As companies make decisions about sourcing for new contact center technology, a crucial question to answer is whether to pursue “best-of-breed” (BoB) solutions or solutions that are part of a “suite.” The BoB strategy was common when vendors had a more narrow focus. For example, there were “CTI vendors” or “IVR vendors” and “WFM vendors”… Read More »
We’ve been on our soapbox for years to encourage organizations to adopt the 3 Ms of implementation – Project, Change, and Vendor Management. Project Management (PM) focuses on the tasks associated with an implementation – planning, executing, and completing the work of a team to achieve specific goals and meet business objectives. Change management (CM)… Read More »
Contact centers always seem to be short on time and resources when it comes to their selection processes for new technology. And most are under pressure to move fast. Here are some common mistakes that don’t serve them over the long haul. ONE: Failure to assess the upside potential of your current solution. If your… Read More »
Let’s get the rant part of this blog out of the way right up front: I am not a fan of Net Promoter Score (NPS®)1 for the contact center. No hidden agenda here. I am tired of the topic coming up and wish it would go away. But I will continue to engage in thoughtful… Read More »
My campaign to get everyone to fix their “IVR” or front-end menus and scripts starts NOW. We have all heard the complaints – whether from customers of your specific contact center, or just from friends and family who presume you are a sympathetic ear for their most recent suffering at the hands of bad user… Read More »
Workforce Optimization (WFO) technology continues to advance. Tools such as Workforce Management (WFM) and Quality Monitoring (QM) have achieved widespread deployment. A full WFO suite delivers an array of intertwined functions to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the center, and optimize the hiring, training, performance, and development of the most valuable (and expensive) resource… Read More »
Reports of the decline of human interaction in the contact center are premature. While it might be a noble goal to obsolete phone calls, email, chat, and text, the need for dialog is still strong. Sometimes self-service fails. Some customers dislike self-service. Some transaction s are not well-suited to self-service. Whatever the reason for wanting… Read More »
In all likelihood, you offer at least one self-service channel, even if it is as basic as an IVR. So why are you still talking to customers? It’s because self-service falls short, and customers can’t find information or complete transactions without assistance. The value in closing this gap is huge – in dollars and customer… Read More »
Too often, the pursuit of technology is driven by speed and constrained by resources. Experience shows this to be a bad combination.Technology success demands careful implementation planning as well as effective technology monitoring and support. Implementation and Testing Getting implementation right takes time, well-structured plans, and commitment from the contact center, IT, vendors and/or their partners…. Read More »
The concept of “Ready, Aim, Fire” applies as much to the challenge of KM as it does to hitting the bull’s eye with a bow-and-arrow or nailing a free throw in basketball. If you are serious about making a quantum improvement in your center’s knowledge management while spending resources wisely, you need to invest the… Read More »