Here’s the scene: It’s the busiest hour of the busiest day. With beefed up self-service through online and mobile applications, customers take care of the easy stuff on their own and reach out to agents when they can’t find what they need. Meanwhile, agents are overwhelmed, trying to retain knowledge on an increasingly complex and diverse… Read More »
Many contact centers have a big goal: Increase First Contact Resolution (FCR). Leaders know it can improve efficiency, lower costs, provide a better customer experience. This post looks at tools that may help you achieve (or improve) FCR. As usual, these tools go hand-in-hand with good processes and the right contact center support and IT… Read More »
We see common situations in our contact center assessment projects: The IVR needs fixing. It’s been static for years. But nobody thinks it matters too much. Or they are afraid to touch it, out of fear it will “break” something. Without reports, they lack visibility to the problems and the data to show the potential… Read More »
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is breaking the hype meter in the contact center industry. While it’s only in the early adopter stages, it appears to be grabbing the attention of contact center technology sellers and buyers. With all the confusion such enthusiasm creates, it seemed a little primer is in order. AI processes and interprets large… Read More »
Our annual challenges and priorities survey, as well as our project experience, show that high attrition, absence and adherence issues, and the uphill battle to gain budget approval for additional staff remain pain points for many centers. While technology is not a “white knight” riding in to solve the staffing problems, it can be used… Read More »
Request for Proposal. RFP. Contact center and IT leaders, along with their procurement departments, turn to this tried and true approach when seeking a fair, competitive analysis of a variety of options. In some circumstances, a formal RFP may still be a good option, if not required. But the evaluation process needs to evolve with… Read More »
Low cost contact center technology solutions abound in today’s market. Centers can quickly implement cloud-based applications at a low price point (well under $100 per agent per month!). These options may seem like a slam dunk for companies with limited IT resources, aging or ineffective systems, and limited budgets. And they can easily tempt others… Read More »
I’m pretty sure, regardless of the size of your center or company, you seek to deliver a great customer experience. And I’m willing to bet your customers have a choice of channels. Unfortunately, I’m almost nearly as confident that your customers sometimes feel pain from their inability to easily cross channels and achieve the coveted… Read More »
Contact center management labors under constant pressure to do more with less… FASTER! The latter often results in hurried technology implementations that fall short of the benefits the center hoped to realize. The following tables summarize the dos and don’ts of project execution and functionality deliver positive results. Project Execution Don’t: Do: Business Impact Launch… Read More »
SIP is a protocol standard for initiating and managing “sessions” or connections between point A and point B. It is one of many standards that have been defined over the years, and is competing with or replacing predecessors such as H.323. SIP fits with “Voice over Internet Protocol” (VoIP), which is the way most voice… Read More »