Category: Customer Experience

When your watch stops, it’s unlikely that you believe that time is now standing still. It’s obviously the watch that’s broken, not time.

But when a metric on our culture or a complex machine is functioning poorly, it’s easy to get confused. Is this work actually unpopular, or is the bestseller list not an accurate reporter of what people care about? Is the pump actually overheating, or is the temperature probe broken?

The more complex the system, the more likely we are to believe a broken gauge, even if it’s only right twice a day.

If you’re not satisfied with what you think is happening, it might be worth recalibrating.

CXM would like to present to you the Snap research study which uncovers that Gen Z (born between the late 1990s and early 2010s) are shaping online and retail culture. The global (Australia, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, India, Italy, Mexico, Netherlands, Norway, Saudi Arabia, Spain, Sweden, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United States) study, of…
The post According to Snap’s study, 93% of Gen Z wants to use AR for an immersive shopping experience appeared first on Customer Experience Magazine.

So I was working a night shift and I was going to relieve my colleague. So when I came into work there was a lady in her car parked in employee parking, I asked my colleague about it and they replied with. “I don’t know she’s been parked there since 3:33Am I’m too scared to go over there” Then the car drives up to our booth. So I try and ask her if she would like to park here with us and we can take her to the airport, but she said “Nobody likes you here” and then she rolls down her window and starts waving this bracelet in front of me.. So instinctively I grab the bracelet and throw it, the lady gets out of her car and goes to find it. While she’s busy finding her necklace I called the police and so when she heard me calling the police, she ran to her car saying “I’ll put a curse on you” and went to park in employee parking yet again. Police arrive and go to her car and try and talk to her but she puts a blanket over her head and acting like she’s invisible. Finally she gets out of her car and comply with police to leave. submitted by /u/Karl1171 [link] [comments]

Recently, at my daughter’s birthday party, I asked a 15-year-old computer whiz named Emmett to explain the metaverse. He referenced Fortnite and Second Life (a favorite of the hacking group Anonymous), ran through NFTs, crypto and blockchains, and then said, “Really, it’s just a vibe.” Really!? A vibe!? https://preview.redd.it/at0atuqew5s81.jpg?width=1024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=077a682d39a474ae8afa04e872f53100099ef0b8 https://www.customerengagementinsider.com/digital-strategy/articles/seriously-what-is-the-metaverse submitted by /u/philmandelbaum [link] [comments]

“This call may be monitored for call center quality assurance.”
Anyone who’s ever called a contact center would recognize this familiar line —and for good reason. Call quality monitoring is an essential piece of the puzzle when it comes to increasing and maintaining high customer satisfaction (CSat) scores.
Quality management is also a great way to find holes in a call center agent’s skill set and address them head on with specific training. Although most contact centers are following some sort of quality management strategy, many are lacking in specific key areas. We’re happy to help you fill in the gaps with our all-in-one guide to call center quality monitoring.
Creating a Customer Service Strategy That Drives Business Growth
What is Call Center Quality Monitoring?
As its name indicates, call center quality monitoring is any action or strategy that a management team employs to track the quality of agent interactions in a contact center.
To get the full picture of what call center quality monitoring encompasses, it’s important to first understand the basics of what a high-quality call should sound like. A few key attributes are:

Quick call answer time
Friendly and warm greeting
Active listening by the agent
Clear communication
Effective questioning
Fast handling and resolution time
No or low transfers

Here’s How Your Agents’ Tone of Voice Impacts Customers
Why is Quality Monitoring so Important?
Happy customers are at the heart of a call center’s mission. The more you assess and evaluate your customer interactions, the better the customer experience will be – and the more likely those customers are to speak highly of your contact center to other potential clients.
Impressive CSat scores are what all contact centers should be striving for, and your first step is ensuring all your customers are receiving streamlined and helpful service from each of your agents. When call center managers are properly monitoring phone calls (and other contact channels) for quality, there’s a greater chance for CSat improvement and of maintaining these higher scores over time.
Note, it’s also important to employee engagement and growth to understand agent performance on an individual level. If an agent is consistently delivering top-notch customer service, they’re likely more engaged and happier at work, which leads to more authentic customer interactions in the long run as well.
3 Reasons Why Agent Satisfaction is the New Customer Satisfaction
5 Steps to Monitor Call Quality Like a Pro
1. Set business goals.
When it comes to call center success, strategy should be your first step. Decide what your goals are—once you start your quality monitoring, what will be your key performance indicators (KPIs) of choice?
Decide on a CSat score you think your team can achieve and consider other important KPIs like a high first-call resolution rate and a low average handle time. Add these up to reveal your total quality score. Have meetings with staff to go over this new strategy and make sure everyone’s on the same page.
2. Record and monitor at random—openly.
To monitor for call quality, you may choose to listen in on live calls or listen to call recordings. Either way, you must ensure that both the agent and customer are aware that call monitoring is in progress. While listening, try asking yourself these questions:

Is the agent greeting the client in a professional yet friendly manner?
Are the correct questions being asked?
Do the customers sound content with the information they’re being given?
Is the call being managed efficiently and quickly?
What is the agent doing well?
Where could the agent stand to improve?

3. Gather your customers’ opinions.
For accurate CSat scores, it’s imperative that you develop a quick survey to either be done on the call after completion or sent via email to be done online. Your customers’ opinions matter most and will help you determine in which areas your agents are excelling and which they could use some fine tuning.

FACT:
According to Microsoft, the customer service experience helps inform the decisions of 90% of Americans about where to do business. The quality of your customer service is essential to the health of your contact center.

4. Schedule regular check-ins with agents.
To improve in their roles, agents need to understand where there’s room for growth. Be sure to schedule bi-weekly or monthly check-ins with your agents to provide feedback and track their progress. When given the information they need to shine, even the most inexperienced agents can start contributing to the high CSat and quality scores you’re aiming for.
5. Focus on process improvement.
Now that you have some insight into your contact center’s call quality, try to identify areas of improvement in your business processes. Does your scheduling system need some work? Are there ways you can help to reduce call spikes and take some pressure off agents? Is there any technology that may be helpful for the contact center as a whole?

DID YOU KNOW?
Fonolo saves contact center customers an average of 77 years of hold time annually with our Voice Call-Backs—you’ll be this much closer to reaching your CSat and quality score goals.

Don’t Forget to Monitor and Analyze All Your Channels
Most modern contact centers are moving towards an omnichannel business model where other methods of communication are used for customer interactions. If your company uses channels like online chats or email, be sure to include these in your quality monitoring strategy. Randomly check in and use a similar scoring system as you would for calls. Remember, happy customers lead to better and more business, so it’s essential to ensure the entire customer experience is accounted for from start to finish.The post What is Call Center Quality Monitoring and Why is it Important? first appeared on Fonolo.

Our new project, The Carbon Almanac, is now inviting supporting partners to join us. We are all volunteers and we’re focused on offering institutions a chance to amplify the conversation about climate change. (Partner organizations don’t have to be large, simply committed to help).

Supportive groups like Linkedin, Kone NL, Automattic, McCann Worldwide, Porchlight Books, Seagate, Amazon, The New York Public Library, The Optimist magazine, Cleantech Open and Change Inc. are already on board. They’re contributing in different ways, agreeing to pre-order or distribute copies of our new book this June.

Foundational partners get a link on this blog, and all partners appear on our home page and have access to our teaching materials.

If you’d like to learn more–for your brand or corporation, or for your non-profit–please check out this simple info form.

Peer to peer, group to group, ideas spread and make an impact.

Thanks.

To feel sufficient, to be satisfied with what we have: Chisoku in Japanese.

Of course, by some measures, there’s never enough. We can always come up with a reason why more is better, or better is better, or new is better or different is better.

Enough becomes a choice, not a measure of science.

The essence of choice is that it belongs to each of us. And if you decide you have enough, then you do.

And with that choice comes a remarkable sort of freedom. The freedom to be still, to become aware and to stop hiding from the living that’s yet to be done.

Blog https://reddit.com/link/txdwqt/video/iykx06z76ur81/player submitted by /u/Nitorblog [link] [comments]

A cautionary tale for businesses, large and small, about what not to do — especially with a high-value customer… And proof you need a guide for managing customer complaints: https://www.customerengagementinsider.com/customer-engagement/articles/a-lesson-in-customer-success submitted by /u/philmandelbaum [link] [comments]

What comes to mind when you think of the ideal call center leader? Organized? Professional? Inspiring? While those are certainly beneficial, the right candidate needs a lot more than that to make it as a successful call center leader.
If you want your agents to consistently meet company goals, you must invest in the right leaders, including managers and supervisors. They must set strong examples of teamwork, work ethic, company values, and of course: customer service.
Easier said than done, right? Being a call center leader is hard work; work that’s vital to ensure a successful call center operation. The cost of investing in the wrong leader is exorbitant– call center attrition and customer dissatisfaction are sure to increase if you do.
How to Foster Agent Engagement in a Hybrid Contact Center
Why Investing in the Right Leader is Critical
Call center agents don’t have easy jobs. Their day-to-day work is riddled with angry customers, monotonous scripts, and constant problem-solving. Despite the $330 billion market value of the global call center industry, attrition is worse for call centers than in any other field.
Did you know that ineffective leadership is one of the top reasons for call center attrition? That’s right – call center agents cite ineffective leadership as a leading cause for their leaving.

FACT:
Ineffective leadership is one of the top causes of agent attrition.

The right call center leader can be the difference between average or severe attrition. The best call center leader retains the strongest agents for a long time, saving valuable company dollars and time in recruitment, onboarding, and training.
In 2022, agent attrition is worse than ever. And, agent engagement continues to be the catalyst for customer loyalty and revenue.
Bottom line? The easiest way to boost employee engagement and retention is to invest in the right call center leader.
Agent Engagement Will Be Critical for Contact Centers in 2022
5 Skills and Traits Every Call Center Leader Should Have
Organizational skills.
With so many agents, tasks, and objectives to manage, strong organization skills are key for call center leaders to stay on top of their work. Between call volume forecasting, agent training and performance management, and handling call escalations, even a typical word day can become overwhelming, fast.
Workforce management is one area in particular that benefits from this skill. A good leader should be perceptive to company needs, and be able to take swift action to address challenges. This means staying on top of scheduling, ensuring all staff are equipped with the proper skill-set and knowledge base to support incoming customer queries, and providing support to team members as required.
Patience under pressure.
A patient call center leader can accomplish more in their work than an impatient one. After all, one cannot be successful in this role without keeping a cool head during stressful scenarios.
Here are several common scenarios where patience under pressure pays off:

Motivating agents; managing team culture.
Handling customer escalations and complex queries.
Conducting performance evaluations and providing feedback to agents.
Building up performance metrics; delivering KPI reports.

Customer experience managers agree that patience is one of the most vital soft skills that surpasses even technical knowledge in importance.
The Manager’s Guide to Call Center Gamification
Change management.
Workplace transitions can turn into utter chaos without proper management. The contact center industry experienced this firsthand during the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, which forced a dramatic shift to remote and hybrid operations. But transitional periods involving employee turnover, new management, and the adoption of new tools and technology can also have a significant impact on agent morale and performance.
Call center leaders should understand change management well so they can support their employees with the ever-changing industry. With new contact center trends surfacing every year, call center leaders must effectively take new industry information and changes into account and ensure their agents have the support and information they need to continue their work with confidence.
Industry Report: Contact Center Trends 2022
Flexible communication and relationship building.
Communication skills are vital for call center leaders, as their work requires them to interact with many different stakeholders. They need to convey department activities within different contexts depending on who they’re communicating with – whether they’re addressing a customer escalation, managing a vendor relationship, or presenting performance reports to a contact center executive.
Leaders must also be able to build relationships with their agents, so they can better guide their efforts. Agent performance reviews are one area that can be challenging to navigate. A call center leader should deliver encouragement and constructive criticism in a way that helps the agent grow. Of course, each agent will have unique needs and styles, so leaders should be flexible in their delivery for best results.
The Only Call Center Metrics for Agent Performance You’ll Ever Need
Hands-on problem solving.
A good leader doesn’t sit on the sidelines and watch when agents are overwhelmed with high call volumes or faulty call center technology.
The best call center leaders are team players. They’re not afraid to jump on the phones and help their teams throughout peak call volumes. If an agent struggles with software, leaders should immediately seek a solution. They might delegate the task to another agent, try to fix the software themselves, or call the provider to solve the issue.

DID YOU KNOW?
Fonolo’s Voice Call-Back technology is an excellent example of software that’s reliable, efficient in handling call volumes, and frequently tested to ensure functionality.

So, why does all this matter? A good call center leader has a domino effect on business success. Strong managers lead to more engaged employees, which leads to an 147% higher average of earnings per share than the competition.
Finding someone that embodies all the above five traits isn’t easy. Next up, we’ll discuss some ways you can ensure your call center has the right leaders.
How to Find the Best Call Center Leaders
A candidate might meet some requirements for a management role, but completely lack others. It’s hard to find good talent! Here are some tips to find the best call center leader:

Prioritize succession planning: Always think about the next manager in the line-up so that you’re not scrambling if a leader finds a new opportunity.
Ask the right interview questions: Ask candidates about specific examples of their experiences managing teams. In addition, consider your center’s pain points prior to the interview and ask the candidates how they could address them.
Invest in agents: Give them opportunities to mentor their peers and grow leadership skills. You might find a strong leader already working on your team!
Offer competitive benefits: The best talent goes where they’re appreciated. Make sure your job ad lists fair and competitive compensation and flexible work arrangements to attract and retain the best talent.

Hiring for a call center manager? Remember to ask specific questions about candidate experiences, and look to your existing team for succession opportunities. #CallCenter #CCTR #HiringClick To TweetThe post 5 Skills and Traits Every Call Center Leader Should Have first appeared on Fonolo.