Category: Customer Experience

Call queues and hold times are a traditional part of the call center experience. But tradition doesn’t always stand the test of time ─ as modern customer expectations evolve, businesses must change their service approaches accordingly.
That’s where call-back technology comes in. This simple and powerful tool has been gaining momentum in the customer service world for its ability to lower call volumes, improve key call center metrics, and boost customer satisfaction.
Are You Losing Customers to Hold Time?
If you aren’t familiar with call-back technology and its benefits, we’ve put together a quick list so you can explore the benefits of this popular tool.
1. Call-backs work with any call center platform.
If you’re in the market for call-back technology, cloud-based call-backs are your best bet. It works with literally any call center platform, so you won’t need to worry about changing existing infrastructure.
Some services offer call-backs as an add-on feature to their platforms, like Avaya or Genesys. These are great if you already have the platform set up, but depending on which product you use, you may not see the same level of functionality as a dedicated product.
2. Call-back technology is totally secure.
Security is an important part of a contact center’s operations, especially if you deal with sensitive information such as patient medical history or financial records. For this reason, businesses may hesitate to use call-back technology, especially tools that are cloud-based.
Luckily, this isn’t such a problem anymore. By using appliances and on-site hardware, you can ensure all confidential data stays on premises and your operation meets its compliance requirements.
Contact Centers Are Using More Call-Backs Than Ever
3. Call-backs are fully customizable to your brand.
Call-backs are simple to use in practice: your customer reaches out and hears a call-back offer message. Then they can choose to press ‘1’ to receive a call-back when an agent is available, so they don’t have to wait on the line.
Beyond that, you can customize everything from your offer message to when you choose to offer customers a call-back and everything in between. You can also offer customers a call-back on your website or mobile app so that it’s fully aligned to your business’ brand. More on this in the next section!
4. Call-backs can be used tactically for maximum impact.
The only thing better than a contact center that offers call-backs is a contact center that’s optimized its processes to create a simple and frictionless customer experience! This is where call-back strategies come in.
Many contact centers use an omnichannel strategy, where they offer their customers call-backs on their website or app in addition to their voice channel using Visual IVR and Conversation Scheduling. This creates an easy way for customers to request a chat with your agents without overwhelming your phone lines.
The Actual Difference Between Virtual Queuing and Call-Backs
5. Call-backs improve key call center metrics.
‘Immediate ROI’ isn’t something you hear every day. Yet many call centers report seeing just that with call-back technology. This is especially true for the following contact center KPIs:
Abandonment rate.
A high abandonment rate occurs when your customers end their call before reaching an agent, indicating frustration and service dissatisfaction. Call-backs have an immediate impact on this – by offering a call-back, the customer can opt out of the call queue instead and receive a call from an agent later.
Customer Satisfaction (CSat) score.
This is simple: customers universally hate waiting on hold. Eliminate the need for hold time, and your customers will be happier and less frustrated, therefore increasing your CSat score. You’ll be astounded at just how much wait times impact your customer satisfaction levels!
First Call Resolution (FCR).
You’ll be hard pressed to find a customer who prefers having their service interaction split into multiple calls. That’s why FCR is such an important metric for call centers. By using call-back technology strategically, you can increase your agents’ chances of solving an issue on the first go. This is even more impactful when combined with a Visual IVR to collect information more accurately.
How to Overcome Challenges with Your Call Center Metrics
6. Call-backs reduce agent overwhelm during high call volumes.
Your agents are the unsung heroes of the call center as they handle all one-on-one customer engagements. This also means that they’ll be the hardest hit during times of high call volumes, making them more susceptible to burnout and increasing their likelihood of making mistakes.
Call-backs smooth and flatten out call spikes. This way, your agents aren’t worrying about the looming call queues and frustrated customers waiting for them. This will also help reduce agent turnover and retention.The post Blog first appeared on Fonolo.

For as long as there’s been recorded history, kings and queens have ruled and been celebrated by their subjects. Not everywhere, not all the time, but widely.

Not simply the royalty of nations, but of organizations as well.

It’s worth noting that in addition to monarchs, there are monarchists, citizens and employees and followers who prefer the certainty that comes from someone else.

Royalty offers something to some of those who are ruled. If it didn’t, it wouldn’t exist.

As Sahlins and Graeber outline in their extraordinary (and dense) book on Kings, there’s often a pattern in the nature of monarchs. Royalty doesn’t have to play by the same cultural rules, and often ‘comes from away.’ Having someone from a different place and background allows the population to let themselves off the hook when it comes to creating the future.

If your participation in leadership is not required, then you’re free to simply be a spectator.

When we industrialized the world over the last century, we defaulted to this structure. Many Western industrial organizations began as founder-celebrated and founder-driven. CEOs could, apparently, do no wrong. Until the world their business operated in changed.

In large corporations, the autocratic, well-paid chieftain has the trappings of a monarch. A private air force, minions and the automatic benefit of the doubt. Working in this setting requires obedience and effort from employees more than agency or independence.

A well-functioning constitutional monarchy is surprisingly effective. That’s not the problem. The problem is what happens when it stops to function well. The problem can happen when royalty becomes selfish, shortsighted or impatient. Or the problem could be a pattern of employees or members or citizens failing to participate. Resilience disappears and the system becomes brittle.

When the world changes, and it does, faster than ever, it’s community and connection that moves us forward.

Modern organizations are discovering that all of us know more than any of us, and that engaged individuals ready to not only speak up but to eagerly take responsibility for the work they do is an effective, resilient and equitable way to show up in the world.

All too often, when we talk with leaders about customer experience, they’ll nod their heads knowingly and say something along the lines of, “We provide great customer service.” Or they might relate a tale of some time when an employee went above and beyond to fix a customer’s problem. But customer service is just one aspect of the entire customer experience. It usually comes into play when something has gone wrong; it is the place where companies fix things when part of the experience has been less than satisfactory. A customer orders the wrong size and needs to exchange it; shipping has been delayed because of weather (or in the last year, because of the post office or COVID-19-related supply chain problems); a bill is incomprehensible or contains an error. Says Gary Moore, CEO of ServiceSource, which provides outsourced B2B sales and support, “Customer service is important and important to get right, but it’s rarely memorable unless it’s lousy.” That’s why it is so critical for companies to avoid or do away with the mentality that service equals experience. Full article: https://www.strategy-business.com/blog/Customer-service-is-not-customer-experience-and-vice-versa
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Uspire Group, the silver winners in the category Employee Engagement Innovation and Transformation at the UK EX Awards 2021, shared their journey with the CXM team. We are delighted for the opportunity to learn from such an inspiring leadership story. As a kid, I never really embraced the academic side of being at school. I…
The post Finding a new framework for sustainable growth appeared first on Customer Experience Magazine.

Post-production.
The most expensive way to adjust a movie is at the end, in the editing room.
The most expensive way to please a customer is after they call customer service with a complaint.
The most expensive way to make a beautiful piece of furniture is with sandpaper…
Better motto: “Let’s try to skip post.” And then, after acting like you could, don’t.

Actually, it’s every day. We talk about graduation as if it’s the end of some journey, but it’s the beginning of one. The chance to see the world differently, to contribute, to understand.

I hope you’ll get a chance to check out what my friends at Akimbo are doing. They’re persistently, consistently and generously showing up to create learning cohorts that actually cause real and long-lasting change. (They’re hiring.)

The altMBA has already demonstrated its impact. More than five years, 70 countries and 5,000 graduates so far. The First Priority Deadline for applications is today, June 1st, for altMBA’s October 2021 session

Bernadette Jiwa’s Story Skills Workshop is back for its seventh session. You’ll discover that while reading one of her bestselling books will open your eyes, it’s the work done with others that’s remarkable. People are often surprised by the mutual support and feedback that they can find online. It begins tomorrow.

If you’re on your own and feeling the stress between freelancing and entrepreneurship, it may be that you’re actually a bootstrapper. Bootstrapping is a different way to look at your work, the chance to build an organization of some scale without going to a bank or finding a rich aunt to back your project. The Bootstrapper’s Workshop is back for its sixth session. You can enroll today and it begins on the 15th of June.

Also open for enrollment today is Alex DiPalma’s breakthrough podcasting workshop. The ninth session begins in about six weeks. Check out the details here.

Make something that matters. It’s easier when we do it together.

A decrease in an employee’s overall engagement could be a sign they are looking elsewhere, and with an economic recovery in progress, this could prove to be disastrous for companies. Whether it be a team, family or simply an organization that supports its employees, it’s becoming clear that employee expectations from the companies that employees seek employment from are changing, and they have more say in the value (and values) that comes with being employed at a company. As the economy recovers and work takes on a variety of shapes the employee experience will matter more than ever. Full article: https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidarmano/2021/05/13/why-employee-experience-is-the-new-customer-experience-five-factors-driving-change-at-work/?sh=23b02cf84236
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Keeping an in-person team motivated is tough enough. But what do you do when half or more of your agents are working from another location?

READ THE FULL GUIDE:
How to Foster Agent Engagement in a Hybrid Contact Center
(It’s 100% free, we promise.)

This is the reality contact centers are facing right now, as they navigate the post-pandemic transition back to the workplace. But this ‘new normal’ comes with uncharted territory, and the success of your business hangs in the balance. According to Fonolo’s 2020 State of the Contact Center report, agent attrition is worsening. Contact center leaders are struggling to hire and train new agents as employee turnover increases.
This is just one of many reasons why your contact center needs to prioritize agent engagement. Our new guide, How to Foster Agent Engagement in a Hybrid Contact Center, will offer you valuable insights and actionable tips so you can keep your agents motivated and engaged, no matter where they are working from!
Read on for a sneak peek, or download it for free.
Invest in communication.
Strong communication is an essential foundation to any high-performing team. This is especially true for contact center agents, as they need to be in-the-know about any and all changes and updates regarding customers, products, services, and more.

DID YOU KNOW?
Replacing a single contact center agent can cost up to $20,000 USD.
– McKinsey & Company

However, fostering effective communication between teammates becomes significantly more challenging with a remote or hybrid contact center model. For this reason, you’ll need to invest in the proper resources and channels to help your agents keep in touch with the latest news. These channels can also serve to help your agents build stronger working relationships with one another, which is always a good thing for employee engagement!
Optimize your onboarding.
First impressions are so important, especially when it comes to employee engagement. This rule doesn’t change when your new hires are remote. A well-planned onboarding and training period will help set the tone of their work experience with your contact center and set the bar for engagement high.
When developing your onboarding processes, always consider the new hire’s perspective. How can you bridge the connection between remote and on-location employees? How can you ensure they feel included in the company culture, even when removed from the physical workplace? How can you surprise and delight them on their first day to make them feel welcomed and valued? By taking these questions into account, you’ll help your new agents develop positive and memorable impressions of your contact center.
3 Reasons Why Agent Satisfaction is the New Customer Satisfaction
Give them real benefits.
Let’s be real — compensation is a huge factor when it comes to motivating your employees. You may be tempted to believe that the best employees are motivated by things other than money. The reality is, if you compensate your agents well enough to alleviate financial strains in their personal life, they’ll have the bandwidth to perform better in their daily work.
Aside from salary, benefits are another form of compensation that your staff will value. In fact, most employees use benefit packages to gauge how much their employer values them and their work. Ask yourself if your compensation packages reflect the quality and scope of work you expect from your agents, and if they are attractive enough to encourage future hires to join your team.
Invest in tools and services to support your agents.
Don’t send your agents on a mission without the proper equipment. Trying to solve customer problems without the right tools can be a downright nightmare, and will frustrate your staff quickly.
This is even more essential for your remote staff, as technical support is more challenging to access. To ensure all your agents are fully equipped to handle customer queries, audit your current software and technologies and make plans to upgrade or replace any outdated or low-performing tools. Trust us, your agents will thank you.

TIP:
Has your contact center adopted call-back technology? If not, you’ll soon be in the minority. Learn more.

Make excuses to meet IRL.
Remember what it’s like to meet your fellow teammates face-to-face? As we enter the post-pandemic world, it’ll become even more important to touch base IRL (in real life) to foster relationships and team camaraderie.
While remote work has its perks, it is definitely more challenging to embrace work culture from afar. These regular in-person touchpoints will help bridge that gap so your in-office and virtual employees can bond and fully support one another.
Promote wellness together.
Health and wellness aren’t just buzzwords, they’re valuable aspects of employee life. According to Harvard Business Review, more than half of employees surveyed (53%) say they feel more exhausted since COVID-19 reared its head. And it’s safe to say that the pandemic has has a significant impact on call center and contact center demand, creating widespread agent fatigue and burnout.
Offering wellness programs and options for your agents empowers them better manage their own physical and mental health. This is especially crucial for remote and hybrid contact centers, as it’s more challenging to spot signs of exhaustion when your employees are working remotely. Setting up regular one-on-one check-ins can help if your agents feel safe opening up about health and wellness challenges.

READ THE FULL GUIDE:
How to Foster Agent Engagement in a Hybrid Contact Center
(It’s 100% free, we promise.)
The post Blog first appeared on Fonolo.

Here are two policies it might be fun to try for a week:

Meeting abstention: Anyone invited to an internal meeting has the power to opt-out. “Send me the summary, please.” If someone abstains, they give up their ability to have a say in the meeting, but most meetings these days don’t actually give people a platform to have a say. And then that person can leave the Zoom room and get back to whatever it is they were doing that was actually productive.

Meeting nullification: If anyone in an internal meeting announces that the meeting is a pointless waste of time, it’s over. The meeting organizer is obligated to send everyone the memo that they probably should have sent in the first place.

If you discover that you’re calling meetings where people abstain, or worse, call for nullification, perhaps you should be more careful about which meetings you call and who you invite.

Does your organization have the guts to try this out? Do you, as an attendee, care enough to abstain?

The fact that even discussing this idea is stressful helps us understand status roles and power.

We rarely do or say something intentionally that surprises us. That’s because we are in intimate contact with the noise in our heads–we spend our days looking in the mirror, listening to our inner voice and defining our point of view. “That’s not the sort of thing I would say or do…”

We call this internal familiarity our ‘identity.’ If it gets lost (when someone joins a cult, for example), it’s noteworthy and can be tragic.

If our ideas are equated to our identity, then talking about ideas is very much the act of talking about yourself.

And thus the tension is created. Our culture and our economy are built on ideas. Many of our society’s ideas get better over time (you don’t go to the barber for bloodletting any longer–it’s what probably killed George Washington) and yet some of them get stuck. Often, we need a generation to step away before an entrenched idea begins to fade, because the people who have been embracing that toxic or outlived idea see it as part of their identity.

As the media realizes that they can improve profits by narrowcasting ideas to people who embrace them as part of who they are, it gets increasingly difficult to have a constructive conversation about many ideas–because while people are able and sometimes eager to change some of their less personal ideas, we rarely seek to change our identity.

It doesn’t have to be this way.

If you’re doing a jigsaw puzzle and a piece you thought fit in a spot where it doesn’t actually fit, that missed fit is viewed as useful information. Go ahead and try the piece in a different spot–that’s not a threat to your identity as a puzzle solver. In fact, your identity as a puzzle solver is tied up in the idea that if the evidence shows a piece didn’t fit, you simply try a new spot, you don’t feel threatened or disrespected.

The most successful problem solvers are people who have embraced this simple method–your current idea isn’t your identity, it’s simply a step closer to a solution to the problem in front of you.

One way to define our identity is to fall in love with an idea (often one that was handed to us by a chosen authority). Another is to refuse to believe our identity is embodied in an idea, and instead embrace a method for continually finding and improving our ideas.