Category: Customer Experience

The COVID-19 crisis has completely changed the contact centre industry, with more customer service agents than ever working from home.  Going forward if we are to establish effective post-COVID customer service, we will need to ensure that the contact centre lies at the heart of a company’s digital transformation strategy. ​Therefore, it’s important that contact centre managers ask themselves if they have the platforms, tools, and technologies in place…
The post The Changing Face of the Contact Centre appeared first on Customer Experience Magazine.

Here’s a useful metaphor:

Famous conductors are often judged for an hour or two on stage. They wear expensive clothes, make dramatic gestures and receive ovations. They also get paid a lot to carry a very little stick and they’re the only one on stage who doesn’t make noise.

But it turns out that none of these things are what makes a great conductor.

What we’re not seeing:

Conductors set the agenda.
They have done the reading and understand what has come before.
They work to establish the culture of the organization.
They amplify the hard work and esprit de corps of some, while working to damp down the skeptics within the organization.
They figure out which voices to focus on, when.
They have less power than it appears, and use their position to lead, not manage.
They show up to rehearsal with an agenda and a path forward.
They raise money.
They transform a lot of ‘me’s’ into one ‘us’.
They develop a point of view. And they balance it with what the listener, the patron and the musicians all need.
They stick with it for decades.

It’s a form of leadership that happens in private, but once in a while, we see it on stage.

A friend left her phone near me. Over the next half hour, it pinged and chirped.
I felt myself getting anxious and a little antsy…
These were not pings for me, not on my phone. They weren’t sounds that my phone even makes.
It doesn’t matter.
The training has been going on for years. We’re caught in a Pavlovian game in which we’re the product, not the organizers.
Someone else is ringing the bell, and it’s been happening for so long we don’t even realize how deeply the hooks have been set.

It’s probably not completely original.
It’s probably not breathtaking in scope.
It’s probably not immediately popular.
But… it’s definitely worth pursuing, consistently and persistently for years and years.
If you care. If it’s generous and helpful and worth the journey.
All the big ideas that made a difference follow this pattern.

Meeting high customer experience expectations is hard enough at the best of times, let alone during a pandemic when most Customer Service Agents are working from home. What’s the biggest challenge you’re facing right now? View Poll
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At the end of another year, it’s commonplace to pause and reflect. This is something we’ve always liked to do at Wisdom Spring Education. It’s important to consider the lessons learned; the things we did well and highlight the things we can improve upon. And vitally, how we can apply such learnings into our business…
The post Wisdom Spring Education: Customer service is the secret of our success appeared first on Customer Experience Magazine.

We can choose to commit to a recursive and infinite path that elegantly creates more of the same.

We can choose possibility.

We can choose connection.

We can choose optimism.

We can choose justice.

We can choose kindness.

We can choose resilience.

And we can decide to take responsibility.

Each leads to more of the same.

CX Stars 2021 is well under way and as with everything in 2021 so far, it’s gone off with a bang! So far, the new year hasn’t really turned out the way we’d hoped it would when we said goodbye [happily] to 2020 from the comfort of our homes, alone. But so much good has…
The post CX Stars of Past and Present appeared first on Customer Experience Magazine.

Ready to level up your call center team this year?
Improving agent performance can seem overwhelming at first, and you may find yourself wondering, “Where to start?” Don’t fret — these eight simple methods are all you need. With some hard work and a little luck, your team will be reaching new heights of operational efficiency!
Set your KPIs
You can’t change what you don’t measure. Decide on 5-7 KPIs and set goals to measure your agents’ performances. This will allow you to establish a performance baseline and track their improvement.

TIP:
Common KPIs for contact center agents can include Average Handle Time (AHT), First Call Resolution (FCR), and Customer Satisfaction score (CSat). Check out this article for more info.

Establish your KPI tracking method(s)
If you don’t already have a system to track agent performance, it’s time to make the upgrade. Your current contact center platform may have analytics features to track agent activity, but it’s not the only method available. Surveying your agents and gaining qualitative feedback can help you identify gaps in your operational processes, especially when compared with quantitative data.
Offer coaching sessions
Think training is a one-time requirement for your agents? Think again — the best contact center teams know that learning should be ongoing. Consider offering coaching sessions for your agents, whether they’re new or a seasoned professional, so they can keep their skills sharp and stay up to date with new processes and trends.
Create leadership opportunities
Your agents are on the front lines every day, making connections with your clients and customers. For this reason, they have a wellspring of knowledge, which could very well benefit fellow team members. Encourage them to do so by creating opportunities for them to share their insights. Better yet, formalize the process by creating a mentorship program. This will help your agents find fulfillment in their role outside of answering customer queries.
How to Improve Contact Center Agent Performance
Showcase their impact
One of the biggest demotivators for contact center agents is putting in long, hard hours and feeling like they accomplished nothing. Of course, this is untrue, but If they can’t see their impact, they can’t feel satisfied with their work. Establish ways to regularly share and highlight how they positively impacted the business to boost their motivation and help them take pride in their work!
Give constructive feedback
An agent’s performance can’t improve if they don’t know where to focus their efforts. That’s why constructive feedback is critical to your team’s development. Balancing positive and constructive feedback is key — you can find more tips on this here.
Stop exclusively focusing on numbers
It can be easy to get caught up in the analytics and metrics of performance. But the reality is, agents are not bots, and a considerable part of their value comes from their ability to connect with your customers and solve their issues. When analyzing their performance, consider this human aspect — regularly reviewing customer calls is a great way to do this!
Mitigate burnout risk
It’s no secret that agent attrition is on the rise, the main drivers being stress and burnout. By identifying key stressors and challenges your agents face regularly, you can adopt the tools needed to set them up for success. For example, high call volumes and agent overwhelm can be solved with a call-back solution!The post Blog first appeared on Fonolo.

Everyone who wants to be busy is busy.
But not everyone is productive.
Busy is simply a series of choices about how to spend the next minute.
Productive requires skill, persistence and good judgment. Productive means that you have created something of value.
Perhaps your self-created busy-ness is causing you to be less productive.