The post Blog first appeared on Fonolo.

It has taken us by surprise, but in our current situation, when everyone has more of a voice and more impact on the public than ever before, it suddenly matters. You wouldn’t take your car to a mechanic who didn’t know how to fix a car, and citizens, each of us, should be held to at least as high a standard of knowledge.

Everyone around us needs to know about:

Statistics

Germ theory

Epidemiology

Decision making

Propaganda and the status quo

Semiotics and indoctrination

The mechanics of global weather

Network effects

and artificial intelligence

Either we are the makers of our future or we’re the victims. And if we don’t understand these fundamental components of how the world works, our actions may undermine our goals as well as the people around us.

The world is changing fast and we’re all more connected than ever before. The good news is that these are all skills, they can be learned and it’s imperative that we teach them to others.

Akimbo, an independent B corp., continues to show us how cohort-based learning can change lives for the better. I hope you’ll check out what my friends at Akimbo are up to:

The Early Decision Deadline is today, October 5th for altMBA’s January 2022 session.

You’re invited to write and publish a book in the next six months. It works because you don’t do it alone. It’s the last day to join the current session of Writing in Community.Bernadette Jiwa’s breakthrough Story Skills Workshop starts next month, register by November 2nd.

The Creative’s Workshop, which inspired The Practice is starting now—register by Oct 12th.

Famous American computer scientist and mathematician Richard Hamming once said that “the purpose of computing is insight, not numbers.” That logic is difficult to argue against – and the CX industry is informed by numbers that are driving profound changes in how businesses (and the clients they’re interacting with) are behaving. In Five9’s 2021 CSI study, 30% of respondents stated that they’d walked away from a business they’d been loyal to because of a bad customer experience with the contact center. With numbers that scary, it’s obviously important for a business to pivot with speed and agility on the back of solid insight when required. Historically this has been a difficult, laborious, largely manual, and rigid process. Surveys, feedback, mystery shoppers/callers, spreadsheets, covert eavesdropping on customer interactions. Source: https://www.five9.com/blog/2021-turning-cx-numbers-into-cx-insight
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Among painters, poets, writers, actors, bloggers, directors, influencers, capitalists, fundraisers, politicians and singers, you’ll find a few who want to go all the way to superfamous.

They understand that their work won’t reach every single human, it can’t. They’re okay with that. But they’d like to reach just a few more people than anyone else.

Back when the New York Times bestseller list mattered, they worked to be on it. Not just on it, but on top of it.

Back when 100,000 followers were seen as a lot on Twitter, they hustled to be in the top spot. And when it got to a million, then that was the new goal.

Pop albums used to sell millions of copies. Now they sell in the tens of thousands. But one more than just about anyone else is enough (for now).

The desire to be superfamous might come from a good place. The work is important, it deserves to be seen by more people. The work is arduous, and reaching more people with it feels appropriate. The work is measurable, and measuring better is a symptom of good work.

Or the desire might come from the same drive that pushes people to do the work in the first place. Bigger is better, after all.

The problems with superfamous are varied and persistent.

First, it corrupts the work. By ignoring the smallest viable audience and focusing on mass, the creator gives up the focus that can create important work.

Second, the infinity of more can become a gaping hole. Instead of finding solace and a foundation for better work, the bottomless pit of just a little more quickly ceases to be fuel and becomes a burden instead.

Trust is worth more than attention, and the purpose of the work is to create meaningful change, not to be on a list.

The rollout of 5G has the potential to transform the retail industry by ushering in a new era of connectivity and experience. Its advancements should alleviate many of the challenges that retailers have endured during the pandemic. By dramatically accelerating the speed of mobile networks, 5G paves the way for a dazzling array of innovations.  The network’s rollout will play…
The post What is the 5G impact on the retail industry? appeared first on Customer Experience Magazine.

The reviews for your contact center are in—but they won’t be found in the newspaper or on Rotten Tomatoes. You can see what your customers think about your contact center by determining your Net Promoter Score (NPS).
Customer experience surveys can tell you a lot about the service callers are receiving from agents, and NPS is a key statistic you should be considering when reviewing how successful your contact center is at providing exceptional customer service.
Creating a Customer Service Strategy That Drives Business Growth

Net promoter score is a key statistic you should be considering when reviewing how successful your #contactcenter is at providing exceptional #customerservice. #businessgrowth #KPIs #businesstipsClick To Tweet

Why is it important to know your NPS?
A company’s NPS can be an easy way to predict business growth over the coming months or years. If your NPS is higher than the average contact center’s, it’s an indication that you’ll likely experience growth since happy customers often recommend a company to friends or colleagues. Customer loyalty is at the forefront of a successful business, and your NPS can help you get a pulse on how many of your callers fit the definition of “loyal customer”.
The Secret Sauce for Increasing Customer Happiness
How is NPS calculated?
If you’re concerned about crunching the numbers—don’t be! It’s pretty simple, and we’ll fill you in on exactly what you need for your NPS calculation.

First, start with NPS surveys that ask customers, on a scale of 0–10, how likely they are to recommend the company to a friend or colleague. You can email this survey to customers, or have it play as a recording after they complete their call.
Next, organize your results into three categories based on their scores:

0–6 are Detractors

7–8 are Passives

9–10 are Promoters

To determine your NPS, tally the number of responses in each category, divide that number by the total number of responses you received and then multiply that number by 100 to see the percentages.
Say, out of 100 responses, 20 were Detractors, 30 were Passives, and 50 were Promoters.
Detractors

20/100 = 0.2

0.2×100 = 20%

Passives

30/100 = 0.3

0.3×100 = 30%

Promoters

50/100 = 0.5

0.5×100 = 50%

Your last step is to subtract the number of Detractors from the number of Promoters and, voila! You have your NPS. In this case it would be:
50%-20% = 30
What does an average NPS look like?
Average NPS varies greatly by industry and the product or service your company provides, but there is a general understanding of what constitutes a “good” NPS. If your NPS is above 0, your contact center has more Promoters than Detractors, which should be the overall goal of the company. Once you’ve taken note of your NPS, you can create a solution to boost the number, and check the results frequently to see if and how it fluctuates.
6 ways to improve your Net Promoter Score.
Now that you know how to calculate your contact center’s NPS, your next step is to work on elevating and maintaining your score. Here are 6 ways you can improve your NPS (and make sure it continues to soar).
1. Start with an effective customer service strategy.
If you don’t already have one, crafting and employing an effective customer care strategy is an essential component of increasing your NPS and building life-long customers who are invested in your company.
How to Develop a Customer Service Strategy for Your Contact Center
2. Keep tabs on your NPS.
Tracking your score over time gives you insight into trends so you can evaluate what’s working and what isn’t when it comes to customer service. Set monthly or bi-monthly NPS goals and be sure to share them with your contact center agents—if everyone is in the loop, you can begin to work with agents on how to shift their customer service approach to reach these goals as a team. You might even consider tracking NPS per agent to see who needs a bit of help on their service techniques.

TIP:
If you track NPS by agent, be sure to take their specific roles into consideration. An agent whose role it is to cancel services is more likely to receive a much lower score than an inbound sales rep. Try to compare agents within the same role or department, so your stats aren’t skewed.

3. Ask for detailed customer feedback as part of your NPS survey.
One of your NPS survey questions should be a follow-up to why the customer rated their service the way they did. A blank text field works best here to give the customer the freedom to provide precise feedback in their own words.
4. Take action when feedback is noted.
What’s the use in asking for all of this feedback if no changes are made after it has been collected? Take what customers are saying seriously. You may notice trends in the feedback you’re receiving, which can be overwhelming to manage. Ultimately though, if this feedback is considered and a solution is implemented, you’re more likely to create long-lasting customers who will happily share their amazing experiences with others in their circle.
5. Equip your call center with the right technology.
There’s plenty of technology available that can really help to improve the customer experience. If a customer has to wait on the line for long periods of time, they’ll more than likely provide a lower satisfaction score than if they were to experience quick pickups and efficient service.
Fonolo technology like Voice Call-Backs and Conversation Scheduling both help to empower the customer by providing the option to receive a call-back or to decide when a call-back best suits their schedule.
6. Don’t forget about other key indicators of customer service success.
Keeping an eye on KPIs like first contact resolution, abandonment rates, agent occupancy, and call transfer rates will help you ensure your numbers are up in all other areas of the contact center, which, in turn, is likely to signal a better customer experience.
How to Create a Call Center Performance ReportThe post Blog first appeared on Fonolo.

We’d rather not claim luck. Good luck feels like something was unearned. And bad luck sounds like an excuse.

The false promise of meritocracy decries luck in all its forms.

And yet…

Among famous colleges, perhaps one in five qualified applicants are admitted. Here’s what that means:

The school could make a list of every student who is ‘good’ enough to get in. The combination of background, test scores, grades, activities, all of it. Every student who, under some circumstances, would be happily admitted.

They could send a note to every one of those students telling them that they are finalists, and now, a random number generator is going to pick 20% of them.

Because that’s what they’re actually doing anyway.

If you got rejected, perhaps it would be better to know that you were a finalist and then you got unlucky, instead of blaming yourself and some imagined defect.

And the same goes for countless things that happen to us in our lives. That I was lucky to get that first TED talk. That I was unlucky to not get that big meeting years ago…

Giving credit (or blame) to luck makes it easier to get back to the hard work of making things better.

Improving the customer experience to incorporate better empathy is a customer satisfaction best practice. But as important as empathy is to customer satisfaction, it can be difficult for contact center managers to know if their agents are truly building relationships with customers or just focusing on the mechanics of issue resolution. Fortunately, modern AI-powered contact center solutions can eliminate the guessing game and provide managers with more insights into and control over the softer side of interactions. These tools, combined with basic blocking and tackling activities, like providing agents with training and scripts, can help organizations boost customer satisfaction and ensure empathy is at the heart of their customer relationships.
Use AI-powered agent assistance to automate empathy for call contact center agents
Use smart routing to make customers feel heard
Use agent scripting to help agents apply empathy in customer service
Enhance new hire and ongoing soft skill training
Collect and act on customer feedback
Source: https://www.niceincontact.com/blog/5-ways-to-improve-customer-satisfaction-scores-using-customer-empathy
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