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Full Data Protection: Go Beyond Securing the Control Points

Historically, when an organization thought about properly securing the logical infrastructure, it was about placing controls at the access points. Simply by limiting systems admission for different users and requiring passwords to access certain files/shares, a business could be fairly confident its information would remain private. With the advanced technologies available today, online security has become much more involved. Excellent website security is paramount to most companies and properly securing the data is a top priority for businesses in today’s marketplace. There are three key ways for a company to safeguard its information. Controlling Data at Rest Most data stored on a hard drive is fairly easy to protect with measures such as encryption, anti-virus programs and firewalls. These safeguards all provide a different layer of defense against intruders. Another important step that some businesses forget to take or are unaware of is to store smaller elements of data separately and in different places. This precaution can prohibit invaders from gaining access to large amounts of information at the same time and using it for illegal purposes such as fraud. And finally, encrypt the data using accepted standards such as AES256. Always assume the data will eventually be compromised and take the appropriate measures to make it practically useless if it occurs. Track Data in Use The more a company knows about how its information and networks are being utilized, the better chance it has of preventing significant attacks to its online security. Because data being used is accessible to more people, it presents a larger threat to companies. Limiting the number of devices and people able to access the data can reduce the risk it will be misused. Forcing privileged users to provide authentication before gaining access to the data is a common safety measure businesses should enforce. Multi-factor authentication will add another layer of security in specially identifying the user and/or device accessing the data. Creation of a data-flow-diagram and tracking when and where data is accessed can alert a company to suspicious activity and expose possible threats. It can also enable a business to improve its security before an attack occurs by identifying problematic patterns or unusual user behavior. Safeguard Data in Transit Any time data is transmitted, it is extremely vulnerable. Special precautions are necessary to protect data in this form. As many business deals and transactions require an immediate response, sensitive information such as contracts, government forms and other confidential content are sent through emails. The main problem with this method of delivery is the journey an email must take through multiple network locations before reaching its intended recipient. This provides multiple opportunities for someone with special computer skills to intercept an email and be privy to all the information it contains. Keeping an email and any attached data secure is most easily accomplished by sending it though some type of encryption platform that works with the email system. The email is encrypted and unusable if intercepted. The recipient will need to enter the proper key and/or credentials to access the correspondence in decrypted format. Both small businesses and large companies face an increasing number of threats to their data security on a daily basis. Avoiding passwords and accessing restricted files are small deals to the criminals of today, and website security needs to be tightly monitored and improved to prevent privileged information from falling into the wrong hands. When there are attackers actively trying to infiltrate company networks, businesses large and small must guard confidential data with intentionality and intensity.

Why Social Media is your most powerful Customer Relationship Tool?

Technology has offered us many ways to gauge customer experience and adjust business practices in response, but not until social media have we had access to such unbiased, real-time consumer responses. Consumers can like us, rate us, and often make or break us based on their online assessments of our businesses. Customer feedback on Social Media often comes in the form of a complaint. A complaint is an opportunity to showcase your company’s positive customer relationships. Complaints should be addressed in a timely manner by a team member with good knowledge of the area of complaint. The complaint should be followed by both a basic public message of response – this is very important as it helps other users see that you are engaged and receptive to feedback- and a private message attempting to solve the issue. Creating a separate, private dialogue helps the customer feel valued, and is an important step that often encourages them to return as a customer in the future, despite the current conflict. The conflict should be resolved if possible, and the complaint should be reviewed to see if any business practices need to be adjusted. Social interaction with customers doesn’t have to focus on complaints, it can also be a place to share positive reviews and testimonials, putting them in front of a larger audience. Positive reviews from real customers are powerful tools for gaining new business. Potential clients value the testimony of past customers and their reviews can often be the push needed to commit to your service or product. Your company’s image doesn’t have to be driven solely by the voice of the consumer. Social Media is an easy and effective way to talk about the things you’re doing that will draw your customers in. Highlight the ways you’re giving back, or serving your community, and tell them how they as a customer can get involved. Thank your customers for helping you reach goals or milestones, and tell them about exciting new things you have coming up. Social Media has shifted from a helpful business tool, to a necessary customer relationship platform. Whether your business is active on social media or not, customers will take to their own accounts and talk about their experiences with your business. This makes it crucial that businesses maintain an active voice and take control of the conversation, turning customer’s comments into powerful testimonials of your customer relations practices. Your customers are online, are you choosing to meet them? You can use social media to help build stronger relationships with you and your customers. This blog is first published on LinkedIn

5 Keys to Effective Coaching

Coaching employees is important for continuity of an organization. Your leadership team needs to pass on the wisdom and knowledge they have gathered over the years to the upcoming managers. As a leader, I believe this is an important indicator of your commitment to your organization. Are you taking time to coach the middle-level managers to be great leaders, maybe even better than you are? A coach (you) is someone who trains and teaches, therefore, coaching is helping others to develop, improve, and learn new skills. Business coaching leads to empowered personnel, therefore increasing their productivity. It is not only important to know how to coach, but also important to be effective at it. Here are five keys that will help you move from being just a coach to being an effective coach. 1. Start with Relationships Coaching focuses on helping, not controlling. Therefore, to help an employee to improve you need to have a relationship first. For example, a manager who leads by position cannot coach others because his focus is on personal authority and power not the other person. This is no way to build a relationship. The coached can only listen and learn from someone he or she trusts, and similarly will follow the leader he or she trusts. As the coach you need to develop trust with the coached, set out clear objectives of the coaching, exercise patience with them, and fulfill your promise. 2. Get Consent from the Coached You cannot force your agenda onto another person because they may not take it well. In most cases a manager will coach an employee in a performance area that they need to improve. Imagine a scenario where you just inform the employee they are not doing well and you will show them how to get better. Do you think they will learn from you? The key is to clarify where the performance issue is and get the employee to acknowledge and understand it. Then ignite a desire in them to get better at it and show them your improvement plans. The employee will willingly accept to do it your way and your coaching journey will begin. Keep in mind, it will be a waste of time and energy to proceed with coaching without an agreement from the employee. 3. Encourage and Support This is the essence of coaching. As you develop the coached, you need to do it by encouraging and supporting them. The result of your coaching should be a productive manager or employee. Important to note is that coaching is not one sided. The coached plays a critical role just like the coach. Listen to them as they vent or express their challenges without judging them harshly because this is what they are experiencing. From these conversations you will learn how to support and lead them in the right direction. When you encourage, cheer them on to achieve set goals. Just like the crowd cheering an athlete in a race motivates him to run faster, being the cheerleader will propel your employee forward. 4. Challenge Them Your coaching cannot be effective if all you do is encourage them. Get the employee to question the norm and come up with creative ways to doing things. When a situation is challenging, ask them open-ended questions to make them think deeper and harder on a solution. As much as you may have ideas of your own, do not give them away. Challenging the status quo and taking calculated risks builds their confidence. With increased confidence in decision-making, the coached will achieve more. 5. Give Feedback At the start of a coaching relationship, you need to set goals. Always let the employee know how they are performing. Are they getting better? If not, what is holding them back? Coaching is a continuous journey with evaluation stopovers. Remember these rules of thumb when providing feedback – be specific on what has changed or not, focus on the “what” not the reason “why”, be timely and use a sincere tone. Bringing it Together Keep in mind that you are coaching different individuals with different needs. Set out SMART goals to match the employees improvement needs from the onset. This way you can measure the outcome and know whether the coaching was effective or not. Incorporate coaching as part of your company culture; it is beneficial to all parties involved. Iron sharpens iron. Sharpen the younger generations to build better future organizations.

Humility: A Powerful Leadership Trait

I came across an article the other day in The Harvard Business Review that caught my eye. It did so because the topic discussed happens to be one of the 12 Character Commitments of Etech Global Services. That character trait is: HUMILITY. When we hear the word Humility, it may bring to mind images of things that seem “less-than” or “weak” but what this article clearly demonstrates is that the trait of HUMILITY is anything but “weak” or “less-than”, in fact, it’s quite the opposite. I’m posting the article below because it’s one of the best reads I’ve come across in a while and I hope you’ll take the time to read it. This article also serves as the third in a series of blogs you will see from me about the 12 Character Commitments of Etech Global Services. Enjoy! The Best Leaders Are Humble Leaders by Jeanine Prime and Elizabeth Salib In a global marketplace where problems are increasingly complex, no one person will ever have all the answers. That’s why Google’s SVP of People Operations, Lazlo Bock, says humility is one of the traits he’s looking for in new hires. “Your end goal,” explained Bock, “is what can we do together to problem-solve. I’ve contributed my piece, and then I step back.” And it is not just humility in creating space for others to contribute, says Bock—it’s “intellectual humility. Without humility, you are unable to learn.” A Catalyst study backs this up, showing that humility is one of four critical leadership factors for creating an environment where employees from different demographic backgrounds feel included. In a survey of more than 1500 workers from Australia, China, Germany, India, Mexico, and the U.S., we found that when employees observed altruistic or selfless behavior in their managers — a style characterized by 1) acts of humility, such as learning from criticism and admitting mistakes); 2) empowering followers to learn and develop; 3) acts of courage, such as taking personal risks for the greater good; and 4) holding employees responsible for results — they were more likely to report feeling included in their work teams. This was true for both women and men. Employees who perceived altruistic behavior from their managers also reported being more innovative, suggesting new product ideas and ways of doing work better. Moreover, they were more likely to report engaging in team citizenship behavior, going beyond the call of duty, picking up the slack for an absent colleague — all indirect effects of feeling more included in their workgroups. Our research was also able to isolate the combination of two separate, underlying sentiments that make employees feel included: uniqueness and belongingness. Employees feel unique when they are recognized for the distinct talents and skills they bring to their teams; they feel they belong when they share important commonalities with co-workers. It’s tricky for leaders to get this balance right, and emphasizing uniqueness too much can diminish employees’ sense of belonging. However, we found that altruism is one of the key attributes of leaders who can coax this balance out of their employees, almost across the board. Nonetheless, our study raises one common, perhaps universal implication: To promote inclusion and reap its rewards, leaders should embrace a selfless leadership style. Here are some concrete ways to get started based on both our current research and our ongoing study of leadership development practices at one company, Rockwell Automation Share your mistakes as teachable moments. When leaders showcase their own personal growth, they legitimize the growth and learning of others; by admitting to their own imperfections, they make it okay for others to be fallible, too. We also tend to connect with people who share their imperfections and foibles—they appear more “human,” more like us. Particularly in diverse workgroups, displays of humility may help to remind group members of their common humanity and shared objectives. Engage in dialogue, not debates. Another way to practice humility is to truly engage with different points of view. Too often leaders are focused on swaying others and “winning” arguments. When people debate in this way, they become so focused on proving the validity of their own views that they miss out on the opportunity to learn about other points of view. Inclusive leaders are humble enough to suspend their own agendas and beliefs In so doing, they not only enhance their own learning but they validate followers’ unique perspectives. Embrace uncertainty. Ambiguity and uncertainty are par for the course in today’s business environment. So why not embrace them? When leaders humbly admit that they don’t have all the answers, they create space for others to step forward and offer solutions. They also engender a sense of interdependence. Followers understand that the best bet is to rely on each other to work through complex, ill-defined problems. Role model being a “follower.” Inclusive leaders empower others to lead. By reversing roles, leaders not only facilitate employees’ development but they model the act of taking a different perspective, something that is so critical to working effectively in diverse teams. At Rockwell Automation, a leading provider of manufacturing automation, control, and information solutions, practicing humility in these ways has been essential to promoting an inclusive culture — a culture Rockwell’s leaders see as critical to leveraging the diversity of its global workforce. One of the key strategies they’ve adopted to model this leadership style is the fishbowl — a method for facilitating dialogue. At a typical fishbowl gathering, a small group of employees and leaders sit in circle at the center of the room, while a larger group of employees are seated around the perimeter. Employees are encouraged to engage with each other and leaders on any topic and are invited into the innermost circle. In these unscripted conversations, held throughout the year in a variety of venues, leaders routinely demonstrate humility —by admitting to employees that don’t have all the answers and by sharing their own personal journeys of growth and development. At one fishbowl session, shortly

Saving Talent: Tips to Engage and Lower Turnover Risks (Part 2)

This is the second installment you’ve been waiting for regarding saving your talent. You can read Part 1 here. Below are the final five factors to help you better engage your employees and lower turnover rates. 5. Team Cohesion An employee cannot achieve much as an individual, they need their team members contribute to an organization’s success. How close a team is, and how well they work together, influences a company’s turnover. When employees work to help each other achieve goals it lowers the turnover rate. Why? Simply put, because they engage with one another building strong and beneficial working relationships. To aid in your employee engagement, plan for team bonding activities regularly. These activities help employees to know their strengths and weaknesses. They also help you as a manager to learn how to divide them into groups that will work effectively together. The aim is to have strong teams where the individual team members complement each other. 6. Personal Development To have a strong team, the individual members need to be strong first. Personal development is how you assess your qualities and skills, consider your vision in life, and set goals in line with the vision. An employee who continually seeks to develop is aware of their potential and they work on it. This leads to happier employees, high job satisfaction levels, lowered turnover rates. Help your employees not only excel at work, but also improve on a personal level. Provide them with opportunities to learn and develop be it new work challenges, seminars, or career talks. 7. Work-Life Balance “All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy,” the wise say. Your organization cannot be all about work and completely neglect the role of family and friends in an employee’s life. Employees who lack work-life balance are prone to stress. High stress levels in an individual affect their attitude at work and their performance leading to dissatisfaction with the company. This is a challenge, especially in demanding jobs such as retail and contact centers. But there is a solution. You need to encourage your employees to do more within the short time available, and then take a break for family and friends. Encourage them to be productive at work. To help even further, consider flexible working schedules. Flexible schedules add to your benefits you provide and can increase employee morale at work as they get the time to re-energize. 8. Social Responsibility Social responsibility programs serve two purposes: to give back to the community and to engage employees. It is human nature to want to serve others, and as a company you fulfill this need through corporate social responsibility programs. When employees take part in building the community around them, they become proud of the company and engage more. Don’t be the champion of these initiatives; let employees select the causes they want to support and they will give it their all. Assist them by giving them the time off to attend the functions as well as monetary contributions. When employees give back to the community, they feel very good about it, and the company support, leading to higher job satisfaction. 9. Reward System I have saved the best for last, Rewards! An important reward to employees is the paycheck at the end of the week. This keeps their bills paid and relieves them of a financial headache. Therefore, pay them in proportion to the value they are bringing in. Low paid employees feel undervalued and leave organizations fast in search of more money elsewhere. However, money is not the only form of rewards you can use. Other simple things like a gift for hitting a target, or acknowledgement in front of other colleagues motivate employees. These non-monetary rewards show that you care for the employees. To engage all employees fully, make your reward system known. Failure to do so can lead to employees grumbling when they do not receive rewards, yet they are not performing well. All in all, these nine factors – recruitment process, manager’s engagement, leadership style, company culture, team cohesion, personal development, work-life balance, social responsibility, and reward systems all work together to engage employees more. Once you identify the right candidates, then it is prudent to invest in them and save their talent within your company. Enjoy!

Could an Intelligent Quality Monitoring System Restructure Your Process and Optimize Your Product?

Spreadsheets are the traditional method of maintaining data in a call center. However, inconvenient issues can arise when supervisors need to transfer data from a previous month and incorporate it into new documents. This process can become extremely time-consuming, and it is prone to errors. Also, it’s also very difficult to pinpoint trends in the data and take corrective action when needed. Automated quality monitoring has become a worthwhile solution for many managers, and especially those who are dealing with large volumes of communications. That’s especially true because the built-in technology often allows for spotlighting a particular month or even looking at data collected during a single day rather than looking at massive amounts of statistics at once. Improved Data Tracking Generates Better Insights Some quality monitoring solutions include information-rich dashboards that let you gain a complete understanding of what’s happening when customers call to speak to your agents. Get information about top issues or the number of times employees had to transfer calls to supervisors. You can also learn more about instances of channel switching. It occurs when a customer is trying to do something on line for an example and they are forces to call in, or if an agent has to transfer the caller to another department for further assistance. Spreadsheets usually don’t tell you all those things, and if they do, extracting the data takes a prohibitively long time. In contrast, a more robust quality monitoring system allows you to gain knowledge with a few clicks of a mouse. Save time and feel more equipped to make wise business decisions based on compiled data instead of just gut instinct. Keep Quality Levels Consistently High Whether your call center agents assist with sales or simply provide support, it’s important to remember that the level of service they provide can be thought of as a product itself. When people reach out for help, they expect similar experiences. Otherwise, your organization may develop a reputation for providing inconsistent assistance to callers. Think about investing in a smart platform that records all calls and analyzes them to detect patterns. It happens automatically and flags communications that require further review. That feature gives you peace of mind and prevents having to listen to all calls manually when assessing them for quality assurance purposes or trying to find out what else your customers are saying about you. Collective metrics can also reveal strengths and weaknesses associated with your agents, which leads to more relevant training and could be helpful when employees need periodic performance reviews. It’s time to look beyond spreadsheet-based methods of quality monitoring. A dedicated platform could help you meet your goals while reducing hassles related to manual approaches. This blog is first published on LinkedIn

Saving Talent: Tips to Engage and Lower Turnover Risks (Part 1)

High turnover affects your company’s performance and growth. It is very expensive to keep training employees who leave immediately after. When new employees leave, you lose consistency in customer service and in the systems you have in place. For example, when a loyal customer calls has to speak with a different account manager each time, they are going to lose confidence in the company and may stop shopping with you. However, when you have a low turnover employees are able to engage customers and build long lasting relationships. These relationships have a ripple effect on the entire business from getting referrals to attracting great talent. So how do you ensure you can lower your turnover rates? Research shows that high levels of employee engagement lead to lower turnover rates. In my experience, I have found nine key factors influence the levels of employee engagement. Today I will discuss four of these factors to help you engage your employees and saving top talent: Recruitment Process It all begins with getting the right people on board. Your recruitment process should thoroughly vet all candidates. During this process you shouldn’t just look at competence levels, but also get a feel for their fit within the company culture. Another great indicator of an employee who may not be a flight risk is how long they have worked in previous companies. For example, someone who has a maximum of one-year experience in their last four companies is likely to work with you for an equal period. It is better to take plenty of time in the recruitment stage to make sure you get the right employees; then invest in training the most qualified candidates. Manager’s Engagement Most employees say the main reason they quit their jobs is their bosses. They quit their manager not the company. The way managers treat employees has a direct relationship with their performance and time spent in the company. When employees feel that their manager is supportive, caring, and has their best interest at heart, they are more engaged. Direct line managers should be developing close relationships with each employee. This communicates that the organization puts its people first. Communicate openly with them, give constructive criticism, and acknowledge good performance. Be their cheerleader. Most importantly, do not micromanage your subordinates. Give them room to explore their creativity. This will lead to high engagement levels. Leadership Style Leadership provides the direction of a company. How your employees feel about your management style matters a lot. Do you share with them the company goals? Do you listen to their input? Do you spend time with them to get to know them? Being at the top is demanding yes, but employees feel more engaged with the company when the senior management is in touch with them. Important to note, mid-level managers will also work in line with the principles you put in place. Together you can engage employees more and work to make them loyal. Get personal with your employees to build their trust and confidence in you and the senior management team. True leadership is about trust, and employees will follow you if they trust you. Company Culture The fourth factor incorporates your company culture. An open and positive culture provides your employees the opportunity to enjoy their work leading to employee loyalty. When an employee is comfortable with their job and company, they put more passion into their daily duties. These employees are more productive compared to those struggling to fit into a company. Create a strong culture by giving employees job security, empowering them to make important decisions, communicating openly about all matters, and proving growth opportunities. Give them an opportunity to “own” the company and their engagement levels will increase. These factors – recruitment process, manager’s engagement, leadership style, and company culture are connected and interdependent. To achieve true employee engagement all parties have to put their best foot forward. Engaged employees stick with the company and become better at their jobs, meaning they continually add value to the organization. Keep an eye out for Part 2 of this series for more tips on saving talent. Enjoy!

Redefining Shopping Cart Abandonment In Face Of New Challenges

Abandoned shopping cart rates are a crucial metric for retailers who are concerned about increasing online conversion. Thousands of dollars are invested by businesses to optimize their websites to ensure better customer engagement and higher customer satisfaction. Shopping cart abandonment remains the most touchy issue online retailers’ face despite taking every possible step to counter it. Each abandoned shopping cart represents missed revenue and offers an opportunity for retailers to actively persuade such customers to make up the lost sales. There are many reasons for customers to abandon shopping carts during the shopping process without making a transaction. Some customers give more preference to higher security by looking for SSL certificates on the website, some leave as they can not properly navigate through the website, and others may leave due to poor website design. There can be various other reasons like exorbitant shipping costs, lack of clear information regarding shipping or exchange or a return policy, comparison shopping, bad customer reviews, inadequate information in FAQs, etc. Many consumers even use shopping carts to know the exact price of all items in cart including shipping charges; compare them with other websites, and finally abandoning the cart to actually purchase the items from the store. Time to Rethink the Strategy Nowadays many consumers are using smartphones, tablets, and handheld devices to shop online. During their shopping process, they often add items to the cart but turn to more conventional mediums like PC or Laptop to make a purchase. Online retailers must reassess their notion regarding reasons behind shopping cart abandonment and rethink their strategy to turn website visitors into customers. One idea of reaching out to consumers who abandoned their shopping carts could be to effectively use email marketing to remind the customers about their abandoned carts and close the sale. Incorporating live chat on a website can also significantly reduce the shopping cart abandonment rates as customers receive live help at crucial points instantly. Offering live chat during a crucial checkout point, on specific pages that offer product information, or based on predefined rules can be of great help to customers as they can get answers to their questions quickly and easily. Customers will naturally feel more satisfied which can turn them into loyal returning customers. Because there are a number of reasons behind shopping cart abandonment, the metrics used to judge shopping behavior can be changed to focus on real reasons that can provide crucial insights into customer shopping behavior, preferences, pricing, etc.

Exceptional Customer Service with an Omni-Channel Strategy

The staggering advancement of social media, digital technology, cloud computing and other tools combined with a revolution in how people choose to share information has changed the game for all businesses, and many of them are caught up in the rush to open up multiple communication channels while also trying to focus on keeping their customers happy and loyal. So how do you provide exceptional customer service within an omni-channel strategy? The first step is to realize that these two worthwhile goals are not the same thing! While an omni-channel strategy is crucial if you want to provide exceptional customer service in today’s marketplace, having such a strategy does not guarantee a wonderful experience; there is much more work to be done. Putting Customer Experience at the Heart of your Company It is the customer experience part of the equation that needs to be at the center of your business if you are going to avoid the pitfall of inconsistency which lies in the way of many omni-channel businesses. For example, if a customer opens a Live Chat conversation and an agent arranges a telephone call back within the hour, does the call ever take place? And when it does, has the outbound call agent familiarized themselves completely with the content of the earlier call – and previous communications – or is the customer expected to go through everything from scratch? Customers need to feel there is a personal connection between themselves and those they do business with, and the failure to seamlessly transition from one channel to another is one of the most common sources of complaint. This can be avoided if a culture of exceptional customer experience is embedded from the outset. When everyone in the business, from top level executives to customer-facing agents and operations staff, understands that their number one priority is to look after the customer, half the battle is won. Tracking the Customer Journey To understand what it is like to be a customer of your business, you need to take a detailed approach to mapping their journey. That means analyzing every possible route into and through your business, whether the initial contact is from a link in an email, an online advertisement, a call to your call center or, for bricks and mortar stores, walking in off the street. Next, breakdown the journey into various customer touchpoints along the way and measure current customer experience at each of them (you can use surveys to calculate Net Promoter Score at each point or another customer service metric if you prefer). If you find that certain touchpoints are letting your customer down, you will now be in the position to gather more information and to remedy the situation. Through this method, business owners often discover that customers become dissatisfied when the transition between channels break down. Refining & Adapting the Strategy Creating a system designed to provide exceptional customer service is not a one-off task that can be set up and left to run itself . The ways in which customers engage with companies – and with each other – constantly changes as new channels are created and others fade away. It is vital that you review your processes regularly and adapt them to changing market conditions. However, the same need that customers have for personalization and consistency remain, so if you can focus on providing that experience you will be rewarded with increased loyalty and customers who not only have a high lifetime value, but are also brand ambassadors as they share their positive experiences. far and wide.

Integrity: How We Live When No One Is Watching

John Maxwell writes that “The true measure of leadership is influence – Nothing more, Nothing less.” I believe that a leader’s ability to influence others starts with integrity. That’s a word we hear a lot in life. “INTEGRITY.” We see people in our lives who walk in “integrity” and people who don’t. We will often see that word on the walls of organizations, within their mission statements etc. But do these organizations and individuals live up that standard or is it just a word that looks good and sounds good so they use it? These are good questions and questions that every organization, and individual for that matter, should ask themselves on a regular basis. Perhaps a better question to ask though is: “What does the word INTEGRITY really mean? Here’s a few definitions from dictionary.com: 1) adherence to moral and ethical principles; soundness of moral character; honesty 2) the state of being whole, entire, undiminished: to preserve the integrity of the empire 3) sound, unimpaired or perfect condition: the integrity of a ships’ hull. To simplify this a bit, let’s put it in layman’s terms: Integrity is doing the right thing, “adherence to moral and ethical principles, being honest” at all times, even, and I would venture to say, especially, when no one else is watching (this is the honesty piece). I emphasize “when no one else is watching” because how easy is it to just quietly cut a corner, or fudge a number here and there on a report, or fail to report a mistake, because, “who’s going to know if I don’t say anything?” Well, maybe no one for a while, but eventually, those small little compromises catch up with us. To paraphrase a biblical verse: It’s the little foxes that spoil the vines. Each time we compromise, it gets a little easier so that pretty soon, these little compromises become habits that we develop. These habits become governing practices that can lead to some pretty devastating consequences. Not the least of which is losing the faith and trust of others in your midst. Having a reputation of lacking integrity is pretty hard to overcome. I read an article recently in Forbes by Amy Rees Anderson that is one of the BEST articles on the subject of Integrity I’ve ever read. The author makes many excellent points in this article, but the fundamental point that she drives home is this: “success is temporary; but integrity is forever.” How true is that? Nothing is more important than being known as a person of unwavering integrity. Things are fleeting; character is not. Character is something that we take very seriously at Etech Global Services. So much so, that as a corporation, we’ve come up with 12 character commitments of which Integrity is at the top of the list. We believe so strongly in Integrity, always striving to do the right thing and being honest, that we have built this into our corporate culture. We teach our employees that nothing is more important than doing the right thing, even if it means losing revenue. Why? Because revenue is up and down, but integrity is not. One of the ways that we build this into our corporate culture is by creating a safe environment for employees to speak up. Our employees know that if they make a mistake, their manager will do everything possible to help them correct that mistake without making them feel like a failure. If employees know that when they mess up, they will receive grace instead of wrath, they are much more likely to be honest and forth-coming with mistakes rather than trying to conceal them. This environment provides a fertile ground for honesty and integrity to take root in our corporate culture. This, in turn, affects the way our staff deals with our customers. We strive each day to deal honestly with every customer we come in contact with. INTEGRITY: always being honest and doing what is right. It’s the way we do business here at Etech Global Services and that is one thing that will never change. This blog entry is a series based blog on the Etech Global Services 12 Character Commitments. It was written by Matt Rocco, President and General Manager of Etech Global Services. If you would like to learn more about Etech and contact center technology and service solutions, please contact at info@etechgs.com.

Today’s Shoppers Expect Great Customer Service No Matter Where They Shop

With a brick and mortar store, you have a team full of customer service specialists available to help your customers at any moment. For catalog customers, your contact center is staffed full of knowledgeable agents ready to answer questions and take their order. But who is helping your online customers at the moment their shopping? Are you making it easy to answer their questions and ease their concerns? Live chat is an integral part of providing a great online shopping experience today. Companies should invest heavily in certifying chat agents on several different chat platforms. Generations X and Y prefer this method of communicating online with live chat. This along with the advent of new technologies and people wanting immediate answers tells us that “Chat is where it’s at.” As more website visitors become more experienced online, even more visitors will abandon their shopping carts, and online comparison shopping will become ever more commonplace. These comparison shoppers are 84% more likely to research online to ensure they get the best price. More than two –thirds say they like to shop around before making a purchase. What this tells us is that visitors that abandoned shopping carts are very valuable – higher income customers that are more tech savvy, and use this knowledge to comparison shop and find the better deals online. There are two common chat solutions that are best, allowing staff to be on your website ready to answer consumers’ research and pricing questions and assist in closing the sale. If you are not assisting your customers, your competitors will. And when your customer leaves your site to compare, and your competitor has a Live Chat option, your competitor will take that sale. Chat solutions: Live Chat: Completely customizable, fast Java Webstart client requiring no downloads or plug-ins. Customer chat links only appear when Customer Service is available. This easy-to-use interface allows Customer Service to handle up to ten concurrent chat sessions. Proactive Chat: Called Instant Invite, use this automatic method for inviting your visitors to chat whenever you want, for example, when they stall on a page or return a certain number of null searches. Remarkably easy to deploy, customize and maintain. Adjust rule conditions and invitation content on the fly. There are certain ethics involved in tracking down consumers who abandon shopping carts. It is always best to have full intentions to only assist the customer rather than harass. The point being, a customer may feel unsure, have questions or not understand the site itself. As an example, with a brick and mortar store, when a customer walks in they are greeted and if the customer wants to just look around, they will say so. It is the sales associate’s responsibility to be available to answer questions and assist in their checkout process. The thought is the same with chat. Customer Service is there when the customer arrives and prompts them asking if they need assistance. They respond yes, no, or maybe. Through the use of rules and best practices, you can, with some certainty, determine the needs of the prospective customer. With chat you can always be there for the customer to ask questions and they will receive immediate answers. In the event the customer does not wish to deal with the online chat process, they simply just say no thank you and Customer Service will thank them for their time and back away. However, they can always be available through proactive or static chat. This adds to the customer’s experience. Chat services are quickly becoming a must-have for companies dedicated to providing the best service online. The technology continues to evolve and improve and soon, video chat will even become commonplace. For more advice on creating a quality assurance team that drives CX or if you would like to learn more about Etech, feel free to contact us at info@etechgs.com.

How Artificial Intelligence Improves Contact Center Industry

Artificial intelligence, or AI, is the gold standard in call center quality monitoring, and for good reason. Today’s automated call center quality monitoring software is so seamless in its integration that efficiencies resulting from its use can be pressed into action quickly, fairly and effectively. Active call centers record billions of hours of customer interactions every year, and it is spectacular to consider reviewing every minute for quality assessment. AI brings the task not only into the realm of reality, but also into position as a transformational tool in improving operations, agent performance and customer satisfaction. The call centers need to understand the basic before implementing Artificial Intelligence. Let’s take a look at the benefits of working with Artificial Intelligence and the multiple advantages it brings to any operation in the call center that strives to offer the best quality assurance at every point in the customer-interaction process. AI Interaction in the Customer Service Experience One of the best aspects of AI is that it is fully customizable to call center’s needs. Not only does the software “learns” and improves over time, but as in-house processes evolves, AI can be adjusted to augment the quality monitoring standards quickly and effectively. That said, it is vital that each company assess its needs and desires before investing in AI so that it achieves the most efficient fit. Here are some of the aspects to be considered when weighing whether to take the leap into AI quality assurance software: The people factor   No computer can show human emotion, which is conceived as the major downside of AI when used in a call center. Companies don’t want their customers to feel as if they are not being heard, especially when they are frustrated or upset, because an automated system cannot properly assess and respond to human emotion. However, AI benefits the call center agents to understand the upset points where the customers want special attention. This can help the call center agents to include sympathetic words to solve the issue which the customer is facing. In addition, AI benefits the call center employees to handle some of the upset callers when a problem gets too emotional. “AI Technology Combined With Conventional People Skills Can Deliver A Seamless Customer Experience By Balance Customer Interactions With Empathy” Departmental universality   Customer service is a chief concern in every aspect of working with patrons. AI can be programmed to anticipate people needs in the case of an emergency and begin the process before the person can even sort out how to respond. Plus, AI can inform customers of possible solutions and products immediately, which demonstrate a level of urgency and personalization that will help retain customers with monthly subscriptions. Resolution-based self-service   Self-service is a tricky tool, and it doesn’t take much for callers to get frustrated with a dizzying path they don’t feel is solving their problem. But from a company’s standpoint, automated self-service is a vital tool for maximizing work done by people. When AI enters the picture, customers—especially high-value clients—can get personalized responses with language that doesn’t sound “canned” or rote. In addition, AI software is able to decide when a caller requires a personal touch, at which point it connects the caller to a live agent. AI can also read triggers that indicate a customer is a high-value client and make sure that caller is treated accordingly. All of these measures help ensure a positive customer service experience. Benefits of Automated Call Center Quality Monitoring With these customer service efficiencies in mind, the next step in the Artificial Intelligence assessment process is to consider the benefits of integrating the software into call center quality monitoring. Of course, the most obvious benefit is efficiency. Each call center generates hundreds of thousands of recorded interactions each year. The only way to effectively evaluate all those calls is with software. Here are some of the upsides to AI in quality assurance: Objectivity   When people are the ones doing the QA assessments, there will always be a risk that interactions are not being evaluated objectively. Using AI, there can be no bias based on a preference for certain agents or a dislike for others. Objectivity is built into the assessment software.   Universality : Rather than selecting a small fraction of calls for evaluation by people quality monitoring agent, AI allows every single call to be monitored in a quick and efficient manner. Every agent’s interactions can be evaluated, which means the leaders get a full picture of agents’ work and are prepared.   Immediacy   Because all calls are screened quickly, trends–both negative and positive–can be discovered quickly and adjustments can be made in an efficient manner. There is no rush in the leader’s ability to implement a correction or new innovation that helps boost customer satisfaction levels.   Performance   As a result of the three benefits above, agent performance is much more likely to improve quickly. Timely, accurate quality assurance evaluations can indicate which agents need additional training. The overall agent performance helps the leaders understand better which agent’s performance can limit the delivery of effortless customer experience. Of course, there is no AI software, to this point, that can run without the benefit of people’s insight and interaction. It is the combination of people and Artificial Intelligence that produces the most complete data, intelligent insights, and helpful recommendations. With the automated functions in the call center, it is imperative to have people to monitor the transactions for quality services. The people make the whole AI functionality work to offer exceptional customer experience to the customers. Customers have always wanted seamless and effortless form of responses for their issues. According to Forrester’s report of 2014, understanding customer emotion and empathy are the most critical components to gain successful customer experience. Here, to touch the heart of the customer services being delivered, human touch is required. When you have both, your investment in AI software can facilitate a marked improvement in agent

How to Take Customers’ Feedback in Real Time

The best businesses are looking to rise above the commoditization of the marketplace and place service at the forefront of their strategy. However, in an ‘always on’ civilization, the demands of keeping on top of customer experience and conversations can seem overwhelming. Most companies now operate some sort of feedback system, but this is not always immediately connected or analyzed which can be a profound problem. The problem with dated feedback There are a number of problems with gathering feedback that is past its sell-by date: If you are trying to isolate issues at a particular customer ‘touchpoint’, you need to capture customers’ raw experiences immediately after they have interacted with it. The longer you delay asking for feedback, the more the customer will balance their experience at that touchpoint with their general feelings about your company. While this is useful in itself, it doesn’t help to identify areas where you are performing especially well or badly. Second, the longer the gap between touchpoint and feedback, the more chance there is that the customer will interact with another touchpoint, again clouding the results. Third, and perhaps most important of all, immediate feedback gives you a fighting chance of nipping a bad experience in the bud. In fact, research has shown that instant feedback leads, on average, to a 27% increase in customer satisfaction scores and an almost 90% success rate in recovering disappointed customers – preventing them from becoming brand detractors. Real time feedback solutions Fortunately, there are various technological solutions to the problem of gathering instant feedback. Automated engagement systems can now interact with customers immediately and on the platform of their choice. For example, surveys or ratings snippets can be presented by email, Interactive Voice Response, credit card machine, QRcode, SMS message, website form, mobile app and social media message. The most sophisticated systems also include real-time data analysis and the capacity to display feedback in a meaningful way on a user-friendly dashboard, even on mobile devices. For an example of how this might work in practice, imagine you have bought a sandwich in a shop on the way into town, and on the wrapper is a QR feedback code. You were disappointed with your purchase or service, scanned the wrapper, and gave the shop a negative feedback rating. Your feedback is instantly flagged and sent to the store manager’s tablet who is then able to issue an SMS apology and a voucher for another sandwich – all while you are still in easy walking distance of the shop. How would this affect your perception of the company?

Five Frequently Asked Questions About Using Call Monitoring to Improve Performance

Ensuring that your agents are producing successful calls depends on much more than a thorough initial training. Quality management should be ongoing, involving regular training and constantly updated goals. Managers often implement a system of quality assurance using call monitoring to improve performance on a continuous basis. Here are a few frequently asked questions about call monitoring and quality management to get you started on the path to continuous call improvement. How Can I Engage Agents During Call Reviews? Regular team reviews are an essential part of quality management. Sharing good and bad calls to discuss what went wrong and what went right gives the group a glimpse into techniques that work for individuals and areas to improve on. It is also important to provide one-on-one monitoring with an agent and a manger after a call. This is an excellent way to give personalized attention and reinforce what managers look for when reviewing calls. Whether you are performing a group or individual evaluation, a few steps will further engage agents in the call reviews: Ask the agents to think of calls that would be helpful to review. Avoid pointing out every issue yourself during a call review. Let the agents find the mistakes and positive aspects of each call. This keeps the agents actively listening and thinking about quality. It also avoids the feeling of a management lecture. Add customer feedback into the discussion. How Do I Interest Agents in the Monitoring Process? Let the agents help decide quality measures you use during call monitoring. Involving agents in quality assurance helps them understand the process behind call monitoring and become invested in it. The focus should be on exceeding customer expectations and monitoring from a customer perspective. Asking agents to take a customer’s point of view creates better quality measures. It also reinforces the concept of customer respect and empathy. How Should I Schedule Call Monitoring? Make sure that you have a predictable schedule for coaching: Rotate listening and coaching through the teams on a weekly basis. Make sure each agent has recent feedback and is anticipating and working toward the next established review. Plan your staffing so that at least one agent at all times can be off of the phone and experiencing quality monitoring. How Can I Keep Agents From Returning to Bad Habits? Before a coaching session ends, make sure every agent agrees with the goals set during the session. Get verbal confirmation that each individual is 100 percent behind every goal. Monitoring and training should include clear goals and extend beyond listening to calls for lasting effects: Ask top performers what is working for them. Team up good performers and less successful agents. Do not end the session if anyone is wavering or seems unsure of goals. How Can I Reinforce Good Habits? Make sure to mention the positive to each agent during call monitoring. Immediate concerns tend to focus on negative aspects of an agent’s performance, but starting with a positive comment reinforces quality work, creates an incentive to continue good habits and opens an agent to your less positive feedback. Call monitoring is a powerful tool for improvement. Involving agents in the review process and in creating quality measurements gets them invested in monitoring and provides them with methods to improve performance. Continuous quality improvement starts with call monitoring, helpful reviews and reinforcement of excellent work.

Top Reasons You Haven’t Added Live Chat to Your Website

Businesses and educational institutions alike have taken to the internet to build their presence and drive customers to their doors, all in an effort to bring in additional revenue in a cost-effective manner. However, many website visitors feel disconnected from help when they have questions. A phone call can involve long hold times and transfers, while email can take days for a response, with several exchanges required to reach a resolution. More and more, consumers want instant, accurate answers to their questions and concerns. Those same consumers tend to prefer to do business with someone who can provide fast, accurate answers as soon as they have questions. Live chat enabled websites allow businesses to provide quick, convenient responses in a way that also positively impact the bottom line. I have a store, a website, a Facebook page, an 800 number, and email. Isn’t that enough? Actually, no. In your store, you have sales and service personnel to assist the customer and make a sale. You have people who answer the phone and email, assist the customer, and make more sales. Hopefully, you also have someone monitoring your company Facebook page responding to customer comments in order to protect your brand, help your customers and increase sales. A recent Forrester study showed a 19% increase in Average Order Value for a company offering chat-assisted sales versus the typical ecommerce transaction. So, if you have a website, wouldn’t you also want to provide a way for consumers to ask for assistance in completing a sale? You wouldn’t open a store without salespeople, would you? It’s not really that important to MY customers, is it? Many businesses see increased interest in chat, but believe their customers will always prefer to talk to a live person. It is important to meet with your clients where and when they want to talk with you, on the communication channel that best meets their needs of the moment. When a customer is on your website, on the cusp of a purchase decision, the ability to respond to their questions and immediately remove any barriers is crucial to your brand and your ability to make the sale while improving your customer’s overall satisfaction. According to a July 2012 study by Boldchat, two-thirds of online consumers have engaged in a live chat, up from 50% in 2009. After experiencing chat, most consumers prefer sites that have it available over those that do not. Live and proactive chat are effective tools that provide assistance with online ordering, technical support, enrollment, service, appointment setting, retail banking and much more. It’s all about providing timely and reliable customer service, increasing sales and building loyalty. Only a few of my competitors seem to be using it, so why should I worry about it? A recent survey by The E-tailing Group indicated 47% of online retailers surveyed were using live chat (up from 43% in 2010), and a growing portion were moving to proactive chat (21% in 2012, up from 12% in 2011). “Someone was visiting our site and asked me to tell him what we did better than our competitors. I asked in return “Were you able to chat with any of them today online?”. He said “no :)”, signed up, and paid for our service that day. :)” – Josh Ledgard, KickoffLabs.com, 2011 I was bombarded with pop-up chat invitations on a website I visited once (and only once). I don’t want that for my website. It would anger my customers and hurt my brand. Any company with a site with that problem today should listen closely to the voice of their customers and take action to improve their processes. A properly implemented chat tool works well for almost any brand. The key lies in preparing a plan with clearly defined goals, and using the right rules to target your invitations to the most valuable potential customers based on THEIR behavior on YOUR website. That means reviewing performance and tweaking rules to reduce intrusiveness and increase effectiveness should be an on-going part of your business processes. The immediate help provided by a well-tuned proactive chat platform and well-trained agents has proven to increase order completions by as much as 18%. This way you avoid angering your customers, reduce unprofitable communications, and meet the right customer in the right place at the right time (when they actually want your help AND are ready to spend). From a marketing perspective, there just doesn’t seem to be any added value to spending on chat. So, what’s the point? With chat, you have the ability to read chat transcripts in real time allowing you to gather actionable data for analyzing. Chat rules and related web analytics allow an unprecedented opportunity to gather a tremendous amount of information about your customers so that you can most effectively bend your efforts to high-value customers based on historical and current website behaviors. I am not confident chat can really reduce abandoned shopping carts on my website. Chat provides your online customers with an expert to talk to, right away. It allows your agent to answer customer questions and increase their comfort level to shorten the sales cycle. Your agent can do competitor comparisons and price-matching FOR the customer, allowing you the opportunity to proactively get the sale through enhanced customer care, discounts, free S&H, without allowing the customer to leave and then hoping they come back. I’m not too sure about how to manage this. Can my phone agents do chat as well? Yes, but it may come as no surprise that the skill sets for voice and chat agents are quite different. Rather than stretching voice agents to do double duty, it is usually better to use dedicated chat agents with the proper skills and appropriate training. You may want to start small and let the traffic dictate your growth. I don’t have time for all this. It sounds complicated. There are reliable contact centers who can guide you to a straightforward evaluation of your needs and

Live Chat: From Humble beginnings to Revolutionary Growth

In the earlier days of e-commerce, the idea of being able to go online to a website and make a purchase from one’s own home, rather than going to a store, was quite astounding. Not only was this convenient in the sense that one could shop from their home, but to be able to shop with no sales pressure was also a welcomed change. Initially, the trade-off of customer service for convenience seemed fair and consumers were willing to forgo one for the other. Soon however, e-commerce was no longer the novelty it once was, and along with a more experienced and savvy consumer base, had come the demand for better customer service online. As rumblings for better customer service got louder, a visionary group of call center managers began to answer those demands in the form of Live Chat software and support. Etech Global Services was at the forefront of this effort, pioneering live chat service and support that more than a decade later, has completely revolutionized the customer service industry. In the early days I would often ask, “Can you imagine a potential customer entering your store and not having a sale clerk available to answer their questions, accessorize their items or walk them through the purchase if needed?” I could not but yet that is exactly what millions of eRetailers do each and every day. Here’s a look at some of the benefits of Live Chat Services: Increased Customer Satisfaction Levels Increased Online Sales Conversions Detailed Analytics on close rates, sales per hour, average revenue and more Reduced costs in the contact center (less calls, more chats handled at once) Did you know? 43% of consumers 18-39 find online chat preferable to talking on the phone Average wait time for a Chat to start is 3 seconds Average time an operator spends on a chat from start to finish is 6-12 minutes Satisfaction rates with Live Chat are 85-92% We partner with our clients to deliver proactive live chat services that meet their revenue goals. Our clients who use Live Chat have seen the following results: 20% increase in Sales. 25% reduction in inbound call costs. 90%+ CSAT top two boxes on Customer Service Chats. 80%+ CSAT top two boxes on Sales Chats. If you’ve been considering offering a Live Chat option on your website, contact Etech Global Services today. We can walk you through the process quickly and easily and put you on your way to reaping all the benefits Live Chat can offer. This Blog entry was written by Matt Rocco, President and General Manager of Etech Global Services. If you would like to learn more about Etech and our contact center technology and service solutions, please contact us at info@etechgs.com.

Improving the Customer Experience in Your Call Center Means Looking at the Whole Picture

Quality assurance in the call center is a critical piece to success. It can help to improve each customer experience, improve efficiency and give productivity a robust boost. In order to make improvements, managers must stop trying to randomly pinpoint and repair problems. Call centers tend to thrive when a bottom-up method is used to address issues in an organized fashion. Measurement Really Does Matter Numbers are a critical part of call center quality measurement and monitoring. In fact, 85% of QA leaders hold the belief that a successful call center must find ways to evaluate how agents are performing as well as quantify if training requirements are being followed. The sheer volume of data that is collected in order to measure your call center’s success can be overwhelming. Lagging technology frequently leaves quality assurance managers frantically working to analyze large batches of metadata in order to make sense of the numbers. A reliable call center monitoring solution that provides reliable analytics and insights is the first step to freeing up time so these same managers can instead work on identifying problems and helping the team come up with effective solutions. A Bottom-Up Look at The Whole Structure No matter what type of industry a call center supports, each goes through the same phases of growing and building over time. When quality assurance managers take time to look at key call center metrics and indicators, while also considering these phases, they are more capable of identifying key performance indicators and setting long term goals. In essence, it is critically important to look at the “whole building” in order to see where the problems may be. Start With a Solid Foundation Some may think that focusing time and energy on the basics of operational quality assurance is a waste of time. In truth, making sure that certain goals are being met is helping to set a strong foundation that can be built on. Some of these goals include: Being able to recognize poor performers. Track how call center agents are progressing. Hit service delivery goals consistently. Track if procedures and processes are being handled correctly. While it is ok to take a group bow once these markers are being consistently met, remember that this type of quality assurance is only the foundation and must be added upon for maximum effectiveness. Build the Supporting Walls Once the strong foundation of your call center is up and running, it is time to build the theoretical supporting walls. To do this, you must identify some goals that have more foresight and flexibility. This type of goal is rarely set in stone. Instead, they tend to shift and change as the call center develops. Your team of managers may decide that some of this type of goal should include: Identifying the reasons for poor customer service Finding ways to improve customer retention rates Institute accurate reporting of trends Lower staff turnover Pinpoint places where retraining might help By taking a closer look at this type of quality assurance goal, managers and staff alike can begin to more fully understand the type of experience each customer is having. When call center agents are encouraged to give themselves a score on each call, they will be able to see and mentally review how successful they have been at achieving the goals. The collected data can then be used by quality assurance leaders in retraining efforts. By taking ownership of the metrics of each call, agent retention tends to increase along with performance. Create an Impenetrable Roof It may seem simple to complete this process by sticking rigidly to current quality assurance goals and practices. However, doing so simply keeps the call center status quo going. In order to attach an impenetrable roof to the foundation and walls you have worked to build, a company must be willing to change current practices, though it may not be an easy process. This type of large-scale changes must come from upper management and employees must be a part of helping the shift happen. Employees that are forced toward such changes in the company are much less effective when compared those who are encouraged to be part of the change. At this step in building the call center, the focus should change from QA scores and begin to look at actionable behaviors such as improved caller loyalty, increased percentage of customers who purchase or increased net promoter scores. In this final step, each employee should be involved in reaching the goals which should cause company culture to shift from one where micromanagement is essential to a more effective environment of listening, offering solutions and respect. This dynamic shift brings with it an overall experience of happier customers and agents which raises your overall ROI. If You Can Describe it, You Can Do It Most call center agents can describe how a perfect call would go, from start to finish. Unfortunately, not every call is the same. Because of this, it is important for agents and management alike to understand that a great customer experience consists of three different parts. These are customer needs, expectations and the need for consistency. When your call center team works together to make sure that each of these customer needs are met, you should see that your team begins to evolve and think differently about quality assurance. When paired with measurable analytics, a call center can, indeed, become exactly what it was meant to be. For more advice on creating a quality assurance team that drives CX or if you would like to learn more about Etech, feel free to contact us at info@etechgs.com. This blog was first published on LinkedIn.

Building Flawless Training

Like so many individuals I had to pay my way through college. One way to help off-set the cost was through a scholarship I earned from the Theatre Department that focused on managing the work crews, tool room and stage. In my head, I was an actor with all this talent and here I am with these tools and the stage to manage. Turns out, in this experience I learned a real passion of mine. I really love tools and the ability to create from various materials, but my favorite is to build with wood. So many possibilities! I later took set design classes which furthered my desire to build. I now build all sorts of things from simple pieces of furniture to much larger construction projects. In comparison, I found more value today in what I learned on the set than in acting. Don’t get me wrong I loved the spotlight and the ability to perform, but not nearly as much as I now enjoy building. I am currently building my wife a breakfast table. Plan Before getting any of the tools out, we spent several discussions on what she wanted and what that could look like. We discussed the type of wood to use, what fasteners would look best, what paint will be applied, and even how to apply the paint. We did more talking about a table than it will take to build it. In training, we spend countless hours building curriculam, agendas and learning activities. If the facilitator does not know how to use the plan then all that time and money is wasted. The team will never perform as intended without the proper foundation. We have to teach our trainers how to facilitate and how to use the plan. We need to ensure they understand the “why” in each module. If we are not obtaining their buy in they will adjust the plan to be more comfortable for their delivery style. In both construction and in classes I have seen many small adjustments derail the goal for the end result. If I start changing the size of a board used in the middle of building the table then the whole table will be affected and possibly no longer meet the desired goal for the table. It will definitely force additional changes to be met in order to allow all the pieces to fit. As I progress something always ends up not fitting and I must make more changes. Before I am finally done, the project no longer looks and feels like the original design. Tools I have many different types of tools. Some power tools and others are used manually. Each tool has its own specific use. I have several types of saws, sanders and wood shaving tools. Each one is designed to make the task easier, more effective and shape the end product uniquely. Some tools have overlapping capabilities, like they may all cut a board but maybe not the best tool to cut with. Some tools allow you to cut straight while others allow you to change direction easily. If I were to use a tool that allows for changing direction to make a straight cut it would be possible that the cut will not be as straight as designed. All of my tools are useless sitting in the shop; they are only great tools in the right hands. In the same way, having the right tools and knowing how to use them is key in delivering a message. We easily make mistakes when not properly trained in how our tools enhance the learning experience. In those mistakes, we can lose our audience. When the audience is not engaged we are now fighting an uphill battle to drive a transfer of knowledge. In most cases we drastically change our ability to teach. Sometimes, due to a lack of understanding we may waste valuable training time or even worse break a tool due to misuse. We buy tools that are designed to build on the experience for our team. We should take the extra time to show them how they are to be used. I am sure you can imagine not having the right type of saw to make the proper cuts will drastically change the output. I did not always have nice tools but I bought the basic tools that would enable me to do the job that I was trying to accomplish. In each project, I learned how to make one tool do more than it was intended to accomplish. As I built my skills, I also added more tools to be more effective. Work with what you have to the best of your ability and add more training tools when you can. Relationship When it comes time to build, my understanding of how the wood needs to intersect and where it should be utilized will determine if I create a nice, strong table. I know this is pushing the word “relationship” a little but the idea is really the same. When I know how to work with the wood or I know how to work with people it is all relationships. Also keep in mind, my relationship with my wife can change based on the finished product. My ability to work with both my wife and the wood ensure that I am successful. Likewise, in training, every trainer should be ready to build a relationship with the class and on an individual basis. This will set the foundation for how the group will interact. Your relationship can be built on several components but one that the audience is counting on is for the trainer to be a SME (Subject Matter Expert). As the SME the audience will develop confidence in doing the job based on your shared experiences and best practices to follow. You will also need to know how to build trust by interacting with integrity. The class wants to believe in the

The Multi-Channel Contact Center: More than Just Incoming Calls

Customers have a variety of ways in which they can communicate with businesses and organizations today, and it is no longer appropriate to handle all customer service requests via a telephone call center. All businesses and non-corporate customer-facing groups should be working towards creating a multi-channel contact center; but what does that mean in practice? Assessing your call center and implementing change Most legacy call centers will be adapted for dealing with incoming telephone calls in the most efficient manner. They will often be divided into distinct departments with protocols in place to manage the distribution of calls between them. The modern multi-channel call center needs to function as a unit, with all departments following the same basic procedures and working towards the same KPIs. Business owners need to use a mixture of market research and existing data to decide on which communication channels will be provided. Then they need to source the appropriate technology for the routing of enquiries, recruit or retrain staff and define and standardize KPIs. Sourcing call center technology The choice of call center technology is crucial to the success of a business in the same way that the choice of tools and equipment is vital to a tradesperson. In the multi-channel call center, the platform chosen must clearly be able to route enquiries from multiple sources (telephone, email, fax, web chat, social media, SMS, etc.) to the relevant agent. However, there are other questions business owners will need to ask technology providers before making a decision, and these will vary depending on their business need. Some examples of pertinent questions are: Can the system recognize individual telephone numbers and relate them to customer data? Can calls be routed to an agent with the appropriate language or industry skills? Can previous call history be accessed easily? Can agent scripts be pre-populated automatically with the customer’s name? Can the provider assist with deployment and training? Will the provider provide ongoing support and ‘health checks’ to ensure the call center is optimized? The multi-channel call center agent The multi-channel call center requires a high caliber agent who can blend the traditional qualities of efficiency, communication and charisma with the flexibility and resourcefulness to source the information the customer is in need of. Agents should also be empowered to deal with the calls they are likely to face, minimizing the need for call transfers or callbacks. Customer service agents should be assessed using a mixture of live call monitoring and analysis of historical calls to ensure performance is of a consistently high standard. This is why KPIs should be standardized across the whole call center so that agents can be compared with other agents more easily and the need for training or agent replacement identified. With customers able to contact businesses at any time of the day and through multiple channels, the ability to respond promptly and completely to all communications will raise customer experience levels and help ensure long-term customer loyalty.

Five Characteristics of a Successful Team

One of the greatest football coaches of all time, Vince Lombardi, once said, “Teamwork is what the Green Bay Packers were all about. We didn’t always have the greatest talent. We didn’t do it for individual glory. We won because we loved one another.” Great teams are successful because they care. They care about their team’s goals, their team’s purpose and most importantly, they care about each other. Caring about the team is the fuel that allows ordinary people to accomplish extraordinary results. What I have observed is that there are 5 common characteristics that successful teams share. I have summarized those characteristics below: 1. Successful Teams Understand the Big Picture: Every leader must understand the mission and purpose. Furthermore, it is the leaders duty to ensure that every one of their team members understand the big picture, understand how they impact the big picture and fully embrace the fact that the more successful they are in their role, the more successful your company will be, which will in turn enable you to invest back into them, your company and your communities. 2. Successful Teams Have Fun Together: It is a fact that the more a person enjoys what they do, the more successful they will be. Are you creating an environment within your team that is fun? Are you allowing your team members to enjoy you and enjoy each other? Successful teams don’t have to constantly look for creative ways to have fun, they just have it! 3. Successful Teams Are Transparent and Real: The more real you are with your team, the more real they will be with you and each other. When this happens, trust and camaraderie develop which inspires each team member to become committed to the team and to the mission. Successful teams consist of team members who are committed to the team. If your team members are not committed, then they are not … there is no in between. 4. Successful Teams Celebrate Victories: Big or small, successful teams recognize and celebrate victories on a regular basis. You will find out that the more you praise and celebrate, the more reasons there will be to praise and celebrate! 5. Successful Teams Don’t Avoid Conflict: Over the years, I have observed that the more committed team members are to the team, the more comfortable and likely they are to disagree and challenge each other. Committed teams know how to fight! Committed teams say what is on their mind, get issues out in the open, respect each other’s views and work towards an agreeable resolution. The cool thing is that once they agree, the issue is resolved and nobody else will ever know there was a conflict. Teams will excel when true teamwork exists. Teamwork can only exist when individual team members trust and care for each other. If there is no relationship, there is no trust. Events like company picnics allow us to get a chance to know your team members outside of the daily pressures of work. It is a time to develop relationships. I encourage leaders to find ways to engage their teams in activities that will build teamwork and maybe someday, propel their team to accomplish extraordinary results.

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