We in the contact center are traditionally committed to delighting our customers. Anything we can do to go above and beyond the needs of our customers to connect them more closely with our organization is the Holy Grail. Net Promoter scores are often used to measure how well a contact center experience performed in creating a new customer advocate willing to promote your brand to their friends and your potential customers.

We may be wasting a lot of time and energy with this vision. The bad news is that an over-the-top “delightful” contact center experience has far less positive influence over our customers than we would like. The good news is that the basic blocking and tackling of the contact center: getting the right information to the customer quickly and easily is even more influential in the building of good relationships with our customers than we ever could have hoped.

Research from the Corporate Executive Board shows us that the mos... read more >

I know this is a company blog, and don’t want to bore you with my personal life, but to me they are one and the same.  I ran the Ironman a couple weeks ago (March 17) in Los Cabos.  A few weeks leading up to it had been consumed with 80 – 100+ mile bike rides with a run off the bike on Saturdays and a 13+ mile runs on Sunday.

One hundred miles on the bike solo takes me 5 – 5 ½  hours depending on the terrain and weather conditions.  That is a lot of time to dig deep and put things in to perspective. Saturday,February 23 my mind took me to the place it often does on long rides, to my career in customer care.  I started thinking about Workforce Optimization (WFO), not without reason, but because like in customer care training was the order of the day, I was monitoring my statistics, thinking about the quality of my ride, thinking about my coach, but most importantly I was thinking about the finish line.

So, l... read more >

Many things have been written about how technology can make the life of a contact center agent more efficient but often the human side of life is forgotten about.

In many cases performance is driven by softer factors, and recognition is certainly right up there.

In a lot of situations it is perfectly normal to reward someone with a tip for that wonderful service they just provided you with. You can tip waiters, the person that carries your luggage at the hotel or the customer service agent you just talked to on the phone....wait, you can't tip a customer service agent…

But what if this agent just gave you great service? Informed you about something you did not know and did not ask for, but was very useful to you?

Wouldn’t it be great if you could give this person a tip? Or if you could have the choice to ‘award’ a free meal or a premium parking spot at the companies’ facilities? Or by entering a number  ... read more >

In the classic Disney film trilogy Toy Story, Buzz Lightyear uses the now iconic catch phrase, “to infinity and beyond” as his ‘clarion call’.

In today’s customer experience driven world this phrase should be our clarion call too, why? Because the worlds of customer service and Employee Engagement can no longer be seen as separate domains they have become inextricably linked in ways that mean that decisions in one area can have an infinite number of consequences on the experience in the other.

Back in the ‘90s the concept of ‘virtuous’ and ‘vicious’ circles was a popular concept in ‘Total Quality Management’ (TQM) circles. The idea was that one bad ‘process’ or ‘action’ will drive behaviours that would further worsen the situation driving a ‘vicious’ cycle but that one good ‘process’ or ‘action’ would do the opposite.  I be... read more >

With today’s consumer being so connected, whether it’s to devices, digital content or to each other, it’s time that companies also provide a connected customer experience. The passive attitude that isolates customers in channel silos or dead-end processes is out of tune with digital consumers. It’s time to change.

A passive approach to service

A passive approach to service is characterized by managing customer interactions in a disconnected way or as single transactions. A company may do a great job with each single transaction, but a siloed view of the customer risks damaging a relationship or missing a revenue opportunity through the loss of context. The larger picture includes customer value, personalization of information and messaging, transaction history, product ownership, complaints, social activity and so on. The biggest impact of not connecting these dots is ultimately losing customer loyalty and losing customers.

W... read more >