Category: Customer Experience

Almost every project comes in a little bit late and a little bit over budget.

When things break, the breaks are rarely lucky ones.

Part of the reason is that in proposing the project we made our best guess and predicted the predictable. If we didn’t, the project would probably never get approved.

Optimists bring an expectation of possibility and goodwill. But they’re also aware of the math of coordination. Hiccups multiply.

Betting on lucky isn’t nearly as productive as simply establishing a platform where you can benefit from the occasional arrival of good fortune.

The numbers are in, and the truth is out: the American workforce is pretty underwhelmed these days.
Only 30% of American workforce says they’re engaged and inspired at work, with the other 70% identifying as ‘disengaged’ employees who do the bare minimum. For call center managers, this disparity is a big cause for concern.
Call center managers who can’t discern an engaged call center employee from one who has their foot firmly out the door are at a big disadvantage. Those leaders focusing only on the task-based output of workers while ignoring agent engagement and general well-being will likely lose top employees to competitors, and have to foot big bills related to recruitment, training, and turnover. Plus, every time an employee leaves, they risk lowering their call center’s morale, threatening the engagement of the staff who are left behind.
How to Foster Agent Engagement in a Hybrid Contact Center
If you want high productivity and a positive culture for your contact center, but don’t value or monitor call center agent engagement, your growth will be forever stunted. Luckily, taking steps to monitor and improve call center agent engagement is fairly easy. Read on to learn what engagement actually looks like, and why you should care.
What does an engaged call center agent look like?
Like any top-notch, dedicated employee, the engaged call center agent is diligent, finds joy in their day-to-day tasks, always seeks to improve their skills, and understands your mission and your business’ bottom line. Need help identifying the cream of the crop? Keep an eye out for agents who exhibit at least one of the following behaviors.
1. They’re motivated to excel in their work.
Engaged contact center staff are “present,” active participants in their daily work. While their motivations may vary (career growth, rewards or benefits you offer them, furthering the company’s profile, or a simple happiness in their job), they show up to the office every day with great enthusiasm and give the sense that they really want to be there and help your department and the overall company succeed.
2. They understand the big picture of the business (and their role).
Agents who are focused and enthusiastic on the job are more likely to be those who understand the overall mission of the business, where it is headed, and how their specific role contributes to this overall big picture. They are able to visualize the overarching goals of the company, as well as their own personal goals. Their approach to day-to-day work is inextricably linked to contributing to both sets of goals. This is why engaged employees tend to respond positively and proactively to any goal-setting steps you may take as a manager.
3. They always take ownership.
Dedicated, satisfied employees tend to take ownership rather than pass the buck, remaining committed to improving themselves and growing their set of responsibilities. They ultimately take ownership of and pride in their own role and daily tasks, knowing how every action they take relates to the overall machinery of the business. Additionally, they are likely to find workplace challenges a fun exercise, proactively seeking solutions in order to learn, grow, and support their fellow staff.
5 Important Strategies for Agent Engagement in 2021
Why does call center agent engagement matter?
There is overwhelming evidence to suggest that call center agent engagement impacts your workplace culture as well as your call center budget. Once you invest in your agents and their overall engagement, you will see a significant correlation between agent engagement and higher performance, better customer satisfaction (CSat) scores, and overall call center culture.
There are several reasons why call center managers should focus on engaging their agents in a way that makes them feel valued by the overall business.
1. Recruiting new call center agents is expensive.
When a call center agent is disengaged, not only do they leave the premises, they leave their call center with the cost of recruiting, re-hiring, and retraining in their dust. Replacing a single call center agent can run a company as high as $20,000 USD in costs. This doesn’t even include the deficit in knowledge that occurs when a senior agent bids your call center farewell.
So, how does a customer service department save themselves some serious funds? They should focus on engagement, which ultimately drives agent retention as well as a boost in consumer-focused metrics. According to Gallup, “highly engaged business units achieve 59% lower turnover,” which help them achieve a 10% increase in customer metrics and a 20% increase in sales.
Taking steps to improve engagement and avoid big costs doesn’t have to be complicated. Working on team communication, rewarding your agents when they really excel, and giving solid feedback on a consistent basis are all low-cost steps to improving engagement, and retention, in the long run.
2. Happier employees means higher profits.
On a related note, engaged employees can impact your business’ bottom line by nurturing higher profit margins. In fact, companies with higher employee engagement are reported to be 21% more profitable.
It is likely, then, that you’ll see some impressive ROI if you begin investing in call center agent engagement and well-being. Even small steps like offering virtual lunchrooms or meet-ups, or instituting consistent meetings or huddles can have a huge impact on revenue. In fact, McKinsey reported that one company was able to produce a sustainable 50% boost in revenue as a result of frequent and focused huddles.
Ultimately, investing in agent engagement is an investment in the overall business, which has a long-term positive impact on sales growth and customer retention.
3. Agent attrition is a growing problem.
Fonolo’s 2020 State of the Contact Center Report found that agent attrition is actually getting worse. This is in part related to COVID-19’s impact on agents’ physical and emotional states, as it has increased demands on their listening skills, their ability to emphasize, and their stress levels. How does this affect the bottom line for businesses? Contact center leadership is now reporting that recruitment and turnover are serious and extremely costly challenges they face.
Finding ways to engage your agents can increase their happiness and, in doing so, make them less likely to leave you behind. Saving them from saying ‘bye’ can also save you on turnover recruitment, and training costs.
How to Make a Call Center Agent Engagement Survey
4. Happier agents could mean happier customers.
The math makes sense: if your call center agents are happy, they’re more likely to nurture a happier customer experience, which in turn could boost return customers and reliable sales. (And, if you’re concerned with metrics, positive engagement has been proven to increase CSat scores.)
One of the pathways into your call center agents’ hearts is to give them the tools they need to tackle the most stressful parts of their jobs, such as spikes in call volume during peak periods. Boost engagement by showing your agents you support them by offering them tools that take the edge off these high-anxiety moments, like overflow handling services or call-backs. These ensure your agents don’t get overloaded during peak periods, and can reduce stress and boost positive attitudes in the workplace.
The time is now to double down on improving engagement in your call center. When you do, you will see a significant pick-up in sales, call center metrics like CSat scores, and in general, the health of your call or contact center.The post Blog first appeared on Fonolo.

Even when you’re not completely certain.

Because we can never be certain about the future.

So we show up for the work, do the reading, engage with the problem. The challenge is to find a point of view if we don’t have one yet.

The exception is simple: if, after being well informed, you are willing to accept every outcome, you do us all a favor when you stand down.

Hiding doesn’t help us.

Investing in new technologies, products, and services is a requirement to keep up in today’s hyper-competitive marketplace. But a new study that aggregated the results of hundreds of studies on customer preferences, found that an overwhelming majority of those studies reported simplicity as a top priority for consumers. For example, one survey, conducted by leading brand consultancy Siegel+Gale with over 15,000 consumers across nine countries, found that brands perceived as providing the simplest, most seamless experiences boasted both the strongest stock performance and the most loyal customers. Of course, simplicity is easier said than done. There are four interrelated steps that can help any organization deliver the smooth, simple experience today’s customers demand:
Identify and communicate what simplicity means to you.
Don’t just build a simple product. Build a simple customer journey.
To achieve external simplicity, embrace internal complexity. Remember that simplicity isn’t always the answer.
Full article: https://hbr.org/2021/05/4-strategies-to-simplify-the-customer-journey
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Throughout the pandemic, people turned to contact centres to get the crucial help, assistance, and information they needed. With shops shut, information offices closed and banks unable to open, customers had little option than to call a contact centre to resolve a broadband issue, defer a mortgage payment, or find out when their online shopping…
The post Employee wellbeing in 2021: Tales from the contact centre appeared first on Customer Experience Magazine.

Retaining staff has always been a major concern for dental clinics. Clinics are all fighting for the same limited pool of talent, and people coming into the field are aware of how much power they hold in their hands. The current crop of employees is also much more likely to switch jobs than the generation before them….
The post 4 Common Reasons Why Dental Clinics Lose Staff appeared first on Customer Experience Magazine.

When it comes to running a business, you have a lot to keep on top of. This can be your finances, your products, but most importantly, your employees. The key to high work standards and increased output is high employee morale.   If morale is low, you are more likely to see mistakes and problems cropping up with work and amongst your team, which is something you do not want to…
The post 4 ways you can improve your employees’ experience at work appeared first on Customer Experience Magazine.

They might be difficult to answer, but your project will benefit:

What’s the hard part? Which part of your work, if it suddenly got much better, would have the biggest impact on the outcome you seek?

How are you spending your time? If we took at look at your calendar, how much time is spent reacting or responding to incoming, how much is under your control, and how much is focused on the hard part?

What do you need to know? What are the skills that you don’t have that would make your work more effective?

What is the scary part? Which outcomes or interactions are you trying to avoid thinking about or interacting with? Why?

Is it worth it? After looking at your four answers to these questions, you might have a better idea of what it will take for your project to reach its potential. Does the outcome of the project–for those you serve and for you–justify what it will take to get it there?

55% of consumers believe that businesses are “behind the times” when it comes to how they interact with customers. Source: Gartner https://preview.redd.it/xz8wmclx81571.png?width=1024&format=png&auto=webp&s=07f6a1cc7b33b17a9839f81e61ec0ac39dfdbca6
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It’s a pointless form of argument.

“This scientist made a careless error in their paper, therefore we need to excuse a con artist who falsified an entire career.”

Or, “that restaurant served fish that got someone sick, therefore, there’s no reason for there to be a health inspection at my restaurant or any other one for that matter.”

Or, “there was a typo in this book from a major publisher, so I’m not going to bother with an editor at all.”

The open-minded respond by trying to defend the original error or the intent behind it. But that simply amplifies the false equivalency argument and leads to a no-standards race to the bottom.

The false equivalency itself is the problem, not the unexpected error.

Perfect is a trap.