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Improving Contact Center Compliance With Improved Data Analysis Technology

The managers and team leaders overseeing the operations of a contact or call center have a lot of work to do even outside of the pressing daily tasks of coaching agents, assisting customers, and reporting to superiors in the company hierarchy. Contact center leaders are often responsible for tracking the data required to maintain compliance with all relevant regulations. Any lapse in compliance could leave a company open to complicated problems later on; various sanctions may be leveled and operations will almost certainly suffer. Although there is no question that compliance is a necessary part of overseeing contact center operations, the amount of information that must be gathered and analyzed means that obligatory record keeping can fall behind. Speech analytics can actually help improve compliance in several ways, including Eliminating compliance risk with the help of improved data collection, scoring, and analysis Improving agent performance by pinpointing specific shortcomings and areas in need of improvement Driving revenue through improved delivery of service and expedited resolution of concerns Eliminating Risk One of the strongest advantages that analysis systems bring to a contact center is the ability to monitor the entire body of calls passing through the center, the attributing a score and analysis to each one. Trends can be viewed on a daily basis or even several times a day to see emerging trends. Not only is this valuable technical solution capable of gathering and recording data with an accuracy beyond what individual team members can accomplish, it can do so at a speed and volume that would require an enormous team of people. This is a good way to pinpoint agents performing very well as well as team members in need of additional coaching. Improving Coaching of Call Center Agents Systems that analyze speech can quickly identify words and phrases that indicate dissatisfaction, confusion, disapproval, and anger; it can also pick out the bits of speech associated with satisfaction, trust, and approval. Agents connected with calls identified as having unsatisfactory outcomes can receive personalized coaching based on the highly precise information collected by the analytical system. One of the primary complaints of agents leaving contact center positions relates to the lack of guidance and coaching provided by leaders. Often, coaching is simply left undone because of the many other concerns that departmental managers must address each day. Analytics helps eliminate the guesswork from coaching and so makes the entire process much more efficient. Driving Revenue Creation Positive experiences encourage customers to return and make it much more likely that they will recommend a brand to others; personalized follow-ups asking customers to leave reviews will help raise the profile of a company online and add to its reputation. All these outcomes are directly related to enhanced revenue generation. Furthermore, analytics can help agents identify which customers are most likely to be responsive to various upsells and additional services. Clearly, systems capable of analyzing the speech of customers making inbound calls have a lot to offer. The operation of contact centers can be enhanced in many ways while simultaneously supporting operational goals common to the entire company. This blog was first published on LinkedIn.

4 Secrets To Flawless Conversion Rate Optimization

Are you aware that about 25% of the phone calls received by call centers are evaluation calls, prank calls, fax tones or hang-ups? All these “no opportunity” calls reduce your bottom line. And, seeing as all calls received at a call center, irrespective of the call type, generates a cost, it’s essential to choose a call center that provides callers with an active and interactive first experience to improve your 75% chance. When managing a call center, it is all about turning leads into sales. Constant high volumes of conversions generate sustainable revenue over long-term projections. However, call centers will unavoidably experience extended periods of slumps in lead conversion rates. During periods of long lulls in sales volume, it becomes necessary to improve the call center’s guidelines of operation to guarantee a greater lead conversion rate, and so stimulating revenue back towards sustainable ranges. Paying attention to Time-Sensitive Conversion Rates If a manager of a call center evaluates the center’s lead conversion record, it will be obvious which periods of the day most leads have a tendency to convert into sales. If a general trend shows up, where it is evident lead conversions are not taking place during the course of a time period of time each day, then a call center can suspend operations all through the particular time period in question to focus on its average lead conversion rate optimization. On the other hand, the assessment might uncover precisely how a certain day of the week is turning up considerably minimal lead conversion averages. A call center might choose to stick to a policy of not operating on a day of the week found to show such poor outcomes for the same reason. Incorporating Higher Conversion Quotas Considering the fact that a call center performance depends on stable conversion rates to stay financially viable, it is typically required to enforce a policy demanding higher conversion quotas. Holding onto employees who do not possess the proficiency for making sales or meeting quotas is a waste of time and funds. For that reason, it is sensible to go through individual employee conversion rate reports on the lookout for employees who show weak lead conversion efficiency. By changing employees who are not achieving quotas with new agents who will be able to match or even go beyond quotas, you can actually get great conversion rates optimization for the call center. Limiting the Obligations of Your Campaign Manager Difficulties will usually present themselves in a company’s call center performance if the campaign manager is busy with a great number of other activities and duties. Creating a highly effective call center campaign requires an intense level of focus on essential details. Obtaining the phone script to read through well, placing the right callers with the right experience on the campaign, and updating details in the course of execution are all specifics requiring regular monitoring to guarantee optimum results. Such level of accuracy is tough to make certain if the company’s campaign manager is solving way too many different tasks in the organization. The inherent disturbance of their concentration just being divided is a potential reason for a reduction in conversion rates never to be overlooked or taken for granted. For this reason, operational policy should lay down constraints on completely unrelated duties, as a result getting rid of such distractions from inhibiting the focus and efforts of the campaign manager’s improvement of effective marketing campaigns. Building a reliable call center performance and good lead conversion rate will involve putting very serious attention on operational policies. Once the policies regulating how your call center functions truly contain a strategy of success, the lead conversion rate optimization will show that the results have been accomplished. In a nutshell, this outcome will re-establish income to a healthy, sustainable level. Outsourcing The policy change driving the outsourcing of numerous aspects of a company in-house call center’s tasks to a third-party call center will certainly help boost conversion rates optimization. A third party call center might focus on dealing with other aspects of business, like making appointments, handling a client-based hotline, tech support, or manage billing and collection services. This outsourcing benefit certainly will enable a company’s in-house call center to focus on lead conversions without some other business-related distractions. Call volumes increase and decrease, so an in-house call center is vulnerable to times of low volumes when agents are idle. Outsourced call centers take advantage of multiple customers, which helps lessen the severity of call volume peaks and lows. Agents can work a lot more efficiently, and managers can plan employees more effectively, contributing to decreasing costs-per-call. Also, outsourced call centers possess the size and team to ramp up instantly if call volumes peak as a result of seasonal activity or massive marketing campaigns. Outsourcing service level agreements (SLAs) demand all customers’ calls and also messages via other channels (like email and web chat) to be taken care of professionally. Reply time and first time call resolution is the first priorities and some of the measures of call center standard. Outsourced call centers possess monitoring tools and overall performance evaluation and improvement strategies in place to make sure SLAs are met. In-house call centers might not possess the tools or expertise meant for structured, consistent quality monitoring and overall performance improvement strategies.

Nine leadership habits of Ability, Integrity and Benevolence

I recently finished reading a book by John Blakely entitled, The Trusted Executive – Nine Leadership Habits that Inspire Results, Relationships and Reputation, and came across some important aspects mentioned within that I wanted to share with all of you. It would be great if you would take a moment to review, and reflect upon them. The Habits of Ability Choosing to deliver—People trust you when you have a track record of success. That means you follow through on your commitments and deliver results. Be sure you only make commitments you can keep and be careful of using the “P” word—promise. If you promise to do something, make sure you do it. Breaking a promise is one of the quickest ways to erode people’s trust. Choosing to coach—The number one priority of a sports coach is to help players maximize their abilities and achieve success. When leaders develop the habit of acting like a coach they put the needs of their people ahead of their own. Your job as a leader is plain and simple—help your people succeed. Choosing to be consistent—Predictable and consistent behavior is essential for being a trustworthy leader. Your people trust you when they can rely on you to act, and react, in a consistent manner. Wild swings of behavior lead people to be on edge and behaving inconsistently will cause your people to hold back on giving you their views because they aren’t sure how you’ll react when they encounter difficulties. The Habits of Integrity Choosing to be honest—Honesty is the foundation of integrity. It means you tell the truth, admit mistakes, and make ethical decisions. If people can’t trust your word, they find it hard to trust anything else about you. Choosing to be open—Trustworthy leaders share information in an open and transparent fashion. They keep their team members informed so they can make responsible decisions because without information people are shooting in the dark. Choosing to be humble—Trustworthy leaders are humble leaders. Humbleness doesn’t mean meekness; humbleness is strength under control. Leading with humility means you consider the needs of your people more important than your own. The Habits of Benevolence Choosing to evangelize—Blakey advocates that leaders need to be evangelists who spread the good news of all the great things happening in their organizations. Bad news travels like wildfire and trustworthy leaders keep their people focused on the vision and goals of the organization. Choosing to be brave—Leadership is not for the faint of heart. Leaders have to make tough decisions, often in uncertain conditions with sparse information. Trustworthy leaders demonstrate bravery by making decisions in alignment with their values and those of the organization. Choosing to be kind—Kindness should not be underestimated when it comes to building trust. Extending common courtesies, praising and recognizing team members, and building personal rapport are all ways leaders demonstrate kindness. Wow, this is some very powerful stuff and aligns very much with Etech’s Servant Leadership model. Leaders don’t become trustworthy by accident. They have to learn these skills and practice them regularly in order to form a habit of them. Developing these nine habits will help you become the kind of leaders your people not only desire but deserve.

Can Predictive Analytics Really Improve Customer Experience?

Speech analytics has become an important feature in the operation of many contact centers. These sophisticated systems have the ability to precisely identify words and phrases that can be used to guide the customer through help menus and connect them with appropriate agents. Speech systems can also be used to gather a considerable volume of information that can be used to gauge insights about a brand and many other valuable data points; the ability of these systems to collect information from the entire call made to a center means it can accomplish what even a large team of people cannot. It is not surprising that many global call center leaders have been using analytical systems to improve customer experience (CX) and accomplish other essential operational goals, including revenue, reduction in customer effort and channel switching. As advanced as these systems are, the ability to predict customer needs and behavior is even more cutting edge. Predictive analytics has gotten a lot of buzz but can it really improve CX strategies and outcomes? Solve Problems Before They Arise Systems capable of predictive analysis can provide invaluable insight into emerging problems. This peek into the near future gives business decision makers and departmental leaders time to develop strategies that address these concerns before damage control is required. Preempting problems often takes much less time and overall effort compared to repairing the damage after the fact. Often, a small increase in problems reported with a particular feature gives employees enough information that the feature can be fixed before the problem affects the broader population of users. All this means less downtime for maintenance, fewer reports related to the problem, and more effective delivery of service. Knowing that customers are likely to be calling about a particular problem also lets agents present those solutions first, thereby resolving calls in much less time. Driving Revenue Through Improved Customer Experience Analysis systems with predictive capabilities are closely related to revenue driving because they help accomplish the features of CX most closely correlated with increased revenue, namely: Research into customer demographics Insight into customer behavior Strategy for problem-solving and improved outreach Simply collecting data has never been enough to actually leverage the advantage that information volume potentially has. Smart sorting and analysis are required to perceive evolving trends and patterns. Industry insight and experience developing CX will help pinpoint the strategies most likely to achieve optimal outcomes. While no system is capable of replacing experience, CX specialists will have a much larger collection of information from which to draw conclusions about experience improvement. Outperforming Competition and Supporting Company Growth Companies that excel at CX outperform their competition, resulting in greater revenue and market domination. Widespread brand awareness also takes place as a result of improving CX strategies and delivery. Increased revenue and market domination will allow companies to grow to the next level. Identifying highly precise segments of a customer population will allow targeted messaging and service provision relevant to the concerns affecting that particular group. This nuanced segmentation of customers actually improves the likelihood that people will respond positively to outreach strategies. Implementing predictive systems will provide highly relevant data that can be immediately leveraged towards key organizational outcomes – all through improving the experience offered to customers. This blog was first published on LinkedIn.

6 Reasons To Be Customer Centric

What exactly is customer centricity and why does it matter? It’s a simple truth. Call centers realize gains when all operations fixate on its most essential asset: its customer base. Clients that use your services to make their lives better are likely to ask the questions that call centers should know the answers to. After all they came to you to improve upon their current provisions. So are you focused on your customer’s needs? Having effective, attentive, and sensible solutions to their questions could make the difference in having a regular client and a one-time, regretted acquisition. Think about your customer support team. Customer support shouldn’t just be a department; it should be a customer centric philosophy that call centers keep next to their heart. There have been many discussions online on putting the customer first and the income will come after. Both the call center and the customer are aiming for the same goals- success and profitability. They would like your service to assist them to achieve those goals and when you do everybody wins. Not to mention you get a satisfied, loyal client. Customer centricity is an advertising technique with the fundamental aim of obtaining high value clients and increasing the value of every customer relationship. It accepts that there is no “average” client and that the variations among customers indicate a chance to build more lasting, lucrative relationships via appropriate communication. Customer centricity stands in contrast to some other usual advertising and marketing techniques, like product-centricity (competitive benefit via superior product model or merchandising) or channel-centricity (concentrate on accomplishing dominance in one or maybe more channels). So let’s look at why Customer Centricity is important. It Shows You Care Clients are usually more loyal to call centers they feel a connection to; a link that will keep them coming back. Clients simply cannot connect with organizations they sense are only out to make money. So it pays to be empathetic and offer a service that really provides long term solutions that put the customer first. Be genuine and present a first class, personalized service that is designed to create a partnership that is mutually beneficial, not one sided. It Helps You Continue being Competitive in the Age of the Internet The web has totally changed the game for product development and comparison shopping. It has become much more simple for customers to purchase a product and get the very best deals. In a medium where every single business could become a player, it is now crucial that companies set themselves apart to accomplish brand loyalty. This is where customer-centric organizations prosper. Once customers feel they have a personal relationship with you, they will always be more loyal to you and your brand. Compelled Responsiveness to Feedback Can Drive Innovation Become customer centric and push yourself to accept feedback (good or bad), and shift company attention accordingly. It could present your business with the specifics and statistics it requires to re-evaluate approach and take a look at processes via a different set of eyes. It pinpoints exactly what could be improved for the better specifically for your customers. Thus allowing you to create tailored solutions to meet your customer’s needs. A simple way to obtain authentic customer feedback is to tap into the call center. Follow customer conversations and look for trends that might appear. Note if clients are usually visiting your service team for a particular benefit or service, and find out if there could be a chance for your team to adapt and become even more of an asset to them. Clients pay back Anticipatory Service with More Loyalty and Long term Value Advanced businesses assess their customers’ long term value or profitability. Life time worth is dependent on the income acquired from a client over the entire lifespan of an active account. Fulfilling or exceeding customers’ support anticipation maximizes their longevity and, because of this, maximizes their value. The concept of customer relationships is simple and easy; the value you receive is proportionate to the value you provide. To achieve and maintain this equilibrium today’s companies have to set up a dialogue with clients that exhibits an awareness of their information requirements as well as respect for their communication choices. The more contacts made with a client, the “stickier” that client gets. Once clients are regularly provided valuable information this stickiness can easily form a long lasting bond of loyalty. Greater Customer Retention VS the Expense of Gaining New Customers What exactly is the cost of adding a new client or replacing lost business? Think about the very competitive telecommunications industry. Carriers calculate their cost per subscriber to be anywhere between $275 and $425. On average, it might take 12-16 months to get back that first investment. Therefore, carriers don’t start gaining from a new client until the last few months of a usual two-year contract agreement. Here’s where proactive customer service can put a real dent in client churn. What if carrier agents’ engagement is proactive and clients are advised in advance that their prepaid accounts are almost finished? Or better still, to let them know about more favorable calling plans based on their phone usage patterns? Though customers might change to lower cost plan, the value of locking clients into new two-year contracts is very easy to measure. Not to mention good customer service and retention often equal higher Net Promoter Scores and positive feedback keeping the flow of customers coming in while keeping the current customer base intact. Call Center Proficiency Develops with Lessened Call Volume and Automated Outreach Take a look at your present call center techniques for customer support trends. Are clients calling in to get more detailed informative type transactions? Do they undergo a workflow process for instance mortgage financing authorization? More often than not when clients who happen to be making a transition through a phased process get in touch with a business they’re only looking for a status update. You can actually improve agents’ engagement by

5 Winning Strategies to Lead Your Team

The overall success of a call center depends heavily on the management team and others in positions of leadership. Communication is the basis for good leadership, but there are five other essential strategies a contact center manager can put to good use while leading a team to success. 1. Listen Leaders should be able to listen just as well as they speak. Not only is it important to listen, it is equally important to hear what is being said. To better accomplish this, call center managers should ask their team members questions to ensure understanding and keep everyone on the same page. This will save time, resources, energy and help build trust. 2. Ask Rather Than Tell A call center manager should also think of him or herself as a coach. What this means is that managers should give team members the opportunity to learn on their own rather than provide them with answers all the time. It’s easy for managers to want to share their expertise, but by asking team members questions and allowing the self-discovery process to unfold managers will enable team members to learn and better prepare team members to handle things on their own in the future. It will also lead to higher satisfaction and a sense of accomplishment. 3. Establish Role & Responsibility Expectations Everyone in a contact center has a role to play, and it’s essential that everyone knows just what their role is. Just like potential employees base their decision of whether to apply for a job based on the position’s listed duties, managers should provide employees with a list of key responsibilities to make sure employees know their role and what will be expected of them. 4. Set Clear and Realistic Expectations Regarding Key Goals Besides job duties, call center employees should know the target for which they are aiming while carrying out their duties. Goals should be set and agreed upon by a contact center manager and the employee during a goal setting session. This will help create buy in and increase the chance of success. While establishing goals, it’s a good idea to determine: How much time is needed to accomplish the goal What resources and support will be needed The reason for setting and accomplishing the goal Benefits of accomplishing the goal &/or consequences of not achieving 5. Meet with Employees in Regular Meetings Progress reports are essential to keeping everyone accountable and on track. It will also help to ensure barriers can be broken down proactively and small victories can be celebrated along the way. A coaching manager should be sure to meet with their team as a whole as well as team members individually. Such meetings are where everyone can discuss whether goals are being met, if solutions need to be developed and if everything is going according to schedule. These strategies will not only help managers lead their team, they’ll help bring team members and managers closer as well. Even better is the fact that team members are bound to feel more like vital members of the group, which leads to better job satisfaction and employee retention.

Can Contact Center Quality Assurance Be Improved Through Speech Analytics?

When customers reach your contact center they need to have an experience that meets their needs, resolves their concerns, and establishes the trust required for a continued relationship with a company. Effective leaders should establish protocols for assessing that quality in order to ensure that customers consistently receive the very best service. Quality assurance provides valuable insight into current operations and can be used to develop strategies for improvement. Collecting data about the customer experience is a necessary part of achieving these target outcomes and of meeting other department goals. Speech analytics can play a critical role in making existing data collection more effective and accelerating data collection in order to review goals in the future. Many enhanced outcomes can be achieved with the help of this revolutionary technology. Difficult Tasks Are Easier to Accomplish In many ways, speech analytics has been regarded as a true game changer in many dimensions of business and in call center operations in particular. Traditionally, quality assessment operations involve managers reviewing the entire record of calls made to identify the outstanding examples that require additional attention. Calls noteworthy for their positive or negative results are selected. Agents responsible for positive outcomes can be recognized and commended for their efforts. Any agents responsible for negative outcomes can receive coaching to improve their service. Even though only 10 – 20 percent of calls will be included in this review sample, data must be submitted for each one in order to gauge call center quality results over a period of time. This time-consuming process can be greatly aided by automated monitoring. Automated systems can accomplish many tasks that would ordinarily require manual oversight: Monitor the entire volume of incoming calls Categorize all calls for more effective analysis Identify emerging patterns and evolving trends Target coaching topics for agents Departmental leaders that choose to integrate automated speech analysis systems have been rewarded with a wealth of valuable information that can be sorted into useful categories with much less time. The labor-intensive monitoring and follow-up required for quality assurance can be simplified without sacrificing any effectiveness. In fact, with the help of automated coaching suggestions from the system, phone agents receive direct and personalized assistance in much less time. Given that lack of coaching and guidance is a primary cause of dissatisfaction among call center agents, this function can enhance the stability of center operations in many ways. Providing Necessary Support for Evolving Quality Assurance Concerns Quality assurance assessments have always been crucial to solving the enormous puzzle of customer experience and satisfaction. As business leaders discover new ways to think about customer experience, new data points will need to be considered in the quality assurance process. An automated system with integrated analytics for speech will be ahead of the curve with the flexibility required to grow with your company’s needs. This is an ideal addition to any contact or call center wishing to remain at the forefront of customer service delivery.

Improving the Customer Experience With Personalization

Customer service has long been a cornerstone of business success and, in a way, this is never going to change. What has changed is the way we think and talk about the experiences customers have with the companies they choose to patronize. This comprehensive and dynamic perspective is what makes the field of customer experience a more effective approach than a straightforward focus on the delivery of service. Customer experience (CX) encompasses many nuances of interactions between companies and company representatives and their customers. Data gathered through analytics can help business leaders develop improved experiences for their customers but sometimes strong, lasting results can seem elusive. Personalization is an excellent way to rethink the cultivation of experience for customers. Furthermore, a more personalized approach can help various departments finally achieve CX goals that have not been met by using other strategies. A Closer Look at Personalization Personalized customer experience speaks directly to the way that customers behave when they interact with your company. The way that this personalized experience is delivered to customers naturally varies from one company to another but certain commonalities exist. For instance, customer feedback is often solicited with the help of messaging that reflects the particulars of a customer’s recent past behavior. This high degree of personalization is made possible through careful tracking and record-keeping systems. Data collection is can be a very neglected part of CX development even though this information provides direct insight into customer activity, including emerging patterns of behavior. In short, personalization can accomplish a few key outcomes, including: Generating prompt customer response to requests for feedback Driving the submission of reviews and ratings Initiating personal contact following a customer’s experience with a brand or product As these examples will show, the effort put into personalization can have very positive benefits for a company seeking CX improvement. Personalized Customer Feedback After a transaction has been completed, customers can be sent a feedback form. Personalized data can be used to inquire about specific products or services purchased by the customer; other specifics about the transaction, such as on-time delivery, can also be used in the messaging of these feedback forms. Responsive Thank You Notes Thank you notes can also be personalized with the same details that make feedback forms stand out. In fact, certain systems even allow the display of different responses based on feedback from input; for instance, customers can be thanked for purchasing a service contract and receive information regarding the date of the first scheduled engagement. Highly positive feedback can trigger a screen or note encouraging customers to leave a review online. This is a good way to increase the number of reviews left for a company or service because customers are at their most engaged at this moment in the experience cycle. Initiating Personalized Follow-Up Certain customer responses lead naturally to follow-up from a customer service agent or other company representative. This contact is perhaps most commonly associated with dissatisfactory customer experiences but this can follow many different kinds of feedback. Agents can confirm contracted service scheduling and other matters with this personalized contact. Personalization is a natural way to improve CX outcomes and meet goals identified with CX experts within your organization. This blog was first published on LinkedIn.

4 Ideas To Offer Exceptional Customer Experience Through Social Media

Are your clients on social media? Do you relate with them? The key to actually making use of social media for multichannel customer support is to concentrate, take action and make the most advantage of what your network tells you to improve productivity. Social media websites like Facebook and Twitter have advanced to emerge as more than new platforms for advertising and publicity. They are additionally legit and vital channels through which consumers solicit and get multichannel customer support. About half of United States, purchasers uses social media to make inquiries, report satisfaction, or to make complaints and a 3rd of social media users opt for “social care” to the phone. “Social care” is not a brand new idea, yet offering multichannel customer support that includes social media can become real demanding situations for call centers both large and small—as well as possibilities to impact productivity and consumer loyalty. The truth is that multichannel customer support expectations are growing yearly and clients are looking for call centers to create a seamless experience that spans the showroom floor to the Facebook timeline. Only having a social media presence is no longer enough; you need to be a social media celebrity to enhance productivity. In this article, you’ll find out four ways to offer excellent multichannel customer support via social media. 1. Be Where Your Customers are One of the primary challenges to providing a strong multichannel customer support over social media is figuring out where to direct your time and resources. While advertising and marketing efforts might drive visitors to targeted social sites, customer service groups have to meet their clients where they are already socializing. For most call centers, Facebook and Twitter will be the primary target for social care, but some call center may discover that their clients also use Google+, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Instagram, or other social websites frequently. To determine where your customers are, look for mentions of your call center in popular social media. Whether that is an initial step toward growing a social media presence or something your marketing department already did, it’s a big mistake to leave dialogue about your call center solely to online commenter’s and the Google search set of rules. If you discover that clients are not yet speaking about your call center online, look for ways to include yourself in conversations related to call centers. The way to be welcomed into social conversations is to add value. Because of the customer and not the call center wields the most power over a call center image on social media, the bottom line is that neglecting conversations that arise on websites like Facebook and Twitter may have astonishing consequences. Conversocial said that 88% of consumers are less in all likelihood to buy from an organization that leaves questions on social media unanswered. 2. Ask for Feedback Leverage offline channels to promote online reviews. If you’ve got a call center, an e-mail database or different platforms where your company communicates with clients, ask customers to recollect leaving reviews for your social channels. You can inspire customers to publish on Facebook or leave a comment online. Keep in thoughts that some review sites like Yelp have guidelines that state corporations can not explicitly ask customers to leave comments. 3. Solve Issues Promptly Another way to make your customers happy and show them you care is to address any problems right away, whether or not it’s a query or a complaint. That is, continuously tracking social media accounts so you can see remarks and reply as soon as it’s being posted. Set up a unique business policy with detailed steps to exhibit the way you want to handle complaints. Take it a step ahead and try to apprehend why your client had an issue or question in the first place, and take note of how regularly he or she contacts your business. When you make an unhappy client into a satisfied one, you get a brand advocate as a result thus increasing your productivity. Also, in case your company meets itself in a social media crisis, irrespective of the type or origin, own up to it and deal with it immediately. Your customers’ persistence and the experience in general receives challenges mostly during issues times. Identify keywords and set up signals to stay on top of the situation. Direct clients to an online crisis center with useful links for current information so that they feel cared for and updated. A social media crisis is the moment of reality for any company. It can both make or destroy your business, so take it very seriously and manage it. 4. Share Customer Insights Share client remarks in your organization. Use the “What, So What and Now What” framework to share applicable and beneficial customer insights with different departments of your company. Depending on your enterprise’s size, right here are some departments you may want to talk with: Give the studies and development team a heads-up about product issues. Talk to your company’s legal group about possible lawsuits or the particular customers to watch out for. Share with the executive group any facts about marketplace positioning and competitor product announcements which is making social buzz. Conclusion Managing customer service on social channels can be hard. To be successful, you need to have a great customer support tactics at hand. Also, pay very close attention to community comments to guide your business goals from introducing new products based totally on consumer demand to developing a great brand notion. Since social media is now people’s number one platform of getting in touch with brands, it’s more essential than ever to be in total control of your social media presence. Customer experience is beneficial in improving customer satisfaction. Be nice to your customers, listen to them and they will become loyal to you and your call center.

5 Strategies to Help Improve Customer Experience With Speech Analytics

Call centers are constantly searching for new ways to boost their customer experience and customer service capabilities, and advanced technology, specifically speech analytics, can provide call centers more insight into their customers as well as their desires. Speech analytics is the process of analyzing recorded calls to gather customer information to improve communication and future interaction. When used correctly, such analytics can give your call center a distinct advantage and make everyone’s job that much easier. Here are five effective strategies for boosting customer experience with powerful analytics. 1. Get to the Root of Customer Displeasure Sometimes when a customer contacts your contact center, he or she will tell you exactly what the issue is. Other times, the explanation might be vague or simply misunderstood by the employee taking the call. Analytics are designed to remove the confusion from the equation so you know exactly why a customer is unhappy. Speech analytics tools accomplish this by studying the caller’s voice to pinpoint language that indicates displeasure, raised tones and over talk. This enables employees to resolve issues faster and to the caller’s satisfaction. 2. Pinpoint and Resolve Issues That Lead to Inefficiency We live in a world where you have quick and easy access to products and services, which means that callers expect quick resolutions, which lead to better customer experience. Leaving someone on hold for a second longer than necessary could result in a disgruntled customer. Analytics is made to examine holds and long stretches of silence to determine what’s going wrong. Whatever the problem might be, it can be better resolved with the right analytics program. 3. Target Offers to the Right Caller and Customer One size does not fit all. Rather than taking the shotgun approach when it comes to suggesting offers to customers, speech analytics allows you to pinpoint customers who are more likely to respond favorably to specific offers. What happens is analytics can uncover purchasing habits and trends to determine which offers an individual person is most likely to respond to. Now you can better target your marketing and advertising efforts without wasting time, resources or energy. 4. Better Call Center Agents Make for Happier Customers Analytics is just as beneficial for call center agents as it is for callers. Managers are able to listen in on agents to see how well they adhere to any mandatory scripting, company policy or standards they should follow. The data gathered through analytics can be used to better train current as well as future call center agents, making them more effective and confident in their jobs. 5. Keep Customers Coming Back When customers feel they are not being well taken care of, they are likely to take their business elsewhere. The data gathered by analytics can be used to better satisfy customers and keep them coming back to your company, boosting overall loyalty. Something else to think about is the fact that satisfied customers are more likely to tell other people about your company, which can bring in new business and even more satisfied customers. Speech analytics can provide a huge boost to your business. Be sure you have a solid plan of action for your software and ensure you are using the tool to its full potential.

Improving Contact Center Operation With Speech Analytics

Contact centers are very busy places and agents have to work hard to address all customer concerns as they arise. While some concerns can be addressed in fairly short order, some situations involve the need for more in-depth problem solving; at times, more experienced agents or managers may need to take over the resolution process in order for circumstances to be fully resolved. The things that customers say during these interactions and in the steps leading up to call center interaction can be regarded as a valuable source of data regarding customer opinion about an organization. Speech analytics is a practice that looks at this data systematically in order to learn how customers feel about an organization. Gauging customer attitude about companies and brands helps leaders assess if various outreach and marketing strategies have been effective; within the contact center itself, judging customer attitude and desires can help make the entire process of speaking with an agent much more effective. Streamlining the Handling of Inbound Calls Initiating various contact center protocols can be surprisingly difficult, which leaves customers having to reiterate their concerns to a series of agents before they finally speak with someone that is capable of helping them. Each time the steps are repeated the customer will get increasingly impatient with the company – this is especially true when customers are dissatisfied in the first place. Speech analytics can be used to streamline this entire process and connect customers to the appropriate agents with less delay. This saves considerable time on the customer’s part. Agents whose efforts are a better fit for resolving other concerns can focus their attention on other calls, while customers in need of particular attention can be routed directly to relevant personnel. Obtaining an Accurate View of Brand Opinion Customer attitude about a company and the brand that represents it can change for many reasons. Quality assurance agents, as well as employees that oversee contact center operations, have to stay informed of emerging trends related to the perception of a brand and customer opinion of a company. There are many reasons why this is so important; for instance: Recent product or service overhauls can result in short-term souring of public opinion The introduction of a new website or new online services might be positive, but require intensive guidance until users gain comfort Consumer behavior and attitudes particular to identified demographics can be precisely assessed The large-scale effect of brand image improvement can be assessed Dips in opinion can signal the need for new outreach and marketing strategy deployment Although the information provided by the analytical systems deployed in your contact center may not appear to mean much in isolation, insightful quality assurance and customer experience administrators will be able to see how the data can be applied to the development of new strategies. Leveraging the Customer as a Source of Information Once you think about it, it is pretty easy to see how the customer is a source of a great deal of information about your company. The opinions and feelings that your customers have about your organization and its products can be used to refine the customer experience while also guiding the development of more effective outreach techniques. Speech analytics can play an important role in the achievement of these and other goals. This blog was first published on LinkedIn.

7 Secrets to Employee Happiness and Satisfaction

Let employees Have More Control “Happiness is affected by employee’s sense of control over their lives,” says Rubin. Call center owners have to look for ways to give contact center agents more control over their schedules, work environment, and work behavior. For example, employers could present different work schedules similar to flextime or telecommuting. Nowadays, contact center agents have cumbersome schedules after work, and lots of employees respect a boss who considers work-life balance. Every man or woman’s tasks outside of work are not the same; therefore, personalized schedules are an exceptional way to enhance employee satisfaction. Employers must additionally encourage contact center agents to personalize their workstations. They can incorporate décor and equipment. This not only offers staff more control over their work environment; however, it can also abate personal limitations like back pain or eyestrain. Also, reports exhibit that specific colors or décor can reinforce happiness. Employees will likely be able to create a position they revel in working in alternatively than being caught in an unpleasant work cubicle. A different option to give employees a sense of control is to effect employee-driven competitions like customer satisfaction competitions. These events put the contact center agents in control of their success. Each and every employee can set individual ambitions, and they are going to feel a sense of achievement rather than duty. Goals Call center owners with apparently outlined goals should permit each employee to connect what they do to the objectives of the call center, giving them a sense of achievement and motive. Having a clear path and inkling to what has to be finished by each employee and collaboratively as a team, sets employees up for achievement. When all contact center agents are completely happy to come to work each day, they take delight in the work they’re doing, the call centers they represent and the staff around them, for this reason, are influenced to place their best foot ahead. Encourage with the use of incentives Having a bit healthy competition is nothing bad. Competition keeps contact center agents on their toes, and in the process making the work day enjoyable and upbeat. You don’t want something too dramatic or whatever that might evoke a lot jealousy. If cash prizes aren’t the correct fit for your work place, you could offer a gift card or a work-from-home day as an alternative. Place the competition itself on anything regarding work. It might be about who receives the most positive reviews from callers or who helped the most customers on the telephone that month. No matter what the contest might be about, make it an ongoing occasion so that it acquires momentum and contact center agents are prompted to work harder to win the prize. If one prize isn’t working, then you could constantly check out other prizes. Positivity To get the advantages of pleasant contact center agents, employers must keep things positive and fun at work. Not every agent is going to be delighted daily, but have you heard the old saying, “fake it until you make it?” Well, this applies to a positive behavior too. Immediately you and your employees get in the habit of making every day positive, you’ll start to discover how little matters does not drag the whole team down again and the spirit of the team is heightened. Encourage Social Connections Socialization is a key aspect of happiness. “Interacting with others gives people a boost in mood – surprisingly, this is true even for introverts,” – Rubin. Employers must find approaches to encourage social relations amongst their contact center agents. Make use of office arrangement that promotes communication. Organize workstations so contact center agents can see each other and interact. Employers should also encourage office celebrations for vacations and birthdays. These celebrations don’t have luxurious. It can be as simple as asking everybody to bring in a covered dish. Even when there’s no motive to rejoice, encourage workers to eat lunch together. Provide a comfy eating area. Socialization shouldn’t be restrained to office hours. Motivate out of work environment socialization example; volunteer packages. This gives contact center agents an opportunity to develop relationships outside of work environment and at the same time promoting the call center in a good way. Community service is an excellent way to get a positive reputation, and it’s serves as a boost for employee satisfaction. “Those who work to further causes they value tend to be happier and healthier, experience fewer aches and pains, and even live longer,” says Rubin. Encourage Good Health Bad health isn’t only harmful to staff, it’s damaging to corporations. “Businesses pay a substantial rate for stress-related sicknesses, like hypertension, gastrointestinal problems, and substance abuse,” says Rubin. “Up to 90% of all doctor visits in the United States are for stress-related illnesses,” according to Dr. Mehet Oz of the Dr. Oz Show. Acute stress has several side effects like weight gain, reduced immune system, accelerated risk of sickness, and fatigue. Employers should inspire contact center agents to diminish stress phases and fortify their overall well being. The first step is to coach employees on health matters is to provide reading materials or give seminars. People cannot make positive alterations if they don’t know what to alter. Once employees learn about health issues like stress, exercising, and healthy consumption, starts a health related competition like the Biggest Loser. This presents staff motivation and a support process. If the entire work environment is involved, employees will more seemingly to achieve their targets. To support contact center agents make positive lifestyle alterations, have a kitchen prepared with a fridge and microwave to organize healthy meals. Research suggests that preparing meals is better than eating out. Also, motivate breaks for the duration of the day. Even small amounts of recreation throughout the day are necessary. In line with Dr. Oz, “Exercise releases serotonin and dopamine, the feel-good hormones that become blocked during stress. Walking stairs is a great workout. One study showed that walking stairs 7

How to Improve Customer Experience Through Effective Quality Monitoring

Companies are always looking for effective and cost-efficient ways to improve their bottom line, and one of the best ways to do that is by improving the customer experience. After all, it does not make much sense to offer the best products or services in your industry if your customers are not happy. Focusing more on quality assurance through quality monitoring can both help improve your customer experience and gather feedback to improve your products and services. The Facts Let’s look at some of the facts and figures associated with the current state of customer service. Research has shown that roughly 20 percent of consumers place price over customer service, nearly 40 percent of consumers do not reach out to the companies they do business with, and customers who do reach out don’t do so very often. What this data shows is that a majority of shoppers are willing to pay more for a product if the company is known for having great customer service. This means that a company should make sure their customer service is of the same caliber as the prices they’re asking for their services or products. If customers spend top dollar on an expensive product but have trouble getting in touch with someone who can answer a simple question, they’re unlikely to continue to do business with that company. Moreover, those individuals are likely to leave bad reviews and share their experiences on social media, which can cost the company future business. When consumers are not reaching out to companies, part of the reason might be that they have had poor customer service experiences in the past. Companies have an opportunity to set the bar for customer service and change consumers’ minds about what excellent customer service is, which can make customers more willing to reach out to them in the future if they ever have questions or concerns. In order to understand what works with their customers, companies need to assume a proactive role in discovering what their customers are saying by monitoring those interactions for quality assurance. How Monitoring Solutions Work The central purpose of quality assurance is to gauge representative performance and determine Key Performance Indicator (KPI) or Key Success Indicators (KSI) metrics. These metrics help companies develop their definition of success and keep track of the behaviors that support that definition. One of the most essential things to bear in mind when it comes to KPI and KSI is that the metrics differ from company to company. When cultivating indicator measurements, the monitoring solution gathers information such as the following: How many calls the customer service team or call center receives. The length of time it takes for representatives to answer calls. The number of customers pleased with the services they received. Even though customer service agents can potentially gather this information on their own, companies might prefer to implement software instead. The results are more accurate, easier to organize, more complete and free of personal opinion, which can skew the results. The results provided by software let companies know where they’re doing well in terms of customer services, which areas need improvement and whether there are potential opportunities of which they may not be aware. Properly Utilizing KPI and KSI Metrics To leverage the data generated by quality monitoring solutions, it’s not enough that you simply gather information; you have to know how to effectively use the data and engage your company hierarchy in the process. In addition to sharing data with managers and department heads, front-line employees should also be included. Customer service agents are critical to the customer experience, so they need to understand the rationale behind putting new technology in place. Knowing you’re taking steps to make their jobs easier and giving them the tools they need can enhance their employee satisfaction levels and they may also have suggestions of their own about improving customer service. Share the results of metrics both on an individual customer service agent level and on a team level. You can also use the results of the metrics and monitoring solution in future company decisions. For instance, the gathered data can help you decide which changes to your customer service department will be the most effective, and the metrics may even help with your next marketing campaign. Additional Steps for Effective Customer Service Improvement While using monitoring solutions is a great first step in making your customer service capabilities stronger, it’s only part of the equation. As you’re gathering, sharing and implementing data, be sure you ask customers and callers how they feel about your company’s customer service capabilities and alignment with promises made in your marketing or advertising. You might already know how difficult it can be to keep callers on the line, so give them a good reason to stick around such as a discount or a free service or product in exchange for their participation. In addition to monitoring phone calls, it’s also best to monitor all other forms of customer communication. This is an especially good idea since a majority of today’s consumers prefer not to communicate over the phone. Gather data from live chat and email correspondences to discover valuable information, such as customer pain points. These pain points indicate the issues customers have with your products, services and your company in general. Customers may not call or communicate with you to specifically discuss these pain points but they can be elicited naturally in a conversation and rather than brush the matter off, you can use it as an opportunity to make your company and customer service better. Customers will appreciate the fact that you actually listen to them, and your customer service representatives will be pleased that the issues are being resolved such that they will not have to hear the same pain point over and over. There are always opportunities for your customer service agents to improve, and KPI metrics create an excellent baseline. You can look at

How Human Touch Improves Automated Quality Assurance Process?

All contact center operations have the aim of providing excellent customer service. After all, that is their reason for existing. However, the definition of what constitutes great customer service can vary significantly between companies, and can certainly affect their level of customer satisfaction. In many organizations, the responsibility of defining the behaviors that describe excellent service falls on the Quality Assurance group(QA). The Q.A team has the unenviable task of monitoring and analyzing the interactions of agents and customers with the purpose of providing feedback to the employees. This task is challenging because aside from the job’s monotony, no one likes to have their work “criticized”. Nevertheless, the quality assurance effort, when properly structured, can serve as the first line of defense against poor service and can also be a valuable source of information for contact center managers. Your customers have the choice to switch among various choices. They can move far from your brand, your products, and services in a matter of moments. They don’t have anything to lose. You do. As indicated by recent market studies, it requires 70% more work to produce another client, over holding an old one. The opposition is so steep and merciless, that one terrible move or a little carelessness can prompt to extreme ruin in the insights of your client base. So how would you guarantee this does not occur? What gives you the certainty that you will your current customer base while building another storehouse of prospects? The General achievement rate of your business is straightforwardly relative to the quantity of satisfied customers you have and you can accomplish growth if your call center follows proven quality assurance practices. Your customers should be dealt with like sovereignties. Your activities, customer service skills,approach, and their general service experience ought to make that evident to them, with the goal that they don’t consider exchanging brands. How to improve automated quality assurance process? 1. A Quality Assurance Officer An expert can streamline numerous strategies for you to guarantee that your call center quality assurance best practices are precisely what your customers are anticipating. 2. Performance Checks Visibility equals accountability. It is imperative that you keep agents informed of their quality assurance best environment for a great customer experience. Quality is not a score, it’s a behavior so being congnicent of performance is critical to gaining and maintaining great performance. 3. Call & Chat Monitoring Regardless of how much I say this, I can’t highlight the significance of this point enough. This is the thing that will give you real at-work performance checking parameters and genuine measurements about the competency level of your agents. 4. Call & Chat Barging Take control of the situation exactly when your customers (and agent) needs it the most. A productive and proactive approach is by call/chat barging and providing point by point input. Barging empowers immediate coaching and provides specific examples for agents to follow in the future. Customers feel nurtured and significant if an interaction in intercepted and handled at a higher level. 5. Customer Feedback No customer would superfluously give you a negative feedback if everything has been done to make him feel important. Feedback is a gift – listen carefully to your customers and map back to the core issue. It is critical that you incorporate customer studies along with analytics around VOC feedback to develop solutions that reduce customer effort and increase customer satisfaction. 6. Live Coaching When training new agents, rather than giving them hypothetical lessons and workshops, it would be more valuable for them to learn through at work demos and trainings. Connect with them in live discussions, live calls, call sessions, and environment observation. This will support their confidence and accelerate their learning. 7. Training Programs In the event tha you don’t consistently stay aware of innovative advances, odds are that your customers will begin searching for another option. To keep your call center agents in-tune with new programming, CRM overhauls, and the constant evolution of technology, you have to include them in trainings and keep their knowledge fresh. Effective training programs combine traditional classroom type learning with gamification and real-time support and reinforcement of learning. 8. Impetus Structure Through intelligent structure of data, including voice of customer feedback, you can replicate the most successful behaviors of your best performing reps. Play their calls for different agents on the floor and fuse successful behaviors. Peer coaching is a great motivation structure, which can be founded on the performance. The positive trickle down effect is that your agents get inspired and motivated by each other, which in turn is translated into positive customer experience and sentiment drivers. Establish a “Wow Factor” call library with exemplary interactions that can be used to propel others and act as a reward system for positive behavior. 9. Get your Scripts Right It is vital that your call agents sound confident and appear to know it all. All positive customer experience is driven more by agent confidence and ownership of a solution than any other factor. Your customers can have a flexible scope of inquiries, so empower your agents with effective scripting and resolution procedures.

Harness the Power of Positive Thinking

It is imperative for every leader to be a positive influencer. If you are irritable, irked, or downright fed up with the world around you, you radiate it out to the world. You radiate it out to the people who look up to you, people who work with you, and every life you touch even outside the workplace. Studies on positive thinking share a common theme: optimism can have profound effects on a person’s physical and mental health and the people around them. The mere act of expecting positive outcomes and being hopeful can boost a person’s immune system, protect against harmful behaviors, and help people unwire day to day anxiety. Optimism can even lead to a longer life. The psychology of team dynamics fascinates me. You might not categorize yourself as someone who can influence the team, but every cog in your machine is making an impact. Each and everyone one of us influences each other even when are not aware that it is happening. Positive thinking can be contagious and transform the environment around us, but the real challenge is in the execution. I have often been asked, “How can I remain positive when others around me are so negative? How can I influence others to engage in positive thinking?” From the literature I have read and personal experience with my teams, here are some strategies that should be helpful for growing positive energy with your team and boosting productivity. 1. Self-Awareness is Key: It all starts with being self-aware. Even if you read every piece of self-help literature out there, it’s all in vain if you don’t admit that there is room for improvement. Look around you. Do you see gossiping about colleagues, complaining about compensation packages, or predictions of failure? All of this contributes to an unhealthy environment. 2. Get Rid of the Negativity Around You: We all want to live a positive life, but there are always negative influences around us and you can begin to internalize toxic thoughts from others. Those “friends” or colleagues who claim to be looking out for you may be just trying to figure out a way to look down at you. You need to get rid of them before their opinion starts affecting your life. Complaining is the favorite past time of some people and you need to avoid them. 3. Choose the Right Company for You: I love working with and being in the company of positive people. Their influence is contagious, and I always feel better after interacting with them. You know you can’t always control what’s going on around you, but you can control your own reaction in any situation. Being happy is a choice you can make and it becomes easier when you surround yourself with other positive thinkers. 4. Find your Positivity Triggers and Commit to them: You can never have enough positive influence in your life! For some of us, Self-talk and right company just isn’t enough. We have an arsenal of triggers we utilize from time to time to help bring us back to our positive self. You may love music or books, so when you listen to a favorite song or read a good book, it can change your attitude. Happiness is a mindset; commit to it. Be a lifelong learner and ensure a part of that learning is focused on creating a positive environment for yourself and others. 5. Make Lifestyle Changes: Give yourself permission to take pride in you. It’s easy to get into bad habits that end up ruling you but learn to observe and manage your addictions Start with eating healthy, change your relationship with soda, go on a technology detox, drink a lot of water, exercise, and stop smoking! Express yourself, whether it’s through art, music, writing, or dance. Find something you enjoy and cultivate it. Nurture that fire in your soul. 6. Believe in God and be Spiritual: Pray, meditate, have a conversation, seek Him. We live in a fallen world, but God has created each of us for His purpose. The closer you draw to Him, the clearer His purpose for your life becomes. There is nothing more positive that I have experienced in my life then when I finally realized and accepted the fact that God had a purpose for me. Always be approachable and reliable. There is no greater reward that I have ever experienced than helping someone in need. As you incorporate the 6 strategies above into your own life, you will want to share your new found positive thinking with others. Serve them well and always remember: It’s a work in progress.

Top 5 Benefits of Speech Analytics to Make Your Brand Shine

Understanding why customers call and continue to call is actionable intelligence. It identifies the reasons behind behavior, and enables managers to take action that improve first-time call resolution. The same principle applies to customer attrition. Actionable steps can anticipate the causes of customer abandonment and provide them with valid reasons to return. Call center speech analytics is a valuable tool that for boosting customer satisfaction rates and improving the contribution to the organization’s success. The top five benefits of speech analytics include: Improving the consumer experience. Enhancing the consumer experience is a primary reason companies use call center speech analytics. Speech analytics software mines and analyzes audio data to detect elements such as stress and emotion in a customer’s voice. It also helps determine the purpose of the call, the products discussed, and more. Users can identify the needs, wants, and expectations quickly and work with the customer to satisfy them. Reducing operating expenses and increasing profitability. Speech analytics pays for itself in as little as three to six months by reducing call center costs and detecting cost savings. The technique circumvents extra expenses while generating incremental income. However, it requires a significant investment in resources and time up front to calibrate a speech analytics application successfully for a particular site. Monitoring and coaching call center agents to increase service quality. Call center speech analytics software enables managers to monitor agents and customers simultaneously to ensure that the agents adhere to scripts and meet regulatory requirements. Speech analytics technology is also valuable for helping agents improve call resolutions and reduce call volume. Operational and performance issues can be addressed and handled, resulting in overall enhanced service quality. Decreasing customer attrition. Many businesses notice a decline in customer attrition rates after implementing speech analytics. It can help companies identify the reasons customers leave, providing opportunities to make the changes necessary to ensure customers return. For instance, enhanced service quality results in improved customer satisfaction and experiences, giving consumers less reasons to leave. Identifying up- and cross-sell opportunities to boost revenue. Sales organizations can also benefit from speech analytics technology through the identification of up- and cross-sell opportunities, resulting in increased sales conversation rates. Sales managers can also analyze the data to determine the impact of a particular up- or cross-sell on a customer’s level of satisfaction, and identify offer response rates across various customer demographics. Real-time speech analytics applications can create personalized up- and cross-sell opportunities to satisfy a consumer’s distinct requirements. They can also track the effectiveness of marketing campaigns. Call center speech analytics drive quality monitoring and provide a unique perspective of the effectiveness of internal processes. It is a valuable technique to produce key performance indicators for comparing how different agents deal with various call types, allowing managers to focus their coaching efforts on real-time insight. The result is increased productivity and alignment of skill sets to consumer needs. Overall, call center speech analytics enable businesses to manage marketing campaign planning and deployment with extensive customer insight to enhance the effectiveness of their bottom line. This blog was first published on LinkedIn.

5 Pillars of a successful team

Starting something new, taking on new challenges or implementing changes is not always easy, and there are always reasons to avoid doing so, but opportunities may not be around forever. We must focus on the things we are able to control and make a remarkable difference that our customers, our team, and our communities expect. The key is TEAMWORK. It is said that “Teamwork is the fuel that allows common people to obtain uncommon results.” Teamwork is the key component that will enable us to take tremendous strides. Success doesn’t happen by chance. Great teams succeed because they care. They care about their goal, they stand united in the face of adversity, they challenge the conventional perception of the possibility, and they work for a purpose and prevail against all odds. A purpose they all care about with people they all care about. And that is the secret to a great team. They achieve greatness by working towards it together. Caring about each other is the fuel that allows ordinary looking people achieve not so ordinary feats. Over the years, I have had the opportunity to be a part of both successful and unsuccessful teams. What I have observed is that there are 5 common characteristics successful teams share. Purpose: Great teams succeed because they are all driven to a common purpose. Great teams understand their goal clearly, and they know which path to take to reach there. It’s a leader’s job to ensure that each and every member of their team understands the big picture, where they fit into it, and the impact of their performance on the overall objective. Every member of that team works in tandem towards their own and in turn the company’s success because they understand it is but one single goal. Happiness: A survey from PGI (Premiere Global Services, Inc*1) states that there are 80 Million Millennial in the workforce currently, and 88% of them want workplace to be a fun place. People are more productive when they are happy. It motivates them to turn up to work every morning and work as a team. Google has revolutionized the Human Resource “People Operations” industry by simply using data to find different ways to keep their employees happy. Have you created an atmosphere where your team members can have fun together and collaborate easily? The Ownership: When we feel that we belong, we have a sense of ownership in the team. Great teams have member who trust in each other which in turn helps increase team’s efficiency. Transparency helps them develop trust and camaraderie. They inspire each other and commit to the team. Either your team members are committed to the team or they are not: there is no in-between. Success: Job satisfaction and performance skyrocket when a team understands the progress they are making. Understanding that you’re on the path to victory is the biggest motivator. It is the idea of making progress towards a common goal that shapes how we feel about the work we do. When a success is celebrated, everyone in your team is reminded that they have the ability to reach a common goal, and it builds a momentum for you and your team. Resolve Conflicts: Contrary to the popular belief, great teams are not the ones where the members always agree with each other. Healthy debates and heated arguments are often part of the discussions. The secret is that they are more comfortable and likely to disagree or challenge each other and reach a conclusion. They discuss issues out in open and often tend to reach an agreeable solution. They are family, and they tackle the issues as a family. They fight but the fights tend to end with a resolution, and the world outside never knows what happened. The truth is that a great team is a lot more than just a combination of these 5 traits. It’s a sum of it all. Teamwork is one constant which transcends across the industry and all types of businesses. It does not matter if you just a start up or a billion dollar conglomerate, team work has the power to transform the way you do business. As you develop and strengthen the teams within your organization, you will be able to hear the positive impact resonate through the organization.

Artificial Intelligence: Behind-the-scenes tool to improve Customer Experience

Since its initiation, Artificial intelligence (AI) has grown by leaps and bounds. From getting used to simply gather information and predict effects, it’s now being utilized by companies as a major technology to create present day solutions throughout a variety of services. There has been a consistent increment in the amount of ‘Robots’ that can mimic cognitive services of the human mind, corresponding to situation-solving and responding to normal languages. Powered by developed Artificial Intelligence (AI), these machines at the moment are going prevalent. To meet up with the technologically-driven industry landscape, ultra-modern corporations are looking to leverage them into more than a few productive roles, specifically to handle the customers’ queries. The large amount of data we generate is a compounds blessing. It offers us better insight into human habits, but it’s additionally a lot more stuff to sort. For assisting us sort through our data, and make best use of it, we’ll turn to AI (artificial intelligence) for things as challenging as navigating the call center to simply deciding what the doggone temperature is outside. Artificial intelligence in the call center has become much more important in the last few years, leveraging tremendous data sets and predictive analytics for computerized, personalized customer service and on-demand agent coaching based on reporting. However, with great power comes great responsibility. Leverage user models to create an extraordinary customer experience User models, analysed from customer metric data, provide a detailed window into the service you render. These models can be utilized to create private experiences for customers of a call center. First, call centers have to accumulate this information through an analytics tool. Development teams can send consumer habits data from Mixpanel through an API. As soon as information has been gathered, the data can be fed to an algorithm to discern patterns depending on time-of-day, rate-of-rise/decline, or how the information correlates with other behaviours on the platform. The output of the algorithms can additionally loop back into how pages are provided to customers. A call center could improve customer experience by means of analysing what questions and response customers give simply before they come to a decision. Artificial Intelligence streamlines the process Customer Interaction simply entails making knowledge available to customers at their fingertips without asking them to move through hoops or several steps. We base it on what we already know about customers, and just like that! They get the super-targeted info. Actually, it is just making information available to customers in new approaches, lowering the hurdles that customers have to go through to get to the information. It can be as easy as what we learn from you, but additionally the trends that we get from other buyers like you. This exponentially improves customer experience. Artificial Intelligence for Customer Interactions Artificial intelligence is an amazing tool, and it’s going to evolve with time. Nevertheless, exclusively relying on AI to manage crucial sections of a call center, like customer interactions, could spell catastrophe. With the advance of channels that create connectivity and openness, customers are important to call centers stability and thus must be handled as such. Call centers can’t afford to make errors when interacting with them. In order to avert customer frustration as a result of lack of ability to resolve a setback efficiently in a customer’s channel of alternative, automatic processes must consistently exist in collaboration with human interaction. Customers are far too valuable to be handled alone by totally automated systems. Let’s face it; even some people have a tough time interacting with other humans well, typically due to a lack of emotional intelligence. Due to all those reasons, it will be irrational to anticipate an artificial intelligence system to execute and handle a customer interaction at a 100% satisfaction phases. However, with continuous advancement on this area and with suitable utilization, AI could aid call centers enhance their relationship with customers and take it to a higher level. I’m certain that as millennials strive for intelligent self-service and call centers seek automation, AI will continue to create a buzz in scientific circles in the future years. Personalised strategies The intention of the continuous study in Artificial Intelligence is to incorporate the advanced aspects like reasoning, conversation, perception and the ability to move and manipulate objects. When consumers can communicate with those intelligent systems, the interactions would have a couple of different results. Utilizing the information amassed from such communications between their AI systems and customers, call centers can customize the customer experience for every user. A call center can use the data to investigate the unique perception of a user after which the results can be used to build personalised options around his/her preferences. When promoted with right illustration, the customer tends to go for them and it might also help the call center increase its customer experience. AI-assisted Speech Recognition AI-aided speech recognition helps enhance customer experience. Key phrases can be noticed to set off service enhancements. The word “supervisor,” for example, would alert a supervisor to join a call and alleviate any problems with a customer. Systems can also be programmed to pay attention for competitor mentions. Financial institutions are experiencing same growth. Take a customer who typically calls the bank every Fridays to know her account balance. Utilizing AI, the bank possesses the intelligence to send the customer an automated message with her bank balance before the customer picks up the cellphone. By spotting behaviours and interaction patterns, a call center can decide upon the best channel for relating with customers. Not every customer requires a prolonged and private telephone call. Contacting via email or leaving an automated voicemail can be just as efficient in terms of customer satisfaction and is way less expensive than a live agent telephone call. It merely requires a figuring out of what each client prefers based on gathered data and demographics.

Artificial Intelligence: A Boon to Improve Customer Experience

Artificial intelligence has been around for a while, and while some wholeheartedly embrace the idea, others are wary of using what is portrayed to be a “robot” in any customer experience. When many think of AI, they think of conversationalist robots, while the truth is that AI has evolved into software programs that can be seamlessly integrated into current programs and become a huge asset to their human colleagues. AI is more than just a programmed bot that can answer the same questions that are included on a company’s FAQ page, and actually has many valuable applications in the business world and more specifically, in the form of customer support. Once companies understand the basics behind artificial intelligence and the benefits of speech analytics, the investment is more attractive and practical to improve customer service in all areas. Why Is Customer Service Important? All companies recognize that good customer service is essential to staying in business, building a brand and gaining the trust of consumers that love your products and services, but many fail to understand WHY customer service is so important. It’s just an assumed fact, but doing the research into why it is so important can help us better understand how artificial intelligence and quality monitoring with speech analytics can improve the experience. Estimates suggest that poor customer service may cost companies in the United States up to 41 billion dollars in revenue each year. AI is intended as a solution to that problem and to give your business the cutting edge to stay ahead of the competition and to cut that revenue loss as much as possible. Studies show that almost 90% of customers become frustrated when they have to repeat their problems and issues to more than one representative. This number highlights the fact that good customer service is more than a bonus for your business. It’s a necessity. A poll completed in 2015 of over 2,000 adults in the United States showed that customers are willing to pay more for a product or service when the customer service experience is pleasant. Close to 86% of them said bad customer service encourages them to switch brands. This shows that good service is vital to consumers, and getting an edge on your competition with better service builds trust in your brand and products. Companies often struggle to find the line between being more efficient at answering calls and resolving problems and keeping customers happy. Consumer issues can take up quite a bit of time for an agent even as the company is pushing for faster resolutions that encourage agents to get off the call as quickly as possible. At the end of the day, your customers need to feel as if their opinions are the most valued thing in your company, and artificial intelligence can help. AI provides faster results and resolutions to issues that commonly plague customers. It can improve the efficiency of employees, create better outcomes customized to fit any client’s problem, reduce call center costs and perform large tasks that would be impossible for a human to complete in the same amount of time. AI is important for more than just chat, and can create a positive experience for every customer that works with your company. To put it in perspective, realize that most Americans currently use some form of artificial intelligence in their everyday lives. With smartphones and tablets, most turn to assistants like Cortana and Siri to get directions, ask questions and resolve problems. As AI becomes more integrated into our day to day lives, experts expect that in a short five years, customers will only interact with a human from a company 15% of the time. The other 85% of the experience will be done with some form of artificial intelligence. Recent Experiences With AI Developers work tirelessly to create an AI system that works with every company in a convenient way, with the ultimate goal being to make life and work easier for everyone. Examples of using AI include Google, who improved their voice recognition technology from 84% to 98% in just two years. IBM’s Watson was released in 2011, and is now 2400% smarter than it was at its release date. Tens of millions of online searches are done each month through voice recognition systems. Every advancement brings AI closer to being profitable and applicable to businesses of all sizes. Some companies have already invested in the technology and reaping the rewards for doing so. Digital Genius: Mikhail Naumov, the chief strategy officer of Digital Genius, says that the company better automates their chat software with a deep learning algorithm. This has been done in two different ways. Historical chats – AI systems are better trained with the help of historical chat logs. Benefits include more accurate responses and more time for customer service agents to handle complex issues that an AI is unable to solve. Naumov believes that because customer service is so repetitive, historical transcripts hold goldmines that are underused. Fact data – The nature of the industry Digital Genius functions in has solid parameters regarding the amount of solutions for a set amount of problems. This makes AI programs much easier for this type of business, rather than business development or marketing, where there are many paths and possibilities that lead to solutions. Inbenta – Inbenta approached AI from the direction that customer service questions come when customers can’t find answers to important questions on a website. Search engines can be mildly misleading and send the customer to a page with no valid information for them. This turns into a phone call to a customer service representative that takes up time and valuable resources. Natural language – To deal with this issue, the company developed “Natural Language Processing” that is a form of AI that focuses more on what the customers means in a query rather than exactly what they type. Bulk email response – Inbenta has also solved the problem of excessive emails that

Jamaica: An Emerging Contact Center Outsourcing Mecca

If you are looking to boost the communication capabilities of your business, Jamaica is a hotspot for contact center outsourcing. Generally speaking, BPO in Jamaica is well known among business owners, but some are not aware of the IT and QA specific benefits. Learn why Jamaica should be one of your top choices for outsourcing your call center processes. Highly Educated Consultants Many IT professionals are coming out of Jamaica’s University of Technology (UTEC). UTEC is a hotbed for technology and innovation. Students come out of the university looking for internships, subcontracting jobs, and full-time jobs in quality assurance. UETC’s computer science program prepares students for work upon graduation. With the amount of passionate and dedicated professionals in Jamaica who are proficient in the latest technologies, growing your workforce through a Jamaica call center can give you the help you need. Why Jamaica is Unique There are plenty of advantages for US companies utilizing BPO in Jamaica. For one, the island shares time zones with the US. Jamaica is on the eastern time zone for 6 months and central time zone for the other 6 months. It is also the biggest English-speaking nation outside of the US. There are many short and direct flights from major US cities to Jamaica. These unique attributes of Jamaica make it the perfect place for US companies to work in synergy with Jamaican professionals. Having a call center with a shared time zone and language makes business convenient. Growing Infrastructure The Jamaican government has made tremendous improvements in its ability to meet BPO needs. With high bandwidth and connectivity, you can rely on a Jamaica call center to handle your business transactions. While some improvements still need to be made in terms of the technology sector, call centers and BPO in Jamaica are a priority for both business and government. How the Government Helps The new government in Jamaica has a board of technology professionals with oversight by a Minister of Technology. Jamaica is serious about growing its technological innovation and attracting international businesses. It is a fertile environment for businesses looking to expand their call center operations. The Big Trends The Jamaican IT industry is seeing a big push towards Javascript developers. Jamaican IT professionals are up to speed on the latest advancements in coding and are constantly adapting to new waves of innovation. In fact, Jamaica is seen as the Silicon Island. Technology advancements and game-changing professionals are proving that the country is fully capable of providing dependable call centers and IT capabilities. Outsourcing certain business practices can prove to be beneficial in various ways. Outsourcing to a Jamaica call center can strengthen your ROI and enhance your customer experience. Jamaica’s convenient near-shore location, shared time zone, and large English-speaking population make it a convenient choice for the BPO industry. You don’t have to worry about trusting your customers to people who do not speak English or are not aware of the latest technological advancements. Jamaica is full of experienced professionals and newly graduated computer science students who are eager to help. Consider Jamaica for your contact center outsourcing.

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