Category: Customer Experience

That doesn’t happen very often.

When someone combines generosity, insight and bravery to provide something before we know that’s what we need, we are particularly grateful.

It’s a special form of leadership.

The term omnichannel experience refers to a multichannel approach to marketing, selling, and serving customers across multiple devices and touchpoints. It’s not a new concept, but it’s one most brand haven’t yet mastered. As consumers demand more personalized, streamlined experiences, it has become a competitive differentiator. The push to understand customer conversations across every channel isn’t confined to specific industries. It emerges from the evolution of customer preferences and behaviors. For organizations looking to create omnichannel experiences that meet the high expectations of today’s digital consumers, here are three best practices:
Meet customers where they are and anticipate changes
Eliminate data and channel silos
Correlate analytics to make better business decisions
Full Article: https://www.nojitter.com/contact-center-customer-experience/guide-understanding-omnichannel-cx
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The office is a fairly modern phenomenon. We got by for millenia without them.

For a century, the office was simply a small room next to the factory or the store. The office was upstairs from the bakery, or next to the stockyard or the foundry. Proximity to the worksite was its primary attribute.

For the last fifty years, though, more and more office workers never actually saw the factory floor.

Office culture became a thing onto itself, with layers of workers supporting other workers who supported workers who helped improve the productivity of the factory, whatever sort of factory that was.

And office culture was based on physical proximity. With most written communication taking far too long (a week for a letter!) and electronic communication insufficient in resolution, we built office towers to house the layers of office hierarchy that were evolving. We even named ‘the corner office’ after an executive’s physical location in the flow of information and power.

But then the factory was moved even further away–most big company CEOs have never even visited all of their factories, retail outlets or development centers. And if you have more than a few, it means that no matter where you are, you’re not at most of them.

And then email turned written communication into something instant and high resolution. Asynchronous messaging eliminates time.

And then Zoom meant that location didn’t matter much either.

Over the last 18 months, many of us have felt isolation as part of the dislocation from the office. Easily overlooked, though, is how much faster and more efficient so many systems became. Now, it’s not the communications system that’s holding us back, it’s our unwillingness to make change happen in concert with our peers.

Some organizations dealt with enforced work-from-home by using endless Zoom meetings as a form of compliance… a high-tech way to take attendance. But others leaned into the opportunity to create nimble, task-oriented decision making and communications hubs, ones that were no longer constrained by physical proximity.

The last forty years have taught us that the technology that most disrupts established industries is speed. The speed of connection to peers, to suppliers and most of all, to customers. The speed of decision making, of ignoring sunk costs and of coordinated action. The internet has pushed all of these things forward, and we’ve just discovered, the office was holding all of them back.

As social creatures, many people very much need a place to go, a community to be part of, a sense of belonging and meaning. But it’s not at all clear that the 1957 office building is the best way to solve those problems.

We hear much less often about efficient, satisfying service encounters. There just isn’t enough drama or scandal in those stories to captivate friends and strangers. That’s because good service is seamless, and it’s not always obvious why the experience went so well. But behind the scenes of every untold CX success is a leader who has put all the pieces in place. Let’s look at some best practices those leaders live by.
They help agents reach their full potential.
They give customers more agency.
They turn insights into action.
The most effective CX leaders not only implement advanced contact center reporting that provides a 360-degree analysis across all channels; they ensure that the analytics can be effectively used to guide customers and agents to the best outcomes. Full article: https://www.five9.com/blog/3-habits-of-highly-successful-cx
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Have you ever observed communication with customers as an outsider? If yes, you are aware of the enormous impact communication has on the overall business performance. Effective communication is doubtlessly at the centre of a memorable customer experience. If a company fails even once to deliver a positive experience, there is a risk of losing…
The post Communication with customers: Five essential factors appeared first on Customer Experience Magazine.

Regardless of your industry, providing ongoing training opportunities can mean the difference between finding lasting employees and experiencing high turnover rates.
The 2019 LinkedIn Workforce Learning Report states that 94% of employees polled would remain with an organization longer if there were learning opportunities available. The proof is in the statistics — a proper training strategy leads to more engaged employees.
How to Foster Agent Engagement in a Hybrid Contact Center
Now that a large percentage of customer service agents are working remotely, it’s never been more important to ensure you have a solid training system in place. When employees are far apart, proper training tools can drive employee engagement and help ensure everyone is on the same page.

According to @LinkedIn, 94% of employees would stay with their organization longer if there were learning opportunities available. The proof is in the statistics—proper training leads to more engaged #CallCenter agents. #EmployeeEngagement…Click To Tweet

What are some common challenges that come with training remote agents?
Communication is the main sore spot when it comes to implementing remote training. For example, if technology is limited and doesn’t allow for group meetings or video conferencing, the transition to online training will be very bumpy. Even if a call center is properly equipped for remote work, it’s more difficult for agents to get facetime with management when issues arise simply because they can’t just walk over to their desk and ask for help.
Working in a hectic environment can also be a major hurdle to the success of agents in remote training situations. Distractions like family members, pets and other facets of home life can lead to improper training, especially if the employee is a new hire.
Though remote training does have its downsides, there are a few things you can do to remove some of the roadblocks. We’ve put together our top 5 best practices for training remote agents to help you out.
1. Create a standardized virtual training program.
A training strategy that stays consistent from one call center agent to another will ensure everyone is being taught the same information and protocols from the get-go.
Start by writing a comprehensive list of the tasks that need to be trained. It’s a good idea to loop in your HR department at this phase as well to have them provide you with their own items and look over your list once it’s complete. Your next step is to flesh out the content for each of these tasks. Be sure to mix up the media and training techniques involved – resources may include any of the following:

Live and recorded webinars.
One-pagers or info sheets.
Quizzes or self-examinations.
Videos.
PowerPoint presentations.
Virtual group training sessions.
Virtual individual training sessions.
Virtual workshops.

15 Powerful Call Center Training Methods
2. Store all of your training materials on the cloud.
If you host your resources in one central database, it’s simple for remote agents to take training into their own hands. It’ll empower employees to seek out their own training opportunities and streamline the onboarding for call center managers.
Cloud-based services make storing and sharing data simple. Your information will be stored online as opposed to locally on a computer, so you can easily share training resources with anyone from your organization in an instant. End-to-end encryption keeps your data secure, and you can grant role-based access to specific information, preventing private files from entering the wrong hands.
Fonolo uses cloud-based technology to keep our service as flexible as possible. It can scale with your virtual call center and ensures strict data security for the privacy of your agents and call center customers.
Yes, You Can Add Cloud-Based Call-Backs to Your Contact Center without Security Risk
3. Focus on fostering employee engagement.
Statistics say that highly engaged employees are 87% less likely to quit their job than disengaged employees. It’s a pretty safe bet that if your agents feel aligned with company values and are recognized for their hard work, they’ll stick around for years to come.
Driving virtual engagement can be tricky, as agents who work from home are not surrounded by peers they can quickly tap into for assistance. It’s important that you encourage staff to make and maintain connections on their team and find ways to help agents stay engaged in their daily tasks. Here are some ways you can drive engagement through training:

Schedule remote one-on-ones between long-standing agents and new hires to ensure they have the chance to meet and form a connection.
Plan daily virtual check-ins for the first few weeks of a new hire’s training so they’re clear on their to-dos. Then, monthly or bi-monthly check-ins with long-standing team members will help you monitor their performance and happiness.
Have your team send bi-weekly email updates that include their recent achievements. Even small wins like helping a colleague with a phone call should be celebrated.
Set individual monthly goals to keep employees on track. When a goal is reached, always recognize the hard work that went into achieving it. If agents are struggling to reach their goals, figure out solutions together so they feel supported and like they’re being set up for success.

5 Incentives for Call Center Agent Engagement
4. Opt for efficient remote call center technology.
Remote agents have a lot to take care of in their day-to-day, so it’s essential that your virtual call center is equipped with technology that can give agents some breathing room. Call-backs help manage inbound call volume, alleviating stress from agents during peak periods. If your staff feels like their workload is manageable, it’ll help keep burnout at bay, leaving agents with some more mental capacity to engage in training sessions.
How Your Call Center Can Overcome Agent Burnout
On top of regular goal setting and check-ins, keeping an eye on your agents’ metrics can help you monitor if their training is setting them up for success. Be sure to opt for reporting software that provides real-time stats and historical data via cloud-based technology, so you can take a peek at the numbers whenever you need to.
5. Ensure your training strategy evolves with your contact center.
Virtual call centers are always changing. Whether the company is expanding, upgrading to new technology, or setting goals to improve metrics, there’s a good chance that shifts will be made over time.
Every 5–6 months, look over your training materials to ensure the content is still correct and relevant. Letting training resources go stale can hinder employee growth and lead to poor job performance.

You can be sure your #contactcenter is always changing. Every 5–6 months, look over your training materials to ensure the content is still correct and relevant. #CallCenter #TrainingTipsClick To Tweet

Though pivoting to remote training may seem a bit daunting at the start, a virtual development strategy has so many benefits:

Remote training tools allow staff to learn at their own pace, increasing the likelihood of them retaining the information.
Giving everyone access to the same tools streamlines the process for agents and management alike.
Pre-recorded content offers staff the chance to tune in to webinars, videos, presentations, and working sessions at any time — no matter where they are
The post Blog first appeared on Fonolo.

When a change arrives, some people embrace it. And because it’s new, they have to be specific about why. They can talk clearly about the benefits it offers and why they feel drawn to the change it can produce.

But many people don’t embrace the change. And more often than not, their objections are diffuse. They change their story over time, sometimes within the same conversation. When one objection is overcome, they switch to another one. They embrace mutually exclusive arguments and generally appear vague in their discomfort.

That’s because the people who say yes are seeing and embracing what’s possible.

There are definitely specific nos as well. People who have considered the details and implications of a new technology or cultural shift and then declined to use it.

But that’s not a meandering no.

While some people reject a new idea simply because it doesn’t work for them, often the people who are saying no are afraid. They’re afraid of what change may bring, and they’re not sure they trust the innovation and the system enough to go forward. But we’ve been conditioned to avoid saying, “I’m afraid,” so if we’re uninformed and afraid, we make up objections instead. And even add angry bravado to our objections, simply as a way of hiding what’s really going on.

A meandering no doesn’t turn into a yes because someone with a good idea listened very carefully to every spoken objection and rationally and clearly countered it. Because the objections aren’t real, and the naysayer isn’t listening very hard to the responses.

Instead, the culture changes when a combination of two things happens:

Lived experiences help people actually learn the truth about what they’ve been resisting.
The culture shifts and now it’s scarier to stay still than it is to join in with what is clearly working.

The last fifty years of technology adoption show that this happens every single time a shift spreads across the culture. Every time.

Customer experience is more important than ever. It’s experience, service and marketing all rolled into one. So here’s a question: Have you tightened up your brand’s customer experience journey as much as possible? Before you say “yes,” make sure you’ve smoothed out these three tiny (but nagging) friction points. If you’re serious about leaving consumers with good “feels” about your brand, be sure to address these three potential gaps that many organizations overlook.
Make it easy for customers to use their gadgetry.
Train your employees to be empathetic problem-solvers.
Offer self-service options.
Full article: https://www.forbes.com/sites/shephyken/2021/07/11/three-facets-of-customer-experience-youre-overlooking/?sh=40e1ebee1257
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Demetri Martin tells the story of seeing a necklace for sale. It says, “Diana” on it.

“Wait,” he says to the owner of the jewelry store, “you’d probably sell more if it said ‘Not Diana’ on it.” After all, just about everyone isn’t named Diana.

The absurdity of this story is precisely why focusing on the smallest viable audience makes so much more sense than trying to make average stuff for average people.

By supporting researchers to gather in-depth people stories, customer ethnography became a game-changer in the CX industry. This method allows brands to have a peek into candid customer experiences and design meaningful solutions. As a cultural anthropologist, I believe there’s no research substitute for an in-context observation. Humans have complex everyday habits and sometimes ‘following…
The post Customer ethnography: the power of small and big data combined appeared first on Customer Experience Magazine.