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5 Strategies to Help Improve Customer Experience With Speech Analytics

Call centers are constantly searching for new ways to boost their customer experience and customer service capabilities, and advanced technology, specifically speech analytics, can provide call centers more insight into their customers as well as their desires. Speech analytics is the process of analyzing recorded calls to gather customer information to improve communication and future interaction. When used correctly, such analytics can give your call center a distinct advantage and make everyone’s job that much easier. Here are five effective strategies for boosting customer experience with powerful analytics. 1. Get to the Root of Customer Displeasure Sometimes when a customer contacts your contact center, he or she will tell you exactly what the issue is. Other times, the explanation might be vague or simply misunderstood by the employee taking the call. Analytics are designed to remove the confusion from the equation so you know exactly why a customer is unhappy. Speech analytics tools accomplish this by studying the caller’s voice to pinpoint language that indicates displeasure, raised tones and over talk. This enables employees to resolve issues faster and to the caller’s satisfaction. 2. Pinpoint and Resolve Issues That Lead to Inefficiency We live in a world where you have quick and easy access to products and services, which means that callers expect quick resolutions, which lead to better customer experience. Leaving someone on hold for a second longer than necessary could result in a disgruntled customer. Analytics is made to examine holds and long stretches of silence to determine what’s going wrong. Whatever the problem might be, it can be better resolved with the right analytics program. 3. Target Offers to the Right Caller and Customer One size does not fit all. Rather than taking the shotgun approach when it comes to suggesting offers to customers, speech analytics allows you to pinpoint customers who are more likely to respond favorably to specific offers. What happens is analytics can uncover purchasing habits and trends to determine which offers an individual person is most likely to respond to. Now you can better target your marketing and advertising efforts without wasting time, resources or energy. 4. Better Call Center Agents Make for Happier Customers Analytics is just as beneficial for call center agents as it is for callers. Managers are able to listen in on agents to see how well they adhere to any mandatory scripting, company policy or standards they should follow. The data gathered through analytics can be used to better train current as well as future call center agents, making them more effective and confident in their jobs. 5. Keep Customers Coming Back When customers feel they are not being well taken care of, they are likely to take their business elsewhere. The data gathered by analytics can be used to better satisfy customers and keep them coming back to your company, boosting overall loyalty. Something else to think about is the fact that satisfied customers are more likely to tell other people about your company, which can bring in new business and even more satisfied customers. Speech analytics can provide a huge boost to your business. Be sure you have a solid plan of action for your software and ensure you are using the tool to its full potential.

Improving Contact Center Operation With Speech Analytics

Contact centers are very busy places and agents have to work hard to address all customer concerns as they arise. While some concerns can be addressed in fairly short order, some situations involve the need for more in-depth problem solving; at times, more experienced agents or managers may need to take over the resolution process in order for circumstances to be fully resolved. The things that customers say during these interactions and in the steps leading up to call center interaction can be regarded as a valuable source of data regarding customer opinion about an organization. Speech analytics is a practice that looks at this data systematically in order to learn how customers feel about an organization. Gauging customer attitude about companies and brands helps leaders assess if various outreach and marketing strategies have been effective; within the contact center itself, judging customer attitude and desires can help make the entire process of speaking with an agent much more effective. Streamlining the Handling of Inbound Calls Initiating various contact center protocols can be surprisingly difficult, which leaves customers having to reiterate their concerns to a series of agents before they finally speak with someone that is capable of helping them. Each time the steps are repeated the customer will get increasingly impatient with the company – this is especially true when customers are dissatisfied in the first place. Speech analytics can be used to streamline this entire process and connect customers to the appropriate agents with less delay. This saves considerable time on the customer’s part. Agents whose efforts are a better fit for resolving other concerns can focus their attention on other calls, while customers in need of particular attention can be routed directly to relevant personnel. Obtaining an Accurate View of Brand Opinion Customer attitude about a company and the brand that represents it can change for many reasons. Quality assurance agents, as well as employees that oversee contact center operations, have to stay informed of emerging trends related to the perception of a brand and customer opinion of a company. There are many reasons why this is so important; for instance: Recent product or service overhauls can result in short-term souring of public opinion The introduction of a new website or new online services might be positive, but require intensive guidance until users gain comfort Consumer behavior and attitudes particular to identified demographics can be precisely assessed The large-scale effect of brand image improvement can be assessed Dips in opinion can signal the need for new outreach and marketing strategy deployment Although the information provided by the analytical systems deployed in your contact center may not appear to mean much in isolation, insightful quality assurance and customer experience administrators will be able to see how the data can be applied to the development of new strategies. Leveraging the Customer as a Source of Information Once you think about it, it is pretty easy to see how the customer is a source of a great deal of information about your company. The opinions and feelings that your customers have about your organization and its products can be used to refine the customer experience while also guiding the development of more effective outreach techniques. Speech analytics can play an important role in the achievement of these and other goals. This blog was first published on LinkedIn.

7 Secrets to Employee Happiness and Satisfaction

Let employees Have More Control “Happiness is affected by employee’s sense of control over their lives,” says Rubin. Call center owners have to look for ways to give contact center agents more control over their schedules, work environment, and work behavior. For example, employers could present different work schedules similar to flextime or telecommuting. Nowadays, contact center agents have cumbersome schedules after work, and lots of employees respect a boss who considers work-life balance. Every man or woman’s tasks outside of work are not the same; therefore, personalized schedules are an exceptional way to enhance employee satisfaction. Employers must additionally encourage contact center agents to personalize their workstations. They can incorporate décor and equipment. This not only offers staff more control over their work environment; however, it can also abate personal limitations like back pain or eyestrain. Also, reports exhibit that specific colors or décor can reinforce happiness. Employees will likely be able to create a position they revel in working in alternatively than being caught in an unpleasant work cubicle. A different option to give employees a sense of control is to effect employee-driven competitions like customer satisfaction competitions. These events put the contact center agents in control of their success. Each and every employee can set individual ambitions, and they are going to feel a sense of achievement rather than duty. Goals Call center owners with apparently outlined goals should permit each employee to connect what they do to the objectives of the call center, giving them a sense of achievement and motive. Having a clear path and inkling to what has to be finished by each employee and collaboratively as a team, sets employees up for achievement. When all contact center agents are completely happy to come to work each day, they take delight in the work they’re doing, the call centers they represent and the staff around them, for this reason, are influenced to place their best foot ahead. Encourage with the use of incentives Having a bit healthy competition is nothing bad. Competition keeps contact center agents on their toes, and in the process making the work day enjoyable and upbeat. You don’t want something too dramatic or whatever that might evoke a lot jealousy. If cash prizes aren’t the correct fit for your work place, you could offer a gift card or a work-from-home day as an alternative. Place the competition itself on anything regarding work. It might be about who receives the most positive reviews from callers or who helped the most customers on the telephone that month. No matter what the contest might be about, make it an ongoing occasion so that it acquires momentum and contact center agents are prompted to work harder to win the prize. If one prize isn’t working, then you could constantly check out other prizes. Positivity To get the advantages of pleasant contact center agents, employers must keep things positive and fun at work. Not every agent is going to be delighted daily, but have you heard the old saying, “fake it until you make it?” Well, this applies to a positive behavior too. Immediately you and your employees get in the habit of making every day positive, you’ll start to discover how little matters does not drag the whole team down again and the spirit of the team is heightened. Encourage Social Connections Socialization is a key aspect of happiness. “Interacting with others gives people a boost in mood – surprisingly, this is true even for introverts,” – Rubin. Employers must find approaches to encourage social relations amongst their contact center agents. Make use of office arrangement that promotes communication. Organize workstations so contact center agents can see each other and interact. Employers should also encourage office celebrations for vacations and birthdays. These celebrations don’t have luxurious. It can be as simple as asking everybody to bring in a covered dish. Even when there’s no motive to rejoice, encourage workers to eat lunch together. Provide a comfy eating area. Socialization shouldn’t be restrained to office hours. Motivate out of work environment socialization example; volunteer packages. This gives contact center agents an opportunity to develop relationships outside of work environment and at the same time promoting the call center in a good way. Community service is an excellent way to get a positive reputation, and it’s serves as a boost for employee satisfaction. “Those who work to further causes they value tend to be happier and healthier, experience fewer aches and pains, and even live longer,” says Rubin. Encourage Good Health Bad health isn’t only harmful to staff, it’s damaging to corporations. “Businesses pay a substantial rate for stress-related sicknesses, like hypertension, gastrointestinal problems, and substance abuse,” says Rubin. “Up to 90% of all doctor visits in the United States are for stress-related illnesses,” according to Dr. Mehet Oz of the Dr. Oz Show. Acute stress has several side effects like weight gain, reduced immune system, accelerated risk of sickness, and fatigue. Employers should inspire contact center agents to diminish stress phases and fortify their overall well being. The first step is to coach employees on health matters is to provide reading materials or give seminars. People cannot make positive alterations if they don’t know what to alter. Once employees learn about health issues like stress, exercising, and healthy consumption, starts a health related competition like the Biggest Loser. This presents staff motivation and a support process. If the entire work environment is involved, employees will more seemingly to achieve their targets. To support contact center agents make positive lifestyle alterations, have a kitchen prepared with a fridge and microwave to organize healthy meals. Research suggests that preparing meals is better than eating out. Also, motivate breaks for the duration of the day. Even small amounts of recreation throughout the day are necessary. In line with Dr. Oz, “Exercise releases serotonin and dopamine, the feel-good hormones that become blocked during stress. Walking stairs is a great workout. One study showed that walking stairs 7

How to Improve Customer Experience Through Effective Quality Monitoring

Companies are always looking for effective and cost-efficient ways to improve their bottom line, and one of the best ways to do that is by improving the customer experience. After all, it does not make much sense to offer the best products or services in your industry if your customers are not happy. Focusing more on quality assurance through quality monitoring can both help improve your customer experience and gather feedback to improve your products and services. The Facts Let’s look at some of the facts and figures associated with the current state of customer service. Research has shown that roughly 20 percent of consumers place price over customer service, nearly 40 percent of consumers do not reach out to the companies they do business with, and customers who do reach out don’t do so very often. What this data shows is that a majority of shoppers are willing to pay more for a product if the company is known for having great customer service. This means that a company should make sure their customer service is of the same caliber as the prices they’re asking for their services or products. If customers spend top dollar on an expensive product but have trouble getting in touch with someone who can answer a simple question, they’re unlikely to continue to do business with that company. Moreover, those individuals are likely to leave bad reviews and share their experiences on social media, which can cost the company future business. When consumers are not reaching out to companies, part of the reason might be that they have had poor customer service experiences in the past. Companies have an opportunity to set the bar for customer service and change consumers’ minds about what excellent customer service is, which can make customers more willing to reach out to them in the future if they ever have questions or concerns. In order to understand what works with their customers, companies need to assume a proactive role in discovering what their customers are saying by monitoring those interactions for quality assurance. How Monitoring Solutions Work The central purpose of quality assurance is to gauge representative performance and determine Key Performance Indicator (KPI) or Key Success Indicators (KSI) metrics. These metrics help companies develop their definition of success and keep track of the behaviors that support that definition. One of the most essential things to bear in mind when it comes to KPI and KSI is that the metrics differ from company to company. When cultivating indicator measurements, the monitoring solution gathers information such as the following: How many calls the customer service team or call center receives. The length of time it takes for representatives to answer calls. The number of customers pleased with the services they received. Even though customer service agents can potentially gather this information on their own, companies might prefer to implement software instead. The results are more accurate, easier to organize, more complete and free of personal opinion, which can skew the results. The results provided by software let companies know where they’re doing well in terms of customer services, which areas need improvement and whether there are potential opportunities of which they may not be aware. Properly Utilizing KPI and KSI Metrics To leverage the data generated by quality monitoring solutions, it’s not enough that you simply gather information; you have to know how to effectively use the data and engage your company hierarchy in the process. In addition to sharing data with managers and department heads, front-line employees should also be included. Customer service agents are critical to the customer experience, so they need to understand the rationale behind putting new technology in place. Knowing you’re taking steps to make their jobs easier and giving them the tools they need can enhance their employee satisfaction levels and they may also have suggestions of their own about improving customer service. Share the results of metrics both on an individual customer service agent level and on a team level. You can also use the results of the metrics and monitoring solution in future company decisions. For instance, the gathered data can help you decide which changes to your customer service department will be the most effective, and the metrics may even help with your next marketing campaign. Additional Steps for Effective Customer Service Improvement While using monitoring solutions is a great first step in making your customer service capabilities stronger, it’s only part of the equation. As you’re gathering, sharing and implementing data, be sure you ask customers and callers how they feel about your company’s customer service capabilities and alignment with promises made in your marketing or advertising. You might already know how difficult it can be to keep callers on the line, so give them a good reason to stick around such as a discount or a free service or product in exchange for their participation. In addition to monitoring phone calls, it’s also best to monitor all other forms of customer communication. This is an especially good idea since a majority of today’s consumers prefer not to communicate over the phone. Gather data from live chat and email correspondences to discover valuable information, such as customer pain points. These pain points indicate the issues customers have with your products, services and your company in general. Customers may not call or communicate with you to specifically discuss these pain points but they can be elicited naturally in a conversation and rather than brush the matter off, you can use it as an opportunity to make your company and customer service better. Customers will appreciate the fact that you actually listen to them, and your customer service representatives will be pleased that the issues are being resolved such that they will not have to hear the same pain point over and over. There are always opportunities for your customer service agents to improve, and KPI metrics create an excellent baseline. You can look at

How Human Touch Improves Automated Quality Assurance Process?

All contact center operations have the aim of providing excellent customer service. After all, that is their reason for existing. However, the definition of what constitutes great customer service can vary significantly between companies, and can certainly affect their level of customer satisfaction. In many organizations, the responsibility of defining the behaviors that describe excellent service falls on the Quality Assurance group(QA). The Q.A team has the unenviable task of monitoring and analyzing the interactions of agents and customers with the purpose of providing feedback to the employees. This task is challenging because aside from the job’s monotony, no one likes to have their work “criticized”. Nevertheless, the quality assurance effort, when properly structured, can serve as the first line of defense against poor service and can also be a valuable source of information for contact center managers. Your customers have the choice to switch among various choices. They can move far from your brand, your products, and services in a matter of moments. They don’t have anything to lose. You do. As indicated by recent market studies, it requires 70% more work to produce another client, over holding an old one. The opposition is so steep and merciless, that one terrible move or a little carelessness can prompt to extreme ruin in the insights of your client base. So how would you guarantee this does not occur? What gives you the certainty that you will your current customer base while building another storehouse of prospects? The General achievement rate of your business is straightforwardly relative to the quantity of satisfied customers you have and you can accomplish growth if your call center follows proven quality assurance practices. Your customers should be dealt with like sovereignties. Your activities, customer service skills,approach, and their general service experience ought to make that evident to them, with the goal that they don’t consider exchanging brands. How to improve automated quality assurance process? 1. A Quality Assurance Officer An expert can streamline numerous strategies for you to guarantee that your call center quality assurance best practices are precisely what your customers are anticipating. 2. Performance Checks Visibility equals accountability. It is imperative that you keep agents informed of their quality assurance best environment for a great customer experience. Quality is not a score, it’s a behavior so being congnicent of performance is critical to gaining and maintaining great performance. 3. Call & Chat Monitoring Regardless of how much I say this, I can’t highlight the significance of this point enough. This is the thing that will give you real at-work performance checking parameters and genuine measurements about the competency level of your agents. 4. Call & Chat Barging Take control of the situation exactly when your customers (and agent) needs it the most. A productive and proactive approach is by call/chat barging and providing point by point input. Barging empowers immediate coaching and provides specific examples for agents to follow in the future. Customers feel nurtured and significant if an interaction in intercepted and handled at a higher level. 5. Customer Feedback No customer would superfluously give you a negative feedback if everything has been done to make him feel important. Feedback is a gift – listen carefully to your customers and map back to the core issue. It is critical that you incorporate customer studies along with analytics around VOC feedback to develop solutions that reduce customer effort and increase customer satisfaction. 6. Live Coaching When training new agents, rather than giving them hypothetical lessons and workshops, it would be more valuable for them to learn through at work demos and trainings. Connect with them in live discussions, live calls, call sessions, and environment observation. This will support their confidence and accelerate their learning. 7. Training Programs In the event tha you don’t consistently stay aware of innovative advances, odds are that your customers will begin searching for another option. To keep your call center agents in-tune with new programming, CRM overhauls, and the constant evolution of technology, you have to include them in trainings and keep their knowledge fresh. Effective training programs combine traditional classroom type learning with gamification and real-time support and reinforcement of learning. 8. Impetus Structure Through intelligent structure of data, including voice of customer feedback, you can replicate the most successful behaviors of your best performing reps. Play their calls for different agents on the floor and fuse successful behaviors. Peer coaching is a great motivation structure, which can be founded on the performance. The positive trickle down effect is that your agents get inspired and motivated by each other, which in turn is translated into positive customer experience and sentiment drivers. Establish a “Wow Factor” call library with exemplary interactions that can be used to propel others and act as a reward system for positive behavior. 9. Get your Scripts Right It is vital that your call agents sound confident and appear to know it all. All positive customer experience is driven more by agent confidence and ownership of a solution than any other factor. Your customers can have a flexible scope of inquiries, so empower your agents with effective scripting and resolution procedures.

Harness the Power of Positive Thinking

It is imperative for every leader to be a positive influencer. If you are irritable, irked, or downright fed up with the world around you, you radiate it out to the world. You radiate it out to the people who look up to you, people who work with you, and every life you touch even outside the workplace. Studies on positive thinking share a common theme: optimism can have profound effects on a person’s physical and mental health and the people around them. The mere act of expecting positive outcomes and being hopeful can boost a person’s immune system, protect against harmful behaviors, and help people unwire day to day anxiety. Optimism can even lead to a longer life. The psychology of team dynamics fascinates me. You might not categorize yourself as someone who can influence the team, but every cog in your machine is making an impact. Each and everyone one of us influences each other even when are not aware that it is happening. Positive thinking can be contagious and transform the environment around us, but the real challenge is in the execution. I have often been asked, “How can I remain positive when others around me are so negative? How can I influence others to engage in positive thinking?” From the literature I have read and personal experience with my teams, here are some strategies that should be helpful for growing positive energy with your team and boosting productivity. 1. Self-Awareness is Key: It all starts with being self-aware. Even if you read every piece of self-help literature out there, it’s all in vain if you don’t admit that there is room for improvement. Look around you. Do you see gossiping about colleagues, complaining about compensation packages, or predictions of failure? All of this contributes to an unhealthy environment. 2. Get Rid of the Negativity Around You: We all want to live a positive life, but there are always negative influences around us and you can begin to internalize toxic thoughts from others. Those “friends” or colleagues who claim to be looking out for you may be just trying to figure out a way to look down at you. You need to get rid of them before their opinion starts affecting your life. Complaining is the favorite past time of some people and you need to avoid them. 3. Choose the Right Company for You: I love working with and being in the company of positive people. Their influence is contagious, and I always feel better after interacting with them. You know you can’t always control what’s going on around you, but you can control your own reaction in any situation. Being happy is a choice you can make and it becomes easier when you surround yourself with other positive thinkers. 4. Find your Positivity Triggers and Commit to them: You can never have enough positive influence in your life! For some of us, Self-talk and right company just isn’t enough. We have an arsenal of triggers we utilize from time to time to help bring us back to our positive self. You may love music or books, so when you listen to a favorite song or read a good book, it can change your attitude. Happiness is a mindset; commit to it. Be a lifelong learner and ensure a part of that learning is focused on creating a positive environment for yourself and others. 5. Make Lifestyle Changes: Give yourself permission to take pride in you. It’s easy to get into bad habits that end up ruling you but learn to observe and manage your addictions Start with eating healthy, change your relationship with soda, go on a technology detox, drink a lot of water, exercise, and stop smoking! Express yourself, whether it’s through art, music, writing, or dance. Find something you enjoy and cultivate it. Nurture that fire in your soul. 6. Believe in God and be Spiritual: Pray, meditate, have a conversation, seek Him. We live in a fallen world, but God has created each of us for His purpose. The closer you draw to Him, the clearer His purpose for your life becomes. There is nothing more positive that I have experienced in my life then when I finally realized and accepted the fact that God had a purpose for me. Always be approachable and reliable. There is no greater reward that I have ever experienced than helping someone in need. As you incorporate the 6 strategies above into your own life, you will want to share your new found positive thinking with others. Serve them well and always remember: It’s a work in progress.

Top 5 Benefits of Speech Analytics to Make Your Brand Shine

Understanding why customers call and continue to call is actionable intelligence. It identifies the reasons behind behavior, and enables managers to take action that improve first-time call resolution. The same principle applies to customer attrition. Actionable steps can anticipate the causes of customer abandonment and provide them with valid reasons to return. Call center speech analytics is a valuable tool that for boosting customer satisfaction rates and improving the contribution to the organization’s success. The top five benefits of speech analytics include: Improving the consumer experience. Enhancing the consumer experience is a primary reason companies use call center speech analytics. Speech analytics software mines and analyzes audio data to detect elements such as stress and emotion in a customer’s voice. It also helps determine the purpose of the call, the products discussed, and more. Users can identify the needs, wants, and expectations quickly and work with the customer to satisfy them. Reducing operating expenses and increasing profitability. Speech analytics pays for itself in as little as three to six months by reducing call center costs and detecting cost savings. The technique circumvents extra expenses while generating incremental income. However, it requires a significant investment in resources and time up front to calibrate a speech analytics application successfully for a particular site. Monitoring and coaching call center agents to increase service quality. Call center speech analytics software enables managers to monitor agents and customers simultaneously to ensure that the agents adhere to scripts and meet regulatory requirements. Speech analytics technology is also valuable for helping agents improve call resolutions and reduce call volume. Operational and performance issues can be addressed and handled, resulting in overall enhanced service quality. Decreasing customer attrition. Many businesses notice a decline in customer attrition rates after implementing speech analytics. It can help companies identify the reasons customers leave, providing opportunities to make the changes necessary to ensure customers return. For instance, enhanced service quality results in improved customer satisfaction and experiences, giving consumers less reasons to leave. Identifying up- and cross-sell opportunities to boost revenue. Sales organizations can also benefit from speech analytics technology through the identification of up- and cross-sell opportunities, resulting in increased sales conversation rates. Sales managers can also analyze the data to determine the impact of a particular up- or cross-sell on a customer’s level of satisfaction, and identify offer response rates across various customer demographics. Real-time speech analytics applications can create personalized up- and cross-sell opportunities to satisfy a consumer’s distinct requirements. They can also track the effectiveness of marketing campaigns. Call center speech analytics drive quality monitoring and provide a unique perspective of the effectiveness of internal processes. It is a valuable technique to produce key performance indicators for comparing how different agents deal with various call types, allowing managers to focus their coaching efforts on real-time insight. The result is increased productivity and alignment of skill sets to consumer needs. Overall, call center speech analytics enable businesses to manage marketing campaign planning and deployment with extensive customer insight to enhance the effectiveness of their bottom line. This blog was first published on LinkedIn.

5 Pillars of a successful team

Starting something new, taking on new challenges or implementing changes is not always easy, and there are always reasons to avoid doing so, but opportunities may not be around forever. We must focus on the things we are able to control and make a remarkable difference that our customers, our team, and our communities expect. The key is TEAMWORK. It is said that “Teamwork is the fuel that allows common people to obtain uncommon results.” Teamwork is the key component that will enable us to take tremendous strides. Success doesn’t happen by chance. Great teams succeed because they care. They care about their goal, they stand united in the face of adversity, they challenge the conventional perception of the possibility, and they work for a purpose and prevail against all odds. A purpose they all care about with people they all care about. And that is the secret to a great team. They achieve greatness by working towards it together. Caring about each other is the fuel that allows ordinary looking people achieve not so ordinary feats. Over the years, I have had the opportunity to be a part of both successful and unsuccessful teams. What I have observed is that there are 5 common characteristics successful teams share. Purpose: Great teams succeed because they are all driven to a common purpose. Great teams understand their goal clearly, and they know which path to take to reach there. It’s a leader’s job to ensure that each and every member of their team understands the big picture, where they fit into it, and the impact of their performance on the overall objective. Every member of that team works in tandem towards their own and in turn the company’s success because they understand it is but one single goal. Happiness: A survey from PGI (Premiere Global Services, Inc*1) states that there are 80 Million Millennial in the workforce currently, and 88% of them want workplace to be a fun place. People are more productive when they are happy. It motivates them to turn up to work every morning and work as a team. Google has revolutionized the Human Resource “People Operations” industry by simply using data to find different ways to keep their employees happy. Have you created an atmosphere where your team members can have fun together and collaborate easily? The Ownership: When we feel that we belong, we have a sense of ownership in the team. Great teams have member who trust in each other which in turn helps increase team’s efficiency. Transparency helps them develop trust and camaraderie. They inspire each other and commit to the team. Either your team members are committed to the team or they are not: there is no in-between. Success: Job satisfaction and performance skyrocket when a team understands the progress they are making. Understanding that you’re on the path to victory is the biggest motivator. It is the idea of making progress towards a common goal that shapes how we feel about the work we do. When a success is celebrated, everyone in your team is reminded that they have the ability to reach a common goal, and it builds a momentum for you and your team. Resolve Conflicts: Contrary to the popular belief, great teams are not the ones where the members always agree with each other. Healthy debates and heated arguments are often part of the discussions. The secret is that they are more comfortable and likely to disagree or challenge each other and reach a conclusion. They discuss issues out in open and often tend to reach an agreeable solution. They are family, and they tackle the issues as a family. They fight but the fights tend to end with a resolution, and the world outside never knows what happened. The truth is that a great team is a lot more than just a combination of these 5 traits. It’s a sum of it all. Teamwork is one constant which transcends across the industry and all types of businesses. It does not matter if you just a start up or a billion dollar conglomerate, team work has the power to transform the way you do business. As you develop and strengthen the teams within your organization, you will be able to hear the positive impact resonate through the organization.

Artificial Intelligence: Behind-the-scenes tool to improve Customer Experience

Since its initiation, Artificial intelligence (AI) has grown by leaps and bounds. From getting used to simply gather information and predict effects, it’s now being utilized by companies as a major technology to create present day solutions throughout a variety of services. There has been a consistent increment in the amount of ‘Robots’ that can mimic cognitive services of the human mind, corresponding to situation-solving and responding to normal languages. Powered by developed Artificial Intelligence (AI), these machines at the moment are going prevalent. To meet up with the technologically-driven industry landscape, ultra-modern corporations are looking to leverage them into more than a few productive roles, specifically to handle the customers’ queries. The large amount of data we generate is a compounds blessing. It offers us better insight into human habits, but it’s additionally a lot more stuff to sort. For assisting us sort through our data, and make best use of it, we’ll turn to AI (artificial intelligence) for things as challenging as navigating the call center to simply deciding what the doggone temperature is outside. Artificial intelligence in the call center has become much more important in the last few years, leveraging tremendous data sets and predictive analytics for computerized, personalized customer service and on-demand agent coaching based on reporting. However, with great power comes great responsibility. Leverage user models to create an extraordinary customer experience User models, analysed from customer metric data, provide a detailed window into the service you render. These models can be utilized to create private experiences for customers of a call center. First, call centers have to accumulate this information through an analytics tool. Development teams can send consumer habits data from Mixpanel through an API. As soon as information has been gathered, the data can be fed to an algorithm to discern patterns depending on time-of-day, rate-of-rise/decline, or how the information correlates with other behaviours on the platform. The output of the algorithms can additionally loop back into how pages are provided to customers. A call center could improve customer experience by means of analysing what questions and response customers give simply before they come to a decision. Artificial Intelligence streamlines the process Customer Interaction simply entails making knowledge available to customers at their fingertips without asking them to move through hoops or several steps. We base it on what we already know about customers, and just like that! They get the super-targeted info. Actually, it is just making information available to customers in new approaches, lowering the hurdles that customers have to go through to get to the information. It can be as easy as what we learn from you, but additionally the trends that we get from other buyers like you. This exponentially improves customer experience. Artificial Intelligence for Customer Interactions Artificial intelligence is an amazing tool, and it’s going to evolve with time. Nevertheless, exclusively relying on AI to manage crucial sections of a call center, like customer interactions, could spell catastrophe. With the advance of channels that create connectivity and openness, customers are important to call centers stability and thus must be handled as such. Call centers can’t afford to make errors when interacting with them. In order to avert customer frustration as a result of lack of ability to resolve a setback efficiently in a customer’s channel of alternative, automatic processes must consistently exist in collaboration with human interaction. Customers are far too valuable to be handled alone by totally automated systems. Let’s face it; even some people have a tough time interacting with other humans well, typically due to a lack of emotional intelligence. Due to all those reasons, it will be irrational to anticipate an artificial intelligence system to execute and handle a customer interaction at a 100% satisfaction phases. However, with continuous advancement on this area and with suitable utilization, AI could aid call centers enhance their relationship with customers and take it to a higher level. I’m certain that as millennials strive for intelligent self-service and call centers seek automation, AI will continue to create a buzz in scientific circles in the future years. Personalised strategies The intention of the continuous study in Artificial Intelligence is to incorporate the advanced aspects like reasoning, conversation, perception and the ability to move and manipulate objects. When consumers can communicate with those intelligent systems, the interactions would have a couple of different results. Utilizing the information amassed from such communications between their AI systems and customers, call centers can customize the customer experience for every user. A call center can use the data to investigate the unique perception of a user after which the results can be used to build personalised options around his/her preferences. When promoted with right illustration, the customer tends to go for them and it might also help the call center increase its customer experience. AI-assisted Speech Recognition AI-aided speech recognition helps enhance customer experience. Key phrases can be noticed to set off service enhancements. The word “supervisor,” for example, would alert a supervisor to join a call and alleviate any problems with a customer. Systems can also be programmed to pay attention for competitor mentions. Financial institutions are experiencing same growth. Take a customer who typically calls the bank every Fridays to know her account balance. Utilizing AI, the bank possesses the intelligence to send the customer an automated message with her bank balance before the customer picks up the cellphone. By spotting behaviours and interaction patterns, a call center can decide upon the best channel for relating with customers. Not every customer requires a prolonged and private telephone call. Contacting via email or leaving an automated voicemail can be just as efficient in terms of customer satisfaction and is way less expensive than a live agent telephone call. It merely requires a figuring out of what each client prefers based on gathered data and demographics.

Artificial Intelligence: A Boon to Improve Customer Experience

Artificial intelligence has been around for a while, and while some wholeheartedly embrace the idea, others are wary of using what is portrayed to be a “robot” in any customer experience. When many think of AI, they think of conversationalist robots, while the truth is that AI has evolved into software programs that can be seamlessly integrated into current programs and become a huge asset to their human colleagues. AI is more than just a programmed bot that can answer the same questions that are included on a company’s FAQ page, and actually has many valuable applications in the business world and more specifically, in the form of customer support. Once companies understand the basics behind artificial intelligence and the benefits of speech analytics, the investment is more attractive and practical to improve customer service in all areas. Why Is Customer Service Important? All companies recognize that good customer service is essential to staying in business, building a brand and gaining the trust of consumers that love your products and services, but many fail to understand WHY customer service is so important. It’s just an assumed fact, but doing the research into why it is so important can help us better understand how artificial intelligence and quality monitoring with speech analytics can improve the experience. Estimates suggest that poor customer service may cost companies in the United States up to 41 billion dollars in revenue each year. AI is intended as a solution to that problem and to give your business the cutting edge to stay ahead of the competition and to cut that revenue loss as much as possible. Studies show that almost 90% of customers become frustrated when they have to repeat their problems and issues to more than one representative. This number highlights the fact that good customer service is more than a bonus for your business. It’s a necessity. A poll completed in 2015 of over 2,000 adults in the United States showed that customers are willing to pay more for a product or service when the customer service experience is pleasant. Close to 86% of them said bad customer service encourages them to switch brands. This shows that good service is vital to consumers, and getting an edge on your competition with better service builds trust in your brand and products. Companies often struggle to find the line between being more efficient at answering calls and resolving problems and keeping customers happy. Consumer issues can take up quite a bit of time for an agent even as the company is pushing for faster resolutions that encourage agents to get off the call as quickly as possible. At the end of the day, your customers need to feel as if their opinions are the most valued thing in your company, and artificial intelligence can help. AI provides faster results and resolutions to issues that commonly plague customers. It can improve the efficiency of employees, create better outcomes customized to fit any client’s problem, reduce call center costs and perform large tasks that would be impossible for a human to complete in the same amount of time. AI is important for more than just chat, and can create a positive experience for every customer that works with your company. To put it in perspective, realize that most Americans currently use some form of artificial intelligence in their everyday lives. With smartphones and tablets, most turn to assistants like Cortana and Siri to get directions, ask questions and resolve problems. As AI becomes more integrated into our day to day lives, experts expect that in a short five years, customers will only interact with a human from a company 15% of the time. The other 85% of the experience will be done with some form of artificial intelligence. Recent Experiences With AI Developers work tirelessly to create an AI system that works with every company in a convenient way, with the ultimate goal being to make life and work easier for everyone. Examples of using AI include Google, who improved their voice recognition technology from 84% to 98% in just two years. IBM’s Watson was released in 2011, and is now 2400% smarter than it was at its release date. Tens of millions of online searches are done each month through voice recognition systems. Every advancement brings AI closer to being profitable and applicable to businesses of all sizes. Some companies have already invested in the technology and reaping the rewards for doing so. Digital Genius: Mikhail Naumov, the chief strategy officer of Digital Genius, says that the company better automates their chat software with a deep learning algorithm. This has been done in two different ways. Historical chats – AI systems are better trained with the help of historical chat logs. Benefits include more accurate responses and more time for customer service agents to handle complex issues that an AI is unable to solve. Naumov believes that because customer service is so repetitive, historical transcripts hold goldmines that are underused. Fact data – The nature of the industry Digital Genius functions in has solid parameters regarding the amount of solutions for a set amount of problems. This makes AI programs much easier for this type of business, rather than business development or marketing, where there are many paths and possibilities that lead to solutions. Inbenta – Inbenta approached AI from the direction that customer service questions come when customers can’t find answers to important questions on a website. Search engines can be mildly misleading and send the customer to a page with no valid information for them. This turns into a phone call to a customer service representative that takes up time and valuable resources. Natural language – To deal with this issue, the company developed “Natural Language Processing” that is a form of AI that focuses more on what the customers means in a query rather than exactly what they type. Bulk email response – Inbenta has also solved the problem of excessive emails that

Jamaica: An Emerging Contact Center Outsourcing Mecca

If you are looking to boost the communication capabilities of your business, Jamaica is a hotspot for contact center outsourcing. Generally speaking, BPO in Jamaica is well known among business owners, but some are not aware of the IT and QA specific benefits. Learn why Jamaica should be one of your top choices for outsourcing your call center processes. Highly Educated Consultants Many IT professionals are coming out of Jamaica’s University of Technology (UTEC). UTEC is a hotbed for technology and innovation. Students come out of the university looking for internships, subcontracting jobs, and full-time jobs in quality assurance. UETC’s computer science program prepares students for work upon graduation. With the amount of passionate and dedicated professionals in Jamaica who are proficient in the latest technologies, growing your workforce through a Jamaica call center can give you the help you need. Why Jamaica is Unique There are plenty of advantages for US companies utilizing BPO in Jamaica. For one, the island shares time zones with the US. Jamaica is on the eastern time zone for 6 months and central time zone for the other 6 months. It is also the biggest English-speaking nation outside of the US. There are many short and direct flights from major US cities to Jamaica. These unique attributes of Jamaica make it the perfect place for US companies to work in synergy with Jamaican professionals. Having a call center with a shared time zone and language makes business convenient. Growing Infrastructure The Jamaican government has made tremendous improvements in its ability to meet BPO needs. With high bandwidth and connectivity, you can rely on a Jamaica call center to handle your business transactions. While some improvements still need to be made in terms of the technology sector, call centers and BPO in Jamaica are a priority for both business and government. How the Government Helps The new government in Jamaica has a board of technology professionals with oversight by a Minister of Technology. Jamaica is serious about growing its technological innovation and attracting international businesses. It is a fertile environment for businesses looking to expand their call center operations. The Big Trends The Jamaican IT industry is seeing a big push towards Javascript developers. Jamaican IT professionals are up to speed on the latest advancements in coding and are constantly adapting to new waves of innovation. In fact, Jamaica is seen as the Silicon Island. Technology advancements and game-changing professionals are proving that the country is fully capable of providing dependable call centers and IT capabilities. Outsourcing certain business practices can prove to be beneficial in various ways. Outsourcing to a Jamaica call center can strengthen your ROI and enhance your customer experience. Jamaica’s convenient near-shore location, shared time zone, and large English-speaking population make it a convenient choice for the BPO industry. You don’t have to worry about trusting your customers to people who do not speak English or are not aware of the latest technological advancements. Jamaica is full of experienced professionals and newly graduated computer science students who are eager to help. Consider Jamaica for your contact center outsourcing.

Why Speech Analytics is a Revolutionary Factor for Contact Center Quality Monitoring

Objectivity Contact center reliability in terms of delivering the value promised to customers depends largely on the performance of individual employees. Thus, in order to ensure that optimal effort is given on each and every call, management teams are required to implement contact center quality monitoring (QM). In most cases, this task is performed by a dedicated QM staff whose goal it is to ensure that required procedures are met while also conveying the messages and tones unique to each client. While QM focuses on assessing and improving an employee’s individual skills, its general purpose is two-fold: to meet the performance demands of contact center clients while also ensuring that operations remain compliant with industry standards. Manual Monitoring – An Inherently Challenging Process Typically, the QM process at most call centers involves an individual agent (be it a manager, supervisor or dedicated QM analyst) listening to individual calls and grading out an employee’s performance. After each assessment the results must then be shared through the appropriate channels, beginning with supervisors or shift managers and then with the individual employees themselves. These individual one-on-one sessions between employee and analyst or supervisor and analyst are essential in order to identify areas that need improvement. Finally, follow-up evaluations are required in order to ensure that education has been effective at helping employees improve the customer experience on his or her calls. While QM efforts are vital for improving contact center performance, the aforementioned process carries with it a number of inherent inefficiencies. These include: Resource management: Managing QM can force executive teams to walk a tight line between meeting the demands of client output and improving processes and performance. When developing a QM strategy, many often first look to supervisors and managers to perform these tasks. While their familiarity with the skills and weaknesses of their individual team members may offer valuable information to this process, adding QM to their already full schedules often requires asking them to sacrifice time and effort being dedicated to other areas. Oddly enough, the net impact of having supervisors perform QM is often a decrease in overall performance due to less attention being paid to other vital areas of operation. The next solution would then seem to be to create a dedicated QM staff whose workflow would be centered on call evaluations and employee training. This eliminates the need for management to be extensively involved in the QM process and creates a team of subject matter experts that employees may be able to rely upon as a resource. However, it is important to keep in mind that creating such a resource would likely require pulling employees that have demonstrated the highest levels of performance off of the phones in order to effectively perform this function. While the anticipated payoff is that they would then be able to convey their skills on to other employees, the question becomes how long the center would be able to wait for the rest of its staff to replace the newly named QM analysts’ levels of performance? This leads to the final concern that manual QM presents in regards to resource management: time. If a team of supervisors or QM analysts is expected to turn the trends discovered during call evaluations into actionable information that helps employees improve customer engagement, then they need the time to both listen to calls and provide education. While the expectation is already in place, that call monitoring will be a primary function of a QM team, the amount of time needed to follow up with employees and managers if often not accounted for. Once evaluations have been done, the QM team must then pull supervisors away from their regular tasks to share results, and then pull employees off the phone to provide education. For contact centers already straining to deliver optimal output levels, such allocations of time may prove to be too great of a cost. Limited sample sizes: Because the QM process can be so expensive and does require so much time, managers or analysts can only afford to perform their assessments using small sample sizes. In many cases, the actual rate of assessed calls may often represent less than one percent of a contact center’s total output. One has to wonder if such a limited volume is able to produce an accurate depiction of overall employee performance. Employees may argue that judging their capabilities on the phone off of a small random sample of their calls puts them at an inherent disadvantage. Depending upon their specific roles and responsibilities, they may feel more comfortable in certain areas than in others. Thus, while evaluating a call for a client or product with whom they are unfamiliar may serve to highlight their weaknesses, it fails to identify those areas which they may view as their strengths. Along with offering a potentially unbalanced assessment of an employee’s skills (or lack thereof), random call monitoring also may fail to show if employee education has truly taken hold. For example, if an employee were marked for a reassessment after having received training and education, reviewing a call from the week following said training may not show what he or she has learned and implemented than one from two-three weeks later. The trouble is, when pulling random call samples, QM analysts often have little control over the time frames from which their calls come from. One might argue that the solution to the problem of limited sample sizes is simply to increase his or her QM staff. However, wouldn’t such action simply serve as an example of throwing more resources at a process that’s already been proven to be somewhat ineffective? Objectivity: The final challenge that comes with manual QM monitoring is delivering objective results. When preparing the criteria that will be used to assess employee performance, the question has to be asked as to the basis used to develop it. Is it being prepared by upper-level executives based solely off of perceived client expectations, or former

Utilities are Improving Customer Satisfaction Through Proactive Outbound Call Centers

In today’s digital world, customers are not limited in the products they can buy or companies they can choose by demographics alone. With the world available at their fingertips, they can simply choose another company if they don’t like your service or products. This makes customer satisfaction of the utmost importance for every product, and gives an outbound call center a unique opportunity to use outbound calling to enhance customer experience. Take the example of utility and energy companies, as consumers have more choices today than ever. As customers weigh their options, companies realize that customer service may make all the difference between keeping their current customer base or dealing with a mass exodus to another company. Simply put, improving the customer experience can directly affect how every business functions, and outbound calling can be a valuable tool in your arsenal when used correctly. Unprecedented Flexibility When Engaging Customers In the past, call centers have relied heavily on telephone channels and inbound calls to keep customers happy. When a problem arises, the customer calls the center and ideally, the problem is handled. While this is still an important part of a successful customer experience, the new approach must include additional channels rather than a telephone call. Inbound agent can offer a variety of channels through which customers can engage and interact, including: Messaging Video Web chats Telephone Proactive customer service comes into play when an inbound call or connection allows the agent to set up some form of outbound contact at a later time. For example, getting a customer’s birthday information allows you to contact them on a special occasion and create a solid personal connection. Essential Technology Tools Many software applications and programs used to keep customer happy are cloud-reliant and address the lack of capability of premise-based systems to handle the omni-channel approach to call centers. In the case of utility or energy companies, customers may be automatically contacted in special situations like maintenance notifications, service outages, or servicing reminders, keeping a solid outbound connection with the customer. This means that you aren’t only engaging the customer when they have a problem, but proactively engaging them in a way that is positive and helpful. Your customers will build a relationship with your company and your brand when they communicate with you more often. With utility companies, many customers feel positive about the ability to keep track of their energy usage, keeping the planet green, and household expenses. While customer satisfaction levels are climbing, utility companies will create even more efficient outbound opportunities with outbound notifications that are unprecedented. Connection and communication aren’t just about addressing problems or helping customers pay their bills. In today’s world customers want a proactive approach to communication, and software makes it a fairly simple process to give them what they want. Proactive Approach to Customer Service No longer is it okay to just wait for your customers to you. Your company must utilize all the tools available to ensure that you proactively connect with your customers before they have a problem that requires an inbound call. Technology has made it easy to create automated ways to reach out to customers and engage them in positive ways This blog was first published on LinkedIn.

The Effect of Rewarding Talent on Outsourced Call Centers

The BPO industry is known for its high turnover rate, but it doesn’t have to be that way. When contact center outsourcing is done correctly, you can reap the benefits of happy employees and customers. Rewarding talent at your call center goes a long way to improve the overall effectiveness of your business. Start With the Best In order to reward talent, you need to have talented individuals working for you. Your recruitment process needs to be focused on finding the right people for your positions. Look for candidates with excellent sales and customer service skills. Online recruitment portals, internal advertisements, and rigorous training programs can all contribute to adding talented professionals to your team. Having a productive and loyal staff begins with the point of hire. Retaining Excellent Employees Once you have dependable employees, you need to incentivize them to stay. Developing a culture of mentorship, training, and engagement makes employees feel valued and productive. Performance management and compensation packages both play crucial roles in retaining your employees. Situational Leadership Adopting a strategy of situational leadership is a great way to prioritize team building and productivity. The theory of situational leadership is that using various managerial styles according to different people produces better results. There is no one-size-fits-all approach to management. Your BPO staff is a group of diverse people who are motivated by different factors. When you have a people-focused managerial approach, you will get your employees focused on delivering real results. Celebrating Customer-Centric Behavior You want your call center staff to be dedicated to providing solutions to your customers. Rewarding your employees is one important part of building a company culture that values the customer experience. Here are some ways to reward employees: Pay attention to surveys: As you peruse surveys, keep an eye out for whom your customers are praising, but don’t stop there, listen to your employees and find out what drives them. You would be surprised to see some of the little things agents want in terms of rewards. Offer competitive benefits: When you provide employees with great compensation packages, they will be more likely to do excellent work. Give Promotions based on quality not tenure: Giving promotions based on certain qualities versus tenure allows anyone to earn the right to become a leader. Consider rewards other than simple commission payments. Qualifying them for prizes is a creative way to create incentives. When you encourage and effortless customer experience through rewards programs, you will see increased employee loyalty and productivity. Don’t Neglect Your BPO Increasing performance is all about the culture you create at your company. If you neglect the outsourced aspects of your business, you will not reap the full benefits of a motivated workforce. The call centers are full of hardworking professionals who are passionate about quality assurance, customer service, and information technology. Differentiating your company from your competitors starts with the structure and culture of your organization. You need to align your managerial style with the brand that you promise your customers. Your outsourcing destination will only benefit your business if you put in the effort to ensure you have talented employees and you reward that talent. When you have the right employees and implement smart rewards programs, your company will see more productivity and better customer service. This blog was first published on LinkedIn.

Increase Customer Satisfaction With These Positive Words

Using positive words and phrases to connect with a listener is widely accepted as a best practice for professional communication in the customer support industry, and for good reason. When your job is to ensure that customer concerns, conflicts, and problems are resolved in ways that work for both the company and the consumer, they become a key way to put people at ease and let them know that you are working for them. Depending on the context of the situation, different techniques can be used to increase customer satisfaction and improve the overall customer experience. Opening the Call When customers first call in and describe their needs to you, there are a variety of ways that you can let them know you are here to help, even if you don’t have the answer on hand. These phrases serve to both de-escalate any tension the customer feels and also to help you signal to the customer that you might need to gather more information, but in a supportive way. Approaches include: Let’s look at this together. I’d love to assist you with that. That’s a good question… I’d be happy to… Certainly. I’m happy to assist you with that today. Depending on your next step, these techniques can also be used to easily lead customers into the questions you need answered before you can give them more information about their own concerns. They can also give you the time needed to pull up resources, providing a smooth transition into the next phase of the call. Mid-Call Techniques There are a few ways to continue showing positivity and support throughout the middle of the call, depending on the customer’s needs. For those who state very clearly what they want, affirmation works well to increase customer satisfaction. Try a variation on “That’s a good choice,” like the ones below: This is a very popular item. We have had a lot of positive feedback about that item. That is one of our most popular offerings. If you are facing questions and the customer needs assurance, suggestions can often be couched in the form of stories about what other customers have done to be successful, such as: Many of our customers prefer… Other customers in your position have tried… I’m hoping you will enjoy… Closing a Call Making sure that a call ends positively is just as important as making sure that the customer is put at ease in the beginning and then supported throughout their experience. If your goal is to improve customer experience over time, then adopting a few key closers will help. Try variations on “It’s been a pleasure to work with you,” and don’t forget to make sure that you ask if there is anything else they need before you close the call. Variations on that might include: Your satisfaction is our top priority. Is there anything else I can do for you today? I appreciate your patience. Please let me know if I can assist with anything else. Is there anything else you need help with? By letting customers know that you are there until they feel satisfied, you make sure that they have the best possible experience and that they get all their questions answered.

How to Deploy a Foolproof Call-Back Solution

The call back system technology has been around for decades, but it has just started to gain momentum in recent years. More companies are realizing the value in utilizing this system as a call center solution that customers appreciate. Even considering the positive contributions of this system, there are some struggles that should be avoided. Below are a few tips for deploying a foolproof callback solution. Offer it at the Appropriate Time The time at which the call back message is offered plays a significant part in its effectiveness. Research shows that individuals who have been on hold longer are more likely to accept a call back offer. However, it is important to also consider how long the average hold time is. For example, it would not be very effective to introduce the message at two minutes if the average wait time is one and a half minutes. In consideration of those individuals who may decide to “wait it out,” it is a good idea to offer the call back option more than once throughout the hold time. Provide Immediate Service Upon Call Back The whole purpose of the call back for the customer is to reduce their wait time. Therefore, having the customer have to wait once they receive a call back is counterproductive. That is why it is better to have your call back system set up for “agent-wait” rather than “customer-wait.” In the “agent-wait” scenario the agent is on the line as soon as the customer picks up. Employ Call Back Option on the Right Channels There are a number of different call answering systems to choose from, and many of them offer a variety of services. Though these capabilities are available, they are not ideal for all businesses. It is important that you take the time to fully research the different options, their offerings and their effectiveness. This can most likely be evaluated through online reviews or word-of-mouth from other business owners you know. Possibly more important than considering the systems, it is critical that you analyse your customer base and their preferences as well. In any case, you want to make sure that the solution you choose can be easily integrated into your current customer service systems. Maintain Call-Attached Data Collecting and storing call back data can reduce a great deal of confusion and frustration during the call back process. Customers do not like repeating themselves, and having this information stored reduces that need and leads to a quicker resolution processes. Explore All Viable Options Not all call answering services are the same. To ensure that you make the right choice, there are a few things that you should consider. the provider and their additional services the adaptability of the system (for current and future purposes) special call back features past success of the system The right call center solution will help both your customer support team and the customers themselves to have a productive and efficient call. Keep these tips in mind as you consider your next call answering service or improvement options.

How to Optimize Your Tech Support Interactions

The tech support team is an essential element of customer service. As such, it is important that a system is in place to help the support team to provide the greatest quality assistance to customers. Here are four effective tools to optimize tech support interactions. Guided Support Tools Guided support tools help the technician to provide uniformed, effective assistance to customers. They lay out appropriate, customer focused paths of questioning. This not only helps to narrow down the possible issues, but also does so in a manner that is acceptable to most customers. There are a number of programs available that can provide such guided support. Take some time to research the available options and choose the proper solution for your company. Remote Support and Related Services Remote support and other related services can go a long way in reducing the frustration and resolution time associated with addressing complex problems. Even some simple problems can be easily addressed with remote support. Such programs give technicians direct access to the customers’ systems. This allows them to directly see what the customer is experiencing, and many times troubleshoot and even resolve the issues without being in the presence of the customer. Not only does this help to make the client happy by having their problem fixed quickly, but it also helps the technician not have to depend on verbal clues to pinpoint an issue. Therefore, these services are beneficial all around. Self-Service Tools Self-service tools have grown in popularity because customers seem to prefer addressing issues themselves. In fact, research has shown that even when individuals reach out to professionals, many prefer to be guided in the right direction and then left to complete the process themselves. This creates a win-win situation; clients gain solutions to their problems and technicians spend less time addressing simple issues. However, in order for this to occur, the appropriate self-service tools must be in place. The tech support setup must include simple, easily-accessible information in regards to common issues that clients face. Should customers need to speak with a technician, it is also beneficial for the self-service tool to include technology that can track what avenues have already been taken so that the technician can begin where the customer left off. Analytics Analytical data is a form of tech support monitoring that can play a key part in providing and improving quality customer service. An analytical software that monitors the customer-technician interaction can help in several different ways. Uncover common issues that clients face. Help to pinpoint areas where self-service tools are failing. Provide information on clients’ previous inquiries and calls. And more Such information can be essential in creating the best technical support team experience for both the client and the technician. As you can see, proper tech support spans beyond troubleshooting technical issues. It also includes a great deal of customer service. Considering this, having the right tools and support in place are essential to ensuring a positive experience for your customers and tech support team. Take some time to review the possible options to determine the proper tools for you. This blog was first published on LinkedIn.

Increase Your Productivity With Blended Dialing

In the ongoing quest to find the optimal call center efficiency for your operation, new tools that combine the best use of human resources and cutting edge innovations in technology provide the edge you need to compete. One of the techniques that has been gaining a lot of steam recently is blended dialing, a process that automatically transfers agents from inbound to outbound calls as needed. While there are some controversies as it is being implemented, all early studies show blended dialing programs increase agent happiness and productivity overall. How Blended Dialing Programs Work By using your cloud calling software designed to evaluate and manage traffic, your system can be set to automatically reassign agents from incoming call tasks to outgoing tasks as needed. This process allows for flexibility as demand for customer service rises, while providing extra help to outgoing calls during times when the incoming demand is low. The result is that more workers are tasked to the call center’s top priorities at any given time, increasing call center operational productivity overall. Handling Pushback During the Change As you move your call center to a blended dialing program, it will be natural for agents who feel more comfortable handling either inbound or outbound traffic to voice concerns. While some agents may have the aptitude and assertiveness for outgoing calls like debt collection, rotating them to ensure their skill set remains well-rounded is a good move for both the agent and the company. Studies have shown that agents who are given a variety of challenges throughout the day remain more productive for longer and report higher job satisfaction. Training and Staff Selection Since agents who feel equally comfortable with both incoming and outgoing calls are becoming a better and better fit as blended dialing gains in popularity, it is also important to talk to HR about the company’s needs moving forward. That way, future hires will fit well with the program. For existing employees, a smooth transition is dependent on two things: training and resources. Take care of the training aspect by making sure you test the new system in ways that give each employee the opportunity to get familiar with assignment switching. That also gives you the opportunity to hold calibration meetings, ensuring that all communications through the system and expectations for performance are handled. Moving Forward For the best possible call center efficiency, the program needs to be continuously monitored and tweaked, and your cloud calling management software needs to be set up to optimize your traffic and your assigned resources. That means ensuring that your employees get the resources they need when moving from one task to another, and it also means having a system that knows when to switch them. Benefits When you put blended dialing in place in your call center, you become more capable of responding to changes in consumer interest and need caused by booms in sales, such as those around the holidays. You also gain the ability to respond to marketing initiatives and to finish calling campaigns more efficiently. This technique represents the next step in call center efficiency. Finding a way to make it work for your company means being ready and competitive when the demands of future clients require responsiveness. This blog was first published on LinkedIn.

10 Simple Steps You Can Take Today to Improve Your Inbound Contact Center

Although businesses go to great lengths to provide customers with self-service options that make it easy for them to find solutions to common questions and problems, there will always be a need for a quality inbound customer service department. In fact, data published by Forrester reveals that voice is still the most commonly-used customer service channel and has an impressive 73% utilization rate. The way your team handles calls will largely determine whether you retain or lose customers. The quality of your audio and the ability of your team to problem-solve efficiently will help determine how your customers feel about your company after calling in to resolve an issue. Remember, customers typically don’t call contact centers unless they feel like they have exhausted all other avenues. It is up to you to ensure that the experience is a positive one by providing adequate training and by holding your call center representatives to high standards. If your contact center customer service department could use a little boost, here are 10 simple steps you can take today to improve it. Improve Self-Service Your call center can easily become overwhelmed if too many calls come in on a regular basis. Too many calls can also lead to increased wait time and can cause your customers to become frustrated. To help make things more manageable for both your team and your customers, improve your self-service options and make them as user-friendly and versatile as possible. You can do this by utilizing the following: Call-back options Interactive voice response Online chat services Email communication Other self-service options It is not necessary to make all of these services available, but try to choose at least two. Make sure all self-service options are easy to find and equally easy to use. By making it possible for customers to find answers without calling in, you can help keep call center staff from becoming overwhelmed and make it easier for them to improve their productivity. Additionally, you will likely see customer satisfaction soar as customers are able to find answers to their questions without waiting on the phone for extended periods of time. As convenient as self-service options are, it is imperative to maintain high-quality voice channels in contact centers. Don’t forget that voice is still the most frequently used contact channel, so don’t make the mistake of neglecting it as you focus on self-service selections. Focus on the Customer Experience The whole point of a contact center is to take care of customer concerns and improve rapport between businesses and their clients. This can be easy to forget if call center agents get caught up in the everyday challenges they face while doing their jobs. Whether they’re working on outbound sales or handling incoming calls, call center agents should be constantly reminded that their primary responsibility is to provide a positive experience to their customers. This can be especially challenging when angry customers call in and demand answers to particularly difficult or unique problems. To help equip agents to remain focused on an improved customer experience, consider incorporating the following suggestions: Rewarding agents based on the outcome of a customer call Providing ongoing training so agents are better equipped to deal with complicated issues Encouraging agents to go “off the script” as needed to ensure customer satisfaction When agents are rewarded for providing a positive customer service outcome and are given the training and empowerment they need to resolve challenging situations, your employee and customer satisfaction rates will inevitably go up. Make Training an On-Going Process Can you imagine trying to create a complicated dish without first being given a recipe? What if someone gave you the recipe and instructed you to make the dish, but didn’t provide you with all of the ingredients? When you provide your call center agents with only one training session when they are newly-hired, you are essentially asking them to do the same thing – achieve perfection without having the necessary tools to do so. On-going training can not only help cement core customer service principles in your agents’ minds, but it also gives you the opportunity to address and correct specific questions or issues plaguing your contact center. Additionally, establishing a pattern of ongoing training will give you the opportunity to keep your contact center agents up-to-date on recent trends and technology. Whether you utilize a lecture-only structure or you allow for more interaction, do what works best for your team. The important thing is to put proper emphasis on ongoing learning so that your agents are better prepared to deal with a variety of situations and uphold your brand image. Utilize Call Quality Monitoring Systems It can be difficult or even impossible to measure the success of your call center without utilizing a call quality monitoring system. Depending on the size of your department, one or two qualified supervisors should be responsible for monitoring call quality at all times. Their goal should be to assess both incoming and outgoing calls to ensure that minimum customer service standards are being met or exceeded. One important component of every call quality monitoring system should be the ability for qualified agents/supervisors to promptly correct errors. When supervisors are empowered to rectify mistakes and improve the customer interaction process right away, it will free up more time for the managers by minimizing the need for them to monitor their employees. Exemplify Good Performance Exemplifying good performance from your agents is one of the best ways to encourage adherence to high customer service standards. When agents are publicly recognized for consistently meeting or exceeding expectations, it can inspire their coworkers to perform in a similar manner. Additionally, with the help of call monitoring, supervisors have the ability to break down and analyze every component of an exemplary call so that the call center team can learn from it and jot down ideas for improvement. Exemplifying good performance will have the added benefit of improving employee morale and inspiring a greater sense of ownership among

Most Effective Ways to Complete Inbound Complaint Calls

While a customer calling with a complaint is likely the last thing any inbound calling center wants to deal with, such calls can make for great opportunities for your customer service representatives to improve their skills while ensuring the caller remains with your business for the foreseeable future. Learn the right way to complete all of your inbound complaint calls. Ending for an Equally Agreed Upon Resolution Whenever a caller is satisfied with a specific resolution option, your customer service agent should be sure he or she details the next steps in the process, offers up one final apology, suggests a complementary product or service as a way to upsell and tells the caller that he or she will receive a follow-up call to ensure the resolution is satisfactory. There are a few pitfalls to avoid with this resolution. For instance, your representatives shouldn’t drag the conversation on longer than necessary in order that they don’t run the risk of wasting the caller’s time. Your team should also keep all jokes and humor to a minimum, as not everyone shares their brand of humor. Finally, offer to send the caller an email detailing the specifics of the conversation rather than repeat the conversation word-for-word. A Neutral Resolution With some customer support calls, the best you can do is accept a neutral resolution where the customer accepts the solution but is still not 100 percent satisfied. If you or your representatives arrive at this juncture, you can regain the caller’s confidence by seeing if there is a product or service in which he or she may be interested, using buying history to find a good fit. Your agents should also pay close attention to opportunities to make personal connections with the caller in order to show they pay attention. While it’s good to ask the customer for the best way to contact her or him for a follow-up, it’s not good to drag out an ending if the caller seems especially rankled. Additionally, your representatives should ask if the customer has any further inquiries before ending the call. The Unresolved Resolution No matter what you try, there are simply some individuals whom you can’t please no matter what. You and your agents should be sure they clarify the issue without placing blame on someone else. As always, review the resolution and make sure the customer agrees to it. Apologize, and let the individual know you’ll find out more about the problem and follow-up later. The customer should know that the experience will be used to improve your company’s business model, and he or she should also receive some form of recompense if one is allowed. As for don’ts, don’t attempt to upsell the customer, as this may only anger him or her. It’s also best not to bid the customer good day, as the heightened mood could make this come across as sarcasm. No matter how tempting it might be to do so, refrain from apologizing too much. The customer wants results, not apologies. As you can see, there are various directions in which an inbound complaint can go. Use these tips to make any situation one that’s both effective and a great learning tool.

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