Customer Experience Archives - Page 2 of 6

Why is Contact Center Quality Monitoring Crucial for Your Business?

When it comes to contact center quality assurance, there are several reasons you should implement a strategy and stop just checking boxes. The 9 reasons we will discuss below will help your team provide exceptional service for your customers and create a remarkable customer experience. 1. Know What’s Most Important One of the first advantages associated with contact center quality monitoring is that your team will know precisely what is essential. Define the key performance indicators that matter to you and that your customers. By seeing these indicators, they will know where they need to focus even more of their attention to increase customer Experience. 2. Recognize Negative Behavior If your team is engaging in negative behavior with customers it will reflect poorly on your business as a whole. By going through the process of a true quality assurance plan, you will be able to highlight these negative behaviors as soon as they occur, and you will then be able to correct them. 3. Maintain Regulatory Compliance There are several regulatory concerns when it comes to contact centers, data security, customer privacy, and more. By employing methods of quality monitoring, you can recognize potential regulatory concerns before they become serious. This will allow you to correct the problem before it results in a breach of security or fines from the regulatory body. 4. Highlight Positive Behavior Through monitoring, you can learn how team members are interacting with customers in positive behaviors as well. This enables you to highlight those behaviors and provide feedback and encouragement to the entire team. 5. Provide Better Feedback Coaching sessions with team members are essential to be able to retain people. Retaining the team is far more efficient than hiring new people, which means you will have to provide constant feedback to help the teams improve their positive behaviors and resolve the negative ones. Through quality monitoring, you can observe the behaviors that each of your team members are participating in and provide specific feedback on the behaviors that will directly improve the customer experience. 6. Track Employee Improvement Through the process of continuous monitoring, you will be able to evaluate the behavior of a particular team member over time. This means you will be able to consider how they interacted with customers on Day 1, versus their customer interactions on Day 20, Day 50, and Day 100. This will allow you to clearly see where each of your team members is improving and where they still need training. Developing an action plan and using this type of information will provide you the ability to retain your team more easily. 7. Speed Up Training and Promotion By monitoring call center performance, you will be able to pinpoint the positive behaviors that you want to see repeated in all of your team members. Then you can easily showcase these behaviors to the rest of your team, including new hires. As a result, you will be able to speed up the training process by starting new hires off with the skills you want them to possess rather than having a steep learning curve along the way. 8. Improve Your Team Environment When team members feel that they don’t know what you expect from them or what you want, it can cause them to feel overwhelmed. Team members who understand what is expected of them, even if that expectation is out of their reach at that time, are more likely to feel content, happy, and satisfied at work, and deliver their best performance. And if they know what is expected of them, then they know what goals they need to work toward. 9. Improve Customer Experience Finally, you will be able to improve the overall experience of your customers through the process of call monitoring. By ensuring that your customers’ voices are heard and that your team members are responding to calls in a way that fits the needs of the business, you will improve the experience your customers have when they interact with you. This will, in turn, foster a relationship with your customers and encourage them to continue using your services because they know that you will provide them with the help they need when they need it. By maintaining quality and monitoring contact center performance, you can improve how your team interacts with customers. It also makes it possible to ensure you retain customers. But first, you need someone who can help you do it. That’s where Etech Global Services comes in. At Etech, we know the market, including the changing landscape of customer experience. With over 20 years of experience, we can take care of your quality monitoring needs. All you need to do is visit our website to find out more. This blog was earlier published on LinkedIn.

FCR: Define It, Then Measure It

Start with the letters Start with C before F and R. C has changed the most over time. F is usually accepted as First but with some caveats. R, or Resolution, is the simplest and most binary to define and measure. Years ago, life when business was simpler, defining FCR was simpler. It was quickly defined as First Call Resolution. That was it. Did your phone representative resolve the Customer’s issue It was resolved for the Customer during the call without transferring them to someone else or having to follow up later. One call to solve it all. Business gradually became more complex and often required transfers to supervisors for take overs or other departments because agents became specialized within their organization. First Call Resolution sometimes became more difficult to measure as well, after all, the Customer only made one phone call and even though they had to talk to more than one person their issue was still resolved with that one event. Now, with the internet Customers can connect with businesses in many ways be it email, chat, social media, and even still by phone or fax. These channels are sometimes not even in real-time but have moved into the world of asynchronous conversations. FCR has evolved with it with the C often changing to Contact or Conversation depending on the channel being evaluated because sometimes it’s just not mechanically possible to answer something with the first response to a Tweet or Facebook message. We have yet to imagine what the future holds for communication and that will continue to evolve C. C has been defined (Call, Chat, Contact, Conversation) for what works best for you. Next, we define F and R. R is generally accepted as resolution and is a pretty simple binary measurement. For an interaction, if your agent resolved the issue without transferring it, they get the check. If they didn’t, no check. You can add this into your workflow to get confirmation from the Customer during the interaction. R can become more complex if you add a measure of correctness to the resolution during a quality review but doesn’t have to. F, or first, should also be simple to measure. Was this the first time the Customer contacted you about the issue, and was the interaction transferred? In the simplest iteration of F, we only consider the interaction being monitored, we discard future or past calls from the Customer regarding the same issue, and we also don’t consider if the Customer reached out across multiple channels. Define the point of view measured There are two views to consider when measuring FCR; the Customer side and the internal side. A Customer may not be concerned with being transferred several times within a call since to them it’s still one call. It is also generally understood that channels like social media may need more than one interaction in a chain, so C lends itself to Conversation instead of Contact. This doesn’t mean their level of effort doesn’t go up with each transfer or message but that is not what we are directly measuring with FCR even if it the former is impacted by the latter. On the other side, FCR has an impact on your business’s bottom line. FCR means you typically had to pay one agent to resolve an issue with the Customer without having to have a first-level agent do some probing then escalate the issue to a specialist to resolve or a supervisor to deescalate unhappiness. Additionally, a high rate of FCR can reduce the number of contacts your agents have to support because Customers only must call once. FCR can also give you insights to the complexity of your business or your service recovery process. If your agents must transfer to someone else, you can begin to look at training opportunities for agents or create a better self-help interface for your customers. You might even be able to use the insights to iterate your product itself based on the intelligence you gather. All too often businesses don’t or can’t leverage their contact centers in this way, but the best ones find a way to do just that. How do you measure FCR? Now that we have some good definitions for FCR and which side of the conversation is being considered for measurement, how do we do it? With simple definitions FCR is a checkbox measurement: Was this the first call from the Customer, did the agent resolve the issue without transferring? We can add time variables and accuracy of the resolution if we want to get a more robust measure for FCR success. What if the Customer calls back in 24 hours about the same issue? How about 36 hours? 48? What if your agent gave the Customer the wrong resolution but it seemed right in the moment? Let’s start with a simple example, a Customer calls about a balance inquiry for their account. Did your agent give your Customer the correct answer they needed at the time during the first call without transferring? If yes to both, get the check. It doesn’t matter if the Customer calls back to ask the same thing because the interaction is transactional. Simple and clean. Here’s an example of how complex FCR can get if you don’t take the time to get clear definitions. It has been decided that FCR is measured by the agent confirming resolution during the call with the Customer and the time chosen is 24 hours. Your Customer calls in to get a password reset. They called the right department from your phone tree and your agent was able to help them. The agent confirmed that verbally with the Customer. The call checks the box for FCR if the Customer does not call back within the next 24 hours. Except the Customer calls back a few hours later because they locked themselves out again. The password gets reset and resolution confirmed. The second call gets the FCR check, but the first

Go Beyond Net Promoter Score To Measure The Customer Experience Effectively

Forbes defines the Net Promoter Score (NPS) as an index used to determine how willing customers are to recommend a brand, product or service. Most brands rely on software developers, such as Zendesk, to create this poll. The answers create a popular metric used to evaluate the customer experience. Customers rank the probability of their recommendation on a scale of zero to 10. Companies then convert this into an index that ranges from -100 to 100. Not surprisingly, NPS has played a strong role in call center environments over the past two decades. Even so, managers now want more answers about what it measures, what its shortcomings are and more effective alternatives. What the Net Promoter Score Measures The Net Promoter Score specifically helps companies to categorize customers into groups based on how likely they are to recommend the company. Using the scale of one to 10, they identify the following: Detractors at scores zero to six Passives at scores seven to eight Promoters at scores nine and up Some companies further simplify the process by classing customers who give a score of eight and up as their promoters and seven below as their detractors. Whichever route a company takes, it helps to identify how satisfied a particular customer is. When companies convert the scores into the index range, they can see how well they rank against their competitors in satisfying customers Some business owners also use NPS to manage the customer experience and ensure satisfaction. They do this by following up in person and online shortly after interacting with customers. If the score provided is less than desirable, customer service representatives can then take action to rectify the situation. Shortcomings of Relying on the NPS Score A study by customer experience advisory firm Walker found that, by 2020, customer experience will become a bigger differentiating factor than the product or its price. When this happens, customers will have an even greater impact on what drives a business. Companies will then need to focus on improving this experience to earn loyal customers and their referrals. NPS does play a role in gauging and managing the customer experience. However, it barely scratches the surface. Here are some of the shortcomings that business owners identified over the years: It may encourage service staff to push customers to say they would refer the company rather than exhibit behaviors that would naturally make the customer do so without prompting. It fails to consider consumer demographics. Younger customers are more likely to refer a company than older customers. It may provide no explanation for why a customer would or would not recommend the company. Effective Ways To Measure Customer Experience Some managers believe that it is time to retire NPS altogether. Others believe that supplementing it with other effective measures may enhance the data it provides. Whichever metrics you choose, the important thing is to start with a strategy. Managers often collect data for the sake of collecting it. They then rely on the most popular metrics to measure their own company performance. A much better approach is to start with a strategy. Consider the company’s mission, vision and goals. Then, choose the metrics that align most closely with goals, while also evaluating the customer experience. It is also important to focus on that experience. Too often, businesses begin and end their strategies from their own perspective. To create a better experience, businesses have to first understand the current experience. What is it like to use your own product or service? What is it like to speak with team members at the contact center? Do customers enjoy using your website or app? These are essential to understanding how customers experience your brand and what metrics you should monitor to help you improve it. The following are some of the metrics you should consider First-Contact Resolution: As a well-known metric at contact centers, this determines the likelihood of a customer resolving their issue the first time they reach out to a company. Customers who get rerouted to multiple team members or who have to call back after realizing that the issue has persisted are more likely to become frustrated. To calculate this, divide the number of incidents resolved on the first try by the total number of incidents. The higher the FCR, the higher the customer satisfaction. Average Resolution Time: This is another popular measure of the customer experience for call center managers. As the name implies, it determines the average time it takes for team members to resolve issues that customers may call, email or open a chat to rectify. The longer the resolution times, the more frustrated customers become. However, keep in mind that some industries naturally have longer resolution times than others, so it’s important to compare apples to apples when looking up competitors. Customer Churn Rate: According to an eBook published by CX Network, the customer churn rate identifies how many customers unsubscribed from your service or stopped buying your products during a specific period of time. Managers calculate this by dividing total customers lost at the end of that time period by the number of customers the company had at the start. Remember not to include new sales in the calculation Cart Abandonment Rate: If customers feel that you ask for too much information or you don’t provide the payment methods they prefer, they may jump ship. Hidden shipping fees and taxes may also turn some people away. Cart abandonment is a strong indicator that something is unfavorable in the customer experience. Forbes recommends creating new strategies to make both the website and mobile experience more user-friendly. Social Listening: This is an often overlooked metric. As it is qualitative, it requires more interpersonal skills than analytics. It monitors what people say about your brand, product or service on social media. This often includes information customers may not share directly with the brand itself. Companies then have the opportunity to jump in and rectify the situation before it escalates.

4 Golden Contact Center Quality Monitoring Trends of All Time

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

How does Human Resources Impact Customer Experience?

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

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

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

Thinking beyond Artificial Intelligence to improve the Customer Experience

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

What are the Guiding Principles for Outsourcing Your Customer Service?

Excellent customer service is an integral part of every business. Whether your company deals in retail or offers specific services, consumers look for a convenient and flexible means of contacting the business. At Etech, we strive to provide exceptional customer engagement solutions for our clients. Hence, we have a deep understanding of what exactly customers expect out of an organization. However, not all businesses have an idea of the same. Also, there are small and medium scale businesses that struggle to have the time, funds, or resources to build their in-house customer service center or have outgrown the capacity. For all such companies, customer support outsourcing is a great option. We, at Etech, have a hands-on experience of years on helping such businesses with extraordinary customer support. Well, the decision to outsource customer service is ultimately an integral one for businesses. If your organization doesn’t suffice the customer service needs and you want to outsource, there are certain proven benefits of that. You don’t have to hire and/or train new employees with an outsourced provider. Also, your business will ultimately employ the knowledge and skills of experts who are adept at customer service. However, how can you make your decision about outsourcing the customer service the best one? Below are some guiding principles that you should keep in mind while you outsource the customer service for your organization: Know the Right Time to Outsource Before you finalize your decision to outsource your customer service, you should first consider the best time for your organization to make this big move. If you think there is a significant change going on in your company or if it is experiencing fast-paced growth, this is when you should think about outsourcing your customer support. The outsourcing contact center will ensure your customers are taken care of while your organization can focus on the ongoing internal rapid developments. Make the Most Out of the Outsourced Customer Service It’s crucial to understand and implement the right approach to manage outsourced customer service. Your organization might already have a customer service team in place; however, you are not maintaining the best practice. In such a scenario, you should speak to an outsourced expert company to know what works best. This can be a useful step if your internal support team needs to focus elsewhere. Also, a third-party customer service team can fill the gap if your support team is not staffed rightly. It will help if you think the outsourced team as an extension of your in-house team, rather than as an individual entity with increased domain expertise. Ask for Quality Control Call management (CMS) IT solutions play a significant role in managing inbound and outbound calls efficiently. These can be helpful in monitoring and analyze the call activity to ensure continuous improvement. If you are planning to outsource your customer support, it’s always better to opt for such a company that includes this, too, especially if your business is already handling a high volume of phone call interactions. CMS IT can be highly useful to assess your business’ operational contact center issues and figure out the right ways to resolve them. Quality Control is a big deal! Make Sure to Exceed Customer Expectations Customers expect faster online responses from brands. According to The Social Habit’s survey, 32% of customers expect to get a response within 30 minutes. Only 10% will prefer to wait for 60 minutes. Hence, either way, the answer must be at least within an hour. Otherwise, your organizations will fall short of customers’ expectations. Therefore, when you are outsourcing your customer support, make sure the outsourced team is meeting this requirement. It’s only then your organization will be able to stand out. Look for Social Media Customer Service Customers no longer prefer to call a hotline. Your brand must engage in social media to attain maximum customer satisfaction. Any outsourced customer service provider will typically have the tools for online and call responses. You must consider them to focus on both forms of communication, as today’s customer mainly interacts online. Moreover, social media customer service is a much affordable investment. Forbes reports state that social media only cost $ 1 per interaction. With that, you can enjoy lower costs, and once done right, you can enjoy huge profits. Summing Up Want to outsource your organization’s customer support? Look for a contact center with extensive experience and expertise like Etech. We offer customized customer engagement solutions to fit organizations’ specific requirements. Contact Etech to explore its inbound, outbound, live chat, and quality monitoring solutions, and learn how they can benefit your business, your team, and, ultimately, your customers.

Characteristics of a Good Project Manager That Translate Into a Great Customer Experience

One of the goals of project management is to create a positive experience for your customers. According to a recent survey conducted by Gartner, within the next two years, 81% of respondents expect that the company that rises above its competitors will do so on the basis of quality customer experience. It’s still important to have a great product, but among top quality producers, you need something extra to make you stand out. The project manager is the person who has the most contact with the customers and thus is the one who is likely to have the most influence over their decision to choose your product or service over the competition. There are several characteristics that this vital point person needs to exhibit in order to build a solid customer relationship. Solution Orientation Project management involves fostering collaboration and cooperation in your team to come up with the best solutions for your customers. While ideally, every person on your team is going to be a talented problem solver, the bulk of that responsibility lies on the project manager. A good manager leads the team by thinking outside the box when the standard answer doesn’t address what the customer actually needs. To offer good solutions in a timely manner, it helps if the person in charge of the team has a broad range of knowledge. When customers contact a company, they often don’t know exactly who at the organization will be able to answer their question the best. This can result in being shuffled around from person to person until it gets to someone who can give them a clear solution. This may make sense from the inside, but from the outside, it can feel like they’re getting the runaround. As the project manager, if you have a general grasp on a lot of the questions customers typically ask, you can satisfy them without having to pass them off to someone else. Good Time Management Time management is a key component of project management toolbox. In a world where customers can make a few clicks and have what they want delivered to them in record time, being able to offer swift, efficient service is not optional. Be available to your customers, and return calls and emails promptly. In fact, if you find a way to serve them better, don’t wait for them to contact you. Follow up with them to make sure that all their needs have been met. Taking the initiative to contact them to ensure their satisfaction can make you stand out and give you a loyal customer for life. Open Communication Many of the characteristics of good project management are made possible by great communication skills. These skills start with your team. Aside from brainstorming sessions, you can utilize other tools to make sure everyone stays on the same page: Email Task management tools Instant messaging software When it comes to customer service, the main role of the leader in charge of project management is to act as a liaison between the team and the customer. You want to communicate regularly with them but not excessively. By having one person who is tasked with keeping the lines of communication open, you can better manage the relationship with the customers. As a project manager, you are in a unique position to listen to your customers. You are the face and voice of the company to them, and as such, you are likely the first person they will contact to voice a complaint. Pay close attention to this feedback. It will tell you where you need to focus your service efforts. Good customer experience doesn’t usually involve revamping the entire way you do business. Identify the one key element that makes customers happy, and you can soar above your competitors. Extra Mile Service Good project management involves paying close attention to the service you provide to your customers. As the project manager, you should ask yourself six questions about the experience of your customers: What are the unique qualities of your product or service that satisfy the specific needs of your customers? Does what you offer meet or exceed the customers’ expectations? What extras can you supply to surprise your customers and add value to your service? Is the overall customer experience pleasant? How can you simplify the buying process to make it easier for your customers? How quickly do you respond to both positive and negative customer feedback? You need more than a great product or service to attract customers and keep them coming back. The characteristics that make you excel at project management are the same skills that you need to please your customers. This blog was earlier published on LinkedIn.

Do We Need AI to Truly Transform the Customer Experience for the Better?

According to a Gartner Report, 85% of customer interactions will take place without human involvement by 2020. Put simply, artificial intelligence is transforming the way companies interact with their customers. But, do we really need AI to maintain high levels of customer satisfaction, or can we rely solely on human intelligence? To answer this question, here are some of AI’s transformative qualities and how they complement human intelligence. Constant and Immediate Availability When customers call customer service or initiate a chat, the wait time is longer without the help of artificial intelligence. Bots can at least begin the greeting process while customers wait for an available agent. Bots can also help to confirm what kind of help customers need, ensure they are communicating with the right department and redirect them if they’re not. Forbes notes that because bots never need to sleep, they can handle these tasks even when there are no available agents, because it is outside of business operating hours. This is especially important for business with restrictive hours, such as the post office, banks or government institutions. Artificial intelligence also reduces the pressure on contact centers to schedule more agents to work at nights. The Financial Times notes that night shifts present a fundamental biological challenge to the human body. People who work nights generally sleep less. Note that routinely getting less than six hours of sleep can increase mortality risks by 13%. Improves the Work Process for Human Agents Sorting calls and verifying that customers are on the right line is the less exciting part of customer service. It can also be the one most frustrating for customers because they hate to be transferred. When bots handle the sorting in chats or automated operators handle this on the phone, people can focus on aspects where human intelligence is best applied. Humans are more urgently needed for the real people skills and creative problem-solving. These are the aspects where artificial intelligence may fall short, no matter how brilliant the coding is. Bots may, for instance, fail to understand a message riddled with typos or which is written by someone who does not speak English as a first language. Humans would pick up on these errors, whereas bots tend to need more specific parameters to act. When bots can handle sorting, scheduling appointments and other small tasks, it further helps to make work easier for human agents. It reduces the bottleneck they may otherwise meet in the morning when they begin their shifts. Bots can also help to reduce the pressure when centers are short-staffed during an unexpected incident related to the client’s products and services, such as a service outage. Provides Actionable Data and Predictions Artificial intelligence may also provide personalized information on customers. Depending on how advanced the system is, this information may even include predictions based on a customer’s purchasing behavior. For example, agents may see current subscriptions, how long customers have done business with the company and even ratings on the likelihood of successfully upselling certain products and services. By arming agents with this valuable information, it prepares them for higher levels of success in interactions. This is true even when the customer begins the conversation frustrated or upset. Forbes notes that this personalized data helps companies to tap into the coveted 1% of the customer pool. These are the highly discriminating customers worth more than 18 times the value of a regular buyer. One bank even uses it to maintain unsolicited but helpful contact with customers. When a customer of the Royal Bank of Scotland continuously overdrafts their account, bots flag the account for a follow-up. The best employee for the job then calls the customer to offer financial advice. The Bottom Line: The Argument for AI in Business Put simply, artificial intelligence is an indispensable part of transforming the customer experience for three main reasons: • It reduces the cost companies would otherwise sustain for providing 24/7 customer support and a strong commitment to customer satisfaction. • It reduces the workload for customer service agents, while increasing their effectiveness through personalized data. • It keeps customers happy. It does this by helping companies to better cater to a buyer’s individual needs, while being available right around the clock. At Etech, we are in the people business. We believe that the role of AI in transforming customer experience is to complement the work of our amazing team by taking over menial work. This allows workers to shine at the tasks that require creativity and interpersonal skills. For more information on how we use artificial intelligence at our contact centers, email us at info@etechgs.com. This blog was earlier published on LinkedIn.

How to Improve Customer Experience and Sales With Voice of the Customer Research

Companies offering inbound call center services often train their employees to believe that the customer is always right. When it comes to customers’ knowledge of their own needs, expectations, preferences, and dislikes – that is, the voice of the customer – the adage is correct. VoC research, obtained through both qualitative and quantitative methods, gives a company insight into how well its products or services are going to fare with its target customer base. Researchers at MIT identify four aspects of VoC outcomes: • Customers’ needs • Hierarchical ranking of those needs • A prioritized list of importance • Customers’ perception of products or services Through the use of research methods such as focus groups, interviews and surveys, data collectors gather statements in customers’ own words about how the inbound call center services the company offers should meet their needs. The list they compile is sorted into primary, secondary, and tertiary needs to discover what the customers want most and what specific things can be done to satisfy those desires. The information gleaned from the customers is also used to arrange needs according to their relative importance to customers. Finally, customers are asked to weigh in on the performance of products or services on the market that fulfill the needs discussed or, if no such product or service currently exists, on how they satisfy that need without it. By understanding their customers better, companies can improve customer experience. An improved experience, in turn, improves customer retention and sales. The Relationship Between VoC and the Customer Experience According to Oracle’s 2011 Customer Experience Impact Report, 86% of customers are willing to pay more for excellent customer services experience. Conversely, 89% have no qualms about taking their business to a competitor if their experience with a company is bad. Customers expect to be treated well, and if they have any problems or concerns, they expect those issues to be addressed and resolved promptly. Information gleaned from VoC research is helpful because it offers detailed insight into how to improve the customer experience across multiple levels. It improves marketing and measures the effectiveness of the product or services offered. When VoC is utilized effectively, the features of the inbound call center services that are most helpful to customers are continued and improved, and the features that don’t satisfy customer needs are retired. Customers notice when their feedback is taken seriously, and they are likely to remain loyal to a company that uses their input to drive decisions. The Benefits of Using VoC Research To Improve Customer Services Listening to customers leads to clearer direction and focus. When companies seek to improve call center services through VoC research, they can expect certain benefits: • Stronger Customer Relationships – Good relationships depend on mutual knowledge and trust. Customers typically know the companies they patronize frequently, but how well do those companies know their customers? Through VoC research, companies gain knowledge of what the customers want and need as well as the role the companies play in fulfilling them. The process itself humanizes the customer, making service providers even more excited to make them happy and build a lasting rapport. • Retention of Current Customers – No matter how great inbound call center services are, problems are bound to arise occasionally. The efficiency and professionalism with which the company resolves customers’ problems improve their perception of the company and VoC can help make this process go smoothly. In fact, companies that use VoC effectively may experience up to a 55% increase in customer retention rates. • Increase in New Customers – Satisfied customers are walking, talking advertisements for their favorite companies. When companies use VoC research to help improve services for their existing customers, the customers tell their friends. Companies who take advantage of the information they glean can improve their sales. • Improvement of Existing Products or Services – Negative feedback can be a positive sign. It is proof that customers are invested enough to care how inbound call center services perform, and this input can lead to vast improvements in what the company already has on the market. • Inspiration For New Products or Services – Information from VoC research helps companies identify needs that are not being met by their current offerings or the market in general. This gap can lead to the creation of innovative new products or services. When a company takes an interest in not only in its customers’ preferences but also their aversions, it can see a marked increase in customer satisfaction, marketing strategy success, and its bottom line. VoC research helps improve inbound call center services to inspire loyalty in existing customers and pique curiosity in new ones.

Why You Need Omnichannel Customer Engagement Solutions?

When a company is set in its ways, it can be a hard rush to encourage managers to create lasting change. This is as true for call centers as it is for other types of businesses. One aspect where companies can become stubborn is communication. A business that has excelled from taking only phone calls at their contact centers, for instance, may not be willing to open up new lines of communication through email, live chat, social media, and other omnichannel customer engagement options. Unfortunately, this would be to the detriment of the business. Here’s why. Some customers do prefer a phone call, but others may prefer to type a few words in a Facebook chatbox. Thus, by keeping multiple lines of communication open, i.e., offering omnichannel solutions, a company makes it easier for customers to resolve issues. Estimates say that 98% of your customers expect you to communicate consistently across multiple channels. If it is instead easier for a customer to engage with a competitor to start a new service than it is to reach your company to resolve their issues, you may lose that customer. They may also take a few family, friends, and followers with them. Shaping Customer Experience Customers generally have three points of contact with a business. The first occurs when they purchase a product or service. The second occurs during the use of the product or service. The third is if or when something goes wrong with the product or service, or the customer has a query. Depending on the type of business, customers come in contact with agents for at least two of these three points. As a result, contact centers play an integral role in shaping the customer experience, irrespective of their encounter with the actual product or service. 96% of consumers agree that an essential determining factor of whether or not they remain loyal to a company is the customer service experience. However, phone calls are not enough. More than half of customers prefer to text rather than call when seeking customer support. Forbes also notes that live chat is preferred by 41% of customers. Omnichannel customer service is especially important when a company’s main offering is a service. When there are intangible components of a business, customers may rely on the contact center team even more for support issues, such as troubleshooting a website glitch or questions regarding successful completion of an online course. When a customer has the option of accessing that support through multiple channels, the likelihood of them viewing the company more favorably tends to be higher. Benefits of Providing Omnichannel Service Higher customer satisfaction is the benefit most frequently cited for the use of omnichannel customer solutions, but it is not the only one. See below for some additional advantages of applying this strategy: Reduced Costs: When it comes to implementing big changes, one of the first things companies look to is their bottom line. The good news is that while there is an initial investment, switching to an omnichannel approach reduces call center costs over time. One reason for this is that self-help omnichannel solutions reduce the need for agents to tackle every potential issue themselves. A customer may find the answer on their own through FAQ web pages, branded videos, or even chatbots. Additional Insights: Social media, live chat, forums, and other aspects of the omnichannel strategy provides the opportunity to gain additional insights. Through these channels, companies can learn what customers love best about their products and services, what they hate most, why they stay, or why they chose a competitor. Increased Employee Productivity: Customers aren’t the only ones with a preference for certain communication channels. Some employees may also be better suited to texting or creating DIY videos than just taking phone calls. By matching employees with the communication channels that best suit them, you may increase employee engagement, motivation, and productivity. Reduction in Turnover: Companies are often so focused on customer retention that employee retention often falls by the wayside. Contrary to what many employers believe, providing employees with the option of manning the different forts of an omnichannel may increase employee retention for the reasons highlighted in the point above. It also introduces the element of choice and reduces monotony. In short, an omnichannel customer engagement strategy allows companies to communicate with people on their own terms, wherever they feel most comfortable. Customers are currently demanding better service and more accessibility to their favorite brands all around the world and this is one way to deliver this experience seamlessly. Would you like to introduce omnichannel customer solutions at your contact center? Contact Etech today to get the process started.

Are You Adapting Omni-Channel Customer Support?

Customer support was originally handled through three information channels: telephone, letter or in person. As technology advanced, however, the available communication tools evolved, moving toward digital and cloud services. Now, businesses must handle customer service communications through a multifaceted approach known as omnichannel. As defined, this new approach streamlines and unifies consumer information across all corporate and client touchpoints to provide seamless, universal and informed service, and it can be further defined through the four Ps: Pain-free The first P refers to the seamlessness of the customer experience during the point of contact and finding a solution. Is your business’ currently facilitating this process in the best way possible? Proactive Is your current service reactive or proactive? The second P is about being ahead of the curve when it comes to solutions. Therefore, provide answers to problems that customers haven’t asked yet. Personalized How attentive is the business to client needs? The third P requires a personalized approach, meaning that the old ways of one-size-fits-all don’t work in today’s customer service environment. Productive Lastly, the fourth P is focused on productivity. Are your service agents empowered to make unilateral decisions, or does everything have to go through upper management? Streamlining the decision process is the focus of omnichannel customer service. If your business is not yet in tangent with the four P’s, it is not too late to start. There are several steps your company can take to improve the consumer experience and better align itself with the principles of multichannel service. Understand Customer Behavior The basis of business and customer support is to understand customer behavior, and in the current economic climate, it is more important than ever before. To understand consumers is to understand their behavior, and to acknowledge their actions. It is difficult to establish successful communication channels if you do not know where your client-base spends their time online. Knowing that the majority of your clients use platforms like Twitter and Facebook will allow you to divert budgetary dollars from other social platforms. Capitalize on Mobile Platforms Also, while omnichannel efforts where once limited to desktop and laptop computers, there are now multiple ways for customers to use business platforms and to contact support. You will be hard-pressed to find consumers without mobile phones or tablets. Therefore, it is essential that companies design for mobile platforms. Allow for Self-service Additionally, it is not always necessary to flood your patron’s inbox with personalized messages or to provide information only through a real person. Some people prefer a more introverted customer experience, meaning that they prefer self-service. Companies can accommodate these types of shoppers by providing thorough and robust FAQ pages. Integrate SMS Omnichannel support often depends on a personal approach to consumer relations through the utilization of technology and its platforms. Therefore, to push your support features to the next level, offer SMS capabilities. The availability of text messaging and its nearly universal appeal make it a reliable way to provide service and support. Incorporate Live Chat When discussing personalized service, you can’t get any better than offering live chats. While chatbots have their place in the streamlining process, a real person can provide empathy and relatability. A machine is not able to provide accurate as well as emotional support and understanding. Don’t Forget Email Granted, it is easy to forget the old methods of letters and email, but each still holds value in the customer experience. By incorporating both personalization and technology, businesses are capable of crafting targeted email campaigns that can lead to satisfaction and further purchases. While technically optional, omnichannel customer service is an appreciated customer service approach that yields real results. However, for true effectiveness businesses must be capitalizing on this approach across every touchpoint. If you are interested in incorporating this multichannel strategy into your business, then contact Etech for a customized solution.

How Artificial Intelligence Humanizes Employee Communications and Customer Engagement

Images from the movies and popular culture might have you believing that machines are taking over the world. Cars carry on conversations with drivers or just drive themselves, robots are depicted as suitable dating partners, and that smartphone you keep on hand 24/7 probably recognizes your voice, face, and other biometrics. Contacting your utility company, buying groceries online, and ordering pizza delivery may not involve interacting with a human at all. In the world of business, Gartner estimates that by 2020, 85 percent of customer experience tasks will not involve a human. However, while it’s true that many functions in society can be automated, there’s still no substitute for the human touch. Many people are fairly adept at determining whether they’re dealing with a human or a machine and show a strong preference for the former. For that reason alone, fully automated customer experience tools are frustrating for many consumers, but that doesn’t mean they don’t have a place. When it comes to engaging your customers and crafting meaningful communications, you can draw on the best traits of human intelligence when combined with artificial intelligence to create a quality customer engagement experience. For example, you might use an AI tool to walk customers through very common tasks or questions. But when a complex problem emerges, and you have an exasperated client on your hands, you need a human to de-escalate the situation, share insights and find creative alternatives that preserve the relationship with the client. How does AI Helps in Customer Engagement? Data management: Customer service is more data-driven than ever. Demographics, buying preferences, touch points, and many other factors contribute to a massive set of data that no one person can cross reference and analyze alone. Artificial intelligence excels in that arena, but it’s still impossible to map out every possible scenario of behavior where humans are concerned. Buying decisions and concepts like customer loyalty are purely emotional concepts. Pairing a robust set of data points with a human mind that can interpret the emotions of a customer and pivot accordingly to is a winning formula. Faster response times: Even if the response to the customer is delivered by a human, using AI tools in the background to generate responses and possible courses of action make your representatives more agile and efficient. No more “brief holds to research this matter” unless it’s a lengthy and complex problem. Simple and common questions can be handled in their entirety by machines faster and more accurately than your human agents. You can even configure the AI tools to lead customers down a particular path and divert them to a human representative under certain conditions. Always available: Artificial intelligence tools can work round the clock every day of the year, so even when your human staff is off, automated responses can help clients find basic information. Customers who are ready to buy can do so on the spot. When your employees return to the office, they can focus on the more complicated tasks rather than wading through piles of routine requests that can consume the day. Why Does It Matter? A 2013 Zendesk report found that: Survey respondents indicated that customer service was the primary factor in whether or not they trusted a vendor. A good customer service experience led 42 percent of B2C customers to buy more from that provider. A bad experience led 52 percent to stop buying from that vendor. More than half of the companies surveyed by Gartner are using or will be using some form of artificial intelligence to improve customer experiences by 2020. If you’re ready to develop a plan for implementing artificial intelligence tools into your business processes, contact Etech today. This blog was earlier published on LinkedIn.

Improve Customer Experience With These Live Chat Etiquettes

The Importance of Chat Etiquettes The guiding principle for successfully providing customer service via live chat is to help the customer with the task or issue he or she contacted you about. It’s irrelevant whether you are handling the processing of an order, answering a billing question, or checking the status of a return; your job is the same. You can turn even a disgruntled client into a lifelong fan of your product or service by using appropriate live chat etiquette. Implement these 10 tips and watch your customer satisfaction scores soar. Know Your Stuff If you don’t know the product or service you’re supporting, it won’t matter how polite or friendly your sound. The fastest way to frustrate your customer is to display a lack of basic knowledge. Even if you don’t immediately know the answer to the problem at hand, you should at least know how to find it. Familiarize yourself with the visitor-facing portion of the company’s website so you can quickly direct your customer to the correct place if he or she is looking for product details or the FAQ section. Don’t Lose Focus While it’s important to be friendly and personable as a part of live chat etiquette, it’s also easy to drift off course into small talk in the name of polite customer service. Remember that your goal is to fix the issue the customer contacted you about. Be ready to gently steer the conversation back to the problem at hand if things seem to be getting off track. Listen Most products and services have features that generate questions from users regularly. You may feel that you answer the same queries every day and can make assumptions based on those experiences. However, listening to the customer’s words as they describe what they are struggling with is critical. Don’t assume their problem is the same as everyone else. Tell the Truth If you make a promise to a customer, keep it. That seems like a pretty simple principle of live chat etiquette, but operators get tripped up on it often. Don’t offer something that you don’t have the authority to follow through on, and if you do make a promise, stay with it until you know it’s done. Explain Yourself Rather than just replying to a question with a yes or a no, provide an explanation for why that is the answer. Even if the customer doesn’t like the answer, he or she is more likely to accept it if they understand the reasoning behind it. Know When You’re In Over Your Head If you find yourself faced with a customer support issue that you simply cannot solve, don’t be afraid to admit that to the client. Reassure him or her that repeating the whole story won’t be necessary, and then transfer everything you’ve done so far to the more senior agent to maintain the live chat etiquette. Speak Clearly Remember that the person you are communicating with may not be knowledgeable of all the abbreviations, technical terms, and other jargon associated with your product or service. At least initially, ask basic questions in simple terms. If you establish that the customer is more advanced, then you can elevate the terminology of the conversation. Keep It, Professional While it’s tempting to lapse into less formal language using slang or shortcut spelling, resist the urge. In a professional environment, stick to proper grammar and sentence structure to build your customer’s confidence in you. Don’t Leave Your Customer Hanging If you need to put the conversation on hold to research or get more information, be sure to communicate to the other party what you are doing. If you just disappear, the customer might think something happened to the connection. There’s no such thing as overcommunicating in the world of live chat etiquette. Try to Fix It With One Chat Customers feel most confident and happiest with your service when you answer their questions or fix an issue with one call. Having to contact your company again and again with the same problem damages brand loyalty and makes the customer less likely to recommend your products because of a bad customer service experience. Remember the Impact Obviously, most consumers wish they never had to reach out for support of a product or service. But if they do need to, the best way to turn around that negative experience is to provide a customer support experience that is so good and so helpful they want to tell their friends about it. In a 2017 study by Northridge Group, 81 percent of customers surveyed reported that the quality of the support experience would be a determining factor in whether they continued to use a product or service. If you need help in establishing a world-class live chat support team, contact Etech.

5 Effective Tips to Raise Your Customer Service Standards

What Are Your Company’s Customer Service Standards? According to the Institute of Customer Service, your company’s customer service standards should include clearly defined and communicated expectations for timeliness, applicability, and accuracy. Service-level agreements are ideal examples of defined standards. It’s not enough to say that you’ll answer all calls within a reasonable period of time. Instead, a defined service level agreement would state that between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. Monday through Friday, calls will be answered within an average of 30 seconds at least 98 percent of the time. Applicability relates to inquiries from customers, clients, or potential clients. The expectation is that 100 percent of the time, the response to an inquiry will answer all the parts of the question correctly. Setting applicability standards makes it clear to internal and external stakeholders that giving out incorrect or incomplete information is unacceptable in your organization. Applicability is a strong proponent of an effortless customer experience. Accuracy as part of customer service standards, for every business, should be 100 percent. Nothing less is acceptable in-house because nothing less is acceptable to your customers. Accuracy and applicability go hand in hand – applicability applies to information, and accuracy to products, or service delivery. How Can You Raise Your Standards? Now that you’ve defined your standards and expectations, how can you improve their success rate? No matter how good you are, you can always aim higher. These five tips can help you move the needle Omni-Channel Experience: Omnichannel is a cross-channel content strategy that organizations use to improve their user experience. Rather than working in parallel, communication channels and their supporting resources are designed and orchestrated to cooperate. Whether your client interacts with your business via voice call, chat, email, social media, text messaging, website, or some other method, every interaction is recorded and related so that future touchpoints all share the same information. An example of a seamless omnichannel experience would be when a customer sends a message through your Facebook page with a question about a product and later calls the customer service phone number, the phone representative can see the information from the Facebook interaction and have a complete and up to date picture of the situation. Empowerment: Even in the age of so much technology, the human touch still reigns supreme when it comes to customer experience and satisfaction. Consumers expect a confident, knowledgeable voice on the other end of the line to take care of their questions or issue accurately and efficiently, preferably on the first interaction. However, your team members can only do that if they are knowledgeable, empowered to make decisions for the customer and the company, and have the technical toolbox required to deliver on each interaction. You must make sure they have the tools at hand and the authority built into your policies to take care of your customers without having to climb ladders for permission. Agent Experience directly translates into Customer Experience; any friction points the agent encounters will ultimately be felt by the customer. Developing a culture of servant leadership combined with purposeful training, coaching, and development provide agent the confidence they need to expertly handle each customer. Tie Your KPIs to Customer Service: Key performance indicators (KPIs) have traditionally been tied to quantity measurements, such as the number of calls processed per hour. Times-they-are-a-changing; more and more organizations now understand the value of tying customer satisfaction to the company’s overall performance measures. Team members who use everything within their power to create satisfied customers are now recognized as some of a company’s most valuable assets. They have the powerful ability to encourage loyalty and a deeper relationship with your customers. Prioritize culture, training, and employ enrichment and the numbers will follow; a robust and action-oriented ESAT program creates an environment of engaged employees and shared success. Consolidate Your Data: Gone are the days when each department within your company kept a separate file on each customer. With customer management software available in almost every industry, it’s easy to pull together a profile on each customer that the different areas can share. Your sales department can see how a client interacts with materials from marketing, for example. Your customer service team should have immediate access to client profiles so they can make the best decision possible. Data consolidation is the first step toward a cross-channel strategy. Integrate Artificial Intelligence: Artificial intelligence (AI) is not ready to replace your human customer service agents, but it has advanced enough to handle routine tasks or common inquiries. Many consumers consider it a good customer service experience when they can quickly and easily find what they need on your website or through your app. Automation adaption and bots can efficiently handle high-frequency, low-value interactions. This frees up your agents to handle more complex issues that require in-depth support. This balance of human and artificial intelligence can create a winning combination for satisfied clients. Why Does It Matter? Your company probably spends a significant part of its budget on marketing to draw in new customers. However, it’s equally important to hold onto the clients once you have them. Establishing high standards is only the beginning. Maintaining those standards requires constant vigilance, data gathering, communication, and analysis. With the advent of social media, the customer’s voice is amplified, and word of a bad customer service experience spreads like wildfire. That makes high customer service standards critically important to your company’s success. If you’re exploring service standards and experience management programs, Contact Etech today. We specialize in setting the bar high and consistently exceeding it! This blog was earlier published on LinkedIn.

How To Empower Employees and Ensure a Great Customer Experience

Employee empowerment has many benefits. Empowered employees tend to be more committed to the company, which translates into lower turnover rates, improved processes, and greater customer satisfaction. Customer success is directly impacted by how connected employees are to the vision and believe their strengths and contributions are being utilized. While employee engagement is on the rise in the U.S., there is always room for improvement. Here are some ways you can improve your company culture and customer experience by empowering employees to work to their full potential. Proper Tools To Do the Job To provide fast, efficient service, your employees need fast, efficient tools. Employee empowerment is difficult if your representatives have to struggle to make the technology and resources you’ve provided work for them. The more user-friendly your programs are, the easier it is for workers to resolve customers’ issues. To maximize the customer experience, many companies put the employee experience on the back burner. Unfortunately, the stress caused by neglecting employees’ needs inevitably trickles down to the customer. Shifting your focus to employee experience can increase satisfaction in both. Providing everything the workers need to do the best job they can do lets them know that you have enough confidence in them to invest in their work. Happy representatives pass on that happiness to your customers. High Standards for Performance and Service Setting high standards can contribute to employee empowerment. Communicating well about company goals and how employees fit in the plan can give them a sense of purpose. This is not always as simple as it may look at first. Several key variables must be enacted for this important element of empowerment not to backfire: Hire motivated individuals. When you increase your hiring standards, you can expect that the productivity of those you hire will also be elevated. You can improve your hiring process with group interviews, which not only show how prospective employees act toward management but also how they treat their peers. It is also a good idea to exchange some of your standard interview questions with more open-ended questions that provide specific scenarios and ask how applicants would handle them. Provide clear and continuous training. Starting a new job is itself a big change, so the very beginning of an employee’s tenure at your company may not be the best time to dump everything they will ever need to know on them. Employee empowerment starts with giving new employees an adequate time frame for basic training. Then they can reap the benefits of continuous training as new responsibilities are added or new technologies come into play. Fight the urge to micromanage. If you want to communicate that you trust your employees to be competent enough to do what they’ve been trained to do, you must allow them to make the decisions they’re qualified to make. Set the end goal, but trust employees to use their creativity and resources to achieve it. Employee empowerment is based on action. You can say that you trust your employees all you want, but if you have set clear expectations yet are still requiring them to run their office supply order by you before submitting it, your overbearing actions are likely to drown out your encouraging words. Show a direct link between their behavior and customer satisfaction. Creating a great customer experience depends on the inner workings of the organization as a whole. Show your employees how they affect the customers’ views of the company, and keep them as informed as possible. This is especially important for those employees who are working at the front desk. Don’t put them in the position of being the last to know something when they are likely the first to be asked. Exceptional Professional Development Some employee empowerment strategies can produce the opposite of their intended effect. If employees are entrusted with more responsibilities but are not given the tools or support they need to do them; they are more likely to become overwhelmed than inspired. Some employees respond differently than others to the increased attention that empowering leaders often give. It pays to be sensitive to how your efforts are affecting your employees. One way to do so is to make the empowerment strategies about their professional development. If the extra focus you are putting on them shows a genuine interest in how their career is progressing and how you can help, even hesitant employees may be more receptive to it. By incorporating employee empowerment practices in your business, you build a more cohesive team. As employees become more invested in how well the company does, their empowerment will lead to the improved customer experience. This blog was first published on LinkedIn.

Artificial Intelligence: Streamlining Contact Center Technology

It is hard to believe it now, but artificial intelligence used to be nothing more than a futuristic dream. It was portrayed in old movies as the vehicle that would completely change the world and propel our culture to unimaginable heights. Now, artificial intelligence—the stuff of the future—is all around us, and we are still learning just how much it can benefit us. In addition to improving our daily lives by helping us find restaurants, driving us around in our vehicles, and even controlling the lights and appliances in our homes, AI is also improving the world of business in a variety of ways. Automated systems are especially helpful for call centers, and Gartner predicts that non-voice interactions in customer service settings will likely rise to 85 percent by the year 2020. Many contact centers are discovering how artificial intelligence can benefit them and help them turn a greater profit while serving customers’ needs more effectively. If your contact center does not currently make use of AI, you may be spending more than you need to and missing out on your full potential to appease the needs of your customers. Consumers are increasingly desiring self-service options, but they still want the ability to speak with a live customer service agent if needed. When you offer digital solutions that recognize and predict the needs of your customers, you create a seamless user experience. While artificial intelligence should never replace the human component of your contact center, it can be used to help busy call centers handle larger call volumes with greater efficiency. How Artificial Intelligence Drives Effortless Customer Experience With Human Touch One of the most universal challenges experienced by businesses of all types is the constant struggle to improve the customer experience. In fact, 72 percent of businesses list customer experience improvement as their top priority, according to recent data published by Forrester. Call centers that experience a high volume of customer service calls may consistently struggle to deliver a quick and effective customer service experience. Since recent research from NewVoiceMedia reveals that companies in the United States lose approximately $62 billion each year as a direct result of poor customer service, it is imperative for companies to turn the statistics in their favor by taking actionable steps to improve the customer experience for their consumer base. One of the most effective ways to do this is by incorporating artificial intelligence into the call center customer service process. Using AI in the call center can improve customer service operations in the following ways: Improving business agility Achieving operational excellence Providing machine-centric intelligence with human-centric interaction Increasing versatility and flexibility Predicting customer behavior Maximizing available resources and reducing operating costs Delivering a consistent, reliable experience to each customer Meeting customer needs around-the-clock Creating relationship-based interactions instead of transaction-based interactions Speech recognition systems can be implemented to relieve the burden of high call volume from human agents. Such systems can also take care of after-hours phone calls when call center agents are not available. This benefit makes it possible for businesses to take care of customer needs around-the-clock, without paying call center agents for graveyard shifts or overtime. In a digital age, more customers expect businesses to be able to meet their demands 24/7, and implementing a speech recognition into your call center can help you live up to evolving consumer expectations. When integrated into the call center, advanced speech recognition systems, such as interactive voice response (IVR) systems, make it possible for customers to easily navigate through a menu of options by using their voice instead of the telephone keypad. Other call center speech recognition options include speech-to-text, voice search, call routing, and voice dialing. For many businesses, automating the telephone answering system is an efficient way to handle anywhere between 40-85 percent of incoming calls. More and more businesses are leveraging the efficiency and predictability of speech recognition systems to improve efficiency and anticipate customer needs. Achieving the ideal blend between an automated, self-service environment and live agent interaction in the call center is a challenge worth pursuing. Providing customers with the option to navigate self-service systems without taking away their ability to talk to a real person as needed comes with a variety of benefits, including cost savings, more efficient customer service and improved customer experience. How to Use Artificial Intelligence As an Effective Quality Monitoring Solution If you were to ask 10 different companies for the definition of “excellent customer service”, you would probably get 10 different answers. There is no single, universal definition of superior customer service that can be applied to all businesses. For this reason, it can be hard to nail down the standards that you need your call center team to adhere to in order to deliver the highest level of customer satisfaction. The challenge of determining, analyzing, and enforcing behaviors and actions that meet excellent service standards for your business most likely falls on the shoulders of your quality monitoring group. Their task is a monumental one, but it is necessary for delivering a concise, uniform approach to customer service. By using updated Artificial Intelligence software, it is possible to increase the effectiveness of your quality monitoring team. The highly accurate data provided by the AI software can direct your quality monitoring team to changes that may need to be made by call center representatives. The end result is an improvement in your contact center’s processes and methods for interacting with customers. Automating your quality monitoring system can provide some of the following improvements to your business: Reduced agent effort Better sales results Compliance with regulatory requirements Improved customer experience Artificial intelligence, when used correctly in a call center, can effortlessly monitor and gather valuable data from your team’s phone calls, chats and emails. It can also assist management in identifying opportunities to improve customer satisfaction, sales conversions and processes. Speech recognition technology is capable of anticipating customer needs and quickly delivering predictions and solutions that are specific to each

Want to improve Customer Experience? These are the 3 Technologies that you should be aware of!

Customer Experience successfully drives the business to the path of growth and profit. It is the critical competitive differentiation that sets a business apart from its competitors. Here are the three technologies that are imperative for delivering the best customer experience. Said so, it is essential to understand that the technology is just the enabler and a good CX is the outcome of the consolidation of people, processes, and technology. Most importantly the company’s people are the face of CX. “A brand is defined by the Customer’s experience. The experience is delivered by the employees.” – Shep Hyken Live Chat Today’s customers don’t like to wait. They want an immediate response and what can be a better way than Live Chat! Live Chat helps to cater customer needs efficiently. It gives an open-ended platform for offering instant support and timely assistance. Various studies have shown that implementing live chat services has significantly improved customer satisfaction. In one of Inc’s article, it was stated that 92% of customers feel satisfied when they use the live chat feature. WHY? Customers find live chat to be very convenient as they can connect with an agent instantly and get real-time and personalized support. Their issues get addressed swiftly. The other best thing they find about live chat is that they can multi-task while having a conversation with the live chat agent, which they consider to be an added advantage. Artificial Intelligence It’s no secret that Artificial intelligence is flourishing and expanding its horizons every single day. With AI companies will be more efficiently and effectively be able to meet customer’s requirement and needs. HOW? For instance, data insights play a pivotal role in CX enhancement. However, customer experience data comes in the form of messy, unorganized datasets that need to be reformed into rational patterns to derive positive outcome. The tedium of pulling the data sets together and transforming them into no-complex consistent patterns is overwhelming. But for AI this is the prime stomping ground. It does it seamlessly and in a minor time frame. It’s high time that people start looking at AI with a different paradigm; it is not here to replace humans but to assist them. Combining AI and Human Intelligence can lead to seamless customer experience! Big Data Analytics Big data analytics is a game changer of the CX world. The application of this technology is transforming the way the businesses are interacting with their customers. WHERE? Big Data Analytics comes handy while analyzing the data collected from customers, and providing tailor-made solutions as per the expectations and aspiration of the customer. As showcased in a Salesforce survey 57% of customers share their personal data with companies for receiving discounts and personalized offers. Big Data Analytics helps in analyzing this humongous amount of data obtained from customers into an actionable way. It thus, aid in providing personalized services and delivering a better customer experience. Integrating these technologies into your business will help you to meet today’s customers’ expectations and to stay at the top in the battlefield of customer experience. This blog was earlier published on LinkedIn.

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