Category: Customer Experience

McKinsey recently called gig customer experience (GigCX) an “on-demand revolution in customer-experience operations.” This was a breakthrough moment for the GigCX world, and relayed how it continues to make steady inroads into the mainstream of CX operations.  This was certainly apparent in our recent 2022 Gig Customer Experience Report. This report was conducted after speaking…
The post Gig customer experience: top 10 takeaways from the 2022 report appeared first on Customer Experience Magazine.

Why would we want to wait until someone is perfect before we give them a chance to make things better?

Each of us is part of a system, cogs in a process that rewards us for certain actions based on various inputs.

When the system is broken, some of the most highly leveraged, aware and insightful people notice. And of course, since they’re part of the system, they’ve been affected by it.

These are ideal qualifications to speak up and make the system better.

One way the status quo stays in charge is by encouraging people to stand by in silence, fearful of being called out for hypocrisy.

All folks new to the contact center world have many steep learning curves to overcome—a big one is picking up on industry jargon. From CSat score to Average Handle Time to First Call Resolution Rate, there are plenty of new terminologies that come with working at a contact center. Occupancy Rate is one of those terms a new employee may be unfamiliar with, and it’s important. And the difference between occupancy rate vs utilization rate is critical to your contact center’s success.
Occupancy vs Utilization
Occupancy Rate is the percentage of time agents spend handling customer inquiries versus time spent waiting for calls, sometimes called idle time. One fact that we find mysterious about Occupancy Rate is that it’s often incorrectly referred to as Utilization Rate.
We’re here to break down this myth and demonstrate the difference between Occupancy Rate and Utilization Rate, so you can use both key performance indicators (KPIs) to benefit your contact center.
Why is Occupancy Rate so Important in the Call Center?
Understanding Occupancy Rate
Newbies to the contact center might already associate Occupancy Rate with hospitality or hotels. In that case, numbers like daily rate, rooms occupied, length of stays, and the total number of rooms would be important. When it comes to the contact center, determining occupancy rate is another ball game.
Occupancy Rate is the most common way to measure the business of call center agents when they’re dealing with customers. For example, if your call center had an Occupancy Rate of 90% yesterday, your agents were handling customer inquiries for an average of 54-minutes every hour.
Call Center Occupancy is calculated as a percentage using this formula:
Occupancy = Total Handle Time / (Total Handle Time + Available Time)
Total Handle Time (THT)—The time agents spend completing an interaction with a customer. That includes every second hold time, customer engagement time, After Call Work (ACW), and any call-related activities.
Available Time (AT)—The amount of time an agent could theoretically work. Many contact center systems will report AT for an agent, which counts when an agent was logged-in but not on a call.

TIP:
For a more detailed breakdown of this calculation, check out our post How to Calculate Occupancy Rate in a Call Center.

The Ins and Outs of Utilization Rate
Like Occupancy Rate, the Utilization Rate calculates the amount of time an agent spends on their work. However, Utilization Rate considers extra bits and bobs your agents do throughout their days, including customer interactions. Utilization Rate will help you determine the total time your agents are logged in, assisting customers, and available to assist customers but doing other things. Some tasks to keep in mind are:

Training sessions
Coaching one-on-ones
Team meetings
Interviews
Unplanned breaks and trips to the washroom
Social event-planning

The formula to find the Utilization Rate is quite similar to the Occupancy Rate formula:
Utilization = Total Logged-In Time / Total Shift Time
Total Logged-in Time—The time agents spend completing an interaction with a customer, including ACW, and the amount of time they are either working on other tasks or otherwise available to help customers.
Total Shift Time—The full amount of time an agent was scheduled to work.
Will Knowing These Stats Benefit My Contact Center?
Yes, very much so! For example, Occupancy Rates can help predict agent burnout and satisfaction at work.
In the industry, it’s widely understood that an Occupancy Rate above 85% is not sustainable over long periods — it means only 9-minutes of non-call time in any given hour. If the Occupancy Rate stays moderate, it’s a good sign that your agents’ workdays are well-balanced.
An overwhelmed agent is not a happy agent. When any employee experiences burnout at work, their performance suffers. They’re likely to call in sick more often, impacting customer service levels. Eventually, agents will quit.

TIP:
Fonolo’s Voice Call-Backs is a great way to help agents catch their breath throughout the day.

On the other hand, your Utilization Rate can help you gain insights into your spending because it measures how efficiently your staff is spending their time throughout the day.The post Occupancy Rate vs Utilization Rate: What’s the Difference? first appeared on Fonolo.

Sometimes we’re not that good with time.

If people got a hacking cough and a chronic disease an hour after smoking their first cigarette, it’s unlikely many people would smoke.

If earthquakes happened a day after fracking for gas was tried, they would probably have stopped.

And if entrepreneurs discovered freedom, satisfaction and customer delight a week after starting their projects, more people would probably give it a go.

Most of us are able to respond to a feedback loop in the short run. The real opportunity and challenge is to get much better at recognizing the long loops.

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It’s complicated. Because we made it complicated.

Our culture is built on the principle that people are responsible for what they do.

And then we spend time and effort diffusing the responsibility.

If you work for a company and are just doing your job, are you responsible?

What if you founded the company?

What if you invest in it?

Are marketers responsible for the negative side effects of increased consumption?

If companies work, if marketing works, if work works, then who is responsible if it causes something to happen?

If we dump something in the river, are we responsible for what happens to people downstream?

What if you buy something from someone who dumps something in the river?

Are we responsible for the actions of the causes we support and the people we vote for?

What about the implications of not supporting something? Are we responsible for the bad things that happen because of our apathy?

The world is smaller than we think.

In today’s digital world, customer experience is progressively becoming a function of one thing: your product. Product-led digital transformation is now becoming the primary focus for many companies.   Gone are the days where the product is merely the vehicle by which you deliver core services. Your product itself is now the place where customers receive…
The post France a new leader in product-led digital transformation appeared first on Customer Experience Magazine.

In an episode of a podcast I really respect, three of the experts quoted used words that I was familiar with: Debunk, gaslighting and cult. These are powerful words, words with specific and evocative meanings.

In all three cases, the people spoking used them ‘wrong.’

Being on a podcast might be nerve-wracking, and in an effort to overcome anxiety, sound smart and level up, each person ended up doing the opposite.

But that’s how language works. We’re trying to say what we mean, and sometimes, it’s not what other people think we meant. The emotions behind the words are real, even if the words are a mismatch.

When it happens often enough, the words develop a new meaning.

Words are a moving target, an expression of feelings, and they inevitably shift.

There’s no absolute measure of wrong. Simply what we thought vs what they meant.

As soon as we mechanize, measure and perfect something, it becomes far less interesting.

There’s not a lot of discussion about which factory made your can of Coke, because they’re all the same.

Implicit in the desire to have something handmade is that while it might be better than what you’re used to, it might be worse.

As we get better at industrialism, the variability of imperfection becomes even more fascinating.

Imperfect and proud of it.

The boom in eCommerce and the importance of real-time data is significantly changing the role of the chief marketing officers (CMO). According to Capgemini Research Institute’s research, around three-quarters of CMOs are now responsible for contributing to business growth, while 90% are responsible for business strategy. In this research, over 1,600 B2C focused marketing executives…
The post Who is the CMO of the future? appeared first on Customer Experience Magazine.