Category: Customer Experience

Today we want to introduce you to the Omnichannel Customer Support approach, where all channels are available to the consumers and they are connected. ​ https://preview.redd.it/zjljepg73gp91.png?width=979&format=png&auto=webp&s=5f0a9da2ec438d2830117eb341468b1af9e6f130 submitted by /u/Marinuch [link] [comments]

Ritchie Bros. is a big deal. Literally! As the largest auctioneer of heavy equipment and trucks on the planet, the company has been helping people around the world buy and sell with confidence since 1958. The equipment they sell is big, too; the company’s online and onsite auctions deal in equipment used in the construction, farm, forestry, and mining industries. But Ritchie Bros. knows that you don’t get to be such a big deal without paying attention to the details. And that includes prioritizing excellent customer service in the contact center.  
The 43 agents working at Ritchie Bros.’ contact center are busy! They help over 33,000 customers every month, fielding huge surges of inbound calls during live auctions. Weekly call spikes are a regular occurrence, particularly on days when they host featured auctions. 
Call Volume Surges Impact Call Center KPIs
Over time, the company noticed that call volume surges were increasing customers’ hold times. Abandonment Rates were rising, affecting the call center’s Answer Rate. The overall agent experience was impacted by the pressure and there was concern the customer experience could be affected, too. As a company that deeply values excellent customer service, Ritchie Bros. knew it needed a solution.    
Part of the company’s longevity and ongoing success is the precision of its internal processes and ability to pivot to tech-enabled solutions. Ritchie Bros. was looking for a scalable solution that would improve both the customer experience and the experiences of the agents serving them. That’s why it chose Fonolo.  
Voice Call-Backs Improve CX and other Metrics
 Fonolo helped Ritchie Bros. lower its Average Hold Time, and improve its Answer Rate and CSat scores. 

DaRon Lawrence, a 6-year veteran at Ritchie Bros., and Manager of Post-Sale Support and Customer Asset Management, observed first-hand how Fonolo Voice Call-Backs and the analytics-rich Fonolo Portal helped solve the challenges in his company’s contact center. 
We asked DaRon to share some of the details of the Ritchie Bros. experience with Fonolo that helped make this a Success Story.  
 
What problem was Ritchie Bros. looking to solve in the contact center?   
“The number one thing we’re concerned about is answering customer calls and avoiding long wait times, which we have been able to do by adding Fonolo.” 
What are some of the key metrics Fonolo has helped improve?  
“After offering call-backs, our Agent Success Rate is now very high. This is a metric I look at; our director looks at, and our entire team looks at.” 
Are Fonolo Voice Call-Backs and the Fonolo Portal easy to use?  
“The solution and the dashboard were very easy to learn and use. We even had our own agents training other teams on the platform, because they very quickly became internal experts with the tool. It was that easy to navigate.”  
How often do you refer to the Fonolo Portal?  
 “I keep the portal up all day and hover through it once or twice, just to track what is going on. If I note any issues on the dashboard, I can then follow up with our supervisory team and ask them to investigate.”   
What kind of feedback have you had since implementing these solutions?   
 “Most of the commentary we have about Fonolo came from internal customers. To date, our team has received very high reviews, noting the easy customer experience thanks to some of the features that we received from Fonolo.”   
Would you recommend Fonolo? 
“If your hold times, answer rates, and customer satisfaction scores are low, I would recommend Fonolo. One thing that it will address right away—and positively impact—is the customer’s experience.”  The post Auction House Giant Improves Call Center CX by Sweating the Details  first appeared on Fonolo.

We’re all paying it, every day.

In the US, taxpayers subsidize the cattle industry with billions of dollars of tax money each year. Most of that goes to pay for feed crops, but there is also a huge allocation of public land for the grazing of cows. About half the land in the entire country is just for cattle.

In addition, a significant portion of the climate problem is directly caused by the effects of bovine respiration as well as the clear-cutting of forests for grazing worldwide. It’s like someone is dumping manure on your living room carpet and asking you to pay for it.

The end result is that whether or not you eat meat, you’re paying for it.

Beef is more expensive than we realize. And it’s also significantly less convenient than we give it credit for. Climate refugees, storm-damaged assets, the loss of life and homes… these are directly caused by the one billion cows that humans raise each year.

What would happen if we simply charged a fair price for the beef and milk that people consume?

The industry has done a great job of persuading people that beef is cheap, convenient, easy, luxurious, wholesome and benign. It’s none of those things.

I wonder how long it will take us to realize just how much it costs us.

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Experts have a word for it. If it’s important, conceptual or frequently discussed, there’s probably a domain-based word that experts understand. The precision of a special vocabulary allows them to do better work.

But…

Just because someone knows the word for it doesn’t mean that they understand, or that they’re a useful expert.

And…

If someone doesn’t know the word for it, it might be worth investigating what else they don’t know.

Domain knowledge and experience are powerful tools.

submitted by /u/abdush [link] [comments]

When it comes to delivering great customer service, call center agents need some essential soft skills that may not have been listed on their resumés. Unlike the hard skills or technical skills required to operate call center technology, soft skills relate more to an agent’s demeanor during a customer interaction. Though newer agents may not have all the essential soft skills required right away, you can provide training to help them improve and become top-performing call center employees in no time.  
Essential Call Center Soft Skills
There are plenty of soft skills to choose from, but we’ve boiled our list down to six that are essential to contact center agents’ success: 

Active listening to customer questions and concerns.
Effective, respectful communication towards customers and other employees.
Adaptability, to keep up with changing technology and customers’ needs.
Problem-solving skills that always produce the best outcome for the customer.
Patience with customers and colleagues.
Empathy towards customers so they feel heard and understood every step of the way.

Once your agents have become experts at these skills, there’s no stopping them on their way to providing a stellar customer experience. 
6 Important Soft Skills Every Call Center Agent Needs
5 Steps to Integrate Call Center Soft Skills into Agent Training 
Many agents will walk into the job with at least a couple of these skills already in their arsenal. To ensure they grasp all of them, either create a training program specifically for soft skills or add soft skills into your existing new-hire training strategy. We recommend creating a separate soft skills program that established agents can also use to brush up on the basics. Here are 5 things to consider while crafting your program:   

FACT:
59% of millennials surveyed stress how important training and development opportunities are when they decide on whether to apply for a job. Offering ongoing training helps engage agents in their work, leading to lower employee turnover rates and overall happier employees.

1. Create an evaluation score card to determine your agents’ skill levels. 
How will you decide which skills your agents need the most work on? Make a soft skills scorecard that reflects the needs of your contact center. Then, listen in on live or recorded calls and rate the agent’s performance in each skill category on a scale of one to five. Scoring one means the agent needs improvement and five is a perfect score, or very close to it. Once you know where your agents are starting from, it’ll be easier to determine your next steps.    
2. Explain why the soft skills you’re teaching are important. 
If agents don’t understand why they need to tap into and use these skills, they’ll likely have a hard time putting them into practice during their customer interactions. Sometimes, especially for experienced employees who may find the training redundant, breaking down the exact ways these skills can help them improve in their role will empower agents to take the training seriously.   
3. Introduce fun activities to keep employees engaged during their training. 
A great activity you can use to help train agents on communication, active listening, and patience is the “Copy Me” game. Have agents pair off. Give one agent on each team a card with an easy-to-draw object (think a tree or house) and have them sketch out their idea of the house. Once they’re done, they must describe their drawing to their partner who will then try to sketch the exact same object without seeing the original drawing. Whoever gets closest to their partner’s sketch wins!  
The possibilities for training activities are endless. You can develop your own or even do a quick search on Google for more ideas. Role play games are always popular for soft skill development as well. 
4. Set goals for soft-skill improvement. 
The best way to track soft-skill improvement is by setting goals for individuals and for the team. On an individual level, add a “Goals” category to your scorecard and set a measurable and time-sensitive goal to improve on their initial scores. When it comes time to evaluate, listen to live calls or recordings and see if your agents have made any progress on their soft skills. Then, report back and keep them updated on their hard work. 
On a team level, consider tracking relevant KPIs like Customer Satisfaction scores. Set an attainable goal to reach as a team and set a deadline. Incentivize participation with a staff outing or pizza lunch if your staff achieve the numbers you’ve all agreed upon.  
5. Don’t forget about self-reflection. 
Give agents time and space and even a worksheet to encourage them to reflect on what they’ve learned during their training. Have them share their thoughts and feedback on the program as well, so you can improve it in the future.  

TIP:
For agents to have enough time to invest in training throughout their day, it’s important you implement contact center technology that can take a bit of work off their plate. Fonolo Voice Call-Backs smooth out call spikes by providing queued customers the option to receive a call back when the line is less busy. Agents will have some breathing room between calls and customers will enjoy a stress-free experience.
The post How to Teach Call Center Soft Skills first appeared on Fonolo.

That might be true, but it’s worth being clear about it.

Not that good for who?

If you mean to say, “I don’t like it, it doesn’t appeal to me,” then that’s what you should say.

If, on the other hand, you have enough expertise and domain knowledge to say, “I understand what has appealed to the audience you’re trying to serve, and this isn’t going to work.”

The first is easy, and perhaps not that helpful.

The second is priceless, but are you sure?

Today on CX Lore, we talked with Dmitry Lupov – the co-founder at Chattermill. With a background in mathematics and data analysis, Lupov is fantastic to explain the role of a data analyst in CX. We discussed the essential skills needed to master the field of advanced data science. The focus of our conversation was…
The post Building infrastructure for unstructured data analysis with Dmitry Lupov, Co-founder at Chattermill appeared first on Customer Experience Magazine.

Today on CX Lore, we talked with Dmitry Isupov – the co-founder at Chattermill. With a background in mathematics and data analysis, Isupov is fantastic to explain the role of a data analyst in CX. We discussed the essential skills needed to master the field of advanced data science. The focus of our conversation was…
The post Building infrastructure for unstructured data analysis with Dmitry Isupov, Co-founder at Chattermill appeared first on Customer Experience Magazine.