Your people make the difference. Of course you know that. It's probably in posters all throughout your call centers, your break rooms, everywhere. And you believe it. Which is why you invest money and time in them. You have online training they can take to improve their knowledge. You regularly pull them off the phones [...]
There are many tech support agents who are extremely successful at creating a great customer experience over the phone. They are patient, ask good questions, listen well and help find the best solutions for their callers. Soft skills seem to come natural to some of these support phone pros. Others who need to learn the [...]
The idea of employee engagement receives a lot of lip service. Employees who are engaged will deliver better experiences to your customers, leading to increased retention, improved referral rates, and more revenue overall. Hurrah! But what happens when your organization is structured to actively disengage your employees? Most leaders don’t even know this is happening. [...]
We read a lot of articles about training, coaching and motivating our center agents, supervisors and leaders. One area of our center doesn’t seem to receive as much attention: our WFM (workforce management) employees. Every member of our team has both direct and indirect effect on the customer experience every day. Our WFM team members [...]
Do you know what your customers talk about after interacting with your company? Most likely, one of two things happens. They tell their friends all about the painful, frustrating experience of an interaction gone wrong. Or…they tell their friends how happy they were with the service of such an exceptionally helpful, friendly representative for your company. [...]
Recently I had a support team manager tell me that she had received feedback from a VP in the operations area of the company where she worked. He told her that he thought that all this “engagement” by her agents in emails and on calls to internal customers and co-workers was unnecessary “fluff”. She told [...]
Coaching in our centers can involve a wide variety of coaching activities and communication skills. Our agents may be focused on only one type of customer interaction or a blend, depending on how our center functions and the level of agents we employ. Social media has become a major customer engagement opportunity for companies, whether [...]
Making “greener” choices in the contact center can benefit both the environment and your bottom line. It can even help to attract and retain the best staff. According to a survey conducted by the Society of Human Resources Management on HR and environmental sustainability, 49% of businesses with green workplace practices claimed these environmentally conscious [...]
In honor of April Fool’s Day, I thought I’d share some of the most foolish things I’ve seen center leaders do. I’ll also share the wonderful things since there are many who have what it takes. EATING + COACHING = UNPROFESSIONAL: As I joined the supervisor for coaching, she told me the rep would be [...]
Anyone who has ever worked in a contact center knows stress. Being a workforce manager is like working in a never-ending game of tug-of-war – and you’re the rope! Operations managers expect perfect service levels, while training managers and supervisors expect regular training sessions – and all of this has to be scheduled without negatively [...]
