Ever feel like Goose and Maverick from Top Gun: “I feel the need, the need for speed”? Impatience at senior levels, inability to invest that leaves you dangling with end of life or end of support products, and change taking place in “Internet Years” all combine to make speed the number one driver for many… Read More »
In the traditional model of customer support, the contact center and the company’s array of self-service venues are the central means through which customers ask questions, obtain information, provide feedback, and/or resolve issues. This model assumes that the company has the “sharpest knives in the drawer” in anticipating customer needs/concerns and providing responses. Social media… Read More »
Contact center managers need analytical tools beyond the typical contact center reports. But there are so many choices! Performance Optimization/Workforce Optimization suite vendors (e.g., Verint, Nice, Aspect, Envision, and others) that offer speech analytics, usually some level of data analytics (including scorecards and dashboards), and (perhaps) desktop analytics Speech analytics vendors (e.g., Utopy, Callminer, Nexidia)… Read More »
Contact centers have never lacked for data. With increased pressure for efficiency, optimization and profitability throughout the organization, centers need to use that data in smart ways – not just for reporting, but for truly analyzing activity historically and in real-time, where possible. Whether packaging data into user-friendly interfaces, drilling down into reports to learn… Read More »
Take a tour around a typical contact center, and you’ll likely see a cornucopia of resources that customer service representatives use to respond to caller needs. Along with the usual complement of software applications, they’ll have loose-leaf binders, a few typed and handwritten notes, assorted “yellow stickies,” and personalized lists of subject matter experts. Knowledge… Read More »
Technology is the great enabler of service excellence. It helps you present standard messages at agent desktops, identify opportunities for process improvement and training, monitor and reinforce adherence, and close the loop with customers to get their perspective on the messages they receive. According to Contact Babel, 62% of organizations use scripting applications to standardize… Read More »
Your customers and prospects have always shared experiences and opinions concerning products and services with family, friends, and acquaintances. They rely on one another when making informed decisions about new purchases or when dealing with particularly troublesome issues – if only to have shoulders to cry on. In the Age of Collaboration, this communications channel… Read More »
Whether you’ve had a lengthy courtship with prospective vendors or a hurried shotgun wedding, there’s great temptation to get on with the process and give your contact center technology statement of work (SOW) a cursory examination. Beware! A boilerplate SOW isn’t likely to address your unique requirements or help you get the most out of… Read More »
Most contact center agent desktops are a messy, complicated, confusing morass. Agent heroics may lull management into a false sense that the desktop is manageable. IT won’t come to the rescue given the myriad of other projects on their “to do” list. And, of course, project funding is exceptionally tight. Yet the fact remains: transforming… Read More »
Voice of the Customer (VoC) – a.k.a., Customer Experience Management – is a hot topic. After years of process initiatives to save a penny here, a nickel there, everyone is jumping on the VoC bandwagon to find out what their customers’ think of their organizations and products. I’m a big advocate. Ideally, the organization administers… Read More »