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How Mentors Help and How to Find One

Professionally, mentors are uniquely responsible for your overall trajectory, as they frequently come from the same or a similar field and give you access to wisdom only resulting from years of experience. However, finding the perfect mentor is as difficult as pinpoint exactly what your want from your professional life. In fact, deciding when to pursue a mentor is similarly challenging, because until you’re ready, it’s hard to see how they’ll push you to new professional and personal heights or understand who will act as effective leaders and coaches in your life. Have 20/20 Foresight Ideally, your mentor will be an expert or seasoned professional in your professional field. While every industry experiences significant changes, they typically occur over time and even seemingly shocking advancements might’ve been highly predictable for industry insiders. The younger decades of your career are the perfect time to make mistakes, because you’ll have plenty of time to recover for those largely expected errors. However, a mentor has the wisdom to steer you away from ineffective plans of action and towards the best solutions. Essentially, you can use your mentor’s 20/20 hindsight as your foresight. Gain Access to a Positive, Knowledgeable and Supportive Individual Positive support systems are integral to the success of any individual. By definition, mentors are positive people who genuinely believe in the abilities of their mentees. When you don’t know how to proceed or need help finding a professional solution, you know a knowledgeable individual who is prepared and happy to help you. Every professional will have moments of uncertainty or significant stress in his or her career, and in these situations, a mentor’s positivity can serve to improve morale and self-confidence. Understand Your Needs and Commit As an individual, what do you need to stay motivated? What will you need to successfully attain your personal and professional goals? Of the list you have just created, what can a mentor effectively provide? Once you’ve pinned that down, you will have a much clearer idea of the type of mentor you require, because you’re in tune with personal and professional needs. Next, you have to commit to the search for a quality mentor. You might find the perfect match in the first individual you contact, but don’t expect that to happen. Additionally, don’t be afraid to say no to a mentor if you think they are not the best fit. When your mentor invests in you, he or she is also affected when you fail to meet a deadline or miss an important meeting. If you want this relationship to be a success, hold yourself accountable personally and to your mentor. Everyone has bad days, but remember your mentor is committed to your advancement, so you should attempt to match and exceed his or her dedication. Young professionals frequently benefit from the guidance of mentors, who equally invest in the success of their proteges. Like any relationship, finding the perfect match may take some diligent searching, but mentees stand to gain the powerful benefits of sound wisdom, expansive industry knowledge and positive support.

Six Steps to Articulate Contact Center Strategies

Every company has a strategy. The online business dictionary defines strategy as a method/plan chosen to bring about the desired future, such as achievement of a goal or solution to a problem. It is also the art and science of planning and marshaling resources for their most effective and efficient use. These definitions are straightforward and to bring them closer home. A business exists to solve a problem, and the strategy guides them on the steps to take to solve those issues. For example, a contact center exists to provide customer service support to various companies; therefore, they need to have a strategy in place to provide the best customer service support on behalf of their clients. With the understanding that contact centers work on behalf of other companies, here are steps to take when articulating contact center strategies; Step 1: Understand your client’s corporate strategy A client will come to the contact center with the aim of outsourcing their customer service support function and expect that you will offer excellent services that will leave all their customers satisfied in a cost efficient manner. On the other hand, the contact center will be ready to offer the service and will take the client through their procedures. To start the relationship on the right foot, you need to understand what your potential client’s company stands for. What are their vision, mission and core values? Who are their key consumers? What do they want to achieve with their customers? When you sit down with your client, you will understand whom they are and how you can plug in to offer a seamless experience for their customers. Bear in mind that whatever strategy you recommend to the client should not undermine their efforts thus far. Align your strategy to what is important to your client. Step 2: Understand your client’s customer segmentation How has the client defined his customers? A company normally has a primary and secondary customer segments. You need to find out which customer base they want to work more on. What are the main issues they want to be resolved. For instance, they may want to increase revenues from the primary segment by reducing customer service expenses. With that information, you will know the best strategies to develop and implement, that will help them achieve their objective. You will also understand how to differentiate between the two customer segments, thereby, appoint the right agents for the job. Step 3: Understand the applicable boundaries As the contact center, you are the bridge between the client and their customers. If you do not align the company’s strategy with your strategy, you can easily have a disproportional impact on the overall attainment of the company goals. This third step will help you know what is applicable and what is not. For example, the client might require something that is against the contact center policies and procedures. You should not cross that boundary no matter what and the client needs to understand that as well, thereby, manage his expectations. The contact center and the client should be comfortable with the agreed boundaries. Step 4: Examine your KPI’s Next step is to examine your existing KPI’s and metrics. It is important to do so because you already have tools in place to measure them. Check whether they will apply to and meet the clients’ needs. As you examine them, remember to consider how your employees have been working, and how any change implemented will affect them. For instance, if you have measured quality metrics more like FCR and now you have to focus on efficiency metric like Average Handle Time. How it affect your employees? Will they feel conflicted? Ensure the strategies you put in place will not affect your employee satisfaction at work; otherwise, they will all quit. Step 5: Monitor and review your forecasts Workload forecast is vital for the contact center because it facilitates scheduling. With the new client, how do you anticipate the demand forecast to change? By looking at the current channels their customers prefer, you can forecast the channel that will be busy. You expect either the calls volumes or chats or emails or self-service to increase or a combination of them. Need to have proper forecast because if you are under-staff, customers will be dissatisfied thus affect the client’s business as well as yours. If you are overstaffed, you will waste resources thus affecting your revenue. Step 6: Examine your company operations Finally, you need to consider how the changes will affect your business operations. You have looked at the people, technology and processes, and now you need to look at the structural change. Any change will cost the company, and you should justify the costs to the management before any implementing any of them. Any changes to the contact center operations should improve the strategic alignment. With the above six steps, you can articulate contact center strategies that will enhance the organization’s objectives while meeting clients’ expectations.

How to Manage Change Effectively

We all know navigating change successfully can be tricky at times. In fact, if we allow it to overwhelm us it can be frustrating and disheartening. However if you are smart about it you can learn to manage at least the response to it. Here are a few tips I have been talking to my teams about lately since change is a constant. Accept Change as a fact of life! Our inbox is never empty, and once we learn that new technology that IT placed in front of us, we have to learn a new better one. Face it our world is changing at the speed of light so just accept it. Commit to always be learning! They say if change is constant then learning must be continuous. As long as you are constantly learning it will help you at least feel like you’re moving with the ever changing worlds we live in. You will feel better if you commit a lifelong of learning. Get Healthy – (one I fail at constantly but need to change) Change, even if its positive change is stressful, I have been trying to get healthy for years but have failed to change my eating habits, and have not gotten proper exercise and now my doctor is telling me I need to. Take my advice don’t wait till that happens. If you only accept change in the workplace you are missing the boat. Change can be an opportunity If you change your attitude about change that is the best management advice I can give. I have said before I will take Attitude over Aptitude any day. Instead of digging and resisting the changes, Allow yourself to embrace it and see where it takes you. Have a Strong Network of Support Just like anything in life, some changes require you to lean on others for emotional support and advice. Have that network and use it. Talk to God In my experience the only thing that is constant in life is God. God is the same every day, period. God has given us the best gift ever, unconditional love no matter what happens, embrace it. Have a Blessed Day!! This blog was first published on LinkedIn

Unique Defining Characteristics of Millennial

There has been much talk about the millennial generation because of their huge numbers – 80 million in the US alone – and their unique characteristics. When compared to the other generations, they have attracted the most attention in the workforce. However, the main differentiator between Generation Y with all the other Generations is their internet use. The millennial generation expects so much from their jobs than just a paycheck to make ends meet. Given that they are well educated (by their baby boomers parents who worked all their lives to see them excel in school), highly skilled in technology, have loads of energy and can multi-task, they have very high expectation of themselves and what they do for life. How then can you capitalize on above traits to grow your business? Here are four unique defining characteristics of millennia’s as employees;- They have a Social Mindset Being digital natives, they grew up with the internet. They would rather watch a movie on You tube and Tweet the afternoon away than watch TV. This exposure means that they have no borders; they are self-aware and aware of what is happening around the world. The social mindset also means that they are open minded to change as long as it is in line with their values and convictions. They are willing to volunteer and support social causes. They also easily accept diversity and tolerate each other’s differences and attitudes. It makes it easy for them to work in teams and still perform well. They Thrive on Performance Feedback Generation Y employees thrive on constant feedback. They prefer getting the feedback immediately as opposed to at the quarterly or annual appraisal meeting. As a manager, you need to ensure that you give your millennial employees frequent and immediate feedback. As you think about feedback, you can incorporate things like checklists to help them perform better. This generation likes knowing that what they are doing is adding value to the company and by providing them with a checklist, will help them realize that. Think about mentorship too as they are hands on and want to learn as much as they can without getting bored. The bottom line is, the way you deliver the feedback should keep them motivated, and you will enjoy business success working with a highly motivated Millennial team. The motivation should be from the senior management down to their immediate supervisor. They Need Strong Engagement As mentioned above, Generation Y is very hands on and get bored quickly if they don’t stay inspired to work. By engaging them, you will eliminate the above issues and have a vibrant team of dedicated employees. Tips on how you can fulfill the engagement need Provide career advancement opportunities based on performance that will motivate them to work harder and smarter and therefore, earn the promotion. Provide learning and development opportunities- this can be in the form of training, coaching or mentorship. Provide Corporate Social Responsibility. They like contributing to the society and allowing them to participate in CSR, will help them meet the needs of the communities around them, and also fulfill the need of doing meaningful work. Provide work-life balance. They believe that they need to balance work and life, therefore, create that for them. For example, have flexible schedules. Create an environment that contributes positively to their health and well- being. Such a space will engage them, and thus they will look forward to coming to work. Engage the millennial employees and you will experience success and business growth. They Work Well in Teams The Millennial employees work well in teams not individually. The feeling of togetherness or doing something collectively gives them the energy to accomplish it. Your role, therefore, is to create a team-oriented culture. In a contact center, it is easy to create a team-oriented culture because they have to work in teams for them to meet the set targets. In conclusion, the millennial is a special generation because they will form 80% of the work force in a few years. Understanding some of their defining characteristics like them having a social mindset, thriving on performance feedback, needing strong engagement and working well in teams will keep your employees happy, leading to low turnover.

Providing Superior Online Customer Support

These days, customers no longer shop exclusively through brick-and-mortar stores; online retailers have changed the game, permanently. Likewise, customers no longer expect product support to be delivered exclusively at a store counter or over the phone. Online customer services provide more flexible solutions for assisting clients remotely. As with more traditional methods, however, there are definite dos and don’ts for providing exceptional online customer support. Consistency is Key Similar to marketing, consistency is vital when it comes to a company’s online customer support presence. The tone and information being conveyed to customers should be cohesive across the board, paralleling the experience they would receive via phone or in person. This not only ensures an ideal interaction, but also greater confidence in your brand. Online and On Time Imagine visiting a major retail store and finding its doors locked midday on a Tuesday; you might feel bewildered and think twice about returning in the future. Your online customer support channel must take the same mentality, posting set operating hours to avoid confusion and frustration. Larger companies providing round-the-clock support still must be prepared for hang-ups. Much like a phone recording reassures callers that they are still in the queue awaiting service, your chat service should be provide an automatic response after a predetermined duration. Keep customers in the loop to keep agitation to a minimum. Security Sensitivity Despite the parallels, online customer services vary from other support methods in several ways. Transmitting unsecured data over the Internet is risky, and it’s important that your website makes customers aware of this. Provide them with the ability to send such information via secured web forms or telephone and ensure that your staff is trained to discourage sensitive details from being sent via chat. This includes passwords, personal info, and credit card numbers. Coming on Too Strong It’s helpful if your online customer support is readily available via call-to-action buttons or preset triggers. Trust your client to take the next step, however—trying too hard to initiate dialogue is tantamount to a pushy clerk. In many cases, it discourages interaction rather than encouraging it. If your chat numbers aren’t what you envisioned, consider displaying support agents’ names and/or photos to add a human touch, or decrease the amount of information required upfront to initiate the session. Train for Success Online customer support is all about communication, so make sure your staff is trained accordingly. The technical-minded people who make up your support team might think differently than your average customer, so it’s important that your reps stick with simple, straightforward language. Overly-technical descriptions may further cloud customer issues, exacerbating problems instead of working to resolve them. There are several other ways to promote an ideal customer experience. Make sure to emphasize for your team the importance of conveying a friendly, helpful disposition, which is often more difficult in text. Going beyond agent names and photos, you might implement the use of emoticons to keep the mood upbeat. Last and certainly not least, ensure that your team has the tools to succeed. High-volume support channels should be equipped with ticketing systems to keep responses organized and prioritized. Call scripts, data sheets, and other literature should be readily available so that customers are efficiently provided with clear, consistent information. Conclusion Many contrasts and similarities exist between online customer service and more traditional channels. The most important thing to keep in mind is that your goal is the same, regardless of the platform: staff good people that will deliver a consistent experience for your customers in a timely fashion. By respecting these basic tenants of customer service, your chat—and your brand by extension—are sure to enjoy success. This post was first published on LinkedIn

Top 10 Leadership Qualities That Matter Most to Millennials

Vast changes have taken place in the work environment, and more than a few of them have to do with the new breed of employees: millennials. Just as effective leaders have to change up their leadership styles to stay ahead of the game, they also have to exemplify specific qualities to attract and retain younger employees who have different needs and expectations than older generations. Brush up on 10 qualities in particular that have the most impact on millennials. Open and Honest Communication While employees of any age like open and honest communication, it’s especially important to let millennials employees know how they are performing in the workplace. Not only that, but younger employees are now more aware than ever of the multitude of options they have in the industry, making it imperative that leaders be as transparent as possible with them to make sure they stick around. Recognition Employee contribution recognition is one of the most important leadership qualities when it comes to working with millennials. Leaders should be clear on company objectives and goals and let millennial employees know their incentives for achieving those goals. A Sense of Trust Younger employees are often slow to trust, and that’s especially true of individuals in positions of authority. Leaders, managers and supervisors should always be 100 percent honest with millennials to put them at ease and bring out their best. Showing Respect While they may only have entry-level jobs, millennial team members should be treated with respect. Turn the Workplace Into a Classroom Make sure you give younger employees plenty of opportunities to grow in the workplace. Training sessions and mentoring programs are a great way to give employees a sense of pride and excitement. Lead by Example Rather than tell millennials what to do or what the company philosophy is, leaders should exemplify the qualities they expect to see and embody the company philosophy. Give Them a Reason to Confide in Their Leaders You can’t simply expect millennials to respect and have confidence in their managers and supervisors simply because they are in a position of power. It’s more effective for leaders to show they are willing to be the best leader possible by attending trade shows, learning about effective leadership qualities and completing skills training. Invest in Their Personal Lives Like everyone else, millennials have lives outside of work, lives leaders should be interested in. When you do take an interest in the lives of younger employees, make sure you only do so in the parts that are relevant to work and work performance. Use the Same Tech the Same Way Millennials are seemingly attached to their phones. Leaders should use this to their advantage and make it possible for employees to complete work on the go. Open to New Work Methods Millennials might also enjoy having the option of telecommuting and working in a space of their choosing. Leaders who understand the allure and benefits of freelancing and working from home are leaders younger employees are likely to want to work with. Leaders should change up their work-styles to attract and keep millennial employees. Doing so not only makes them better leaders, but more aware leaders and individuals as well.

The Social Media Customer Service Revolution

Don’t let the name fool you—social media is about much more than sharing vacation pictures and catching up with old friends. Twitter, Facebook, and social media platforms throughout the Internet are being utilized as broad communication tools, by individuals as well as organizations. So what exactly does this mean for your customer service campaign? Social customer services take support matters out of the shadows and into the public eye. In addition to free exposure, it provides another avenue by which customers can build their relationship with your brand. It shows current and prospective clients that you care about your customers and can also help to clear up common problems or confusion proactively through public responses. Employ these tips to make sure you’re getting the most out of your social campaign. Keep in Touch Social networking rule number one: stay connected. Make sure to monitor your social customer service accounts regularly in order to respond quickly to inquiries. Prioritizing your responses through these channels makes your business appear bigger, more organized, and makes it clear that you value customer satisfaction. Turn Negatives Into Positives Social media users are known for making their feelings known, often with blunt honesty. When you receive strongly-worded complaints, don’t give in to the temptation to erase them. Responding effectively and winning over that type of customer is an excellent way to instill confidence in the public, while also avoiding the tricky minefield which occurs when a user cries censorship. Organize Your Communications Just as you likely have separate e-mail addresses or phone numbers for general inquiries and customer service, you should consider opening separate social media accounts: one for general business needs and one exclusively for social customer services. This is especially true for larger companies which elicit large volumes of communications. Make sure that both accounts are actively maintained by qualified people in your organization. Learn the Tools of the Trade Social networks are constantly evolving, shifting to meet the needs of its constantly-expanding user base. It’s vital that you and/or your social media representatives keep tabs on changes and updates, maintaining a clear understanding of various platforms and how best to exploit them. Facebook in particular is known for making sweeping changes, often without much advance warning, so always ensure that your organization is up to speed. Good Will: The Great Equalizer You’ve probably heard the phrase “kill them with kindness,” advice routinely given when someone is confronted with a difficult person who they must cooperate with nonetheless. Complaints can be tough to deal with at times, whether due to the volume, the tone, or a combination of both. Your goal is to take it all in stride, just as you would in person or over the phone. Communicating over the Internet is like driving a car: people are much more inclined to shout things they’d never say in a civilized conversation. Don’t sink to that level—keep your attitude upbeat, positive, and unflappably polite. When the public observes a hot-headed customer that is treated with kindness and grace, you win and so does your brand. In Summary Social media services can open all new lines of communication for your business, helping you reach expanded customer segments and allowing you to promote your brand with an investment of just a little time and energy. Effective utilization is one of the most powerful and affordable tools at your disposal; an inability to adapt, however, might just leave your business in the dark. Here more about it at the iARE Annual Conference : Etechgs Events This blog was first post on LinkedIN

4 Tips for Enhancing Contact Center Etiquette

Call/Chat etiquette is one of the most important aspects that can make or break your contact center. When your agents, who are the face of the company, have great etiquette, high customer satisfaction levels often come along with it. Not to mention great etiquette brings loyal customers. Every positive experience a customer has with your agents will nurture that loyalty and provide strong positive brand advocates. Remember you represent your organization and are the face of your clients. Customers look for those organizations who represent not only themselves, but the clients brand with best in class service. Below are tips that leaders and agents can use to enhance call etiquette. Regularly Train and Coach Agents Coaching is key! Leaders should be in coaching and on-going training mode constantly. Training should not end after onboarding; you must continue to develop your agents in order to provide them the necessary feedback and tools to be successful. A well trained agent can be the differentiator between a good and bad customer experience. Refresher training and daily coaching helps agents remember the most important things to do. It equips them with the right, and most recent, information about a product or service and in turn provides them the confidence that often translates to the experience customers want. Respect the Customer All customers deserve your undivided attention and the utmost respect. Yes, even that angry customer! Put yourself in their shoes. Focus on understanding the customer’s needs, accommodating them and offering them a solution. Allow them to vent, voice their concerns and then offer what you can. They are looking for resolution and being respectful of that can often defuse the situation and allow the experience to become positive for both the agent and the customer. Maintain Professionalism We have all been coached on proper protocol and most organizations have a contact center code of conduct relating to call quality. Maintaining professionalism means you work within that set code of conduct and maintain the quality standards from the moment you pick up the phone or begin a chat to when you end the experience. The customer can tell whether you are professional or not by the words you use and the tone in which you use them. Follow your flow and most importantly listen to the customer. Be aware of your responses and your ability to offer solutions. Be timely, responsive and understanding. Remember this is the customer’s experience and you are one who will determine what type of experience that will be. Monitor Calls/Chats Call/chat monitoring for quality control is paramount in the contact center. However, it is also your best source of developmental needs and positive recognition! How can you know why an experience is scored low or high if you are not engaged in reviewing them daily? Utilize monitoring, have calibration sessions not only internally, but externally. Review what is working and what is not, and utilize that for on-going training, coaching and development. While there are many other ways to maintain contact center etiquette these four tips, regularly training your agents, respecting the customer, maintaining professionalism, and monitoring calls/chats can quickly provide a foundation for a better customer experience to build upon. Remember your customer’s experience today is their story about your brand tomorrow! This blog was first published on LinkedIN

Mobile Shopping: How to Create a Perfect Customer Experience

As mobile shopping becomes the common denominator influencing and informing consumer behavior, the opportunity to increase return on investment is expanding exponentially. To produce a profitable customer experience resulting in loyal conversions, your goal should be to create an experience that will: Persuade them to pay the rates you need to charge to be profitable Attract new customers to purchase your services and products Encourage them to continue to do business with you Drive them to tell others about your business Interest them in purchasing more from you When businesses build customer-centric frameworks, the process guides the form and intensity of the experience to offer the right set of features in the best way for each customer’s needs. Developing an Understanding of Consumer Needs Customer experience is an essential component of customer relationship management (CRM). The reason it is relevant is because a positive experience with a business is more likely to gain a loyal customer. Businesses must begin by developing a precise understanding of consumer demands and how mobile shopping sites can meet those obligations. Only then can they make strategic determinations regarding features, purpose, and overall consumer experience. These vital aims, in turn, determine what to measure and what distinguishes success. Following are the top six ways to create an ideal customer experience. Personalize the shopping experience : The businesses delivering an outstanding customer experience tailors and designs the experiences for various and individual shoppers. Build brand loyalty : A strategy can help produce higher customer satisfaction, decrease churn, and improve profits. A well-designed strategy begins with establishing the the experiences you want to present, then ensuring those experiences are constant across all platforms. Optimize the mobile user experience : The most successful organizations understand that shoppers interact with diverse elements of the company and over various touch points. They acknowledge customers engage with many employees when they request support and service, shop, or talk to billing or accounts support staff. Leverage technology : A well-known difficulty companies encounter is trying to employ software and technology to produce a customer experience. However, this can result in the focus being on what the technology can do instead of what you can do to create a beneficial experience. Deliver value to the customer : The best companies produce relevant intentions by sharpening the company focus on delivering them, such as placing an emphasis on cross-functional collaboration. For example, the supply chain and marketing teams are aligned across the entire customer experience to deliver a constant value statement. Capture real-time customer feedback : Ask for feedback and capture it in real time. Blog-interaction surveys can be delivered through a mixture of calls and automated tools through email. It’s critical to tie customer feedback to a particular customer support representative because it shows every team member the difference they make to the success of the company. Whatever the industry, mobile shopping customer experiences provide major opportunities to solve customer problems, alleviate frustration, and create memorable interactions. Etech Global Services partners with you to offer dedicated technology to generate the perfect customer experience.

How to Motivate your staff

Thinking of new ways of motivating your employees is a challenge especially for a company that has been in operations for many years. The need to keep your employees productive magnifies that challenge. However, whatever you do should be a reflection of all the contribution each employee has made to make a success, putting into account the diverse individual tastes. The human resource department can work with department leaders to ensure that what they do will be appreciated and valued, and will motivate the staff. When your staff is motivated, they will be energized to work harder and smarter. With that in mind, how then do you motivate your employees? Here are useful tips that can help you this year to turn around things. Say Thank You In the day-to-day running of the company or a department, you may not thank your employees enough for a job well done. Anytime is the prime time to do so. When you thank them, they will be inspired and motivated to keep doing a great job. Try something new this year, instead of sending out thank you emails; give each employee a handwritten thank you note. When the employee receives that handwritten note, they will feel appreciated and valued. Just the thought of their manager taking the time to write out the note will make them happy and motivated. Recognition in the Company Newsletter If your company produces a monthly newsletter, it will be a good idea to recognize the superstars of the month there. You can dedicate pages to recognize the employees who did well throughout the year, and in the various departments. Ensure that you make public the criteria you use to recognize staff so that each employee knows what they have to do to receive that recognition. The recognized employees will be motivated to keep up the good job and the once yet to get there, encouraged to add more effort. Overall, recognition is a powerful motivator. You can also take the recognition a notch higher by mentioning the high performing employees in the company social media platforms. Flexible Working Hours A contact center is a busy place, and the demands keep increasing especially during the festive season. When you plan their schedules well to give them more time with family, they will be more productive when at work. Given that the festive season spreads from one month to another, you can offer all the employees flexible schedules during the festive season. Another way that you can consider is to give them time off the phone. That time no matter how short will re-energize them thus motivating them to achieve more when on the phone. Motivating your employees does not have to be a difficult exercise that gives you sleepless nights. It should also not be an overly expensive affair that leaves the company accounts bleeding. You can combine the above three tips or use them separately. The key is to ensure that you touch each employee in a special way that shows him or her that you care, and you want to work together the coming years.

Importance of Text Messaging

Mobile devices have become indispensable tools in the 21st century. Most notably smart phones have changed the way consumers interact with brands. With a single click, a customer is online and can access any information they want. Contact centers, being the bridge between consumers and companies, have to provide customer service where the customers are. Text messaging is a fundamental platform when reaching out to them. Did you know research shows individuals read an SMS within the first four minutes of receiving it? Check out these statistics to further understand the impact of cell phones and smartphones in the marketplace: More than two-thirds of Americans own a smartphone or a tablet. 90% of adult Americans own a cell phone. 98% of teenage Americans own a phone. And these are the four primary benefits of why you should be using text messages in your contact center: Lower Communication Costs Most contact centers have high operating costs. Finding a way to reduce these costs and still maintain the quality standards of service is vital to the company’s growth. All communication mediums have costs attached to them, service provider costs attached, and contact center costs. Sending text messages is cheaper than making outbound calls. Both are effective ways of reaching customers, nevertheless, when you are looking at reducing costs, text messages will save the day. For example, an outbound call may cost $3.80 to $ 31.68 while an SMS could cost as little as $0.10 to $0.25. The difference in cost is huge when multiplying the number of outbound calls or SMS made by a contact center. And this new, updated, final cost will make a significant reduction in operating costs. Effective Service Delivery Being effective is important in a contact center. You do not want to run programs for the sake of it. You want to have tangible outputs from the input. We measure effectiveness in terms of time and value created within that time. From the agents’ perspective, sending out an SMS notification takes 2.5 seconds compared to sending the same message via a telephone call, which will take 2 minutes. Simply put, agents can reach dozens of customers in the same time it takes as making a single phone call. Customers also expect an instant response and what better way to provide that than through the device they look at every few minutes. Have you ever left the house without your smart phone? A majority of people would risk being late and go back to fetch their phone before spending the whole day without it. Consumers are admittedly attached to their smartphones. Agents and customers are more satisfied with this service delivery because it saves time and is effective. Enhance Marketing Promotions Marketing is about informing customers of your latest products and promotions, whether it is a new product or an advancement. Promotions are at the core of a marketing campaign, it is important to run one that is cost-effective. For example, a retailer who wants to run an in-store promotion can send out targeted texts before the event date. Customers who receive the communication will be ready for the day, and it will save the retailer advertisement money. Not only can you inform your consumers about the event, but you can also send reminders and discount coupons. Your business will certainly remain top of mind with your customers. This is being proactive in your marketing campaign while increasing revenue. It is also easy to track response rates of text messages by analyzing the data collected during the event. Improve Staff Communications A contact center can employ thousands of team members. Sometimes planning work schedules can be difficult due to demand increases such as during a crisis and you need to quickly outsource extra staff to ensure customer satisfaction. With text messages, you can inform seasonal agents when work is available and they can respond immediately to confirm availability or otherwise. For permanent staff, when shifts have to change for any reason, you can send them an SMS regarding these changes and what you expect them to do to cover the shortage. Text messages save your in-house staff time and effort in calling their colleagues. It also reduces the number of agents involved in such an exercise. Introducing text messaging to the call center can reduce costs, provide efficient service delivery, enhance marketing promotions, and improve staff communications. Begin to include text messaging with the other lines of communication within your call center. Take advantage of SMS for convenience and reliability. This blog was originally published on LinkedIN

Motivating the New Millennial Workforce

Millennials are currently the largest sector of the workforce, albeit by a small margin. However as Generation X transitions into retirement, company executives and managers must cater to a new generation with a different mode of thought. When thinking of a leader as an influencer, he or she is responsible for motivating and inspiring employees to greater levels of productivity, but what moves millennials into fervent or dedicated workplace performance? How should managers tailor leadership skills and training to the needs of a new perspective? Give Them True Vacations If you’ve been paying attention to recent shifts in social perceptions, you’ll already know millennials are completely over working long hours for money they’ll never get to spend because they’re always at work. Allow for sick days, but make sure employees have a chance to take a long 10-day vacation too. Three or four days away from the office are hardly enough time to fully unplug the various work-related electronic and emotional connections. Employees need a reprieve and frankly, some of the best solutions result from a rested minds subconscious. Millennials hardly mind the work grind, but they want to know they’ll get the time off they’ve earned. Exchange Trust for Increased Productivity Millennials are creative thinkers and problem solvers; so sitting in a stuffy cubicle is not their ideal workspace. Of course, certain positions require office time at least intermittently, but giving your millennial workers the freedom to move around or work from home might just inspire them to be more productive. Trade in your performance reviews and rubrics for frequent email or messaging check-ins. You can still get frequent updates on project progress and your employee has the freedom to create a timetable that will allow them to visit the doctor’s office before 5pm and complete their assignments by the deadline. This method requires a bit more trust, but don’t mistake a millennial’s thirst for flexibility and independence for a lack of work ethic. Empower Creative Thinkers and Support Ethical Initiatives Who do millennials want to work for? They seek companies with a reputation for innovation and/or ethical practices. Innovative and ethical environments provide millennials with empowering managers and enterprise protocols that will treat them well regardless of the situation. This generation wants to pitch new ideas to a manager who’s truly considering the proposal while knowing their employer will fulfill promises of advancement, medical benefits and time off when applicable. Moreover, employees want to distance themselves from the possibility of waking up to see their company made headlines for a scandal or unethical practice. Employee motivation is always at the forefront of manager’s mind, but what worked for Generation X won’t play as well with millennials. They are looking for employers they can trust to provide quality work environments and careers without asking them to sacrifice they personal lives or ethical standards. Managers will need to focus less on productivity metrics and more on fostering effective communication between employees and management. Millennials are happy to put in the work for personal and company progress, if you believe in them and they believe in you.

Affordable Strategy and Techniques to Improve Customer Service

Offering excellent customer service has tremendous benefit to any organization, and it is one of the top priorities for every employee. The top management assigns a team to develop strategies and then train the employees for a seamless implementation. Poor customer service hurts your business by driving away customers, who spread the bad news to others, thereby, killing your business. However, when you provide superior customer service the payoffs are enormous, from high sales, satisfied clients who become your brand advocates, increased profitability to happy employees. For your business to grow steadily, you need to increase cash flow as you lower operating expenses. Therefore, you cannot afford to have none or a poor strategy to improve your customer service. Have the following tips in mind when you are formulating the strategies and techniques to improve customer service, they are affordable too. Carry out a situation analysis The step is to understand where you are now. Approach it from the customers and employees point of view. Carry out a customer survey to get satisfaction scores. Compile the data and work with an average of the total. For the employees, use data from quality metrics like First Contact Resolution and service metrics like average speed of answer. It will help you understand internal problems that may be hindering superior service delivery. You also need to know how your employees define their roles at the contact center. Does an agent say, “I answer calls and respond to live chat inquiries?” or does he or she say, “I resolve customers issues the best way possible?” How an agent understand their role influence how they perform. Put all the above information together to get a clear picture of where you are. These will be your objectives as your progress with the strategy formulation. Scrutinize your Procedures and Processes Employees are not the only factor that can affect customer service; the contact center systems and processes can. What is the procedure for agents to resolve issues? Do they have to escalate all issues to the manager or are they empowered to handle the issues? Are your systems user-friendly? For example, when a customer logs into your website and wants to interact with an agent online, do they have to spend several minutes locating the live chat icon. You need to make your services accessible and available. Today’s customer expects instant gratification, or else they shop elsewhere. The procedures and processes should make it easy for the employees to meet customers’ needs. Work on the Improvement Areas You now have data on customers, employees, procedures, and processes. Now, look into the areas that need immediate action and start with them, and roll out the rest with time. With improvement, the focus on the employees and processes, and the changes will affect the customer. Take your employees through thorough refresher training, and focus on the weak areas. For example, if you found out that the call transfer rate was high, the training should emphasize on product knowledge. Loop in the line managers The best people to oversee the implementation of the strategy are the line managers because they spend most of their time on the floor with agents. Ensure they know and understand the strategy and the value it brings to the contact center. You can train them on a separate day, to empower them further and thus give them the right tools and information to make the strategy work. Line managers go beyond overseeing the implementation. For example, after the training, they can coach the employees to greater performance improvements. Effective line managers lead their teams to success. Monitor and Review After equipping everyone with the correct information and tools, you need to monitor their progress. How are the employees performing in light of the set objectives? For example, if they were to improve the FCR, has the rate increased or decreased? After gathering the data, conduct review meeting with line managers and selected employees. At the core of the monitoring and reviewing is to check whether the implemented strategies had financial implications to the contact center. They should not increase your operations cost but lower them. In summary, when you carry out a situation analysis, scrutinize your procedures and processes, work on the improvement areas, loop in the line managers, and monitor and review the strategies and techniques, you will improve your customer service. Be patient in the process as it takes some time to change from one policy to another.

4 Ways to Deliver better Customer Support utilizing Chat

If you look at monthly satisfaction rates for chats and tickets, satisfaction for a regular customer service chat is typically much higher than for a support ticket. This anomaly has a rather clear cause: When clients’ cases are pushed to support tickets, they are usually already dissatisfied with the service they have received. Why? Support ticket cases are the ones that can’t be handled easily, are hard to crack and require quite a bit more time to resolve. This longer wait time does little to calm upset clients. How do you take a disappointed client and, in the end, turn them into a satisfied customer? Although not every case can be expedited, there are certain shortcuts you can use to deliver better service to your ticket customers. Give Tickets to Those Who Can Resolve Them : Although this may seem like an obvious statement, it is a vital part of keeping customers happy that many companies might inadvertently ignore. If you know that the person who initially responds to a support ticket is going to pass it along to someone who actually possesses the knowledge and skills necessary to resolve it, there is a serious problem. The ticket should go directly to someone who can take care of it immediately to increase customer satisfaction. In some cases, there might be a difficult ticket that no one wants to pick up. Support teams should be encouraged in these situations to see finding a solution as a challenge that needs to be overcome. Utilize Tiered Support : Different cases require different levels of expert knowledge to handle. This makes a tiered support system crucial in efficiently handling cases after live chat fails. A basic tiered support setup involves two separate groups of agents: those who receive incoming cases from customers and the experts who actively deal with the cases. The receivers are the first to pick up the ticket, then they escalate it to the experts, who deal with it depending on the case type. One expert could deal with managing payments. Another could handle returns. This allows experts in certain areas to handle the cases that they have been so thoroughly trained on. It makes little sense to have experts in one area handling matters from other areas. This assures that the workers with the highest credentials are immediately assigned the cases that only they can handle. Keep Track of Tickets : One of the easiest ways to further anger an already bothered customer is to lose their ticket. Tickets are commonly lost when they are assigned to a person who is out of the office for more than a day or so. It is completely avoidable and should never happen. Only actively working individuals should receive new tickets. Provide the Details : If a ticket is passed to another worker, it is vital that all the ticket’s details are provided. Without that information, resolving the issue can be greatly prolonged. Any missing information will have to be filled in a second time by the requestor, which will lead to a longer case resolution and an overall poorer experience. For the cases that cannot be resolved via live chat support, tickets are unavoidable. However, the customer experience can be positively affected if support technicians simply follow these four steps.

Overcoming the Accent Barrier Using Live Chat

The Internet has helped to level the playing field in many regards, allowing business and commerce to span across countries and continents where such opportunities did not previously exist. One of the notable effects of this blurring of geographical lines has been that support representatives are often asked to serve customers who live in a different country, and thus, usually speak a different first language. At heart, this change is positive, allowing many people to find work in areas where limited opportunity exists. However, it does also create some amount of disconnect in cases where buyers are less satisfied with service which is inhibited by language barriers. In many cases, it’s less a matter of the words chosen and more about how they are naturally spoken based on local accents and dialects. This is one area where a live chat tool can be of great benefit. A Matter of Nuance Whether your business utilizes an offshore call center or simply employs local workers whose first language differs from that of your typical customer, you might already understand the impact of communication disconnect. This is not to say that hiring from all walks of life is a mistake or a threat to your business. On the contrary, many organizations benefit greatly from diversity in the workforce. The trick is utilizing the right kind of communication platform to capitalize on your team’s strengths. By relying on live chat tools, you can eliminate the hang-ups that some individuals experience when there is a difference in pronunciation. As contact center services can range from product questions to billing inquiries and company complaints, it’s important to ensure that nothing is effectively lost in translation. Quantifying Quality The CFI Group performed a study in 2010 which asked customers to rate their satisfaction with U.S.-based call centers versus those outsourced to foreign countries. The results were telling: Stateside, the satisfaction index reached 79 of a possible 100 points. For those locations staffed primarily by foreign representatives, the number dipped to 58. This relates to how easily understood agents were considered to be (score of 85 for U.S. versus 54 for international entities) as well as the perceived interest in resolving the customer’s issue (scores of 85 compared to 70). However, when comparing courteousness, the difference was less notable: a score of 87 for American call centers to 75 for offshore operations. This displays that most clients are receptive and understand that representatives mean to help, but the need for an equalizer still exists. The Live Chat Difference When utilizing a chat service for your e-commerce site, you can instantly eliminate the challenges presented by different accents among your staff members. As communications are text-based, there is little room for misinterpretation due to mispronunciation. Instead, customers can focus on receiving accurate, efficient information which will help them proceed with confidence in your company. In this instance, offshore call centers can actually be of great benefit. When your operations are broken up into different time zones, your team may in fact be better able to serve the greatest volume of customers without asking your team to work odd hours according to where they live. Final Thoughts The study by CFI Group highlights one core lesson: Trust is intertwined with understanding. If it’s difficult for shoppers to interpret what’s being said to them, it’s also difficult for them to trust the information. Consider the needs of your particular business and make sure to choose the right avenues of communication to receive the greatest benefit from your team of service representatives. This blog was written by Jim Iyoob, EVP Customer Experience and Operational Excellence for Etech Global Services. For more advice on creating an effortless customer experience utilizing chat or if you would like to learn more about Etech, feel free to contact me

Quality Metrics — Unveiling the Strategic Information for your Business

It is often said that if something cannot be measured it cannot be managed or improved. Some aspects of a business are easy to put into measurements – sales or revenue per hour, conversion rate, contact rate, etc. These key indicators are critical to determine sales success. Inbound channels have additional standards to ascertain the level of service being provided the caller – Service Level, Average Speed to Answer, First Contact Resolution to name a few. However, other areas of a business are more difficult to measure. Do you have a way to measure the impact of leadership development classes? Can you track emerging leaders who’ve participated in development courses to see if this investment made an impact on their team’s sales performance or attrition? What about Quality Assurance? Most track agents’ QA scores over time to observe changes but what other metrics can be used to track the customer impact of your interactions and more importantly, how does this effect your business? A metric is a verifiable measure stated in either quantitative or qualitative terms – ie; 95% quality monitoring score or as evaluated by our customers, we are providing above average service. A verifiable measure, metrics capture performance in terms of how something is being done relative to a standard. It allows and, actually, encourages comparison. In quality assurance we use metrics to translate customer needs and satisfaction levels into company performance measures. These metrics can be used to: spot trends both positive and negative identify necessary changes and then track performance of those changes predict future performance based on past results and outcomes The wealth of data that is contained in customer interactions can provide critical vision into the future strategies of the business. However, this data has to be transformed into measurable metrics in order to analyze the results. Once metrics are derived, the analysis must include actionable insights that can be communicated and turned into process improvement plans to drive any needed change. Quality metrics can also help you determine the break points in your service. Break points are used to determine the levels where improved performance will likely change customer behavior. For example: Waiting on hold for a customer service agent – How long will the average customer wait on hold before becoming dissatisfied? 2 minutes? Wait longer than 2 minutes — customer is dissatisfied 1-2 minutes — customer is satisfied less than 1 minute — customer is extremely satisfied Based on these findings, what steps should the company put in place to meet this expectation? How much is the company willing to spend (add more customer service agents, etc.) to meet this expectation? Will the higher customer satisfaction result in more revenue and offset the additional cost? In this example, understanding the break point will come in three steps: A trained analyst listens to calls and captures the customer feedback Sample data is transformed into measurable insight (metrics) Measurable insights are turned into actions For the most meaningful metrics, the sample size should represent a decent percentage of the interactions. As with survey and poll results, too small a sample may skew the findings. By transforming data into metrics, analysis will provide strategic information for the direction of a business. “We best manage what we can measure”. Click here or send us an Email to set up a meeting with the Etech team at Call Center Week 2016, June 27 – July1.

Five Reasons to Integrate Social Media Into Your Larger Marketing Strategy

In the old days, marketing was all about one-way communication with consumers via advertisements, newsletters, and hard calls to action. Now, with the advent of social platforms and live chat services, consumers expect to be able to communicate with brands in a much more transparent and immediate way. If the social strategy isn’t part of your marketing efforts, you could be missing out on much more than likes and shares. Here are five reasons to make social media a marketing priority. 1. Build Strong Relationships Marketing through social platforms is all about the relationship you have with clients. This is no place for the hard sell; it’s where you position your brand for open and honest two-way communication. There is a growing emphasis on transparency in business today, and that means that more and more brands are getting away from one-way advertising messages and focusing instead on relationship-building and making connections with consumers. Social media opens up limitless opportunities to engage visitors, and if you’re not online you’re surely missing out. In fact, some brands report increasing revenue by upwards of $1 million as a result of marketing on social. 2. Make Your Brand Accessible In the same vein as transparency comes accessibility. Once upon a time, it was sufficient to list your contact information on your business website and return calls and emails on your schedule. Now, it’s all about providing excellent customer service on your client’s schedule. People expect to be able to connect with you at any time and can access social media to do so. Having a strong presence online makes you accessible and welcoming to visitors, no matter what time it is. 3. Engage Your Target Audience If there were one single reason to integrate social into your marketing strategy, it would be an invaluable opportunity to pinpoint and connect with your target audience. Besides the relationship-building aspect, most social platforms also have their own analytics functions. This means you can quantitatively measure the number of likes, shares, and visits to specific content. Why does it matter? It matters because you can learn what types of content your target audience loves, which will help you craft an extremely insightful marketing campaign. 4. Leverage Social Media Advertising While the main point of bringing social media into your marketing strategy is to open up two-way communication and make connections with clients, these platforms also create new opportunities for advertising. Many social sites offer their own paid advertising space. It’s a great place to insert your brand and gain wide visibility among your target audience. If you have the budget for them, using these advertising services can give you measurable insight to the impact of your ads. 5. Create Shareable Content Finally, one of the best reasons to use social platforms like YouTube is to develop shareable content. Research shows that video content is some of the most viral on the web, and you can maximize your marketing efforts by creating a YoutTube channel for your business. The great aspect about creating video content on YouTube is that you can use the same videos across all of your social media accounts, including Facebook, Twitter, and your business website. These are just five reasons to make your social strategy a marketing must. This blog was published on LinkedIN by Jim Iyoob

How Millennial Are Changing Management

Every generation makes a mark on the marketplace and labor force and as most millennial approach adulthood, the generation is poised to significantly shift the nature of business management. The baby boomers gave us employee support programs to ensure fair wages and respectful work environments. Generation X made tight-necked collars and stiff leather shoes obsolete with the spread of business casual office spaces. What will be the millennial contribution? They’ll ensure your boss balances your needs with those of the company and society as a whole. Productivity From a New Perspective Most millennials grew up with the infamous “nine-to-five from Monday to Friday” standard, but it’s far from the generation’s ideal. Moreover, you can burn those tired performance reviews that mimic your grade school rubrics. The metrics of productivity are experiencing a massive leap in evolution as millennial managers replace timed desk work with frequent, yet informal check-ins, because the need and principle of constant communication and feedback has leaked from these social media pioneers’ favorite platforms into their best business practices. Fluidity Over Rigid Work/Life Divisions Remember when parents and teachers thought if they blocked social media websites from school computers, students wouldn’t type in one of the memorized URLs of their current and rotating list of unblocked proxies to give the world a juicy life update? Well, now those same millennials are in the work place demanding a rework of Generation X’s work-life balance standard. They simply refuse to turn off their personal lives for 8 to 10 hours a day. In fact, the number of millennials working from home or flex hours for the sake of maintaining personal lives and commitments continues to rise. This generation wants the freedom to move fluidly between their personal and work lives, but that doesn’t mean they won’t respond to a business email promptly. In fact if they don’t respond in 10 minutes or less depending, their phone’s current signal strength is minimal or it’s is dead, which means they’re frantically looking for a charger anyway. The Innovative Price of the Millennial Generation’s Loyalty As of 2015, the millennials officially surpassed Generation X as the largest workforce in the country, but companies seeking to limit turnover will have to adapt their current “employee loyalty-inspiring” tactics to an entirely new gravitational field. A recent Brookings Institution study indicates millennials favor either high-tech enterprises or companies with strong ethical practices and forward-thinking employee benefits. First, the data supports the notion that millennials have no intention of supporting the status quo. This generation wants to improve and innovate; consequently, millennials seek empowering managers and environments that encouraging advanced leadership skills like creative problem solving and creative developments. Secondly, 63 percent of millennials and younger Generation Xers want to work for companies with high ideal regarding social, environmental and political causes. It isn’t enough to distribute paycheck on time or supply reasonable benefits. This generation prefers peace of mind to a financial bottom line in exchange for their loyalty as an employee. Millennial managers are as likely to invest in the employee as a social cause, giving new meaning to business leadership skills.

Improving Live Chat Agent Efficiency

E-commerce shares many similar traits to traditional sales, although it differs considerably in certain key areas. As websites are always open for business to buyers across the country (or possibly around the globe) there exists a greater need for productivity from what are often comparatively limited numbers of representatives. Keep your customers happy and keep the sales rolling in by referring to these helpful pointers to get the most out of your live chat service agents. Short and Sweet While online communications differ in many ways from real-world conversations, there are plenty of parallels between the two. One of the most important to remember: Keep responses succinct. Customers don’t care to be preached to in person, and they don’t usually care to read half-page replies to basic questions. When the need does arise for instructional or step-by-step instructions, advise your representatives to break things down into shorter one- or two-sentence replies to keep things simple. Canned Responses Canned responses aren’t always favorable, but in the case of live chat service, they can be a lifesaver if crafted correctly. Often times your reps will receive many of the same questions repeatedly, such as inquiries about sales or promotions, or information about popular products. By arranging preset responses which can be dropped in with the click of a mouse, agents stand to save considerable typing time, which allows them to assist more customers in a shorter period. First Come, First Serve When the volume starts to put a strain on your team, it’s important that they’re able to prioritize. Make sure that your support representatives give first attention to those in the queue who’ve been waiting longest in order to minimize lost sales opportunities resulting from those who run out of patience. The Customer’s Always Right Another basic parallel between brick-and-mortar and online customer service is the need for agree-ability. In other words, if a customer refers to products or promotions incorrectly, then make sure your team knows it’s not their priority to make corrections. Instead, they should adapt to the customer’s language, provided the misunderstanding doesn’t for example extend to differences in discounts. In other words, if a shopper makes reference to a “coupon” instead of a promo code, your chat agent should respond in kind. Double Vision Most website representatives have more to pay attention to than chat windows—they must often also monitor email, customer relationship management applications and more. It’s recommended to get these types of reps onto two-screen setups if at all possible. Dual monitors make it easier to keep tabs on everything without constant window-switching, upping efficiency throughout each day. Realistic Expectations You’ve heard the phrase or variations of it: Never enough time to get it right on the first try, but always enough time to try again. You should always take caution against overloading agents with too many simultaneous customer chats, as your ambition to increase productivity may actually work in the opposite direction if the quality of responses begins to suffer. Have your reps start small and work their volume up naturally. Conclusion In a perfect world, you’d have an available service rep for each and every customer who needed help. In the real world, it’s important to seek out efficiency without sacrificing quality. When you and your team are able to achieve that ideal balance, you’ll be sure to reap the rewards and encourage plenty of repeat business for the future.

How to Avoid Self-service Channels Becoming NO SERVICE Channels

As companies look for efficient ways to of offering excellent customer service with the challenges that face contact centers, self-service came into play to ease that burden. It is an option that enables your customers to get solutions online without talking to an agent. Regarding contact center efficiency, a self-service channel will help you deal with the repetitive, steady stream of questions that are low-level and can be answered without the help of an agent. When you relieve your agents of this burden, they will concentrate on the pressing issues that are escalated from the self-service channels. However, there is still a challenge on the customer’s end who feels that they are being ignored or have to fill in a lot of information online to get an answer. Some wonder why no agent wants to talk to them. This misunderstanding of the purpose of the self-service channel can lead to it becoming a no-service channel. Here are tips that can help you avoid your self-service channel from becoming a no-service channel. 1. Educate your customers on how to use self-service channel The main reason that the self-service can become a no service is that customers do not have enough knowledge of how to use the system. To ease the transition from calls and live chat to self-service, you need to educate your customers on how to go about getting the right information on your website. Educating the mass is not easy, but, you can simplify the user interface and also make the process straight forward. Avail a “how to use self-service” page should on your site to give the simple instructions to your customers. 2. Simplify the user interface As mentioned above on educating your customers, the user interface should be simple and easy to use. How many clicks does the customer have to click to get the information they are looking for? Do they have to hit a million links or a few? If they hit so many links, then they will get frustrated and give up, however, if the customer goes through a few links, they will be satisfied with the service. A user-friendly interface that leads the customer to the right information fast will serve its purpose and not fall into the “no service” channels. 3. Ensure your links are working Another key component of ensuring that your customers enjoy the self-service channels is to have working links. When you are updating the information or upgrading the systems, a notification should be available to the customer the moment they sign into the self-service channel. Otherwise, if they start the process only to reach halfway to a dead link, that service will have become a “no service.” Remember that the competition is stiff and customers have little time to keep going round in search of answers. Make their search as easy as possible by having working links. The links should also be few and go on and on. 4. Train your employees on the self-service option Even after doing all the above, you might still encounter customers who call in for help on how to use the self-service channel. All your agents should be knowledgeable about all the options and can explain to the customers how to use the system. Train them on how to handle customer fears and complaints. When customers get the right information from the agents, they will enjoy the self-service, which is a win-win situation. In summary, the self-service channels should facilitate your contact center to offer great customer service experiences. With the above four tips, you can avoid self-service channels from becoming “no service”, and you will end up with highly satisfied customers and employees. At the end of the day, an efficient self-service channel will create value for your customers.

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