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4 Golden Contact Center Quality Monitoring Trends of All Time

When we speak to contact centers about what’s happening in their organizations, Quality Monitoring (QM) and Quality Assurance (QA) are the two challenges that they often mention. Although you can find there are several effective strategies of quality monitoring available on the internet, not everything makes sense. Instead, there are some ideal ideas and trends that are based on solid principles and drive great results. Being into the contact center business for more than a decade now, we, at Etech, believe that the below golden trends for contact center quality monitoring have helped us deliver effortless customer experience over the years. Dissection of interactions   To break down a interactions into different parts and grade these respectively is a smart tactic rather than reviewing and scoring a interactions as a whole. Here’s the idea – You need to start with the standard welcome or greeting. Examine how a specific agent is delivering how most of the customers respond to it. Also, look for whether this approach has the desired effect. Next, you should assess product knowledge. Are the agents prepared to face the customers irrespective of whether it’s an order, a complaint, or a question? Do the agents put the interactions on hold to acquire the required information? Are they following the script? Are the agents speaking with a tone of courtesy and support? Does the agent have developed skills specific to the type of interaction? Lastly, you should review the closing of the interactions while examining what sort of the last impression the agents made on behalf of his/her company. This strategy might be a basic one, but many contact centers don’t practice dissecting the interactions into sections and, in turn, fail to 100% monitor the actual quality of the interactions. It’s worthwhile to note that a solid send-off reduces repeat contacts and improves first contact resolution. Feedback is a Gift Whether your contact center determines the quality performance based on internal scoring and KPIs, accumulated data, or solely on satisfaction measurements like NPS, CSAT, one impacts the other. In the end, the only thing that matters is the customers opinion and assessment of how they have been treated. Many times there is a disconnect in what managers think is the most crucial factor and what customers truly care about. Have the courage to let customers define quality of your contact center’s quality management program based on a frictionless and positive customer experience. Use of Speech Analytics In the contact center industry, it fields approximately more than 50 million interactions every day. Hence, even if they are all being recorded, is it possible to monitor all of them? Quite Impossible! Isn’t it? Here, the Speech Analytics comes into the picture. This technology helps generate automated alerts triggered by voice data. While being alerted to these interactions in real-time, managers can react in time to impact their outcome. It defines the difference between keeping and losing a customer. Additionally, with speech analytics being integrated into a interactions recording solution, it’s easy for contact centers to link customer feedback with specific customer interactions. Hence, you will not end up working from a random sampling. Instead, you will work with a subset of interactions that have been flagged as crucial because of the keywords or phrases that customers have used. AI powered speech analytics takes all the unstructured, valuable data in your interactions and makes it easy to organize, analyze and act upon. Analytics also helps deliver better marketing intelligence in diverse areas at a lower price than the traditional methods. It further impacts the contact center compliance with data protection regulations. Thus, if there is one trend in contact center quality monitoring that will remain consistently useful for years, it is nothing but the speech analytics. The critical business intelligence that speech analytics generates can amplify both agent performance and customer experience. The Importance of Kaizen Mindset The Kaizen Mindset is a business consulting practice that says prioritizing the quality part of any process in everything a company does and making little changes over time can eventually add up to the significant organizational improvement. It requires every employee to identify what are the areas of concern, identify the reasons behind the issues, develop, communicate and implement countermeasure strategies, and examine the results, to achieve success. When it’s followed right, the Kaizen Mindset can make a real difference irrespective of whether it’s an auto manufacturing plant or the quality management department of a contact center. With this strategy, you can embed quality through small incremental improvements in the interaction monitoring approaches, and it will finally help you achieve fantastic results. We, at Etech Global Services, believe that technology is just an enabler; it is the humans that create a remarkable difference. Our quality management department, i.e., Etech Insights, follows the above strategies and team up Artificial Intelligence with Human Intelligence so that they can listen to the customers, identify and analyze the unstructured data, generate actionable insights, improve the processes, and predict better approaches to make the most out of the customer insights. If you strive to implement the best of contact center quality monitoring, contact us today.

Why is Leadership Training Important at the Organizational Level?

What makes a great leader? Although there is no one single answer to this question, there are some crucial qualities that ideal leaders should have in common. Great leaders should be secure in their role and in their ability to inspire others and do their jobs. They must be able to play the roles of not only advocates but also mentors and coaches. How can leaders get to this point? Leadership Training is the answer! Leadership training not only benefits team members, but it is also essential to the organization. When you decide to promote someone to a leadership role, you’re probably already well aware of their abilities, work ethic, and their drive for success, but how much do you know about their leadership skills and preparedness to lead a team? It’s really difficult to tell if they haven’t been in a leadership position ever before. Your team members that excel in their current roles may fail when it comes to leadership. Even the team members that have the best intentions and all the potential to succeed as a leader are going to struggle in their transition and question themselves of whether they have what it takes to be a good leader. This doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t promote new leaders, but that you need to ensure you do everything you can to prepare them for their leadership roles and give them guidance through the transition. This is where leadership training at the organizational level is crucial. You must equip your new leaders with the knowledge and experience to start them off on the right foot, and this can be achieved with training. Leadership training will help them understand the role of a leader, let them become accustomed to the responsibilities and duties of being a leader, and identify what truly makes a great leader. Even more great reasons why leadership training is vital in today’s organizations: To Increase Productivity If you train your leaders in practical leadership skills, it will enhance the productivity of your workforce. Transitioning to a leadership role can come with a steep learning curve, but leadership training can significantly diminish this curve. A leader that comes into their role with knowledge and confidence will have a positive influence on the efficiency and effectiveness of their team. Empowered leaders can provide direction to team members and ensure they are performing at or above expectations. Leadership training also sharpens problem-solving skills which means your trained leaders will be able to better handle assessing the problems that arise, managing conflicts, and providing practical solutions. To Nurture Future Leaders Leadership training is crucial at the organizational level to develop future leaders. . Ideal leaders are meant to be the powerhouse to which team members and associates turn for advice and direction. The abilities of leaders to communicate well and inspire and encourage team members increase their productivity while providing people with a more enjoyable environment to work in. So, it’s important to train and nurture future leaders with progressive leadership training. You want to provide adequate training to your people so that they develop the skills they need to fit the leadership roles that become available and take on those positions effectively. To Improve Risk Management Organizations worldwide know that an element of risk is always present in every business. So, it’s a smart idea to train future and current leaders in risk management so that they are able to tackle the demanding situations that come unexpectedly. . Critical situations require quick action and strategic thinking. A leader that has training and preparation on how to handle these circumstances will know how to approach the issue and take it step by step, resulting in a much better outcome than a leader with no or very little training in risk management. To Develop Better Emotional Intelligence Emotional intelligence is one of the crucial personality traits that make a truly great leader. . The right understanding of how emotions affect others ensures people lead in an efficient and considerate way. So, it is recommended to put a strong emphasis on the element of emotional intelligence while conducting leadership training programs because it directly influences the performance of team members and leaders. To Foster Project Leadership The sufficient level of project leadership skills is crucial because without that, leaders will likely struggle to handle the different aspects of a project and its overall success of implementation. It’s easy for a project to get off course, over budget and miss deadline after deadline without the proper training or experience in project management. This could result in a substantial loss to the business. And it will also affect the morale of team members because of misguidance and magnified stress. Don’t underestimate the importance of empowering your leaders with the development of project leadership skills. ; It will help them better manage their teams and close projects efficiently on time. On the organizational level, the increased efficiency will lead to an enhancement of the company’s overall productivity, resulting in higher profits. To Improve Team Members’ Retention Today’s organizations can improve the retention rate of their people by providing leadership training that focuses on developing great leaders. And great leaders are those who team members want to follow. If your people don’t feel connected, recognized, or appreciated at their workplace, they will eventually move on. These negative perceptions are directly related to the leadership around your people. According to Forbes, a Harvard Business Review survey reveals 58 percent of people say they trust strangers more than their own boss. Moreover, Global studies revealed that 79 percent of people who quit their jobs cite ‘lack of appreciation’ as their reason for leaving. In addition, Forbes has further put forward that according to The Conference Board, 53 percent of Americans are currently unhappy at work.” These alarming statistics clearly reveal where organizations are failing when it comes to retaining their people. So, it is the responsibility of employers to develop leaders who know how to communicate with and

I Have Got Problems

It is an undesired still an undeniable fact that there many problems that we all continuously face within our work and life. Sometimes, it seems we never have enough time to solve each one without dealing with some adversity along the way. The problems in our lives keep mounting so fast that we often look for shortcuts to alleviate the tension points temporarily – so we can move onto the next challenge. But, this process doesn’t help us solve the core of each problem that we are dealing with; thus, we continuously get into a never-ending cycle that doesn’t lead us to any real resolutions. Sound familiar? However, speaking about the leaders like us, problem-solving is considered as the critical essence of what we exist to do. As leaders, one of our primary goals is to effectively work through the problem and learn along the way. I believe a solution-oriented method provides us with enough courage to tackle them head-on before circumstances force our hand. We must remain resilient in our quest to create and sustain momentum for the organization and the people we serve. But the reality of today’s workplaces is that we must often deal with people that complicate matters with their corporate politicking, self-promotion, power-plays and ploys, and envy. Still, to become a great leader, we must overcome these obstacles and rise as an efficient problem solver. Great leaders are patient enough in work and life to step back and see the problem at-hand through broadened observation; a 360-degree vision. They see around, beneath, and beyond the problem itself. They see well-beyond the obvious. In today’s world, most effective leaders approach problems through a lens of opportunity to create a significant impact on their teams and families both. As a leader, we should never view a problem as a distraction, but rather as a strategic enabler for continuous improvement and opportunities previously unseen. However, there is a common misconception that leaders merely manage creative efforts; rather than become active participants in the process. But the reality is that leaders, it seems, play a crucial role in the creative problem-solving process. The critical leadership skills that they possess can significantly affect the quality of the innovative outcome. Consequently, as organizations increasingly depend on new products and processes to fuel their future, creative problem-solving stands as a critical leadership skill. It helps leaders have a clear idea about the problem to be solved, which makes it easier for team members to produce potential solutions, and a leader can effectively evaluate the quality of those solutions. To evaluate proposed solutions usually ignites leaders’ creative thinking, and they begin to generate additional ideas, discover alternative perspectives, and redefine the original problem. When they share their alternatives, insights, and additions, it stimulates team members to continue with solution generation and development. In this blog, I would like to discuss an interesting problem-solving method that has proven to be immensely helpful in my leadership journey. It’s called I BEET! I like to think of it as I BEET you can solve this problem. I BEET we can figure this out together. I BEET we will have victory over the issue at hand. I – Identify the Problem What are things like when they are the way we want them to be? If scenarios would have turned out the way we want them to happen, how will that look like? If someone was doing what we want him or her to do, what would he/she be doing? We need to ask ourselves these questions to find the standard against which we’re going to measure the problematic situation we are in. The next important question that needs to be in your mind is how much variation from the norm is tolerable? There lies the problem! You might have very little tolerance from the practical perspective, but there can be more tolerance if you think from a behavioral perspective. You might conclude that it’s fine with me when this person doesn’t do it exactly as I say because I’m okay with him/her taking some liberty with this. However, in case of some other issue, you may need 100% compliance. So, it depends on the problem that you are facing at the moment. It’s also important to ask a lot of other important questions like what caused this problem? Who is responsible for this problem? When did this problem first emerge? Why did this happen? Where does it hurt us the most? How do we go about resolving this problem? And can we solve this problem for good so it will never occur again? Having the answers to these questions is very important so that we can ensure we know the root cause of a specific problem. It will help us come up with practical solutions that people can use for a long-term benefit, rather than dealing with the same issues again and again. B – Brainstorm Problem Solving Ideas Undoubtedly, there are always more solutions to any problem than the one that you might have thought first while planning to deal with it. So, it’s best to take your time and think of different alternate ideas of solving a problem and develop a list of them instead of just jumping into a conclusion instantly. If it’s a problem for your entire team, all of you need to sit together and brainstorm different ideas to solve that, and it will help ensure that you and your team can assess and decide which one will be the best for solving that specific problem. E – Evaluate the Ideas After you are aware of some compelling ideas for solving a specific problem that your team or the organization is facing, the next step is to evaluate those alternatives relative to a target standard. You need to remain unbiased while evaluating the options and make sure you and your team are analyzing both proven and possible outcomes of that. It’s important to state the selected alternative problem-solving ideas explicitly and consider different

Fighting Against the Covid-19 Outbreak Empathetically

“Nothing lasts forever … pain and troubles included.” — Paulo Coelho, author and lyricist Can you believe that 2020 is almost 50% passed? I imagine that when we celebrated the beginning of the New Year back on January 1st none of us imagined it would be like this. To say that the first six months of 2020 have been challenging would be putting it mildly. I have heard many people say, “Let’s just give up this year and move on to 2021.” Here is the thing to remember, we still have half a year or 6 months to go! We are only at halftime. Growing up playing sports, I remember many times coming into the locker room at half time after having gotten beaten up pretty bad. I remember my college coach, Gene Evans, challenging us by saying “Guys, we may be losing right now, but we still have a whole second half to turn this around. Get out there and don’t focus on the scoreboard but instead focus on your efforts this half.” Matt Rocco = #54 Coach Evans was right, he was always right! We can’t write off the next six months of 2020 and wish our way into 2021. We can’t just give them up. Time is too precious. You are too valuable. So today I encourage you to embrace this moment as you begin your second-half comeback. Today I challenge you to find a way to make this year a little better, for yourself and for others. Many people have suffered heartbreaking losses this year and need support. Let’s support them. Many people are struggling with isolation and loneliness. Let’s reach out to them. Many people need someone to talk to and share with. Let’s be there to listen. Many people simply need to be encouraged to press on and ensured that this will not last forever. Let’s encourage them. At Etech, we may look different, talk differently, have different beliefs and live in different parts of the world, but we are all in this together. Yes, we’ve gotten our butts kicked in the first half of 2020, but we’ve still got the second half to go. We encourage each one of you out there not to count the days of Covid-19, but instead strive to make each day count for each other and for those in your community who need you to be there. Until next time, may you make a remarkable difference in the lives of the people you touch each day.

How Can a People-Centric Organization Reach New Heights?

Richard Branson said, “If you take care of your employees, they will take care of your clients.” It used to be that the only type of corporate culture that existed was centered around the company, where profits were number one, but the value of team members was overlooked and underestimated. Now that a company-centric culture is no longer the only option, the currency of these companies has greatly diminished. The culture that today’s companies have is significantly different from the past. We have moved away from the dogma where organizations, worship profits but undervalue their people. We have reached the point where being people-centric is clearly the effective philosophy to embrace. Interestingly, Branson, while building the Virgin Group, a multinational conglomerate overseeing his several ventures, adopted an engaging approach in which he decided to put the customers second and his people first. This compelling strategy has helped him earn a yearly revenue of more than $ 22 billion! How does a People-Centric Company Culture Work? The bulk of team members in today’s organizations are millennials, and with that, we have started to see a philosophical shift. Team members have gradually come to know their worth, which creates a highly competitive environment for the top-tier talent that’s available. Many companies have realized this change and have come to the conclusion that the best way to attract talent is to adopt and embrace a culture focused on their people. Imagine that you were working for a company in which you had to continually sacrifice the things that mattered to you, such as opportunities for career development or time missed with your family because of the constant demand to work after hours; All this because you always had to put the needs of the company before yourself. Would you grow to resent that company? How soon would you be looking for other options in your career? Those who resent their workplace are often a ticking time bomb. They may be driven away seeking out a better environment to work in, or simply going through the motions of each day demotivated and apathetic towards their work. It’s even possible for resentment to grow so much that it leads to malicious acts against the company. Whether they decide to leave or stick around, it’s a detriment to the company’s morale, culture, and overall success of the business. On the contrary, if team members know that their company is looking out for them and cares about their success as an individual as well as the company’s, it means team members will give their best to the organization and do all they can to help the organization succeed. In this scenario, a positive morale and work environment are thriving; People are motivated and enjoy working for the organization. A People-Centric Work Culture Drives Business All businesses function via sales in one form or another no matter what the industry, which means all businesses have customers. Interactions that customers have throughout their journey with a company are crucial, and your people are the key to this equation. Team members are the direct line to your customers. They make up the front line, back line, and everything in between, whenever and wherever your customers are. Everything that you put into the culture of your company and the way you treat your team members reflects in the way they work and interact with your customers. When you have a people-centric culture present in your organization, you will find newly motivated team members who are eager, curious, passionate, highly productive, and who never think twice about giving their best to you. When you invest in engagement and development for your team members and their quality of life, your organization will reap the rewards. How to Become a People-Centric Organization? Depending on your company, you should decide how you can implement a culture that values team members over customers and profits. There are different ways to make your people feel valued and ensure that they thrive in your organization. For example, an interesting approach that Google has implemented for a few years now is providing a luxurious lunch to its team members free of charge. Another example is Apple offering stock buying options and extra days off to their team members. Additionally, when it comes to a people-centric work culture, it is always crucial to keep in mind that your people are empowered with a sense of autonomy and responsibility. If you allow them to be creative and approach problems in their own way, the solutions that they come up with are likely to be much more effective and efficient than when in a limiting or controlling environment. If you want to create an environment where team members can shine and give their full potential , you should find out how you can best create a conducive workplace experience for them. More often than not, there are little things you can do, that make a big impact for them. The best way to figure out how you can help them is by asking. Engage your team members and discover how you can make a difference for them. The Final Note Being people-centric is all about how your organization creates a meaningful experience for your team members. Company culture is a cycle. At Etech, we believe our people are our asset! Click here to explore what we believe is the right way an organization can deliver great customer experience while empowering its team members. If you want your organization to be a customer-centric business, you should be centered on your team members first. Strive to build your organization from the inside out, and as your team members thrive, your company will also succeed and be able to reach new heights.

Servant Leadership: The Ultimate Way to Connect Effectively with Your People

As leaders, we find honor and inspiration in what we do. However, that might not always be the case with all of our valued team members. According to a survey by Hays, 43% of people in the US claim that an inspiring corporate culture is the main reason for their search for a new job. Many people prefer to leave a job because they don’t feel valued by their immediate leader. In the book, Managing from the Heart, the authors address five-time tested habits that true servant leaders possess. It was very encouraging to me to see how these activities aligned very nicely with Etech’s leadership character commitments. I encourage leaders of organizations reading this piece of writing to examine your consistency in these areas and to ask your peers to give you feedback as well. If you need to make some improvements then get after it, the sooner the better! You will be glad that you did. Hear and understand It is almost impossible to really listen to someone and not be preparing a mental response as they speak. When we do this, we miss all that is being said! Next time you are in a discussion with a peer, team member or customer, focus on listening to understand first, and then responding. Even if you disagree, don’t judge them wrongly One thing is for certain in the fast paced world of BPO, construction and hospitality companies, etc., mistakes will be made! Peter Luongo, the retired president of the Berry Company once told me, “You are going to make 100 decisions in a week, if you get more than 50% of them right, you are doing okay!” The fact is that all of us will make mistakes. Mistakes should be addressed, corrected and the learning captured. What we must not do is judge the person. What we have to do is coach the behavior. Acknowledge the greatness within all Our job as a leader is to fix what is broken. The fact is that we spend 90% of our time fixing things. However, it is just as critical that we find ways to recognize the greatness in others. Greatness is not isolated to our top performers, there is greatness in everyone! Your responsibility is to look for it and recognize it! Maybe you have a team member who is always there on time, maybe someone who encourages others on the team when they are down, or maybe you have a team member who is great at cooking brownies or banana pudding on pot luck days. Whatever the greatness, find it and embrace it. Remember to look for good intentions Unless negatively influenced by their environment, people will tend to do their best. But remember, everybody’s best is not the same! Great leaders understand “will versus skill”. The will is the intention. We can and always should work with team members who have good intentions (or will). Even if they fail on one campaign, we have enough diversity of programs within our centers that we should be able to find them a good place on a different program. Tell the truth with compassion Confrontation is a necessary part of coaching and it should never be needlessly delayed or avoided. It should, however, be conducted with genuine concern and compassion for the team member. This can be accomplished in three basic steps. First, speak directly to the person; do not talk about them to others. Second, after addressing the behavior, listen to understand their side. Third, discuss and agree on a plan of attack to fix the behavior and then inspect daily to ensure that the plan is working. In order to continue to grow your business and be in a position to impact more lives, you must find a way to do a better job of keeping your good ones. I do not believe that there is one single fix out there. I do believe that it will take everyone in an organization being committed to doing all things (big or small) in a way that reflects the leadership commitments. If applied, the ideas listed above will take your organization one more step ahead in the journey. Until next time, may you continue to make a remarkable difference in the lives of the people you touch each day.

Effective Use of Contact Center Quality Monitoring Metrics: Which Should You Focus on Now?

Whether you’ve utilized a contact center for your business needs, contacted one as a customer, or worked as a contact center team member, you have an idea of what to expect when it comes to measuring quality monitoring metrics. Some global best practices are aligning with what many people may think of when considering how contact centers and their team members are rated for effectiveness. Some standard metrics utilized in contact quality monitoring include how long a customer waits before their call is answered, the duration of the call, and how satisfied customers are with these interactions. While many of these recognizable metrics have been relied upon by contact centers for years, the importance of some should be reconsidered if businesses want to continue growing, evolving, and providing unbeatable customer experience. The demand for streamlined and uncomplicated customer experience continues to grow, and companies making this their focus when it comes to the benefits of contact center quality monitoring. The Importance of Deciphering the Right Metrics   Often, the reason why monitoring contact center performance doesn’t result in both team members’ efficiency and happier customers is that the right quality monitoring metrics aren’t being measured. Sometimes the results aren’t focused on as closely as others, or they are underutilized. Many contact centers rely on quality assurance managers to evaluate and score team member performance based on the average handle time of their calls or the average speed in which calls are answered. There’s no doubt these particular quality monitoring metrics are essential. Still, too large of a focus on them results in rushed calls where customer issues are left mostly unresolved on the first go-round. Focusing mainly on the speed of interactions serves to ensure things that are immensely important to customers are missed, such as displays of empathy. When a company is reliant on data gained from the wrong metrics, numbers shared on the inside may look like they’re hitting their marks while on the outside, customers feel unheard and dissatisfied. What Metrics Should Be Your Company’s Focus?   First and foremost, if you consider a good company to be made up of well-trained and valued team members serving satisfied customers, then the goal should be to focus on quality monitoring metrics aligning with that vision. Ultimately, the right parameters for gaining continuous improvement depend on your particular company, its needs, and the overarching business goals. This means there isn’t necessarily a one-size-fits-all kind of answer to which ones should be chosen for every company. However, no matter which metrics your business decides on, it’s essential to take the data provided through technology and intelligence, optimize it, and put it into an actionable plan. While focusing on metrics relaying the length of call times may be less than stellar for overall customer experience and satisfaction, they can be great for team efficiency and can’t be banished altogether. Instead of doing away with them, companies should pay equal attention to customer satisfaction-centric metrics when it comes to quality monitoring. To be effective at monitoring and providing appropriate feedback for the continued development of team members, managers must review calls and note displays of empathy and the willingness of team members to take the interaction above and beyond the basics. Some points for managers to consider may include if team members are great listeners for their customers and if they are knowledgeable and capable while working to resolve issues. Once metrics are chosen, putting the results into an actionable plan is essential to getting the most out of the time, effort, and money put into collecting data from quality assurance metrics in the first place. Reviewing team member and customer interactions, providing timely feedback and putting appropriate plans in place is how you make a change and gauge overall effectiveness. Trust Your Company’s Strengths and Rely on Experts to Fill the Gaps   Looking toward the near future, Forrester predicts more companies will feel compelled to operate their in-house contact centers rather than relying on outside partners. They also predict this could be incredibly detrimental to many businesses. Many companies will benefit from continuing to focus on what they do best. If that doesn’t already include operating and managing their contact center and customer experience, it’s likely best to seek and rely on already established experts. When seeking contact center and quality monitoring services, take into consideration what’s offered and how data is derived and disseminated. A company offering a combination of advanced technologies, artificial intelligence, and continuously developed team members ensures your company benefits from extensive data, corresponding actionable plans, and team members ready to serve customers and provide exceptional experiences. If this sounds like the type of partnership that would benefit both your business and your customers, check out the difference that Etech has to offer. Contact Etech today for additional information.

Corporate Social Responsibility Trends to Watch for in 2020

Undoubtedly, 2019 proved to be an active year for Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), covering many issues like sustainability, globalization, advocacy for social issues, and multiple natural disasters at the forefront. Some of these issues have continued to exist in 2020 and companies are striving to build remarkable Corporate Social Responsibility strategies that align core business objectives with solving relevant social problems as well. In this article, we will discuss the popular CSR trends that companies are following this year. Time to Get Back to School Today’s workplaces have become more involved with issues like combatting sexual harassment, promising pay equity, promoting sustainability, etc. Leaders of organizations are seen more in training classes, peer-to-peer dialogues, and formal classroom settings, perhaps virtual, so that they can keep abreast of changes and effective practices in governance and accountability. In 2020, there have been more formal classes in corporate social responsibility and sustainability, like various executive education courses at Harvard Business School and the Wharton School of Business. Also, there are more facilities for emerging professionals now, which include the Institute for Corporate Social Responsibility at John Hopkins University, co-sponsored by the Washington Regional Association of Grantmakers and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Education. Engage Team Members on All Levels Today’s organizations continuously strive to ingrain the significance of corporate social responsibility in their people through education, re-education, and training. This is important to address issues like stagnation, inequality, and lack of social responsibility. Companies are conducting education programs to ensure every team member is aware of the company code of ethics and how it is related to different social causes that the organization supports. Coaching team members on corporate social responsibility, emotional intelligence, proper communication, etc. has become an essential part of the corporate culture. One positive result of adopting these things into your corporate culture is team members feeling socially connected when they are at the workplace. The best way to start this is by getting leaders and management on board, introducing them to the training first, and then instilling these changes from top to bottom. Taking Part in Disaster Relief is Crucial There are a growing number of natural disasters impacting all parts of the world now. So, organizations are rethinking their approach towards disaster relief and the efforts they put forward for the recovery. Many companies are seen assisting victims of natural disasters through cash grants and product donations. It is expected that more and more organizations will embrace this proactive approach. This will encourage the process of helping communities become a resilient cause for years to come. Even though we can’t prevent all natural disasters from occurring, the detrimental impact they have on people’s lives can be minimized especially if the corporate sector comes forward and gets involved in better urban and rural planning. Volunteer Team Members’ Time When it comes to corporate social responsibility, volunteering time is one of the most beneficial things that can be given. There are several ways to go about it. The most common approach organizations are taking is asking their team members to volunteer a portion of their time each week to a noble cause or charity. Another option that organizations are widely embracing is letting a part of their team members’ work hours serve as volunteer hours. This is a rewarding benefit for team members because it allows them the opportunity to give back without having the burden of their paycheck being docked or being forced to use vacation time to volunteer. It is also positive branding for both the team members and for the community. Hire for Diversity and Equality Diversity and equality are two significant factors in any organization and hiring with the intention to achieve diversity has several benefits. Companies are striving to hire people from different walks of life, which thus, increases creativity, cultural exposure, and likely out-of-the-box ideas for corporate social responsibility in the office. Diversity has been a critical element of corporate social responsibility for more than 15 years, and it holds true today. Summing It Up All of these 2020 corporate social responsibility trends require organizations to strategically think through their core business values and which types of corporate social responsibility trends can be naturally integrated with those values. What are you waiting for? Join our team to become a part of an organization that has 2020’s corporate social responsibility trends in its DNA.

Improve your Growth Potential by Improving your Coachability

Think about some of the biggest victories you’ve had personally or professionally. Graduating from college, paying off a big loan, or getting that promotion you longed for, are all great examples. As you reflect on these special moments in your life remember the time and effort they took to achieve and who helped you along the way to make your goal a reality. Whether it’s a personal win or a professional victory, there are likely a few fundamental similarities. The bigger the accomplishment, the greater the sense of achievement and the grander the investment of time, effort, money or perhaps all of the above. Each of these wins required personal commitment, effort over time, and support and guidance along the way. Just as every great athlete has a coach to help them hone and improve their skills, we too can benefit from having a professional coach to support our growth and help us on our journey to achieve our goals. Most coaching will come from a direct supervisor although the role of coach can often be played by others, such as peers, trainers, and mentors. What does not change is the effort we must put in, to make the coaching a success. We have learned about coaching on several occasions but mostly from the coach’s perspective. When it comes to coaching effectiveness, it’s a two-way street. The coach and their ability to provide feedback for improvement is important. Equally critical is our decision to receive the feedback and do the work to make the improvements. The best coaching in the world won’t help us unless we have a willingness to learn and ultimately follow through on the feedback by listening, practicing, and implementing the feedback consistently. Are you ready to be coached? How can you ensure the coaching sessions are successful? Below are 4 tips to help you in this journey. 1. Be Willing to Get Coached A willing heart is essential during coaching and greatly affects the outcome of it. Coaching aimed at solutions rather than problems, paired with a willing heart, makes all the difference. What does a willing heart mean in a real sense? It is when you can accept constructive criticism and direction from someone and become flexible enough to leverage it to improve, resulting in a benefit for you, your customer, team &/or company. As you progress this will undoubtedly help you in your current role and may even support your career growth goals. Being teachable is an attribute commonly sought after by hiring managers. If you don’t have a willing heart the process can end up being an uphill battle that will likely lead to little or no improvement in performance, frustration, resentment and poor customer and job satisfaction. Conversely, the better we become at things, the more enjoyable they become. With enough practice we may even find ourselves in a position to add value to others by teaching them what we’ve learned. “Where the heart is willing, it will find a thousand ways: where it is unwilling, it will find a thousand excuses,” said Arlen Price. 2. Remain Committed Progress doesn’t come without commitment. If you feel criticized, it can be easy to give up, unless you are truly committed to growth and achieving whatever goals you have set for yourself. To be thoroughly committed means believing what you do is important to your success and the greater good of those around you. Remember why you started down this path to begin with, what is in your control, and know your ability to follow through on what you set out to do. All these things can help you remain committed to the process. You are important in terms of your identity and what you do. Your coach can’t make you commit to the process; it must come from within you. To allow yourself to have sufficient psychological and material resources so that you can achieve your career goals you must self-commit. If you don’t, you will sabotage yourself with all sorts of excuses and negative self-talk. If you truly commit to the coaching process, a successful outcome is inevitable. “Nothing will work unless you do.” John Wooden “Hard work beats talent, when talent doesn’t work hard.” Tim Notke 3. Be Solution Focused When there is a trying situation at work, how do you respond to it? Do you meet it head-on and get a solution, or do you make excuses to rationalize? To have a solution focus is nothing more than your ability to control your emotional responses when there is pressure and focus on what is in control to have a positive impact on solving the problem. Let’s discuss an example. You are an account manager, and you end up losing a major account from one of your company’s most valuable customers. This huge loss will result in questions from your leadership team. Your immediate leader will ask for a meeting where you both can discuss what went wrong, how that customer could possibly be brought back, and how the company can improve so there is not a future repeat of the same mistake. Tough questions will be asked. Think of this as a practical coaching session. When you are solution focused, you will be able to pull yourself together, recall the interactions you had with the customer and what led them to this decision. Through this exercise you can come up with some practical solutions to rectify the problem, potentially win the client back, improve your services, and prevent a similar situation in the future with this customer as well as others. If you get stuck focusing on what is out of control, or making excuses (rationalizing the situation), you will limit your future potential to prevent the same problem from happening again. Don’t do it. Think about what can be learned from your current situation. Answer the tough questions, make adjustments and fail forward. This is where real growth happens. 4. Be Accountable It’s important to take full accountability

Succession Planning: What are the Crucial Steps to Make it Successful?

“Succession planning helps build the bench strength of an organization to ensure the long-term health, growth and stability” – Teala Wilson The concept of succession planning has attained a lot of traction in the past few years. It is the process to ensure your company is prepared for the future. So, if any of your key team members leave, you already have someone in mind to fill their position. Succession planning is an effective way to keep your business moving forward during the inevitable changes that every company has to face in its journey. You should make succession planning an ongoing effort at your organization. It’s not possible to study your organizational chart sitting in a meeting for just two hours, and then go back to regular classes and forget about it. When it comes to the best succession plans, they are always reviewed and refreshed daily. Here’s a guide on how to get started with Succession Planning at your organization: Know Your Organization’s Identity Succession planning is not a one-size-fits-all process. To get the maximum benefit from succession planning, the top management of your company must begin with identifying who your company is so that its future can be planned appropriately. For instance, if we discuss the examples of an electric company versus Tesla, the electric provider is a company that offers consistency and reliability to its customers. However, Tesla’s constant focus is on hard-charging and best-in-class performance. Obviously, there is no right or wrong here – it just means different types of companies seek various types of leadership. If you understand “who” your company is, you can better identify the potential new leaders it has. Analyze Your Entire Organization Next, you should assess the current workforce of your organization to identify the key positions and team members it has. In such a scenario, you should remember that often the key team members might not be in the top leadership, but in support positions. You should never ignore a succession plan for your shop foreman who never met a problem that he couldn’t solve or the customer service representative that your customers love and ask for by name. Just like you need succession plans for the C-suite level, prioritizing succession planning for supporting roles is also crucial. A successful succession plan should be based on how you look at all of your team members and ensure you haven’t missed any critical person or position. Determine the Best Succession Planning Strategy for Your Company You can go about succession planning in different ways. The best succession plan is the one that fits well with your organization. If you want to determine what works best for your organization, you should consider the below questions: Do you want a succession plan for every position and team member in your organization? Or, does your organization require one that covers only the leadership positions in upper management? Will your managers’ performance reviews involve identifying and grooming the successors? Is there any vulnerability like the presence of a large percentage of retiring team members in a particular division of your company? What is your final goal? What outcomes are you expecting? Ultimately, any succession plan is all about focusing on how you can be proactive in preserving the wealth of institutional knowledge that helps your company’s productivity rise. Identify Your Heroes After you have identified the critical positions in your organization, you should identify two to three team members who would make great successors for all those vital roles. Having this in mind, you must look at team member performance objectively without personal attachments involved. Often, your extrovert team members get promoted more, but they might not be the most influential performers. That’s the reason why you should carefully consider every successor for both emotional intelligence and skills. The highest-potential team members of your organization will always be life-long learners who are both self and socially aware. They will also be great at problem-solving, adaptable, and able to take on more responsibilities. When it comes to promotion, you will want to avoid the team members who are inclined towards office drama, resist change, and also spread negativity. Handle Tough Decisions and Discussions In succession planning, you need to have conversations with team members in the organization to identify their career goals, how they see themselves in the future, and what kind of development they want to accomplish their objectives. While doing so, be prepared to find that some team members that you might have considered to be a high potential for advancements might not be interested. That’s completely fine. You need solid performers who can make a remarkable impact at every level of the organization. If succession planning is done right, it can be a powerful recruitment tool that can help your organization improve retention and company culture. However, to enjoy the benefits, you should communicate the “hows” and “whys” to the team members who have been tapped to move up. Succession planning does not only help you build the future of your organization’s promotable team members; it can also be the right approach to expose the team members who are not promotable at least during a particular time. However, you should be prepared to talk through the tough decisions you have made to those who are not slated to be promoted – and have what may be difficult discussions with some of the team members at your organization. In a Nutshell While development plans and succession charts are not promises, they are often communicated as such and can lead to frustration if they are not realistic. The bottom line is you shouldn’t jerk around high performing leaders with unrealistic development expectations. Instead, only give the promise of succession if there is a realistic chance of it actually happening in the future! At Etech, the five crucial steps of succession planning discussed above have remarkably helped us shift our organization’s focus from planning to development, achieving increased depth in our bench strength. Come and join

How Can Servant Leadership Lead You to a Successful Career?

The idea of servant leadership is a timeless concept that has been around for centuries. It, however, just has become prevalent in management in the last few decades, with more and more top executives and supervisors exploring the concept in their work. Becoming a servant leader is a great way to advance your career as it shows you can prioritize the organization and its team members, and it clearly demonstrates your desire to support and care for others. – A true leader is defined by such strengths. Empowers the Team A servant leader is driven by the desire to make sure that the needs of others are being met before their own needs. These types of leaders come to work thinking about what they can do for their team to help them be better, so they can provide the team with the necessary support to help them achieve their goals and expectations. By focusing on the wellbeing and development of your team members, providing the right resources, a productive work environment, and all the assets and information they need, they will become more empowered to succeed in their roles. Once your team is successful, you will be successful too! Opportunity to Lead by Example Servant leaders lead their team by example. A big part of their responsibility is leading their team with their own actions. Being the example of greater discipline and drive not only encourages those who follow to adopt a higher standard, but it also motivates you to play on a higher field. Furthermore, if your team knows that you are willing to do whatever you expect from them, they’ll likely do everything possible to help you achieve your goal. By choosing to lead by example, you will be seen as a better leader, capable of creating a sense of purpose and pushing people forward with credibility, inspiration, trust, and vision. Inspires Team to Follow The will to lead from the point of service has a significant effect on employee commitment to a supervisor. Your job is to serve the people who follow you. They persuade others with inspiration and aren’t concerned with using force or power to make team members act. By so doing, such a leader is followed willingly instead of forcefully. Such a leader will not have to worry about loyalty or poor customer service. As you can imagine, this creates a more inclusive work environment, has a positive impact on your work relationships, makes your team more successful, and boosts your career as well. Improves Talent Retention As opposed to traditional leadership, which focuses more on accumulating, hoarding and exercising power by the one at the top of the pyramid, servant leaders want to share power with their team and help them develop and perform as effectively as possible. They recognize that everyone has something unique to offer, and that builds confidence and contentment in people. They are humble and generous, giving credit where it’s due, as well as recognizing talents and rewarding them to show them that their contributions are valued. This can play a huge role in preventing valuable skills and knowledge from walking out the door, which is not only beneficial to the company but you as well. Improves Decision Making By asking questions, listening, thinking ahead, and considering every factor, servant leaders can anticipate the needs of the business and guide towards an outcome that places the company in the best position to achieve success. Everyone brings a unique perspective to the table, and when you’re open to listening to the talent around you, you can truly embrace every possibility and potential to achieve success. Encourages Innovation Studies have shown that servant leadership promotes employee innovation and creativity. Such a setting encourages individuals to do their best and take on new challenges. For some, team members are given opportunities to work on projects outside their scope, solve problems, etc. By believing in team members and giving them the opportunity to learn and grow, you might be surprised how much they can accomplish. With the freedom to get creative, your staff may not only enhance their contributions but also make yours better. Having soft skills, in addition to the right job qualifications, is key to climbing the corporate ladder. As a servant leader, you’re setting the tone for the advancement of your career. It’s clear that by building strong inter-team relationships through servant leadership, you create a greater level of productivity, which greatly impacts the success of your team, your organization and yourself. In view of all this, it’s important to keep in mind that being a good leader takes time. While some people are naturally inclined to be servant leaders, it’s really something anyone can learn and improve upon. Are you looking for more tips for career growth? Etech has got you covered! To learn more about servant leadership and how this exemplary leadership style can help boost your career, check out our blog section.

How does Human Resources Impact Customer Experience?

When customer experience is delivered right, brands can increase their revenue remarkably, simultaneously creating happier customers who enjoy using their products and services. All the big brands worldwide continuously strive to make things easier for their customers and provide excellent customer service. Those who are truly able to do that, their customers return to them again and again and even become their brand advocates. So, organizations must know how to get the customer experience right in this on-demand, fast, and digital world where we live today. Also, it’s a common belief that the secret to a great customer experience lies in employee performance and operational excellence. However, the department of Human Resources is often overlooked, but it plays a primary role to take an organization’s customer experience to the next level. How? Read on Impact on Employees’ Attitude The attitude of your people who face customers is vital for your brand to deliver an excellent customer experience. At the strategic level, the culture of your organization tends to be a huge factor in developing a positive attitude among employees. The attitude towards customers is also impacted by the personality and professionalism of the individual. So it’s clear that the Human Resources department should be on board with the customer experience strategy of your organization. It will help if you keep in mind that when hiring, the right competencies of the candidates are adequately screened. Making People Knowledgeable Your customer-facing employees must have expertise in product and industry knowledge. Here, the HR department can play a significant role again as their relevant training programs can bring new employees up to the desired level and also keep the experienced employees updated on recent developments in the industry. An effectively managed CRM strategy that has HR as an integral part, can also be helpful concerning the prospect and customer knowledge. Fostering Employees’ Skills The HR department of organizations can provide state-of-the-art sales and product training. It can help empower the company’s frontline employees to develop the skill of listening, which gives them the ability to put their customers’ needs before their own. Listening is a mission-critical skill that directly impacts the degree to which your organization is customer-focused. A Constant Support for Employees Just like the operating systems like Linux and Windows are not often highlighted since they operate behind the scenes, your employees also need support from other departments that are not always obvious to the customers. For example, the way that the Finance department supports car dealers or how personal trainers support athletes. Here, the organizational culture comes into the picture; a collaborative culture at the corporate level can help deliver effortless customer experience. Similarly, the HR department can empower employees to create an environment so that they can deliver effortless customer experience all of the time. It will truly help the company to emerge as a customer-centric one. Recognition of Customer-Focused Employees Recognizing positive behaviors and achievements of the employees is one of the great ways to boost the internal culture of an organization, driving people to become more customer-oriented. Employee recognition is a powerful motivator that can altogether turn around your organization’s customer experience efforts. Human Resources can play a vital role here to appreciate the employees who strive to improve the company’s customer experience. When they are recognized more, they eventually perform better. It has been observed that people who feel recognized find more purpose in their work. When the HR department engages employees in rewards and recognition events, employees feel directly tied to the organization’s success, remain motivated to perform even better, and never fail to deliver a memorable customer experience. Final Words It’s essential to stay committed. The more an organization’s HR department can drive employee engagement, the stronger the impact it will have on the success of the customer experience strategy. At Etech, we continuously implement the best practices to keep our workforce engaged, and this has tremendously helped us to deliver an effortless customer experience for more than 20 years now!

Human Intelligence + Artificial Intelligence – The ‘Winning Formula’ to Deliver Remarkable Customer Experience

If I were to ask a bunch of people the last time they had a really great experience as a customer, it probably wouldn’t take them long to come up with a story of how the lasting impression of the experience made them happy and satisfied. And the same goes for a poor customer experience, too- customers could probably think of the story and reason within seconds, and how the feeling afterwards was just the opposite. They probably had felt angry, upset, annoyed, frustrated, or any combination of these negative emotions. When we say positive customer experience, it doesn’t only mean making your customers happy, it also leads to additional revenue. It’s imperative that brands understand the best marketing that money can buy is simply a customer who will promote their business – because they will refer their friends and family to the company, free of charge! Customer Experience – The Only Differentiator in Today’s Business World! Today’s consumers want a positive experience, not just a transactional relationship, with the brands and companies they engage with. So, customer experience plays a significant role for brands to develop a productive relationship with them. According to a recent study, 86% of buyers will pay more for a better customer experience, 70% of the buying experience is based on how customers feel they are treated, and 70% of customers will do business again with the company that resolves their complaints. Customer experience is proactive, cross-functional, feelings-oriented, and also defines the customer’s perception of the company. The customer experience, that is, making each of its clients feel special, has become the critical factor for a business to stand out from its competitors. The rise of the customer experience as a critical competitive differentiator has led to the growing importance of design thinking in the last few years. So, if the customer experience your business has created is not great, you should know how you can improve it and where to start. To leverage the power of Human Intelligence (HI) combined with Artificial Intelligence (AI) in contact center quality monitoring is probably the most effective way to do that. It’s apparent that AI is quickly becoming a baseline requirement for even the biggest brands to compete in an increasingly globalized market. According to Forbes, more than 80% of businesses are already planning to use automated technology as a customer experience strategy by the end of 2020. However, many businesses still have concerns regarding the effects that AI will have on customer relations. Although the efficiency and economical cost-cutting benefits of automated technology are well documented now, there still exists a widespread myth that customers will always prefer to resolve their issues with live agents rather than a front-end AI-powered chatbot. However, the truth is that AI, when properly integrated with HI, can vastly improve the effectiveness of contact center quality monitoring. This can ultimately transform the customer experience delivered by brands. HI +AI – The Ultimate Way to Transform Customer Insights There are five crucial steps involved in this process: Listen to the customers Identify their problems Analyze the issues Take the right steps to improve customer experience Predict successful behaviors HI and AI Together Can Take Customer Experience to the Next Level   Role of HI to Improve CX Human Creativity and Imagination can better craft the customer experience strategy Intuition and emotion of humans can transform the customer experience Humans can adapt to different customer behaviors and deliver an effortless experience accordingly Human Intelligence offers better foresight about future alternatives and risks Role of AI to Improve CX Provides a larger knowledge base Offers consistent reasoning Drives goal-directed, focused tasks Better evaluation and integration of past observations Artificial Intelligence – The Right Element to Decode True Customer Sentiments Harnessing AI helps contact centers discover people’s opinions, emotions, and feelings about a product or service. AI data-unification tools make daunting tasks such as data cleaning, combining data, etc. very inexpensive and quick. By assessing interaction history, AI tools can predict interaction context and aid in improving customer interaction(s).AI can sift through the data to determine customer trends and several AI- driven tools can help contact centers better manage large customer data sets from disparate sources, and integrate them with existing data to extract valuable insights with speed and precision. Data scientists with the knowledge and power of Artificial Intelligence can identify performance-enhancing behaviors and voice-of-customer insights while analyzing the AI-driven data that’s not easily discernible through traditional quality management processes. Artificial Intelligence (AI) and machine learning technologies can be integrated into call center Quality Monitoring solutions to overcome challenges of handling and analyzing 100% of customer interaction data. At Etech, we have hands-on experience with this. Etech’s A.I engine which is powered by Artificial Intelligence and machine learning platforms, has efficiently overcome the challenges of handling and analyzing large volumes of customer interactions for years. Delivering Effortless Customer Experience is Impossible without Human Wisdom Etech believes technology represents the HOW of change; humans represent the WHY of change. AI will always be crucial to contact centers, but it’s not the only piece that drives memorable customer experience. We have to go beyond technology and data to reach human wisdom. Some of the effective roles that our people play in contact centers that remarkably help brands deliver memorable customer experience are customer sentiment analysis, gathering insights for strategic decisions, customer effort analysis, training need analysis and coaching and developing agents. Only Our People Can Make the Best Out of Artificial Intelligence The best way to make use of analytics gleaned through AI is to keep the human element involved. Data Scientists are crucial links between pinpointing customer needs and developmental weaknesses among team members. The human element is the key to instituting actionable coaching and development plans to spur continued improvements. The key to continued success and growth for any company lies in embracing new advancements in AI technologies while realizing the importance of utilizing human intelligence. So, we can clearly say that

Are You Prepared Against Cyber Threats?

How does your company overcome a challenge like cybersecurity? This question confuses and disturbs businesses of all shapes and sizes today more than ever before. Don’t we almost every day seem to read stories of such companies that have suffered the consequences of not having sufficient measures in place to protect themselves? It is estimated that the average cost of a cyber threat will be over $ 150 million by the end of 2020, with the global annual cost forecast to be $ 2.1 trillion! And as we are well into this year already, it is indeed proving to be a challenging year. However, the more difficult the challenge, the greater the reward is. We are all aware of the four categories that frame the future of cyber warfare at the organizational level – Employee Training, Hardware Drones, Connected Devices, and Active Defense. We must act mindfully as individuals and as an organization to ensure cyber criminals have no opportunities to take advantage. So how do you make sure not to become the weak link that opens the door to malicious activity in your organization? Be aware of malicious payload campaigns An example of a malicious payload would be receiving an email asking you to click on a link. Clicking on this link would then download a file to the target system (yours) and install software that could be malware, ransomware, or even open a backdoor, allowing the malicious actor to access your system where they will then work to gain access to critical systems and files. Never fall for Fake Invoices sent via email or text You receive an email stating the sender is having a hard time either getting the invoice to the proper location or getting the invoice paid. A PDF or other file is attached, possibly titled “Invoice XXX”, the file can be many things. A credential harvester will attempt to gain access to user credential information, malware, ransomware, etc. Credential Harvesters Credential Harvesters can take the form of emails or messages stating you need to log into your account and verify your information. The message will have a link and will even take you to a site that looks completely legitimate. Always go to the actual URL for the website and never click on a link. This is what the malicious actor is expecting you to do to gain access. Ultimately, companies worldwide should identify any vulnerability that exists within their IT infrastructure. If your company is still using old, outdated technology as part of the IT systems, much of this can be exploited by cybercriminals looking for an easy target. As a result, it is imperative you take the necessary steps wherever possible to maximize defenses or have extra preventative measures in place to deter any hopeful attackers. Cybercriminal is always evolving and testing methods to gain access. All that is needed is for one individual to let their guard down and fall victim to an attack. DO NOT BE THAT VICTIM! Well, indeed, we can’t completely stop cyber criminals from trying to wreak havoc; however, it is entirely within the power of any business to reduce the overall impact of cybercriminals’ actions through proactive efforts. Is your organization being proactive enough? Keep the above safety measures in your mind, stay secure, and make your organization a highly protected one.

Servant Leadership: A Revolutionizing Concept to Redefine the Corporate Future

If the corporate world has learned anything over the last decade, it is that authoritarian and fear-based leadership platforms are outdated. Not only do they not work, but they have crippled many foundations from the inside out. Not only are employees unable to function in domination based corporate hierarchies, but overall productivity is negatively influenced. The result is unsustainable business practices that lead to decreased profits, shaky undefined leadership roles, high employee turnover, and, eventually, downward trends. It should come as little surprise that savvy corporations are turning their eyes towards servant leadership models. A servant leader is focused on their employees and considers how they can best serve them. Instead of information trickling down the corporate ladder, it trickles up. While this may seem counterproductive, servant leadership has proven to be one of the most effective forms of leadership in modern times. Servant leadership impacts employees by increasing satisfaction and, in turn, productivity and profitability. What is Servant Leadership? Many people are unfamiliar with the term servant leadership, but it is a leadership style that deserves a more in-depth look. Servant leaders turn the power hierarchy within a company upside down. The employees are placed at the top, and the leader becomes responsible for leading the company by serving their employees. Servant leadership is built on the principle that if you empower and uplift employees, they will respond with renewed creativity, potential, and purpose. Replacing authority with humility helps to create high employee performance and create higher profits for the company. Even more critical, servant leadership helps create a corporate structure with meaning, and that sense of belonging and meaning makes it much less likely to crumble. In a world where it only takes one or two employees to shake the foundation of an entire company, unity and serving leaders are an oasis. Why Servant Leadership is the Future If the above is not enough to emphasize the importance and application of servant leadership, these specific reasons may help highlight why servant leadership is the future. Today’s generation of leaders and employees is more knowledgeable and self-aware than ever before, and a servant leader can capitalize on this to create strong foundations for their corporation. Generation X is the Next Line of Servant Leaders To start, generation X is now growing into management and leadership roles within companies. This generation grew up during the ‘80s and ‘90s and saw firsthand how destructive toxic leadership within corporations could be. They are the generation who developed a true disdain for office jobs and watched layoffs happen in spades. These future servant leaders don’t trust corporations and demand better service for them, which in turn, ultimately impacts their leadership style towards their team members. Generation X is very receptive to the idea of servant leadership and keen to the mental and emotional health of their employees in addition to their actual abilities. Sustainability is in High Demand Not only is the new generation of servant leaders more aware of the need for environmental sustainability, but they also recognize that corporations need to focus on sustainable business practices within. Instead of carelessly ignoring illegal or unethical business practices until they get caught, servant leadership focuses on stopping this behavior before it even has the opportunity to start. They recognize the need to treat all employees fairly to create a sustainable workforce that grows and contributes positively to reshaping the image of the corporate world. It’s Time to Rebuild with Servant Leadership To that end, the new generation of managers understands that it is time to rebuild organizations instead of tearing down the base, or the employee workforce. The global economy is still dealing with the effects of the last recession and, in many areas, is teetering on the edge of another business recession. In this environment, servant leaders must focus on engaging employees to retain their top talent. Modern employees know they have choices and are not afraid to leave one business for another with a more desirable work culture- like servant leadership. Servant leadership impacts employees personally and impacts employee retention. Etech Believes in Servant Leadership Etech embraced, developed and implemented a servant leadership foundation in 2009. It took years of intentional training and follow up, but eventually the foundation became the culture of our company. By honoring our people, our customers and our communities and choosing to lead by serving, Etech’s results and impact continue to improve and grow. Etech has a unique vision that leads the company to remain employee-centric. Etech strives to make a difference within the work culture by positively practicing servant leadership and empowering its employees to create a ripple of positivity that spreads into the local community as well. We believe in being accountable and focused on growth, and we bring these principles with us as we consult with other companies and manage our own. Come and join us to be a part of our remarkable team and be a true servant leader!

How to Build an Ideal Call Center Quality Monitoring Scorecard?

It’s crucial for call centers and QA managers to understand the Importance of using a call center QA scorecard and very few know how to build an ideal call center quality monitoring scorecard. With a successful call center monitoring strategy, companies can significantly improve customer satisfaction, employee retention, as well as their bottom line. Decision-makers can understand what does call center QA quality monitoring mean, quickly identify problems, maintain call quality standards, and improve team performance while enhancing customer satisfaction ratios. Putting in place a quality monitoring scorecard, however, can be tricky. Here is a guide to help you navigate the implementation of a functional call center monitoring scorecard strategy. Set Your Goals & Objectives What is call center quality monitoring? Most call centers have a system in place to track, evaluate and improve CX interactions, , however, every call center is unique in the way it monitors those experiences, so it’s crucial to ensure that all elements included in the scorecard are specific to your own customer and business needs, to help you measure what’s important. Ensure you know where you want to see yourself so you can create specific and actionable goals that make your support vision come to life. For instance, are you looking for ways to increase the quality of phone calls, provide faster solutions, ensure adherence to guidelines, or create a foundation for agent’s training and coaching? Accurately Define KPIs What KPIs are essential for your call center? Choosing optimal key performance indicators (KPIs) is the key in assessing call center performance. You will want to choose KPIs that align with your company’s mission, vision, and goals. Indicators that are considered to create the most significant impact on the desired goal must be prioritized. Some components to consider include customer service quality, protocol compliance, and agent’s problem-solving abilities, follow up service or call center etiquette. Make sure that the KPIs are clearly understood by everyone involved. Solicit the Input of Stakeholders Hold a meeting with your whole team to discuss the processes, strategies, and how you are going to execute the quality assurance process. See if anyone has inputs and recommendations to improve your plan. After all, agents are always on the front lines, dealing with customers daily so their experiences can provide valuable input that helps determine the benchmarks that make their customer interactions successful. When your whole team is actively involved in the process, you will have a better chance of adjusting behavior as people will show a stronger commitment to measuring up to the benchmarks they helped define. Determine the Call Center QA Monitoring Scorecard Criteria The effectiveness of your quality monitoring scorecard goes as far as the items included in the evaluation form. If you’re working with a poorly designed call scoring evaluation scorecard, you will eventually have inaccurate data that does not correctly assess agent performance or misses vital performance areas. Once you determine which metrics to hold your customer agents accountable to, creating QA criteria is easy. Develop a checklist taking into account the various metrics that suit your call center, your employees, and your company goals/values. Anywhere between 10 to 15 questions should be ideal. Instead of overwhelming your QA scorecard with dozens of questions, concentrate on the aspects of your team’s interactions that matter most to you. When it comes to the weighting criteria of each of the components, discuss how important each element is and from that determine how it should be weighted. Gather Data for Feedback QA analysts, team leaders, and analysts can gather invaluable data from a collection of scorecards, gaining a broad overview of the employees’ efficiency. From this data, you will have a better understanding of what opportunities are being missed, what areas demand improvement as well as where you are doing well. This paves the way for targeted training that builds your staff’s skills. Continually Review KPIs and Revise Your Plan as Necessary You’ll need to check your KPIs regularly to make sure your changes are maintaining an efficient and effective call center. Check your metrics and tweak them as desired to suit your workforce’s evolution and development. If the metrics on your scorecards fail to correlate with business goals, then you should consider updating them to reflect your company’s values and goals. Always solicit feedback from agents and communicate any changes you made as a result of their input. Multiple scorecards can be developed to evaluate calls, emails, live chats, social media engagements, or whatever elements you want to measure. Your call center scorecard is the foundation of your QA process, so take time to create a proper one that works perfectly for your unique business. With an effective call center monitoring system, your company not only benefits from improved quality scores but will also keep ahead of the competition and build a loyal following. To learn more about how Etech can optimize your current QA department, or help you develop/fine-tune your current QA Processes, feel free to contact us via our website.

The COVID-19 Chaos: How Remote Employees Can Avoid Phishing Attacks while Working from Home

As the world continues to deal with the COVID – 19 pandemic, many of us are finding ourselves working from home and maybe even going a little stir-crazy. Everyone has worked hard, even before most of the shelter-in-place orders, to ensure a large percentage of our workforce could work from home. While many of us have been blessed with the ability to realize a solution to keep going, we must also remain aware that cybercriminals are now going after remote employees through enhanced phishing techniques. A large percentage of these phishing attempts can be blocked at a corporate firewall, but some will ultimately make it through to the end user. The remote workforce must understand what to look for and not fall victim to these malicious actors! Cybercriminals are sending emails with screenshots to sites that look legitimate or embedding links to such sites. Some of the correspondence is attempting to make the site look genuine by acquiring a security certificate. However, anyone can acquire a certificate. Several of us have been told that if a website address starts off with https://, the s at the end of the http signifies the site is secure. This, however, does not mean the site is not malicious in nature. A site with an https:// does not provide any guarantees that the site is actually legitimate! Some of these websites even have a “This site is secure” statement. Specifically, it says, “The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website….” Here’s the deal: The https:// part of an address (also called “Secure Sockets Layer” or SSL) merely indicates the data being transmitted between your browser and the site is encrypted and cannot be read by a third party. However, the presence of “https://” or a padlock in the browser address bar does not mean the site is legitimate, nor is it proof the site has been secured against intrusion from hackers. In other words, while readers should never transmit sensitive information to a site that does not use https://, the presence of this security feature tells you nothing about the trustworthiness of the website in question. Here’s a sobering statistic: According to PhishLabs, by the end of 2019, roughly three-quarters (74 percent) of all phishing sites were using SSL certificates. PhishLabs found this percentage increased from 68% in Q3 and 54% in Q2 of 2019. As stated before, anyone can acquire a security certificate and use https://. Always make sure a site is legitimate prior to accessing. Cybercriminals are becoming more sophisticated each day in their attempts to trick individuals into taking some type of bait such as clicking on a link, inputting private information into a request form, or entering a malicious site made to appear completely secure and legitimate. DO NOT FALL FOR THESE ATTEMPTS! Tips to Remember to Avoid Phishing Attacks Be cautious when opening emails Do not click on suspicious links or attachments, especially if the email was unexpected. If there is a link for a URL that looks legitimate, DO NOT CLICK THE LINK. Go to your browser and enter the URL to the actual browser bar Messages that appear urgent and state that you have a limited time to respond is a tell-tale sign of a phishing attempt If you receive a message that looks like it’s from someone you know, but appears suspicious or is asking for sensitive data, call the person or meet with them face-to-face (Facetime, MS Teams, etc.) to confirm the legitimacy of the communication Check for Spelling and Grammar errors NEVER enter credentials or other details into a form received via email or text. Cybercriminals are good at making their phishing attempts appear to come from legitimate sources such as Microsoft, Facebook, Credit Card Companies, Banks, IRS, etc. They are dependent on individuals falling for these malicious emails. Just clicking on a link or going to a site is enough to infect your system and compromise the security of your information. DO NOT FALL PREY TO THESE CRIMINALS! If you receive an email with an offer that seems too good to be true, it probably is Make sure your account has been set up with multi-factor authentication (MFA). If you are unsure if MFA has been activated on your account, contact your company’s security team or IT department Report suspicious emails to the security and/or IT department of your organization As always, thanks for reading and stay safe and secure!

Wellbeing Leadership Suggestions to Fight with COVID 2019

This is an unprecedented moment worldwide. We should come together and fight this battle against the novel coronavirus with a sense of responsibility and keep calm throughout. COVID-19 has already affected people we know, our company, our customers, our communities and our countries that we care deeply about. There is no playbook for this unprecedented moment in time, not even the experts know how it will play out. Like what we are doing at Etech, leaders should play a vital role in helping organizations tackle this moment of crisis and keep their people safe. Are you leading the right way to help your people beat COVID-19 at the workplace? Here are some points we can all consider as we navigate together through this challenging time. Lead with facts, not fear The situation surrounding COVID-19 is changing minute by minute. Your job as a leader is not to make it seem any better or worse than it is but to stay informed and communicate with clarity, candor, and care. Surface and dispel rumors When we humans perceive a gap, we just try to simply fill it, but this doesn’t always suffice the situation. If we do not address ungrounded rumors with facts, this will be damaging to our people, our work culture, and our business. Don’t forget about the human connection COVID-19 is reorganizing the way many organizations think about work. As much as we want to minimize, I expect organizations worldwide will be heavily engaged in Work from Home temporary stopgaps. These social-distancing strategies make sense for flattening the growth of the virus. Yet, they can unwittingly foster employee loneliness, a loss of “team,” and erosion in the company culture. You, as leaders, cannot allow that. It would help if you continued to communicate regularly with your team members by any and all means possible. Focus on self-care . Global economist Thierry Malleret claims, “Leading a well life boosts our immune system and is, therefore, one of the possible antidotes to the virus.” We all have a responsibility to keep ourselves fine-tuned – mind, body & spirit. You can also help your team members to boost their immunity and cope with stress by encouraging them to get enough sleep, physically move throughout the day, put precise boundaries on how often they check Coronavirus media, consciously breathing when worries arise, engaging in ways to be grateful, staying connected with others, and eating well. Make plans for recovery Our people may feel so consumed by this crisis that it is hard to imagine it ending. Please continue to remind your teams that we will get through this crisis. As some countries already are seeing some light on the other side of this pandemic, now is the time for us also to not only plan our contingency but evaluate how our recovery efforts can strengthen the capabilities and wellbeing of our workforce. How can we capture real learnings uncovered during this crisis that will benefit our people, our customers, and our companies in the long run? Are there any other opportunities to seize in the chaos? As the Coronavirus outbreak continues to worsen day by day, leaders of organizations should review and summarize guidance for fighting against this pandemic. As each workplace and workforce is different, leaders should seek advice specific to their circumstances. Continue to keep your thoughts and prayers with each of your team members, their families, and loved ones during this time.

Thinking beyond Artificial Intelligence to improve the Customer Experience

When people think of departmental barriers, they tend to think of bigger organizations. The larger a company is, the more specialized it becomes, thereby deepening departmental differences. However, Forbes notes that organizations of all sizes struggle with departmental silos. This can make it almost impossible to deliver a reliable end-to-end customer experience. Many companies turn to artificial intelligence as a crutch to resolve the issue, but this is one problem that requires a stronger focus on interpersonal skills. Identifying the Source of Turf Wars Companies require harmonious interactions to maintain high productivity levels and provide a consistently good customer experience. However, turf wars are one of the biggest organizational struggles. This may stem from differences of opinion at the top management level, which trickles down to middle management and then regular employees. Note also that turf wars may stem from competition for scarce resources. Examining the Effects of the Silo Mentality The constant turf wars further drive a wedge between workers, making it more difficult for them to collaborate. Some of the problems this can create include the following: Limited sharing of information between departments Reduced efficiency in the business Lower employee morale and trust Lower productivity levels Lower customer satisfaction All of these problems need to be addressed for a company to run smoothly. However, low customer satisfaction may quickly become the highest priority. While artificial intelligence can certainly help to bridge the gap between departments, focusing on building strong relationships and changing the organizational culture may be more effective. Using Human Intellect To Destroy Silo Barriers One of the greatest aspects of human intelligence is the capacity for change. People do not act on instincts alone. They can learn, change and grow. This is the human trait that businesses need to capitalize on to break down silo barriers. Departments can then take more effective steps toward solving this problem, instead of using artificial intelligence as a crutch. Here’s how. Encourage More Transparency Transparency in an organization demystifies what goes on in different departments. Without this, employees can work for a company for years without ever really understanding how different departments fit together to bring one common vision to fruition. When employees are more aware of what each department, manager or team is responsible for, they can better reach out for assistance when they or a client’s customers need it. Make Interdepartmental Integration Seamless Sometimes a customer may call a contact center with a problem that requires an interdepartmental solution. For example, an employee may have upgraded a subscription, but a glitch in the system led to two charges: the original price and the upgraded price. The finance department will need to provide a refund. The tech team will need to address the glitch. The customer service rep may then act as a liaison. Companies may use artificial intelligence to automate updates to the customer as well as the feedback process. Create More Interdepartmental Goals Companies too often create goals backed by incentives that pitch employees, teams, and departments against each other. Instead, managers should work together to create goals that require collaboration across the board. For example, a company may decide to improve efficiency by 10% in 180 days. To achieve this, they may task the engineers with improving the functions of applications that rely on artificial intelligence, such as data analytics and chatbots. Engineers would need to work with customer service reps to find out more about the customer experience and their concerns. Provide Opportunities for Socializing When it comes to solving serious problems like low customer satisfaction and reduced employee productivity, social gatherings are the last thing on a manager’s mind. However, social events can help to reduce some of the tension between departments by compelling people to get to know each other better in a more relaxed setting. Companies can increase the likelihood of this on a daily basis by providing more interdepartmental common areas. The Bottom Line When It Comes to Silos Companies across multiple industries rely on artificial intelligence to help them tie all the different aspects of a business together. AI also helps them to transform the customer experience for the better. However, AI alone cannot save a business from itself. Managers must encourage interdepartmental collaboration to break down internal barriers. Until this happens, a company’s divisiveness will continue to reflect in increased call transfers and overall confusion when handling customer requests. At Etech, we believe combing a mix of human intelligence & Artificial Intelligence is the key to tackle the damaging effects of silos. By focusing more on cooperating across departments, we are better able to serve our clients and their customers. Contact us today for more information. This blog was earlier published on LinkedIn.

How does Your Company Culture Impact Your Overall Business?

When you want your business profits to grow, if you are like many businesses you probably re-evaluate your strategy and cut expenses where you can. When it comes to delivering for your stakeholders there is one critical element that can trump all others: company culture. Contrary to what some business owners may believe, company culture is more than just a buzzword. Your team is your business, and so serving those you have the previlige to lead by creating and supporting a great company culture must be the priority. Not convinced? Companies that focus on creating a positive culture tend to earn more than their competitors. No doubt why Peter Drucker is known for this famous quote, “culture eats strategy for breakfast”. Here’s how prioritizing a positive company culture can help your business grow. Positive Company Culture Increases Employee Retention and Decreases Turnover Simply put, employees who are happier at work are less likely to quit. While you can find replacement employees, running a business with a high turnover rate can quickly become expensive. Each time you need to hire someone new, your business must invest in advertising; spend time interviewing and evaluating applicants…not to mention the high cost of training. When an employee quits, there’s always the question of how other workers will make up for their absence. More often than not, being understaffed negatively impacts the productivity of your remaining employees. This can decrease company morale. Depending on your industry, you also may need to pay overtime to make sure your company stays on track. The result of high turnover is a combination of overworked, less productive employees, and increased operational costs — two things any business wants to avoid. Great Culture Makes Employees More Productive Employees who feel appreciated aren’t just less likely to quit — they also are more likely to be more productive at work. One study even found that workers who are unhappy at work are, on average, 10 percent less productive than happy employees. It’s a logical conclusion; when employees feel their company doesn’t care about them, they’re less likely to go the extra mile for their company. Of course, culture isn’t the only thing that impacts employee happiness. Adequate pay, health benefits, having a worthwhile cause, sense of community, development opportunities and the ability to achieve work-life balance are important factors as well. But if you want to make sure you’re running a productive company, taking steps to ensure a welcoming environment and overall employee satisfaction is a vital place to start. Great Culture Facilitates Development In a company environment that emphasizes the negative, employees may feel defensive and closed off when it comes time to review performance. However, if your company has adopted a supportive culture of coaching, your employees are more likely to be open. It’s important for your team to know how much you care. A healthy company culture leverages and praises strengths while offering a framework for employee development and growth. If employees sense that you’re willing to invest in them (rather than criticize their weaknesses), they’re more likely to react positively to constructive feedback. A growth-focused work environment also facilitates employee engagement, which usually results in a focused workforce of people who are self-motivated to respond to coaching and improve impacting your bottom line. Great Culture Supports Unity and Brand Recognition A clearly defined company culture has a host of benefits for your employees. Still, it also has the potential to positively shape the way your company appears to customers and clients. When your employees feel your company values are present and know they are more than just words on a wall, they’re more likely to live them. This translates to a focused, unified community that inspires confidence in your customers, making them more likely to want to grow with you. Great Culture Fosters Open Communication While a positive company culture makes it easier for your employees to improve, it also offers opportunities for you to improve the working environment. For instance, many businesses have begun adopting an open office style. In some cases, this is a good thing — it makes collaboration more comfortable, and it helps employees feel like part of a team. It also makes it easier for employees to get to know one another, which can improve morale. On the other hand, open offices also can compromise focus and productivity as they increase distraction risk. Ultimately, the personalities of your employees and the nature of the work they do should dictate which environment is best. If your company has adopted a healthy and communicative culture, you can talk to your employees to determine which setting they prefer. In a culture that’s more closed off, it can be not very easy to get honest answers from those who work for you. When you and your employees can communicate honestly, it leads to better working conditions for everyone, which almost always translates to improved culture, results and profits. The Bottom Line In a business world where many owners and managers value profit above all, it’s easy to disregard the importance of company culture. However, with 20 years of experience in focusing on servant leadership and creating a great company culture at Etech, we have seen the tangible benefits of a motivated, more engaged and happier workforce. When you take meaningful steps towards creating a positive company culture, you’ll come closer to creating a working environment your employees look forward to coming to, as well as a business they’re proud to work for. Find out more about what it takes to create a positive culture in your company today. This blog was earlier published on LinkedIn.

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