etech

Why Leaders Must Strive to be a Positive Influence?

“Leadership is influence. Nothing more, nothing less.” – John Maxwell Leaders demonstrate positive influence through both their behavior and overall attitude. At Etech, it is expected that our leaders are committed to developing team members who understand what is expected of them, know how to meet those expectations and understand how it relates to Etech’s mission. Below are my thoughts of the importance of proper influence and how to demonstrate that influence with your team. How to Demonstrate the Right Influence? All leaders will influence their team …. it can be a negative influence or positive one. Etech leaders serve and influence their team through passion, enthusiasm, positive energy and being optimistic rather than focusing on what is out of their span of control. Leaders should strive to build up their team members, even when offering constructive criticism. All team members should understand that performance evaluations will contain some constructive feedback that is intended to improve the team member. Team members should also understand company leaders aren’t infallible, that they too are constantly growing & developing in order to enhance their value to the company, customers and communities. When team members see leaders making a constant and intentional effort to improve and lead with humility, they’re much more likely to engage. Every day provides a new day to improve yourself and those around you, embrace the moment! Why Leaders Need a Positive Attitude? One big part of the equation is the fact that leaders must walk the talk. The DNA of the team starts at the top and trickles its way down. While team members can motivate themselves, team sustainable will be obtained with influence from the leader. Etech leaders strive to create an environment where people want to be emotionally invested. Committed team members have the ability to influence others without carrying the title of leader, when that happens the impact is powerful. The second part of the equation is the fact that being positive attracts positive energy. Moods and energies are contagious. Simply put, positive people want to be around other positive people. Leaders set the tempo for their teams. If you want a team that is engaged, energized, & committed to their work, then model that behavior! Finally, positive influence breeds more enhanced productivity, creativity and contributions. When leaders ignite each day with a positive attitude, their team members will be encouraged to do the same. If leaders are apathetic towards their work or the company, team members will be negatively impacted and may mirror the attitude of their leader. Etech Leaders strive to create a safe environment promoting courage, humility, trust, integrity, adaptability and learning. The focus is not on the numbers but are growing each other. When this happens, the numbers come. We all will influence others, be sure to always demonstrate the right influence. To the whole world you may be one person, but to one person you can be the whole world.

Charting a Career Path in Today’s Call Centers

It is a myth that call centers lack growth opportunities. Many think that the only path is from agent to director, and many of those jobs are already taken. While call centers tend to have many employees, and many of them are likely vying for the same promotion, that doesn’t limit anyone from working their way up the ladder. The key is to make yourself stand out. Make yourself noticeable by doing the things necessary to show you are not only capable of doing the job you are in, but are capable of taking on much more. There is a career path to be charted for agents with the right temperament and performance. Here are some of the steps toward moving up in the call center world: Benchmarks for Career Building So how do you stand out in a large workforce? Simply stated, do your job and do it well. You must demonstrate a strong skill set that allows you to rise to the top of the stack ranks, that has people coming to you for help, and puts you in a place where you continue to stand out from the crowd. If the call center has a high turnover rate, the most reliable agents can quickly establish their value. Here are some other indicators for employees who might excel in leadership roles: Consistency : Agents who don’t call in sick, who show up for work with a good attitude and who volunteer for extra hours demonstrate a level of loyalty that often is uncommon in large places of employment. Dependability and consistency go a long way in today’s call centers. Dedication : Agents who come to work each day motivated and ready to do their best can inspire other team members to do the same. They continually are looking for ways to raise the bar and in turn motivate others to do the same. Call centers want people willing to work to do more than the norm. Ambition : It is appropriate for representatives to show and tell their leaders that they are looking to move up the career ladder. If someone is willing to put themselves out there, then they understand that they will be in a position where their results, actions, and day to day interaction with others will be evaluated. I have said it often once you put yourself out there you either get exposure or you get exposed. If you find someone willing to put themselves out there, then chances are you will find someone eager and able to move up the ranks. Performance : Of course, no agent is going to be considered for a move up if he or she is not hitting benchmarks on a regular basis. In fact, employees with an eye on leadership must be doing their absolute best in demonstrating teamwork, positive influence and attitude, and performing consistently. Just because you are a great seller does not mean you can lead others to sell. Results do matter and provide you the credibility you need not only in the eyes of leadership, but in the eyes of your peers you may be managing soon. Being proactive : In addition to indicating an interest in career advancement, leadership-worthy agents should be on the lookout for job development opportunities, unique projects and special training that can expand their skill sets. Volunteer when you can, take on tasks others don’t want, self-develop, and say yes when you can. Don’t forget that whatever you take on though, you must continue to perform your current job. Be a leader in all ways! In many ways, the skills and traits needed for a leader in a call center are the same as in any field. Candidates must be good at their jobs, focused on company goals, excellent at collaboration and loaded with problem-solving skills. Even those who don’t move to a management position can still be team leaders if they have the right attitude and multiple areas of expertise. Be willing to lead without the title and be prepared as the title won’t be far behind.

Secrets for Retaining the Best Call Center Talent

Employee retention is vital to the success of any business, but it is especially important for call centers, where each customer service representative reflects an investment of time and training resources. There are plenty of ideas on how to maintain high levels of retention, from Google-style relaxation stations to fun perks tied to performance levels. But although workers love free stuff and the freedom to set their own break schedule, the best methods for gaining agent loyalty are linked to how they feel about their workplace and their job. Company Culture No one wants to work for a company that treats employees like a number. Businesses that succeed at keeping top talent around for a long time do so by creating a company culture in which each person feels he or she is valued as an individual and is working as part of a team. Happy agents see that they are important to the success of the company for a variety of reasons, not just because they are meeting benchmarks on calls per hour. Avoiding a Metrics Morass Too often, call centers might be so focused on measurements that they fail to understand the importance of customer satisfaction and agents’ ability to create it. Workers must have the authority to make decisions in order to create a one-call resolution. If agents seemed rushed and abrupt with callers, the company may be looking at a low customer satisfaction rating, and that is a bigger problem than failing to meet unrealistic call-volume quotas. Management Style It is often said that employees don’t leave jobs, they leave managers. That means a company’s overall management style must be inclusive and supportive if it wants to retain employees. Managers should be able to recognize that workers learn in different ways and are motivated by different things. It is best if direct managers can talk with agents in a constructive and helpful way so that they are encouraging a dialogue, not issuing directives. Top-level managers should be checking regularly with customer service representatives to ensure they feel supported in their efforts to achieve the company’s mission. Customer Satisfaction In call centers, customers should come first. Agents must feel as though they are able to do everything they can to ensure top satisfaction ratings. Workers who get the impression that hitting call-volume benchmarks is more important that serving customers quickly, graciously and helpfully will not feel motivated to do a thorough job. If the company culture showcases customers as the top priority, workers will be happy to follow that lead. Recognition Finally, every call center should have a structure in place to reward agents who are meeting goals or otherwise contributing well to the success of the company. It can be easy for individuals to feel lost in the large space of a call center, so finding opportunities for public pats on the back go a long way toward employee recognition. It doesn’t have to take a lot of time or money to retain top call center employees. Where there is a focus on company culture and a supportive environment, agents likely will be happy to come to work each day.

Why Do Leaders Require Vision to Drive Success?

Have you ever noticed how the word “boss” is often used in a negative context? Very rarely do people use the word in praise; rather, you more often hear terms like “the boss is getting after me again” or “my boss is so demanding.” Perhaps Theodore Roosevelt summed up the reason behind this trend best when he said “People often ask the difference between a leader and a boss. The leader leads, and the boss drives.” At face value, driving may seem simple. After all, you know where you’re going, and as long as your workforce is on board, everyone will arrive where you need to be together. Yet what if circumstances compel you to relinquish the wheel? Do the passengers traveling with you as you journey towards call center success know and understand the destination? Are they even aware of the route you’re taking? They are if you’ve made the decision to lead rather than simply drive. Do You Know Where You Going? Yet passing the vision of where your contact center may be going on to your employees requires that you first acquire it yourself. Do you have a destination that you are heading towards, or do your operations indicate that you are simply content treading water? Determining what your professional goals may be can turn your vision from a perceived desire to an achievable accomplishment. How Do You Show Your Staff How to Get There? Having a professional destination in mind helps in better leading your workforce towards improvements and success. It allows you chart a professional course by establishing the following five elements: A fundamental knowledge of what you’re doing : Too often, employees fall into the trap of doing what they do simply because that’s what they were told by their contact center manager. This can easily breed an atmosphere of content because they feel as though their only supporting his or her individual success. However, if you show them how what they’re doing supports your organization’s goals, your staff’s work becomes more purposeful. An operational framework : Once your workforce understands how the “why” gets them to where you all want to be, they then need to know the “how.” That comes by developing a framework designed specifically to help secure achievements rather than simply generating workflow. An achievable goal : Don’t allow your goals to simply be figurative; that makes it easier to justify not reaching them. Rather, establish a well-defined indicator of success that employees can see and experience once they reach help you to reach it. Continuous monitoring : It’s easy to get lost in your pursuit of an objective if you never assess where you currently are. Monitoring performance in relation to your goals allows you to become more engaged with your employees in your pursuit of success. Not only does it make plotting your course easier, but it allows you to identify areas where certain individuals are either struggling or over-achieving. An attitude of adaptability : Your plans will rarely go as you initially anticipated them. Thus, when new obstacles or opportunities present themselves, you need to be willing to adapt your operations if you see them leading you away from your objective. Every employee at every of a company is on a journey, and like all journeys, each must have a destination. It’s up to you as a leader within your contact center to convey your vision of where your organization’s journey will ultimately end up, and what collectively must be done in order to get there. Doing so ensures that you’re not simply driving a group of uninterested people along the pathway, but rather leading an engaged group of travelers.

Retaining Great Talent

Have you seen your classes slowly but surely dissipate until you can’t graduate the needed headcount for the production team to be successful? I can tell you, I have spent many a night wondering how we can close this gap. How do we hold on to great people that have been recruited for the role? As you already know, the answer to this question is not going to be a quick and easy “do this (fill it the blank) and everything will be okay.” What I can do is share some tips that will help you along the way: Communication with other departments : We should share the behaviors and skills needed to be successful with our recruiting team. Speak with the leaders that are doing the hiring to ensure that they know what to look for in quality candidates. This will ensure the necessary foundational knowledge is built into the new hires before starting training. Provide feedback on the results, and help them continue to solve for you. The operations team needs to participate in growing relationships with new team members during the training phase. Set specific times to visit the class and have a prepared agenda, which should cover key ideas trainees will need in their future roles. Show potential candidates the job : Let new hires know what the role is and how to be successful before taking the job. One of the biggest opportunities still lies in a different set of expectations on “what I will be doing” versus “what I am doing.” Set expectations early : Trainers need to be able to clearly communicate what training will include from beginning to end. They should provide agendas to track progress and communicate changes. Trainers should let trainees know how to conduct themselves to be successful. They should set the expectation early that class is participative, and then have activities that engage the learner allowing them to contribute. Connect with the learners : Trainers should be taught how to engage new hires and learn who they are quickly. How do they learn? What types of behaviors should they expect from everyone? Many forms of testing exist to determine these insights, and each company should research which works for their culture. Build an environment that breeds success : By creating an environment that is both educational and fun, you can remove the stress that accompanies learning material. When trainees are engaged and enjoy what they are doing, they will absorb the needed information before they even realize it. Teach your training team the metrics : Your trainers should know how to do the role they are teaching. They should be able to share the metrics that will enable the team members to achieve their commitments. The trainer should then be able to teach the behaviors that will drive success. Use the right language : Positivity breeds positivity, and unfortunately, the opposite is true as well because negativity breeds negativity. Instead of focusing on the opportunity missed, look at what was accomplished. Look at the positive. You could say, “You missed the target by 20%,” or you could say, “You achieved 80% of the goal; now let’s find the next 20%!” Utilizing the above action items in each class as well as on the floor will create a positive working environment that will instill pride in employees. Starting this atmosphere early on in training will set the right mindset for the trainees and ensure they stick around to be successful in production. You will soon be able to rest easy.

How to Raise the Emotional Intelligence of Your Call Center Staff

Emotional intelligence, or EQ, is the skill of being able to understand how others feel and using that information to influence how you can proactively interact for a positive result. While some employees may inherently have a high EQ, it can be nurtured to grow in all staff, improving interactions between agents and callers across the board. Using EQ, an agent can guide a call from its beginning to a successful resolution while simultaneously adjusting the tone and language of the call based on listening to and engaging with the customer. Management and training staff can create an environment to foster high EQ in all call center agents and improve customer satisfaction. Here is how you can increase EQ in your own call center. Positivity Call center agents’ positive and proactive attitudes help the interaction between the agent and customer get started on the right foot. In order to foster these attitudes in the call center at large, managers need to make agents feel cared for and important to the company’s mission. Creating a fun and cooperative atmosphere between management and staff is a good way to foster positivity and the first step in encouraging EQ to grow. Self-Awareness and Control Training for agents to be aware of their phone persona is the next step in developing a higher EQ. These questions can be asked and the answers discussed during training sessions and call critique sessions: How do I sound to the customer? If a call center agent answers a call in an abrupt manner, this will probably set an unfriendly tone for the entire call, with the customer gaining a negative perception of the company. Am I making the customer feel welcome? If the customer is not extended courtesy, diplomacy, and respect, the customer may feel they are an unwelcome guest and escalate the call in order to get their need for information and service met. How can I stay in control and guide the call to a satisfactory conclusion? Angry callers are a regular occurrence, but a call center agent can control her response to the angry feelings at the other end of the line. Staying in control by remaining objective and calmly responding to the caller’s request can transform the emotional energy of the call and guide it to a satisfactory conclusion. Adaptability The skill of being adaptable to a wide spectrum of customer attitudes and requests is built on the ability to be positive and proactive as well as self-aware and in control of customer interactions. Training agents how to respond proactively to difficult callers will raise their confidence and help them to perform at their highest level. Rewards When agents see that peers in the workplace are being rewarded for their high EQ during customer interactions, this sets the tone for higher agent EQ expectations overall. As a result, a culture of excellence is fostered to improve the customer experience. Ask high performing agents to serve as mentors for new hires to reinforce this expectation of excellence. Training, mentoring, and peer engagement can make a difference in a call center’s EQ. When positivity is fostered, training is implemented, and performance feedback is given, you call center performance will be poised to improve exponentially. This blog was first published on LinkedIn.

How Do Speech Analytics Improve Every Metric?

Are you looking for a way to improve your call center metrics? Incorporating speech analytics is actually a great way to improve many aspects of your call center. This tool can help you improve the overall customer experience through a better understanding of the following areas: Looking at Typical Response Times: How long does the average person wait on hold before getting through to a customer care employee? Minimizing this time can greatly increase customer satisfaction. Having a good understanding of the response time can help you figure out whether your resources are being used in the best way possible. Understanding Call Resolution: How many calls does it take for a customer’s problem to be resolved? If the answer is more than one, you can use the analytic software to figure out where your agents are going wrong by tracking certain keywords throughout the various phone calls. Getting more calls to be resolved without a transfer or follow-up can translate to higher employee satisfaction and lower operating costs as well. Focusing on Customer Sentiment: What attitude do your customers usually have while on the phone with your call center? You can monitor both positive and negative keywords used in average phone calls to understand whether people are happy, mad, confused or irate. You can use this knowledge to train your staff to avoid phrases that seem to make customers mad. Looking at the Management of Private Information: Do your employees properly handle private information? No matter what industry your company is in you likely have to deal with personal material. Mishandling customer addresses, billing data or history can lead to angry customers and even liability issues. This software can help you train and educate your agents, so they can perform better even in high-pressure situations. Learning About Broken Processes: Has it been a while since you have reviewed the processes of your business? The software that analyzes speech can make it easier for you to monitor, analyze and improve your existing procedures. While you may not want to fix something that works, many companies fall into a rut without realizing that their once successful methods are now outdated. A constant identification of failing practices can help you avoid this with your business. Keeping the Customer Satisfied: Do you know your average customer’s current thoughts on your company? Customer satisfaction surveys are a great way to get a person’s thoughts on his or her experience with your business after it is over. However, these surveys tend to lack context and may be too subjective to be completely helpful. Speech analytic software, on the other hand, gives you a recorded conversation you can review anytime you want. Once you have the speech analytics in place, you can monitor for keywords that you want representatives to either avoid or incorporate in their daily interactions with customers. This tool can improve all call center metrics because it gives you a window into who your customer is and what the typical experience with your business is like. In other words, you will be able to better understand the ways you can help your agents improve as customer liaisons for your company. Because this tool helps you monitor individual calls, you can even personalize the training to help individual representatives improve in their unique trouble areas. This blog was first published on LinkedIn.

How to Find Effective Leaders

While it’s great to have effective leaders now, call centers should be sure they’re looking toward the future for their next equally effective leaders. As careers advance and circumstances change, a contact center manager might leave and take her or his talents elsewhere. Being on the lookout for capable managers should always be a top priority, and here are few strategies for doing just that. Start Internally Rather than start your search externally, look at your current employees to determine which of them have the qualities of a leader. In addition to the qualities, these individuals should have the solid foundation of a leader, which is to say that the employee should display the character, knowledge and skills of an effective leader for your specific call center. Additionally, those you’re considering should have the charisma necessary to inspire other employees and give them the motivation necessary to accomplish the goals of the contact center. Any candidates you’re considering should be just as effective in the long-term as they are in the short-term. Recognize Leadership Identifiers Now that you know to start your leadership search internally, it’s time to learn the exact qualities of a good leader. One of the first things to do is gauge your potential leader’s commitment to your company. While an individual might display the qualities of a leader, those qualities won’t do you much good if that person doesn’t plan on remaining with your company for very long. Observe your candidates to see how eager they are to learn new things and help their fellow employees. Additionally, do your best to determine whether candidates are only gunning for a promotion or raise, or if they genuinely want to make the company better. Focus on the Future Generation The important thing to bear in mind about your next effective call center manager is that the individual should be aware of the changes taking place in the industry as well as the world around them. What this means is you shouldn’t neglect your millennial employees during your search. No matter how you might feel about how they work ethic or focus, you can’t deny the fact that they can serve as powerful resources for the success of your call center. Making a millennial a leader is sure to give you a unique insight that can’t be provided by an older leader candidate. Know the Different Roles of Leadership A truly effective leader is multifaced, able to change and combine roles as needed to lead a team and accomplish goals. What this means is you want a leader who sets standards and knows how to successfully keep the team on track. You also want a leader who excels at planning, team coordination and project management to take care of details great and small. Leaders should also work with their team rather than only give them orders. If you can’t find every role exemplified in a single candidate, consider a combination of leaders to bring out the best in your team and call center. With a little guidance, finding effective leaders is made much easier. Put these tips to good use during your search and you’re sure to be pleased with the results.

10 Ideas to Foster Leadership Every Day

In order for contact centers to operate effectively, call center leaders and managers must be skilled in their jobs. When management does not function properly, the chances of team success is almost nonexistent. The problem with this equation is that not all managers and team leaders have the skills needed to lead in the most beneficial way. What Leadership Qualities Should You Focus On? Knowing what leadership qualities you should practice is the first step in boosting the satisfaction rating of both your employees and customers. Here are a few that tend to make a noticeable difference: Improve yourself – Take time to understand all management styles and learn about more effective management styles. Being willing to make your own changes today will help your employees be more open to proposed changes down the road. Keep an open mind – Commit to an open and encouraging attitude when team members offer suggestions that they feel might add value to the company. Remember that they see and experience customer interactions from an entirely different perspective than you. Learn to serve – Take time to work with your employees when you notice that they might be feeling overloaded. Pattern the customer service behaviors that you preach as you take time to serve with them instead of simply standing above them. Encourage others – Being able to offer sincere words of encouragement is a talent that you will be able to use in many situations throughout your life. Make it a practice to not only notice what you employees are doing well but to stop and tell them what you saw and why it is great. You will notice that team members often work to be noticed and praised. Stop reacting – Make a goal to stop reacting and start responding. When the unexpected happens, taking time to think about the problem and possible solutions before you respond can make all the difference. Avoiding quick, harsh reactions is another way to bring your team closer together. Expect more – Contact center leaders spend many hours devoted to the task of evaluating statistics. At times when they fall flat, your typical reaction may be to point the finger of blame and accusation. Next time you see a drop in your numbers, perhaps you should gather your troops, give them a pep talk, remind them of how great they really are. Then stand back and expect more good numbers to follow. Start to really listen – Remember that listening involves more than the ears. In order to truly listen, you must learn to fully focus on the team member. At this point, you may notice body language, mannerisms, and expressions that can help you to really understand what your employee needs. Remember to ask – Once you have gotten into the practice of uplifting and serving your employees, don’t be afraid to ask what you can do better. Perhaps they have been afraid to offer suggestions that could be beneficial to the entire company. Don’t skip the review – Make it a habit to meet with your team and review any recent changes, updates or suggestions that have been put in place. By doing so, you will remind them that they are an important part of the successful call center machine. Keep at it – Self-evaluation is hardly comfortable; however, effective managers do not give up. Instead, they keep learning, serving and improving in hopes that their team will follow. Every Day is a New Day By learning what qualities will make you a better manager, you will be able to make changes in yourself, and in the call center. Remember that every day is a new day in which you can strive to learn more, do better, and help your team to reach its full potential.

How to Blend People and Machines for Better Customer Experiences?

You might be struggling to offer an optimum level of customer service as speed and convenience become more desired. How do you ensure customer satisfaction when they want both speed and traditional human interaction? Here’s how you can blend artificial intelligence (AI) with personal communication within your call centers to serve your customers more effectively. Create a Space Where Artificial Intelligence and People Work Together to Answer Questions Customers are increasingly tech-savvy and comfortable navigating technology without any human interaction. Gartner has reported that the vast majority of customers will manage their connections with companies without ever talking to a person. This means that you have to approach your customers as people who want a certain amount of independence. Despite this, there is still a need for a real person to be on the line. When customers need resolutions to complex problems or are asking a unique question, they usually prefer to speak in real-time with an actual person. You should work on improving both of these areas to dramatically improve your customer experience. When you deliver balanced, quick, and helpful customer service, you get repeat purchasers and loyal promoters. Where Automation Meets Empathy While automated systems will never be as empathetic as people, they can transform the way you assist customers. Technological breakthroughs have allowed computers to become continuously self-learning based on analytics. You can implement AI into your call center and it will monitor how your agents respond to inquiries. The technology will then be able to complete tasks and respond to questions on its own, meaning you can start to rely less on live agents. Using Analytics to Set Up the Process To start blending AI into your call center, rely on analytical tools and data. This will help you find out the best way to solve problems that customers call about. Your implementation will depend on the availability of live support and complexity of the inquiry. For example, you could set up an automated process to instruct customers to speak or enter a specific number that correlates with their question. The AI can provide helpful answers and information for each inquiry while providing a last-resort option to speak to a live representative. This is just an example of how you can utilize AI to streamline your customer service. Personalizing and Branding Your AI You want to provide relevant and helpful service based on preferences and demographics. Tracking trends can help you implement a dynamic call center experience that is automatically customized to previous customer interactions. Keep in mind that even your automated processes should be consistent with your overall brand experience. All content should be in line with your vision and goals. Getting started with automation and intelligence doesn’t have to be a daunting task. You don’t have to overhaul your whole IT department or throw up legacy systems. You can start off by choosing a single product to test your project for 2 or 3 months. Once you have perfected the process with one product, you can expand it across your entire platform. This blog was first published on LinkedIn.

3 Reasons Why your Business Should be Customer Centric

Every company’s top priority should be the customer. After all, the reason why you’re in business is to meet the needs and wants of the people, and to provide a service or product that ensures they come back. After all, without them you won’t have a company. It’s quite simple. A business will be more successful and will reach its set goals faster when all its operations and administrative efforts are focused on its most important assets; the available customer base or clientele. Customers who make daily use of your products do so in hopes that the experience will be effortless. The thin line between a one-time purchase and a customer who stays loyal to you and your company could be as simple as effective listening, constructive response and where it applies, and speedy and sustainable implementation. This post is the second in a series of blog posts which address the topic of customer centeredness and focus. Together, we will take an expository insight into the business which revolves around its customers and talk about the need for any business, including yours, to effectively link every business and operational action to its customers. So, let’s look at customer centeredness. Basically, customer centeredness is conducting your business with the goal of attaining a level of customer satisfaction or a measure of how a company’s products and services provided meet or go beyond the expectations of its customers. By now, you should already know why your business should be revolving around your customers. However, I’ll quickly share with you why your business needs to be customer centric and why customer centeredness should be a major priority when considering and implementing a business strategy. Your Customers Feel Valued Every customer will naturally feel more loyal and committed to a company they feel a certain emotional and sentimental connection to. When customers feel that a company is only out to make some quick and steady cash, doesn’t care about them or their feelings, or what it is that they want, they won’t be able to effectively relate to them and eventually they cut ties with such companies. Because of this, it’s more than important to be emphatic and sympathetic to the plights and feelings of your customers and to provide services and products that are aimed at directly and permanently providing for the immediate needs of your customer base. Originality is the key in this area. You need to show a service that is aligned to the needs of every customer and, although it’s a known fact that you can’t please everybody, you should be focusing on pleasing as many people as you possibly can. These aligned services are sure to attract, and more importantly, keep the customers that your business needs to maintain success. An ability to anticipate the needs of your customers will also be helpful in this regard. You should be able to foresee the needs that your customers will have. Study the trends in your specific area, research and be aware of social media trends, and ask your customers how you are doing. That way, when the needs eventually do arise, your customers won’t be running somewhere else to have them met. It Keeps You Competitive and Still in the Game Product development and comparison shopping have undergone a huge process of metamorphosis since the advent and widespread use of the internet. Now, it is much easier for customers to make purchases and find the best deals online in different marketplaces and platforms. In a world where every business is a competitor, it has become increasingly important for businesses to find areas of their operation that set them apart from the rest of the pack. Businesses which are customer centric excel exceedingly in this aspect because, as stated earlier, customers will be more loyal to businesses which they feel a personal connection to. Customers Could Help Increase Your Business’ Profitability Remember, your products and services are being provided to meet the needs of your customers. That being said, who better to know where you’re going wrong then the customers whose needs you are trying to meet? It doesn’t take much to create a detractor. In fact, one wrong customer interaction can spread like wild fire. However, the promoters of your business can have the same effect positively. Many of your loyal customers have a genuine concern for your business and will tell others if you continue to meet their needs. Communication is key. They could have ideas and tips on how you could improve in service delivery, what products you should carry, what products you should avoid, and in the long run, increase your clientele size and business profitability. However, if they don’t have an avenue to communicate with you, or if they don’t feel that connection to you, you might never have access to those ideas. Making services which are finely tailored to fit your customers creates an avenue for you to build relationships. If any of them have any ideas, and they usually do, they’ll be free to come to you and share their opinions. Apart from ideas, customers who feel heard and valued become those promoters we often talk about. They are a crucial part of successfully marketing your business. A customer who comes in for the first time and who has an awesome overall customer experience will be back and talk about their experience to others. Word of mouth is even more wide spread now through social media. The feedback your business may receive is almost instantaneous. So, take time to look at what you offer, what is working and not working, and make it a point to talk to your customers and align your products with their needs. Be customer centric!

Do You Have The Right Qualities to be a Servant Leader?

For many years, it was standard practice that the role of manager or team leader was often paired with strongly authoritarian descriptors such as controlling, sole decision maker, and unyielding. And while this type of management style was practiced for years, a newer and more effective style of management or leadership was introduced by Robert K. Greenleaf in 1970. Call center managers are among those who have realized that there are many benefits from learning how to manage by Servant Leadership. Some of the positive benefits that have been gained include an increase in employee satisfaction levels, in customer satisfaction levels, in innovative ideas, and a decreased rate of turnover. Each of these benefits then translates to increased revenue for the organization. Do You Have What it Takes? In order to be a successful servant leader, you must be willing to ask yourself if you truly have what it takes to lead with service instead of with force. This self-evaluation need not be a grueling or harrowing experience for contact center leaders, instead, it should be a way of pinpointing small changes that you can make that are sure to have a positive impact on the entire team. Some questions that you may want to review include: Am I empathetic? Do I understand how to listen? Am I aware of situations, undercurrents, and of myself? Do I believe that healing can happen? Am I able to see the big picture? Are big dreams to be encouraged or scoffed at? What am I doing to nurture my employees? Am I a good steward? Is the feeling of community important to me? Do I persuade or coerce? What Can You Do to Serve More Naturally? If you have conducted an honest self-evaluation, it is probable that you have come away with the knowledge that you need to work to be a more effective servant leader. For example, you may make the decision to research how to be more empathetic so that you can to treat each team member as a unique and valued individual, even if you must help to correct behaviors that may be hurting the productivity, overall attitude or the effectiveness of the call center. Striving to become more comfortable as a servant leader frequently leads to an increased awareness of more than just numbers. Instead, you will come to understand the struggles that your employees face each day. This clarity and awareness of values, ethics and personalities will help you to serve your employees and problem-solve more effectively. Expanding your own abilities to think big will also help in your efforts. When you take time to know and serve those on your team, you will also know where their hopes and dreams lie. Be prepared to listen, to encourage and to share your own dream. Serve Yourself So You Can Serve Your Team As you move through the process of becoming the type of servant leader you have envisioned, remember to take time out for yourself, so that you can practice, learn, and refresh. The increased knowledge and wisdom you gain as you take time to serve yourself are certain to benefit not only your own life but the lives of all those that you serve with each day.

Are you using social media to connect with your customers?

Social Media has opened new avenues for businesses to connect with their customers. These days, it isn’t enough to have a website for your business; the customer buying journey extends to social media marketing sites like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc. More and more people are using Twitter and Facebook for Customer Service as well. The millennials do not want to use the phone to connect to a customer service rep. They want to connect with you based on their preference, not the brands. Here are the main reasons why social media is important in a business: Learn about your customers and connect with them: Social Media enables a business to know its audience. A business can learn about the specific needs of its customer base. Analytics like Facebook Insights and Twitter Analytics enables a business to understand major demographics and patterns of customer behaviors. It provides valuable insights that help craft effective Marketing campaigns or tweak the current ones to improve results. Social media helps connect on an individual level. Social media also enables businesses to target a set audience– you can read their tweets and status updates to get insights into their daily lives. Find new customers: Searching for certain hashtags on Twitter can help you find people who are interested or search for similar products as yours. It enables a business to reach a wider audience and connect with them. Improve Customer Service: As social media works best in real-time, it provides instant access to feedback from customers. Social media enables you to know an issue as and when it arises. Moreover, there are now many studies that show that consumers appreciate companies that respond to customer complaints. Create meaningful relationships and increase market share: Social media helps to find influencers in a particular niche. It also enables a business to reach them in a more meaningful way. Additionally, every post you make on Social Media is an opportunity for your customers to convert. When you develop a social media community, you will have access to new customers, recent customers, and old customers, and you’ll be able to interact with all of them. Establish the brand as a thought leader or as an industry expert: People follow a brand online because it adds value to them. It gives businesses an opportunity to educate and inform their customers about how to use the product better or present valuable industry insight that empowers a customer. It would then develop trust amongst your audience and help position you and your company as industry experts. Social media is still a relatively new area of culture for companies. With a guide like a social media policy in place, it educates your employees and sets down the ground rules. There are many examples of employees making comments on social media such as Facebook and Twitter that have brought firms into disrepute. Here is what a clearly defined Social media policy looks like: Take the guesswork out of what is appropriate for an employee to posting about your company on their Social networks. Minimize confusion about legal issues: Social media policies can also help entrepreneurs and managers avoid errors. A social media policy helps in raising awareness for your brand as it helps employees to understand ways they can use social media to help achieve business goals. It provides an interactive and convenient medium to share information. The millennial customer base is already using Social Media and knows its benefits, hence it is effective to reach them online where they spend most of their time inhabiting. Social media is a fast-changing medium. There are established social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc. These established social media platforms are experiencing a decline in organic reach due to commercialization of the platform or a state of content shock, where content supply is more than the content consumption capacity of the audience. It is like an eventual growth phase in the life cycle of a social media platform. But they are here to stay as they make their pay-to-play strategies clearer and improve targeting that would enable brands to reach a larger, more targeted audience. Etech has a clearly defined Social media policy in place and has a strong presence on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. Etech has designed social media campaigns that tackle business challenges, showcase Etech family’s culture and publish and distribute value-adding content and industry insights for our followers to gain from. Etech has an ongoing Social Hiring campaign where we reach potential employees and have them apply. We also promote our Organizational culture by promoting Etech’s activities, sharing employee testimonials, and other fun activities that showcase the strength and creativity of the team. Etech uses Twitter and LinkedIn to share industry-relevant, value-adding content that would help our audience overcome their business challenges and keep them updated about the current events in the contact center industry and leadership development areas of expertise. Etech also uses insights that are derived from the analytics of these Social media platforms to devise new campaigns that generate value for the customers and audience. This blog was first published on LinkedIn.

Servant Leadership: A Guide to Modern Customer Service

Because customers have so many more options than they did in decades past, we often refer to today’s business environment as the age of the customer. Technology is at the heart of increased customer options, providing them with the ability to shop online, request a real-time chat with a company representative, browse websites while they watch movies, and offer company reviews on a number of easy-to-use opinion websites. With all of these changes, contact center leaders must be willing to acknowledge the increased need for enhanced customer interaction and outstanding customer service. More often than not, it is not the team of employees that needs to change. Instead, managers and team leaders must learn about the new practice of servant leadership and figure out how changing their own perceptions, habits and attitudes can bring about an incredibly positive shift in the call center. With servant leadership, those in management positions are encouraged to serve first and then lead. Robert K. Greenleaf, who introduced the concept in 1970, encouraged managers and leaders to ask specific questions as they tried out this unconventional new management style. Each question was centered on helping team leaders take note and encourage their employee’s efforts in physical and mental health, personal growth and learning. How Can Servant Leadership Lead to Better Customer Service? If you are like many call center managers, you may be wondering just how changing your style of leadership will lead to your team getting higher customer satisfaction rates. In order to explain this phenomenon, you must stop thinking about being the manager and begin thinking about how you and each employee is an integral part of the team. Once you are committed to this style of thinking, you will be more capable of serving through the following methods: Instilling Pride and Confidence – Though there are several different theories about where the Golden Rule originated, however, the statement of “do unto others as you would have them do to you” is still useful today, especially when managers are working to learn how to serve employees. When you serve them, work with them, and offer praise and sincere encouragement, your team will begin to work harder to exceed yours and the customer’s expectations. Setting the Standard High – Once your team members come to the realization that your style of leadership has changed, they will watch more closely in order to learn what you are doing. In almost every case, once servant leadership has been established, employees will begin to mimic the service-oriented behavior with each other, and with each customer. Exceeding Customer Expectations – When your call center agents begin to truly serve the customers, they will begin to notice what makes them happy and what leaves them dissatisfied. In an effort to offer the best service possible, they may even offer beneficial suggestions in team meetings. Through this process, they will come to not only meet, but exceed employee expectations. Start Serving More Today The sooner contact center leaders take time to put servant leadership techniques into practice, the sooner they will be able to see the results of this service. This cannot be a half-hearted effort that is infused from time to time with the old authoritarian style of leadership. It must be a true conversion toward knowing and serving those you work with. Start serving today and enjoy seeing happiness and satisfaction touch every part of your organization.

Customer Service Automation: A new way to Improve Quality in Contact Center

The modern contact center is always developing and contact centers need to evolve with time and technology. Before evolving your contact center, there are always components to be taken care of for improving and offering superior quality to all customers, which is an Effortless Customer Experience. If a contact center provides an effortless customer experience, the call center needs to develop a definition that the employees can relate to and deliver. To stay ahead of the competition, it’s important for all call center leaders to have an eye on trends. Customer Experience and Service has evolved over a decade with digital advancements. To set yourself apart in the market, you need to incorporate the customer service strategy focused on delivering an effortless customer experience, which includes go where your customers are, engage every employee, collect operational insights and gather competitive information. Here are 5 key differentiators that you need to recognize for a successful customer experience: Customer experience Customer experience reflects how the customer feels about your company and product. It is the mode of interaction between a customer and an organization over the duration of the relationship. Happy and satisfied customers grow from being customers to being loyal advocates. Create an Omni-channel Customers use various channels such as website, live chat, social media, and email. Businesses should be ready to deliver this effortless customer service on any channel. Creating an omni-channel experience for customers expect is crucial for success of any company. Engage all employees The best designed processes and systems will only be effective if carried out by the employees of the company. Rewarding your team is very important. Creating a great culture will be translated straight to the customers. Creating a winning culture is one thing which I have seen over the years that will brings business to the next level. Operational insights Using customer interactions to gather operational insights helps improve processes. This optimizes the customer experience approach, lower call volume and reduces repeat calls for similar problems and positively impacts the bottom line of business. Gather competitive information Gathering competitive insights will help you identify more up-sell, cross-sell opportunities. For a successful customer service, you need to make sure that you have the right employees to handle the customer service job who can deliver an effortless customer experience. The most important thing is to know what to look for in the potential candidates while interviewing them. The key is to understand who they are based on the answers they share during the interview. The days of hiring for Empathy are coming to an end, customers want their issue resolved on the first call therefore it’s important to hire people who can own the situation and take it to resolutions. This includes good communication, active listening, problem solvers and the right attitude to do the job. Hiring the right people that fit into the company culture helps to effectively serve your customers. A person needs to have a mind-set of effortless customer service, which is not only being ready to serve others but a willingness to go the extra mile for creating a truly positive and memorable customer experience and making customers happy. So, what type of employees does your company needs? The answer is simple – deliberate, detail-oriented people will go a long way in meeting the needs of your customers and for your company. The leaders here play a very important role. They are not only great examples for other team members to follow; they are excellent problem solvers, responsibility takers and decision makers. Leadership skills are critical in complicated situations when a customer expects someone to take the wheel and offer them a quick and efficient solution. To stay ahead of the competition, it’s important for leaders to have an eye on trends that have the potential to accelerate. Technology will allow companies to communicate with the customer and add value in new ways. Some of the important innovative trends in customer service are: Contact centers as engagement centers Today’s contact centers are seamless extensions of brands, and a place for constant feedback between your business and your customer’s ¬ a place where you can build personal relationships and transform customers into brand advocates. Customer experience Offering an exceptional customer experience wins some loyal customers. A string of loyal customers who rave about your brand is one of the key things you need to beat the competition. Exceptional customer service is making the customers feel they are the most important for the few minutes you are interacting with them. You assure them that you will do that you can to make their day better. Live Chat We see brands proactively start to initiate chat interactions where a customer is detected fumbling through their online support environment. Chat has emerged as the most natural channel for customers to interact though as it gives customers all-important privacy, as well as the freedom to drop and pick up conversations later. Social Support Technology has made it easier for brands to provide a more compelling customer experience on social. It provides options to seamlessly take interactions off social media to a private phone call with an agent. The company’s Twitter account can tweet back to the customer with a custom link that works only for that customer. But in considering these emerging technologies, many brands are still very behind when it comes to social. Being in this competitive market, I have always believed that a properly developed brand can be worth billions! It’s all about creating the right experience which makes Etech Global Services a market leader. Every once in a while we hear a story about a brand which delivers an incredible customer experience. The experience described needs to be carefully planned, organized, and executed. Your customers are the reason we are still in business, and our job is to serve the customers to the best of our ability. In my opinion, it does not only take a certain person to provide customer care but

How To Reinvent Company’s Winning Culture?

The case has been made again and again concerning why the way of culture you make at your company matters. Despite the fact that you may perceive the significance of culture, it can be precarious to see the condition of your own organization culture. Much the same as fish don’t know they are in water since they are inundated each day, it can likewise be hard to plainly observe your own particular culture. It’s time to Reinvent Your Company Culture In the event that your organization has never discussed the culture you are making, it might be a great opportunity to focus on it. Furthermore, regardless of the possibility that you have examined culture before, here are a couple of key signs that your culture may require some consideration: Employees are leaving at quick rate Employees appear to be despondent and separated Employees performances has declined Your organization is experiencing a time of move (development or decrease) Even Facebook, after realizing with 400 employees and 80 million users that their culture still needed to defined, stopped and asked – who do we want to be when we grow up? Remember, if you don’t define your winning culture it will define you. If you have never spent time thinking about your winning culture, then now is as good a time as any to start. Steps to Reinventing Your Winning Culture Reinventing your culture can feel like an enormous undertaking. It is anything but difficult to fall over into the mantra; this is quiet recently that way things have dependably been finished. In any case, business achievement is seldom accomplished with that attitude. All things considered, you would not continue fabricating an item that does not offer or keep utilizing a similar promoting procedure that does not draw in any clients. The same goes for your company culture. Why keep doing likewise if it’s not helping you make a sound, cheerful work environment? So how would you reinvent your company culture? It takes helplessness, openness, straightforwardness and eagerness to change. When you have that, there are three key strides to the procedure: 1. Assess the present circumstance: Before you can enhance your workplace culture, you need to comprehend the condition of your working environment as it exists at this moment. Here are three stages to get the heart of your present circumstance: Take a gander at your company: Begin by recognizing the key issues you are confronting as a company. Don’t simply list the indications; however, get to the base of the issues. For instance, are representatives clearing out? Assuming this is the case that is only a side effect of a bigger issue. The foundation of the issue could be that representatives have doubtful sets of expectations, can’t discuss viably with their boss or are not being perceived for their work. Burrow further to locate the fundamental issues. Take a gander at yourself: A key to administration is the capacity to act naturally mindful and distinguish the part you have played in the culture turning into the way it is. How have you been a positive case to whatever remains of your group? Is it accurate to say that you are the pioneer you wish you had? Is it accurate to say that you are focused on your very own development and persistently improving as a pioneer for your company? Look to your employee performance: The best thing you can do to assess the condition of your company culture is ask the general population inundated in it every day. Execute approaches to effectively listen to your representatives and what they accept about the culture. Give unknown studies, have town lobby gatherings, and demand input from representatives at all levels. Not exclusively does this give you input straight from those influenced most, yet it permits them to feel a part of the procedure, which makes purchase in for the progressions that are to come. 2. Make a convincing vision: When you comprehend where you are, consider where you need to go as a company. This is your opportunity to dream! Puts forth these inquiries: What is do you need the eventual fate of your company to resemble? Recollect when you initially began your company – why did you begin it? What change would you like to find on the planet? What does a solid company culture look like to you? What do you remain for as a Contact Center Agents? What do you esteem? The responses to these inquiries will help you cast a convincing vision for the culture you need to make in your Contact Center Agents. To rehash your culture, it’s vital to get the 10,000 foot view right. Odds are if your culture is feeble you have dismissed your vision and qualities. These are the establishment of your culture. In the event that you don’t have center qualities, this is the ideal opportunity to make them. There are numerous assets accessible to help you decide your center center qualities, yet here is the thing that worked for us. As the originator or pioneer of your company, you can’t be the person who decides the culture totally all alone. In any case, you ought to be the main thrust and visionary behind it. Unite a group of influencers inside your company to characterize your culture and where you need to take it. Keep listening to all representatives and giving open doors for input. Support did this when they were deciding their center qualities to include workers. 3. Create a Winning Culture Plan: Since you have seen where you are and where you need to go – how are you going to arrive? It begins by making a culture arrange. By distinguishing your why and center qualities, you have as of now mapped out the establishment of your arrangement. Next, you should choose your needs for how you can make the correct environment and develop your group with a specific end goal to fortify your culture. You can do this

How to Improve Quality Assurance with Analytics?

Although there is more than one way to analyze the performance quality of your call center, they are not all equal in accuracy and usefulness. The best method to evaluate quality assurance is using people and analytics. When you have the right information, you then can make the right improvements in your customer experience. This increases your customer retention, reduces effort and delivers and effortless customer experience not to mention the bottom line. As technology, has undergone huge advances, it has become important for contact centers to reshape the current technology being used. It often makes me think, how should we combine quality assurance with analytics to embrace customer interactions? Here are 4 ways to obtain this beneficial domino effect: 1. Acquire a More Relevant Sampling A traditional mode of assessing your customers’ experiences with call agents is through random sampling. However, this approach does not provide an accurate picture because it does not extract the most relevant interactions. You are left to base corrections on data that is not completely reflective of reality. Instead, you can use analytics technology to find phone calls that reveal consistent areas of weakness. Instances to look for include: Customers who asked to speak to a supervisor Conversations that contain inappropriate language or incorrect information Interactions that got heated or displayed unprofessional conduct Interactions where customers showed signs of channel switching Being able to locate the right experiences will better show you where your call center agents needs to improve, which a random sampling alone cannot do. 2. Monitor Agent Behavior on and off the Phone The computer activity of your employees is just as important as their phone dialogue. They need to be using the right applications at the right times to ensure a smooth, informative, and timely interaction with callers. While screen recordings can inform you of what agents do during a customer service experience, they cannot disclose what agents do in between calls. Desktop analytics can. You need to know how your agents are spending their time on the clock and how it affects their performance. Even though communication does not take place in person, customers can sense when an agent is distracted or unprepared. You may discover the need to set stricter rules on permissible activities during down time. 3. Increase First Contact Resolution Customer satisfaction is highly dependent on if you resolve the person’s problem during the first contact. Subsequent calls decrease the customer’s perception of the competency and helpfulness of your company. This attitude reduces customer retention, hurting your profits. It becomes worse if the disappointed caller discourages friends and family from doing business with you. It may be the fault of an unqualified agent, or it may be due to a confusing or overgeneralized setup of self-service options. Whatever the cause, you cannot fix it unless you can identify it. Determine the source of repeat contact through analytic technology so you can eliminate this issue. 4. Reshape Quality Assurance The more versatility you have in how you evaluate quality, the more precise and useful your findings will be. This allows you to formulate the best plan on how to improve the customer service of your call center. You need not let limited technology limit your ability to rectify poor customer relations, refine employee training, and enhance overall productivity. Integrating analytics into your quality assurance strategy will give you the flexibility and precision you need to make truly informed decisions. This blog was written by Jim Iyoob, Chief Customer Officer for Etech Global Services. 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.

5 Steps for Getting Your Team on Board With Organizational Goals

Creating call center agents who are productive and successful is a top priority for any manager, but there really isn’t a one-size-fits-all measuring stick. Agents may respond differently to performance goals and standard benchmarks. Therefore, managers must not only carefully and thoughtfully craft their improvement plans, but they must also establish concrete evaluation tools that can be tweaked to address changing priorities. Perhaps the first step in performance improvement is getting buy-in from the call center agents themselves. With universally understood team goals, measurable progress can serve as its own motivator. Here are five steps toward making benchmarks reasonable and achievable in order to prevent burnout or low morale. 1. List Performance Areas and Targets Start by creating a list of the service types that needs to be addressed. This may be things such as first call resolutions, call times, customer satisfaction ratings or quality of calls. Next, set a goal for each performance area. This should be reasonable and attainable while still offering a “stretch” factor so that agents will be accomplished when they reach the goal. After setting your own numbers, ask for input from the agents. They might have some insights on achievability or ideas for additional performance areas. Bringing agents in on this part of the process gives them agency and a vested interest in attaining the team goals. 2. Choose Flexible and Fair Goals Agents who feel the numbers are arbitrary or out of reach may become frustrated and unmotivated to strive for the goal. That’s why it is vital to keep the numbers realistic but still high enough that they require some adjustments for agents’ call-handling processes. 3. Explain the Logic Behind the Numbers When you are explaining the organizational plan to your agents, you will need to be able to justify the numbers you set forward. Be prepared to answer questions about how the number was chosen and what successfully meeting the goal will mean for the health of the company and for customer satisfaction. 4. Offer Strategies for Reaching Goals You can empower members of your team to reach goals by giving them tools to reach the desired result. This may be a more effective use of a script, ideas for keeping callers on topic or other suggestions they may never have considered. If you can demonstrate that the goals are achievable, agents will be more confident in their abilities. They might even have some suggestions you can use on a team-wide basis. 5. Revisit Goals and Tweak if Necessary When it comes to evaluating agent performance, the process likely will be ongoing. Metrics may need to be adjusted as realities change. You may notice that an agent just doesn’t have the level of training he or she needs, or it could be a worker is missing an important resource, such as reliable and speedy technology. Be prepared to alter the team goals if new evidence indicates adjustments are warranted. It is not difficult to get your agent team on track for improved performance if you plan carefully, get them involved in the process and offer tools that can help.

Call Center Managers or Leaders?

What would best describe the leadership style of your call center managers; caretakers or transformers? Managers care for the continuation of an organization and its needs while leaders transform the way the organization exists. Some in the business world would define a manager as too concerned with the status quo to move into the future, and others would criticize a leader for having his head in the clouds and not being concerned about the daily functions of the company. Either criticism of these management styles is too harsh and unrealistic. Here are some of the differences between manager and leader styles of leadership and why they are both needed. Manager Management tasks involve taking care of an organization and enabling it to meet its demands. Managers inquire the absolutes of how a project can be done and when it will be achieved. Management includes forecasting, planning, and budgeting in order to achieve company goals. This involves logistics to make sure that the necessary resources are in place. Management institutes rules and procedures to regulate and standardize work output. A manager delegates tasks and guides team members to achieve goals. This structural approach which includes the monitoring of implementation is seen as paving the way to meet company objectives. This facilitates predictability and an emphasis on short-term results of timeliness and at or below budget. Leader Leadership tasks include positively transforming workplace culture. Leaders ask why a certain work policy is in place and wonder what can be done in the future so it will be improved. Even an average call center agent can turn into a leader by having a vision of how the organization can be optimized and a passion for carrying it out. A leader has a longer term vision of what direction will make the company successful and can see the big picture of what is needed to bring that vision to fruition. Leaders utilize both words and action in communicating their vision for the organization and place emphasis on cooperation and forming strong coalitions to succeed. They motivate other call center managers to look beyond obstacles formed by the status quo and plan to make positive changes that are dramatic transformations over the long term. Because a leader respects each call center agent’s inherent stake in the change process, efforts for change can be multiplied by many. In turn, the services a company provides will be sought after and profitability will rise. Merging Management and Leadership In today’s business world, precise planning and agile responses to consumer demands are both expected and necessary to stay relevant. It is possible that both the manager and leader styles can be combined for the best of both worlds in an organization. The truth is, every successful call center needs both managers to get the job done with adequate resources and leaders to foresee how the call center can re-envision and optimize operations in the future. A hybrid approach to management style can ensure that both the present and the future of the company has the best chance of being a bright one. Inspiration, empowerment, and transformation can exist alongside logistical planning, budgets, and defined procedures.

How to Enhance Brand Loyalty With Quality Assurance?

Just as important as getting new clients is retaining current ones to grow your business. Although many factors are involved in retention, call centers play a crucial role in building customer loyalty. Consumers want to know that when they have an issue, they will receive exceptional customer service that will resolve the problem. If this happens, the chances of them continuing to do business with and recommending your company greatly increase. Your call center can deliver this positive customer experience through the benefits of quality assurance. Evaluate the Performance of Employees The general purpose of quality assessments is to ensure your agents are doing their jobs correctly. You first must determine if each agent is providing the level of customer service that they are supposed to for clients to perceive your company as helpful and customer-oriented. This includes agents being knowledgeable and clear in their communication. They must also have a balance of friendliness and professionalism, and be able to resolve problems in a reasonable time. If these basics are lacking, you will have to focus on foundational skills before you can build upon them. Obtain In-Depth Quality Assurance Data If areas needing improvement are not readily apparent, you require a superior quality assurance program that can give you more accurate and thorough analytics. It can incorporate behavioral data for a more comprehensive look at agent performance and how it affects customer satisfaction. You can search for specific interactions for reviewal instead of relying on random sampling. Create Custom Coaching for Each Agent The greater options this kind of solution offers allows you to approach employee coaching with more personalization. It informs you of the precise areas in which each employee needs additional training so that you can give useful feedback. Not all agents have the same weaknesses or learn skills in the same way, so a more tailored method will lead to increased and quicker improvement. Enhance Customers’ Brand Loyalty Once your call agents have corrected their mistakes and refined their proficiency in delivering optimal assistance, the rest will take care of itself. The natural significance of pleasing clients will be stronger loyalty to your brand. They will trust your company and will see the reduced effort and improved customer experience. Increase Your Revenue With more loyalty to your brand, business will not only continue but also grow. It will be easier to upsell to current clients who already love you, and easier to gain and retain new ones due to referrals. There is no doubt that your company’s revenue is significantly dependent upon and influenced by your call center’s ability to deliver an extraordinary customer experience to every caller. With so many benefits, it is easy to see the value of integrating a versatile quality assurance program into your call center. It is more than cost-effective; it is profitable for your business. Using the analytics you obtain, will help you gain leverage over competitors because you will follow through best on what every consumer desires: an Effortless Customer Experience. This blog was first published on LinkedIn..

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