Customer Experience Archives - Page 5 of 6

Integrated Customer Engagement

Technology is changing every day and only getting better, and what’s amazing is how people are taking advantage of these new tools. Businesses are now handling transactions online and consumers like it. If you have never tried chat for your customer service or sales, you may want to consider it as a viable option, especially if you are like me and are too busy to wait on hold for endless hours. With chat you can help your customers at any time and just about any place. Now if you are a forward thinker and like to be on the cutting edge, your company should also be looking into Twitter as a viable option to help consumers. Some companies have a twitter handle, yet only use it for pushing content out which is one direction and not as much value to a consumer who has a problem. Some companies have gone a step ahead to employ people whose work is to respond to posts that are made on the website of the company as well as the social media pages such as Facebook and Twitter. Recent statistics show that Twitter is becoming more popular by consumers who want help or have something to say. As an experienced business person, it would be a good choice if you have not already, to establish a twitter customer care solution where the customers can be engaged on their preferred channel. If a customer has a question they can ask questions and get responses in real time. It is important to note that communication should be conversational with the brand and that no question can go unanswered. Chat customer service is also important as it also helps to improve the extent to which you serve you customers. Make sure that the one using the chat to communicate with the customers is good at chat etiquette to avoid losing customers. Chat etiquette is where one is able to deliver messages in a polite manner and avoid using tone that can raise issues from the customers. This blog was first published on LinkedIN

10 Influential Ways to Improve Call Center Quality Monitoring

For businesses that rely on the ability of their customer representatives to deliver outstanding service over the phone, call center quality analytics are a must. With call center quality monitoring, you can ensure that your employees are following the guidelines that can help your business succeed. Along with a monitoring program from Etech Global Services, there are additional techniques that can help your company get the most out of this technology. Here are the best ways you can utilize this helpful tool for your company. Let Representatives Be Part of the Process : The most important thing for a company that uses call center quality analytics is that your agents need to be part of the process. This can help foster a more positive atmosphere for evaluations rather than a punishing one. Incorporate Fun, Friendly Competitions to Motivate Team Members : To support a positive atmosphere, you may want to incorporate fun contests that are tied to call quality scores. A little friendly competition between employees can help motivate team members. Identify Common Problems With Agents : When analyzing call center data, look at what some customer service representatives struggle with. If you see a trend, you can address it as a company with new training. Work With Team Members Who Need Help : For those who are struggling to meet the requirements for call center quality, work with the team members who need help. Focusing more energy on training is a better investment than simply replacing these employees. Connect Quality Assurance to Company Goals : Identify the needs of your company, and draft specific goals that you want your agents to reach. All of your quality assurance effort should be directly related to these goals. Focus the Most Energy on Your Top Calls : Instead of monitoring short routine calls, focus your quality assurance program on the most involved calls where there is more interaction between customers and representatives. This is a better use of your time and resources. Analyze Customer Data With Quality Analytics : Customer surveys and other forms of evaluation should also be used alongside of call center quality assurance. Analyze all pieces of information to get the best picture of where your customer service falls. Give Plenty of Positive Feedback : Your call center monitoring feedback should offer plenty of opportunities to recognize those who are doing well. Employees want to continue doing the things that they get recognized for, so this increases motivation and productivity. Implement a Specific Training Program : When new employees come onto your team or existing employees are struggling, use your data to implement a specific course of call center training. This can help your employees know what to expect and give you greater results. Utilize Your Human Resources : Take advantage of all that your team has to offer by putting peoples’ strengths on the stage. Peers training each other can be much more effective than a supervisor or team leader taking the lead. Call center quality is a vital part to keeping your business practices consistent and profitable. Using the top ways to improve your call center effectiveness can help your company increasingly meet its goals. This blog was written by Jim Iyoob, EVP Customer Experience and Operational Excellence for Etech Global Services.

3 Little Known Ways That Consumer Sentiment Affect Your Business

The sentiment is defined as an attitude or opinion prompted by emotions or feelings. To understand this better ask this question: How do consumers get these feelings when they base their opinions on your company? I believe they come in two ways: After interacting with the staff. Customer service plays a huge role here in how they will feel about your company. For instance, when a customer is served well, they feel satisfied and happy with the company and thus have a positive opinion about it. A happy customer is a return customer. On the other hand, if a customer is not served well, they will feel disappointed and not valued, thus will have a negative opinion about the company. After consuming the product or service. For instance, a customer buys a product hoping that it will do what the company claims it will. When it doesn’t meet his expectations, he feels disappointed and thus forms a negative opinion about the entire company. But if he is happy with the results, he views the company positively and raves about it. In this digital era, you can quickly analyze your consumer’s sentiments by opinion mining. This is simply tracking their moods toward your products/services through their posts, tweets, reviews, and comments. It can either be negative or positive or a combination of the two, they are all good depending on what you do after receiving the analysis. If you have never thought about reading between the lines of your customer’s feedback, the time to start is NOW. Here are 3 little known ways that these findings affect your business:- 1. New/modification of your product When you are planning to introduce a new product into the market, you always undertake market research through surveys and focus groups. The feedback you receive helps in the product design, but the most important information that will help you is from customer reviews after the launch. What sentiments do they have towards the products and your company? It helps you go back to the drawing board and develop an entirely new product or modify it. You know this is of utmost importance because consumers and growth are the lifeblood of your business and there is no better way to grow than in the direction the consumers want. Let us see how you can use consumer positive or negative sentiment to drive product/service development. Positive sentiment : Case in point, Etech Global Services. It started off with one service: a telecommunication consumer call center. The clients and consumers were happy with the services and their positive sentiments facilitated the introduction of other services like chat, email, social, and software development. It is now an omnichannel contact center able to meet the needs of a larger clientele from different industries across all communication channels. Negative sentiment : For example, if you launch an app and some customers respond by saying it “crashes too often” or “it takes too long to start” then you can turn this negative review to your advantage. You use it to modify the app by eliminating the shortcomings and, viola, you have a great product that consumers love. 2. Damage/build your business reputation Consumers always share their sentiments with their friends, family, and other consumers. Positive comments and reviews about your products will definitely build your business by attracting new customers. I consider this word-of-mouth advertising which is the most effective method of advertising, and to add icing to the cake, it is absolutely free. On the other hand, negative comments and reviews (word of mouth) can severely damage your reputation in a matter of seconds. For example, a customer can post about a bad experience they had with an agent and the thread starts, within a short time it becomes the trending thread, and some customers who were initially satisfied with the company, all of sudden become extremely unhappy. What do you think these negative sentiments will do to your business reputation? It will definitely damage it. I recently published an article on managing your reputation, read it here. Please remember the old saying, “a happy customer tells one friend, and an unhappy customer tells the world” 3. Turn potential customers into loyal customers Before a customer makes the final buying decision, they ask around to know the experiences of others. When they actually go out and buy it, the aim is to validate what they heard about the product. If it turns out to be right, they become loyal customers. For example, if I recently traveled and wanted to eat somewhere different, I went online and looked at the available options. To narrow them down, I read the online customer reviews and settled on the one that had the highest rating. I was not disappointed and anytime I visit that town, I will always go there. All around us are potential customers who would benefit from our products or services. What they have heard about you, can make the difference in whether or not they use our products or services. When they come to you, how they will feel will determine if they will return or not. What every manager wants is to turn potential customers into not just one-time consumers but loyal customers. Positive online customer sentiments work in your favor by bringing potential customers to you. It is now up to you to either meet their high expectations and convert them or disappoint them and lose them forever. There you go, these are the ways that consumer sentiments affect your business: new development or modification of products, building or damaging your reputation, and turning potential customers into loyal customers. You have the power to direct the feelings of your customers and thus their sentiments. How have consumer sentiments affected your business? This blog was first published on LinkedIN

The Impact of Call Monitoring and Score Cards in the Call Center

Any opportunity to improve call center operations is worth taking. Call monitoring and scorecards top the list. Call monitoring is a feature that allows you to listen in to a live call and track what matters most to the call center. The scorecard is a call scoring evaluation form that keeps track of agent’s performance. The data you gather using these two tools will help you optimize your call center operations. However, you need to use them effectively lest they mislead your strategy. Agents are the contact persons, and therefore, when they improve their performance, call center excels. Let us get into the details of the influence of call monitoring and scorecards have in the call center. A better understanding of agents’ performance For research or a study to be credible, you need to carry out both qualitative and quantitative analysis. Call monitoring gives you the qualitative data while scorecards give you the quantitative data. When you monitor agent’s live calls, you will gather instant information about what they do well and what needs improvement. That is a qualitative study. When you record their performance in the scorecard, you can know quantitatively how the agent is performing. In the end, you will know the areas the agent struggles with and thus focus on how to improve them as well as commend them for areas they are excelling. Highlighting training needs As you monitor agent’s calls and record the findings, you will notice areas that need training. The purpose of listening live to the agents is not to catch them doing something wrong, but to highlight weakness areas that require training and development. The data you collect will help the agents understand the matter better, and the best ways of handling the issue. In addition to highlighting the skills gap among your agents, call monitoring and scoring are part of your best training tools. Tracking Progress After training your agents, you need a medium of tracking their progress. You need to know whether the training was beneficial or not. The scorecards will keep a record of your agents’ performance, and thereby give you an indication of the quality standards. Use calibration sessions to help you customer service representatives understand their progress at work. A successful session will guide your team to areas that are on track as per the set standards and those that are lagging behind. Knowing where you stand and where you want to be will you the motivation to focus on the right things. Improved coaching sessions Part of a manager’s role is to coach the employees. When you sit down with an agent and review one of their interactions with a customer, they will get a better understanding of how they are performing. It will also make your work easier as you try to highlight what they are doing wrong. The coaching sessions are great for the employee to look within for answers under your guidance. When they come up with a solution, they will implement it better as compared to when you impose one on them. The coaching session will be successful for you and the agent. Improved customer satisfaction Agents’ performance affects customer satisfaction levels. All the above points lead to an extremely skilled agent, happy and satisfied with their jobs. When a happy employee serves a customer, he or she receives excellent support leading to high satisfaction levels. To repeat this cycle, you need to carry out call monitoring and keeping scorecards on a regular basis. Carrying out call monitoring and scoring will benefit the call center in several ways, a better understanding of your agent’s performance, highlighting training needs, tracking progress, improved coaching sessions, and improved customer satisfaction. To continually offer quality services and maintain an efficient quality assurance program, you should keep these two tools at the core of your analysis. You will create a ripple effect where every stakeholder remains satisfied. For more advice on creating a world class quality program that drives customer experience or if you would like to learn more about Etech Global Services, feel free to contact me. This blog was first published on LinkedIN

Four Ways to Boost Customer Experience

Customer care representatives are a necessity to any company offering customer experiences. Because they are at the forefront, they determine the kind of service customers enjoy or otherwise. Best-In-Class organizations realize this fact and work to turn this service resource into a critical asset. This is done most effectively through engaging and empowering the customer care representatives. An empowered employee will be motivated to deal with any obstacle as long as they resolve customers’ issues and protect the company image. He or she will strike a balance in the service delivery because they understand the organization’s standards as well as the needs and expectations of the customers. Here are tips and practices that will help boost front-line performance leading to excellent customer experiences. Measure Current Performance : It is essential to know your current performance situation. What are your front-line employees doing to deliver exceptional customer experiences? Someone once wrote, “If you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it.” You need to know where you are going and where you are, for success path mapping. Most companies have customer service goals and measuring tools in place. However, you need to align the metrics to the brand standards for exceptional experiences. Utilize all the available resources to ensure that you measure the essential performance metrics. Give Individual Feedback : For the highest impact, you need to monitor each employee and how he or she interacts with the customers. You may have a script and have trained them on call and chat etiquette, but subsequent to training, you need to monitor each employee and give feedback accordingly. Acknowledge and reward the agents that are doing well and encourage and train those who are lagging behind. Constant monitoring allows you to notice low-quality interactions and therefore, react before it gets out of hand. When you correct an employee immediately, it helps him or her to change and act in line with the corporate standards. In a large contact center, this might be a challenge given the high number of agents. You can overcome it by holding calibration sessions and group coaching with a few agents at a time. Encourage Accountability : Accountability stems from taking responsibility. When an agent understands and owns his or her role in the customer experience chain, then they will be accountable not only to themselves but also to the company. You can know whether your employees are responsible during individual coaching sessions. A responsible agent will acknowledge their errors and suggest behavior changes that would ensure it does not happen again faced with similar circumstances. However, if an agent cannot see where they went wrong, they have yet to embrace accountability. Another great way to check for accountability is through customer surveys. After every interaction, the agents should administer the short survey to get customer feedback. When you use the above sources of information well, you will know the areas that require enhancement measured against performance metrics. Incorporate Supporting Teams : Front-line employees do not work alone; a variety of teams support their efforts. For example, the technical team is a crucial part of the customer experience process in a product oriented contact center. Analyze the performance of all the supporting departments to know the weak and strong links. Strengthening all teams will ensure that customers experience the company as “one” not departments. Free knowledge sharing and working together to achieve organizational goals as far as customer service is concerned will keep you ahead of the competition. The aim is offer consistent experiences to the customer. In summary, when you measure employees’ current performance state, individualize feedback, encourage accountability and incorporate the supporting teams in the process, you will be on the right track to higher-quality customer experiences. Your goal should be to measure, review and refine agents’ performance. This blog was first published on LinkedIN

The Effects of Live Chat Integration on the Customer Experience

A great customer experience can enhance the value and length of the consumer and merchant relationship. Each product in a marketplace has to be a better or more affordable substitute, tying commercial success to service. Businesses that roll out sophisticated customer experience tactics to add value to their offerings with giveaways, enhanced services, loyalty-based bonuses, live chat, and up- or cross-selling are quickly becoming leaders in the customer service industry. Defining Customer Service Customer service is the interaction between organization and customers. While there are many different definitions, there isn’t a right or a wrong interpretation because what makes customer service good depends heavily on what meets consumer expectations. Customer Experience Ideologists Top industry experts drive innovative strategies for enhancing the customer experience. They create client-centered philosophies for businesses to leverage the emotional aspects of the experience. Some of the top influential people and their service-oriented industry tactics include: Shep Hyken – Supports developing a culture and loyalty mindset to enable clients to share experiences and promote your products on social networks Colin Shaw – Predicts trends for reducing shopping cart abandonment Ken Varga – Believes aligning relevant advertising efforts prompts customers to buy what they’re researching Donna Fluss – Offers free, valuable advice for integrating customer relationship management software in support centers for quality assurance to optimize customer experiences Hank Brigman – Communicating offerings through newsletters, advertising, and word of mouth achieves the goal of being omnipresent A successful customer-centered corporate culture utilizes the services of a dedicated customer experience manager to focus on the emotional aspects of interactions to communicate relevant information. Influencers and the Wow Effect Formula The difference between influencers and ideologists is fuzzy. It may seem that influencers concentrate more on enhancing whatever fun there is to have and less on revenue. In the long run, they influence customer expectations and drive companies to introduce innovative customer-centered mechanisms into action. These people flourish in the social media environment, taking advantages of various platforms such as Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, and social video channels including YouTube to share their thoughts on the customer experience. Influence as a Marketing Tool Not all influencers are published authors or professionals. Anyone who creates ideas and concepts and strategizes on leveraging the customer experience to drive revenue and satisfaction is considered an influencer. For instance, Joseph Michelli, a keynote speaker, focuses on the Wow effect, which is a descriptive designation for a large customer experience goal. He found that 70 percent of customers indicate five main touchpoints for recommending products to others: Engagement: Genuine acknowledgment and care of consumer needs Executional Excellence: Outstanding quality and product knowledge Brand Experience: Ensuring customers believe they’re getting a deal Expediting: Proactively caring about the consumer during the shopping process Problem Recovery: Assurance of satisfaction and compensation Interestingly, engagement and brand experience are the only two touchpoints significantly impacting loyalty. Should a company decide to increase these key performance indicators, it can use techniques such as gamification, an online marketing technique to encourage engagement, or customer support empowerment to feed its culture into the community. This blog was written by Jim Iyoob, EVP Customer Experience and Operational Excellence for Etech Global Services. Connect with me here https://www.linkedin.com/in/jimiyoob

Seven Stages of Design Thinking; An Essential Tool for Customer Experience Manager

Design thinking is a methodology used by designers to solve complex problems, and find desirable solutions for clients. It draws upon logic, imagination, intuition, and systematic reasoning to explore possibilities of what could be and to create desired outcomes that benefit the customer. However, looking at the above elaborate definition, it is a great process for managers to adopt not just designers. In regards to a customer experience manager, the process allows you to think from the customers’ perspective. How is the customers’ life and how does he or she encounter the company. The marketplace is customer-driven. Your products and services should create value and meet their needs. The only way to understand what they need, how they need it, when they need it and what is of value to them is to involve them in the product life cycle. Here are the seven stages of design thinking Stage 1: Understand the Customer The first step is to understand the end user because they are the core of the design thinking process. Empathize to understand their experiences fully with your products and services. Employ all possible means to comprehend their experiences from observing to interacting with them. Your aim should be to experience your products and services the same way they are. Stage 2: Definition You now know your customer and can define the problems they are facing. In this step, it is crucial to describe clearly the problems and identify the success factors. Otherwise, you will not know when you arrive at your destination. A plainly defined problem will set the pace for the rest of the process. Stage 3: Research Do not leave any stones unturned, dig through previous work done in regards to solving those problems. Research helps you to understand the genesis of a particular problem and tried and tested solutions and the outcome. You need to make sense of everything you find out as you research. However, if it is a new issue, then you have the opportunity to document it well. Stage 4: Ideation With the research findings in place, put your imagination and intuition to work. Conduct brainstorming meetings with other managers and employees to come up with possible solutions to resolve the identified issues. Do not limit yourselves to the obvious ways, dig deeper into ideas that may seem unachievable. The goal at this stage is to have a broad range of ideas. Encourage each participant to float their idea and record all of them. Stage 5: Prototype Next, put your wide range of ideas to test. You need to expand them, combine some, refine others and reject others. Give them a physical form that moves them from un-achievable to realistic ideas. It will allow you to interact and experience the solutions before presenting them to the customers. Remember; you are wearing the customers’ shoes, and you understand what they want from your organization. Stage 6: Select and Implement The above rigorous process will be futile if you do not get to apply the suitable solutions. Start with the most powerful solutions from the selected prototypes. Do not just focus on the practical ones, but on the ideas with the highest impact on the issue at hand. As you implement the prototypes, record the results of customer experiences. Stage 7: Learn Finally, yet importantly, learn from the users. Which solutions solved the problem fast? Which did not? Which ones needed improvement? Your aim is to refine your prototypes to be the best solutions. After your review, do not leave the findings at that, improve the prototypes for the benefit of the customer. In conclusion, design thinking can help you look at problems in a different way and discover solutions that would otherwise remain hidden. Using the above seven stages, you can revolutionize the way you develop customer experience strategies. Design thinking is your secret weapon to finding solutions to difficult customer issues.

Is Your Call Center Ready to Adopt Integrated Customer Engagement?

Call center environments are constantly changing with the trends, just like any other business in this century. To keep up with the trends and meet customers where they are you need to embrace practical strategies. To start, consider who you are, where you want to go, your capacity and your customers’ profile. To integrate means to combine one thing with another so that they become a whole. Integrated customer engagement involves interacting with customers via a single face as opposed to several channels. It is a harmonized operational model that ensures you respond to customers in a preferred manner. The 21st century has expedited the evolution of call centers from multi-channel to Omni-channel interactions, driven by your customers’ journey with you, which is more vibrant, non-stop and easily reached. Most call centers became contact centers to accommodate the above changes. Are you ready to adopt an integrated approach to meeting customers’ needs? Here are some key signs you are ready to adopt a seamless customer experience: 1. Channel Ownership Challenges If you are currently struggling with channel ownership, whereby, agents in the voice department only know how to work the phones or the live chat agents only know how to interact with customers in that way then it is time to align your services. Your agents should be well-rounded because customers may reach out through various platforms before a problem is resolved. For example a customer may connect with you via email, but due to the complexity of their issue require a phone call. If you have to redirect them to someone else then you waste time and the customer will have to explain their issue all over again. When you align your offerings, the customer can get assistance from one agent. The faster a customer gets support, the higher his or her satisfaction level. 2. Technological challenges For your call center to deliver on commitments you rely heavily on technology. If you are at the point of having several systems, separate customer relationship management for each department, multiple sources of data for performance evaluation, several routing options and lots of contact management, you should consider an Omni-channel strategy. Managing different departments that handle various aspects of customer support can be stressful for you, not to mention costly for your company. When you streamline your operations you can also optimize your operations. 3. Operational challenges The day-to-day running of a call center requires proper planning. If you feel you are expending too much energy streamlining operations in different departments, and how they relate to each other, then you need a different strategy. Likewise if you are spending too much time trying to marry data from different departments to understand your customer v. spending that time satisfying your customer, focusing on an Omni-solution could be your answer. Complex department structures can also affect customer satisfaction. The back and forth of checking which channel is lagging behind and evaluating performance is taxing. With a simple, streamlined end-to-end process, your operations will be seamless and thus increase your ability to keep agent and customer effort low and satisfaction high. If your call center is experiencing the above challenges, not all is lost. Here is how you can start the implementation process:- Plan – chart your course from where you are to where you want to go. Every key stakeholder should be involved in the planning process for it to incorporate every aspect. Act – after thorough planning, ensure you put the plans into action. Allocate the necessary resources; undertake training and use your strategy document as your guide. Optimize – evaluate your performance and improve areas that will give customers superior experiences as well as achieve corporate goals. In summary, integrated customer interactions will affect your center in a positive way. When you resolve the channel ownership, technological and operational challenges, you will be on the right track to implementing an Omni-channel strategy. This blog was first published on LinkedIn

The Effect of Training on the Multi-channel Environment

The connected consumer has changed the way businesses communicate, especially because of their high expectations. What are these expectations? Consumers need to hear from you when they want to and through their channel of choice. The implication of this heightened expectation is that you have to be accessible on all communication channels. Simply put, you need to have a multi-channel communication strategy. Multi-channel communication goes beyond the traditional customer care hotline to include email, social media platforms, mobile, live chat, and self-service options. Does your contact center support your multi-channel communication strategy? If yes, how prepared are they to handle all customer demands and offer a seamless customer experience? These are important questions which is why contact center management puts a lot of effort into people development through training the agents. The following is a detailed analysis of the effects of trained agents as part of your business. Increased Staff Loyalty Call centers employ a large number of agents and training them well takes huge amounts of resources. It is always a win-win situation when agents are loyal to the company. Training of agents in multi-channel communication helps them to find their work more interesting and diverse. With multi-channel communication there is no monotony to say answering calls all day long, day in, day out. An agent can take a hypothetical break from the phone when responding to an email inquiry. They become rounded agents – thus can step in when the demand from one channel increases. This keeps them happy with their work environment and prevents them from looking for the proverbial greener pastures. Enhanced Teamwork Without proper teamwork, your agents will not be effective and efficient especially in the multi-channel environment that gives them access to several touch points. Agents that work for and through each other achieve tremendous results in a shorter time. Teamwork begins at the individual level. If an agent feels good about his work environment and teammates, he does his best to make the environment even better. This training exposes them to numerous opportunities of learning, developing, and building a solid career in the call center. With the diverse knowledge gained, agents are able to switch roles easily. Empowered Agents An empowered agent is one who has the authority to make decisions on behalf of the company. For example, an agent that is allowed to provide customers refunds up to a certain level without consulting with the manager is empowered. This agent takes full responsibility seeing that customer concerns are resolved within the shortest time possible. Training agents in the various ways they can offer the desired customer service instills in them trust in their capabilities of satisfying customers. They go the extra mile and are more devoted to their duties. This empowerment increases productivity, lowers operating costs, and helps them to embrace change easily. To management, empowered agents are easier to lead which provides more time to be dedicated to the strategic advancement of the call center. Increased Customer Satisfaction The essence of a call center is offer customer service support and ensure the customer receives the best experience. Well-trained agents offer a superior customer experience and are well equipped to handle questions and issues of all types and resolve them quickly. Have you ever talked to a customer care representative who was not helpful; especially in regards to the information you required, either due to the lack of right information or poor customer care? That experience leaves you dissatisfied with the company and more often than not, they lose you as a customer. However, when you are satisfied, you become their brand advocate. In conclusion, training your agents in the multi-channel environment is beneficial to all stakeholders. The effects are increased staff loyalty, enhanced teamwork, and empowered agents which all lead to increased customer satisfaction. As Aristotle, the ancient Greek scientist and philosopher said, “Excellence is an art won by training and habituation: we do not act rightly because we have virtue or excellence, but we rather have those because we have acted rightly. We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit.” Therefore, continuous training of agents ensures excellent customer service is provided across the multi-channels. This blog was first published on LinkedIN

How to Implement a Culture of Collaboration and Communication

Collaboration and communication are both essential to a good customer experience. It may sound obvious, but there are several areas in which a basic lack of either one often leads to a breakdown in customer service. Internal Communication Internal communication is the basis for all effective customer interaction. If your team members do not understand what the company stands for, what the relevant policies are, what products and services are offered or what their individual roles within the company are, they will not be able to provide a positive customer experience. Do not assume that new hires will retain everything presented in an initial training session. Plan for ongoing roundtable discussions and have an open-door policy so that two-way communication becomes the norm. Communicating Company Values Your company’s vision and mission should be printed up for everyone to see. You will also want to make sure that each team member understands these statements and clearly sees how he or she fits into the overall workings of the company. In addition to being displayed in print, your values should be reflected in your company culture and communicated to your customer base by means of your policies and daily operations. Communicating Policy Your company’s policies on various issues should be clearly written and accessible for your employees to review. However, more than simply publishing a policy list is required. To effectively communicate policy, you must help your team to understand the rules and how and when they are applied. Each team member should be able to clearly explain various policies to customers in an easy-to-understand manner. Informing Customer Expectations Clear communication on the part of your brand should result in customer experiences that align with expectations. This is where accurately communicating your values, policies and standard procedures to your team directly pays off. For example, if you sell physical products and have a strict return policy, that policy should be clearly stated in sales materials. Your sales team should also understand how the prospect of future returns affects the sales process and should inform the customer about the policy ahead of time. If a customer enters into a transaction with full knowledge of whether or not the sale is refundable, he or she will not be taken by surprise if a future return is not accepted. Setting clear customer expectations is a major factor in customer satisfaction and retention, even if problems do arise with a product or service. The Value of Collaboration Collaboration involves communication but takes it one step further. To maintain a collaborative environment, all parties must work together toward a common goal. Now that you have laid the groundwork by creating an atmosphere of open communication, you can foster collaboration by asking for team members’ input on important decisions. You can also collaborate with customers when appropriate, such as when planning a new product or service or participating in a community event. No organization can hope to optimize its customer experience without laying a foundation of open communication and collaboration. Doing so involves both internal and external relations and is an ongoing process, but all the hard work pays off in the long run.

4 Ways Live Chat Can Improve the Success of Your Online Business

Managing a successful online business is hard work. Although everything operates on the internet, your success hinges solely on whether you can attract customers and generate sales. Live chat customer services are enabling businesses everywhere a way to reconnect with customers to increase sales and customer satisfaction. Improve Customer Experience Live chat offers customers the assistance and convenience they need when accessing your sites. Customers enjoy the convenience that comes from being online, but when they need answers, they often find they have nothing and no one to turn to. Customers don’t want to spend their time looking for information on products and services they feel should be readily available. Make live chat services available for customers to use and significantly transform customer experience in the following ways: Reduces wait times. Eliminates the hassles of phone calls. Increases customer satisfaction. Increases product and service sales. Reduce Operational Expenses In this day and age, businesses are finding it challenging to maintain a balance between operational expenses and profits. Organizations large and small are feeling the pinch and are constantly looking for ways to minimize their expenses. Adding website customer service can help online businesses everywhere to stop the loss of valuable time, money and resources. Benefits of online customer services include: Increase employee productivity. Increase flexibility and remote capabilities. Reduce overhead expenses and equipment costs. Employees are less likely to waste time on the phone and utilize more of their energies in the chat system. Customers receive more attention, faster responses, and assistance, thus improving the overall quality of information and services they receive from your company. Reduce Bounce Rates to Increase Sales When customers go to a website for a product or service, they don’t always have all of the information they need to make an informed purchase decision. In many cases, they are confused and may still have questions that could trip them up during the purchase process. Customers need guidance, reassurance, and information to encourage them to purchase. When there are online chat customer services available for them to provide these features, your bounce rate will drop, and sales will skyrocket. Online chat services also present the perfect opportunity for cross sales to increase your profits even more. Gain Useful Insight One great way to gain an edge and improve customer experience is to add the live chat feature to your websites. Customers are no longer calling in to complain when they have a problem. Many of them are rushing to tell their peers and post on social media how displeased they were without giving businesses a chance to rectify the situation. Live chat offers customers a way to make their complaints heard so they can be acknowledged and resolved. In turn, you can take the feedback that you receive from your customers and use it to create better products and services, and even tweak your website to better meet the needs of your customers. Considerations To improve the effectiveness of your chat services, make sure that your representatives are very knowledgeable and resourceful enough to find the answers they need to properly assist customers. All responses should be personable and relevant. Don’t turn off customers with robotic responses that don’t really address their concerns. Encourage employees to ask for the sale each and every time. Generating sales through chat offers customers a concierge-like experience that incentivizes them to return and do business again. Test different chat software before selecting the best option for your business. Train your team and be ready to make adjustments as needed to improve the effectiveness and responsiveness of your chat services. This blog was first published on LinkedIN

Customer Experience the New KPI’s for Contact Center

Contact center KPI’s are a widely discussed topic. Reason being, if you cannot measure it, you cannot manage it. The Key Performance Indicators help you measure the agents’ performance and therefore manage their actions. However, it is sometimes difficult to define, control and meet all KPI’s. On one hand, the people think about the agent’s productivity, and KPI’s that measure quantity or volume, speed, time, service level, cost per contact, self-service rate and technology all come into play. The company’s aim is to meet customer’s needs at the lowest cost. On the other hand, the customers need superior experiences with the contact center and these KPI’s come in handy to measure customer satisfaction levels. These metrics include first contact resolution, the speed of resolution, resolution rate, quality, level of service and self-service success, repeat business and many others. The customer needs fast, reliable and personalized services. It is a delicate balance for the contact center. How can you merge customer experience and productivity to satisfy both parties? Align your Metrics Strategy With the above explanation, you will notice some misalignment. If you place more effort on productivity, you compromise the customer experience, and when the focus is on measuring customer experience only, you affect productivity. You need to align your metrics strategy to your corporate objectives. Your metrics strategy should bring together the two interests, and, therefore, include; How self-service is working across the various channels How agents handle customers across these multiple channels. How to reflect productivity (efficiency) and customer experience (effectiveness) and the cost implications as a balanced equation. When your metrics plan is in alignment, you will develop tactics that balance productivity and customer experiences. Retain Traditional Performance Indicators Traditional key performance indicators focus on the agent’s productivity. You should retain them as a baseline for evaluating agent’s performance. They are necessary for the contact center as you will monitor the output of your agents and can then create an effective workforce management plan. As much as you are retaining the traditional KPI’s, you should take it up a notch by defining who is accountable for what, that is the leadership, the supervisors on the floor and the agents handling the interactions. Provide the necessary information for each user for them to assess where they are and whether they are meeting the desired goals. Introduce Customer Experience Indicators Customer experience metrics focus on quality. They may be subjective because you pull the data from customer surveys – customers options may be biased depending on how their last interaction went. However, you should incorporate them into the main metrics strategy for a holistic approach. Pull data from the various communication channels not forgetting the new self-service channel. Important to note is that some metrics are specific to what they measure like service metrics focus on productivity. However, when you introduce metrics that focus on optimizing customer experience like efficiency metrics, the loop is complete. Keep working on the metrics until you find out which pairs meet your corporate objectives well. There is no “one size fits all.” In summary, to bring the new contact center KPI to life, align your metrics strategy, retain the traditional KPI’s and introduce customer experience indicators. Look beyond the accessing and delivering reports for analysis to creating scorecards that extract data from multiple channels. The data will give precise information about the agent’s productivity and customer experience levels.

Understanding and Getting the Most out of Live Chat

No matter what kind of business you have or the industry you’re in, you can always use another way for your customers to get in touch with you. Live chat services are essentially like sending text messages to someone without having to know the other person’s number and sharing messages without needing a phone. With more people preferring to text rather than talk on the phone, offering live chat can undoubtedly improve your service or business. The Advantages of Live Chat The biggest advantage of offering a live chat service is expanding your overall capabilities. You and your employees are able to remain in contact with your customers and audience, no matter where you are. Not only does this give your customer service team the ability to work wherever they like, it can also help reduce your total overhead costs. Another benefit is that you’re still able to ensure your company’s standards remain the same. You can take a look at all live chat transcripts and make sure your representatives are delivering the level of care you’ve built your company on and your customers expect from you. Something else to think about is that live chat services show your business is at the forefront of technology. Younger consumers grew up with instant messaging and are more mobile based, meaning they’re likely more comfortable with live chat than they are with other forms of getting in touch with your company. You also have to consider the fact that many people, no matter how old or young they are, groan at the thought of having to call a customer service number, listening to a recording of menu options, and having to wait for the next available representative. Think of how many potential customers you may have already lost because you don’t offer a method of communication they prefer. Using Live Chat the Right Way Just like with any tool, live chat has to be used the right way if you hope to reap the full benefits. The first thing you want to bear in mind is that live chat should not be used to duck customer service calls. It’s also not a good idea to use live chat primarily as a way to cut costs; there are better and more effective ways to do this. It’s best view live chat as a way to improve overall customer satisfaction and your revenue. Live chat is also an effective way to improve productivity. While customers are dealing with troubleshooting, looking for information, or stepping away from the screen for a moment, your customer service agents can help other customers. One word of caution is to make sure agents don’t take on too many customers at once as doing so can cause more harm than good. Customer satisfaction should always be your end goal. If you aren’t familiar with live chat and its capabilities, start small and ease into it to see how it works for you and your employees. While you’re testing the waters, be sure to ask your customers how they like live chat and how it can be improved. After all, you’re doing this for them, so you might as well give them the best messaging experience possible. This blog was first published on LinkedIN

2 Ways Live Chat Services Can Improve Online Customer Experience

Customers everywhere are starting to turn to the internet to conduct their business and shop. Website owners are scrambling to implement tools that will enable them to meet the needs of their customers without investing too much time, money and resources. As more customers start to increase their expectations to improve their experiences, many online businesses are finding it challenging to meet this demand without making some changes to the way they enable customers to contact and interact with them. By adding online customer services, you can improve your business’ efficiency and productivity. Here are some ways that you can enhance customer experience with online customer support. Encourage Feedback Customers are notoriously picky about the way they’ve been treated by a business. When they purchase products and services that don’t live up to their expectations, they are not necessarily going to return to your company to purchase or use those products and services again in the future. To help reduce the rate of unsatisfied customers, you need to implement a system that encourages all customers to leave feedback about their experiences. You need to know how your customers feel about your company and the products and services it offers. Don’t rely solely on surveys, they only tell half of the story. There are far too many factors that can affect the validity and truthfulness of survey results, such as customers rushing, not paying attention and more. Surveys are also far too limited in their scope for you to use to determine how your customers really feel. A more useful approach would be to use qualitative research and analysis to learn more about your customers. This will provide you with in-depth information about your customer’s behavior, attitudes, and experiences so you can make the necessary changes to improve customer experience and satisfaction. Use Live Chat Services to Promote Your Brand Customers are always looking for the latest and greatest customer service experience available. Fine tune your online chat support so that it represents your brand in the most amazing light possible. Every second that customers are on your website is an opportunity to promote your brand. Train your agents to provide exceptional customer service and support to each website visitor they encounter and increase brand recognition and reputation. Online customer support services should include : Agents who are ready and able to answer customer questions. Agents who can correctly identify customer concerns to provide the correct guidance, support, and resolution. Perfection is a hard thing to achieve, but it should always be your goal, especially when fine tuning your online chat support system. There are far too many businesses and options available for customers to choose from. Don’t give them a reason to seek them out. If there are on your sites, then they have chosen your company or brand for a reason. So be prepared to take advantage of the opportunity by doing everything possible to win them over as a customer. Any online chat program that you implement needs to be a good one. Along with researching different chat programs, be sure to look for other ways to enhance overall customer experience to encourage repeat customers and loyalty. This blog was first published on LinkedIn.

Providing Superior Online Customer Support

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

The Social Media Customer Service Revolution

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

Mobile Shopping: How to Create a Perfect Customer Experience

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

Importance of Text Messaging

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

Affordable Strategy and Techniques to Improve Customer Service

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

4 Ways to Deliver better Customer Support utilizing Chat

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

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