When I ask contact center leaders about things that keep them up at night, a common concern is the ability to find staff that will succeed in the role of an agent.

Attrition was again the No. 1 challenge. It’s an age-old problem that plays a major role in saturated markets with ample opportunities to go elsewhere, whether for a little pay bump, less stress or a new opportunity.

It is absolutely critical to be able to articulate your performance, your contribution, and your needs in ways that resonate with business drivers.

Metrics can be misleading; first-call resolution means different things to different contact centers, and for a consumer, being transferred to a different department hardly feels like an issue has been resolved.

Your ability to compassionately work with your customers to help them through a difficult financial period, while also recovering monies, can set the tone for a lasting relationship.

It’s time to take these tools, and the related processes and roles, to the next level; the market has us poised to do just that.

Highly engaged customers are more likely to exhibit brand-focused behaviors that go beyond business as usual.

To truly embrace customer-centricity, everyone in the organization needs to understand their role in delivering the ideal customer experience.

Some organizational leaders are fully bought into the long-term benefits of satisfied customers, but others need proof.

Predictive analytics isn’t yet a mass-market solution, but it’s only a matter of time before the mass market realizes the power of predictive analytics and that changes.

At some point in the not-too-distant future, you’ll probably find yourself with contact center employees who function somewhere on the autism spectrum.

Manage your future, your visibility and your value by contextualizing all contact center activities in the framework of customer experience—only then will the most senior levels of the enterprise recognize and fund the contact center of the future.

When they analyze the number of customers at risk due to each outcome, executives are often shocked to see that the greatest number of customers at risk are among those who never requested assistance.

One bad interaction can start a cascade of negative business and market impacts.

I believe that success in the contact center business is built on three things: building relationships, never stop learning and always be a coach.

Connected devices are just that—connected—and the number of linked brands, services and products makes delivering support all the more challenging.

The challenge is that contact centers in healthcare have emerged somewhat haphazardly. Think of it as evolution by default rather than by design.

Instead of the leadership team trying to determine how to improve FCR based on data or observation, we developed a series of employee surveys and focus groups to involve them in designing new processes and tools.

The prioritization process can be viewed as a complex set of forecasts: what will we need most in the future, how much will this improve if we add that, will this technology stand the test of time, etc.

We believe that our agents are our most valuable resource— not just in terms of providing the customer experience, but also with the intelligence that they can provide about that experience.

Customer service staff tend to take their cues from their leaders. They model their behavior on what they see demonstrated each and every day.

Today, organizations of any size and budget can gain dramatic insights into customer behavior at a realistic price point for the contact center budget.

Keep in mind that the actions between the practice and the contact center are not handoffs. Rather, they are hands extended to achieve a hand-in-hand approach to making the new model work!

Contact center communication must be more about empathy and less about apathy and disengagement. When observing calls, listen for what is NOT said.

This love story would have a much better ending if my churn score would have catapulted me to the front of the queue and routed me to a retention specialist.

Despite the never-ending seduction of new and emerging automation technologies to drive cost savings, customer care professionals must keep in mind the value of human contact.

Digital natives, it seems, do prefer the human touch when it comes to service interactions.

Many times, you won’t know how important the call is until you talk to me.

Having a community in the contact center is an excellent way to help improve communications, deflect calls, locate expertise and resources, improve efficiencies and gain insights about those integrations.

Since about 60% of your contact center costs are wages, you will need to be more deliberative in factoring the impact of minimum wage laws on your location decisions.

Your ability to compassionately work with your customers to help them through a difficult financial period, while also recovering monies, can set the tone for a lasting relationship.

Contact centers may not sit around talking about the different sides of the brain, but each has a unique approach to management that favors one over the other.

When I ask contact center leaders about things that keep them up at night, a common concern is the ability to find staff that will succeed in the role of an agent.

We believe that we’re small enough to deliver the type of high-touch, personalized attention that lets our clients know that they matter, and we’re large enough to handle all of their requirements.

Remember—incentives do not make a better location, rather, they make a better deal.

The challenge is that contact centers in healthcare have emerged somewhat haphazardly. Think of it as evolution by default rather than by design.

Risk exposures exist at every point where the enterprise touches the customer.

Customers communicate through online product and service reviews—they share experiences on which companies are worthy of our business and which ones we should run away from.

With every call, email, text or tweet, contact center employees make decisions and interact with customers in ways that directly affect—and reflect—the organization’s culture.

Greetings, music and messaging on hold shape your customer’s first impressions.

Culture is the heartbeat of the contact center. It’s the single, most important thing to drive.

When evaluating urban areas for an existing facility, it is usually easier to find existing space. The amenities and the infrastructure are usually in place.

Contact centers may not sit around talking about the different sides of the brain, but each has a unique approach to management that favors one over the other.

We are so frustrated and disappointed with customer service reps who don’t actually listen and project very little empathy. This concern was repeated often throughout the survey feedback

Having a rating system along with the option to provide longer, thoroughly explained answers can eliminate any confusion and allow customers to offer insightful details into why they feel the way they do.

Segmentation is not always about offering more to some than others. Rather, it’s about providing a level of service that is fitting to the specific customer’s needs.

Almost every inbound voice call is a potential opportunity for improving non-voice, self-service channels.

One thing we have in Africa now is bandwidth, and lots of it. The cloud will be the enabler of the contact center in Africa.

Satisfaction studies are a tool, but they are not the whole toolbox. A hammer is indispensable to a carpenter, but it isn’t much help when a piece of wood needs to be cut to size.

Far too often, the resolution process contains a defensive posture that really only serves to frustrate—in some cases infuriate—the customer.

When inconsistency is removed, trust begins to form and puts us on the path to customer loyalty. Focus on building consistency in every aspect of your service experience.

For contact centers handling sensitive information, such as financial and health details, acoustic treatments help keep conversations private.

The young people that I see getting ahead today are the ones whose attitude is, ‘Let me do whatever it takes for the business to be successful.

We started making decisions based on data rather than gut feelings. There is still some intuition involved, but the data helps us to analyze each opportunity and decide which way we need to go next.

When launching a community, you can ensure a positive outcome by aligning it around one or two meaningful business needs with very clear measures and metrics for success.

States such as Tennessee, Texas and Utah are strong markets for contact centers today, but if neighboring states change their laws, market conditions can change very quickly.

Your customer experience vision should be your guiding light—it has to be aligned to your brand and it has to feel authentic to your company. And most importantly, it has to be something that you can deliver on.

Many communities throughout the world believe that having a low unemployment rate is best for their communities. However, in the BPO/Contact Call Center industry, it is all about labor availability.

For the average call center, an alarming 41% of customers are not able to resolve their inquiry or problem on the first call.

One way that leading organizations build strong learning cultures is by starting at the top and having executives show a little humility and admit mistakes.

A key principle in Moments of Truth is that leadership provides a deep and rich understanding of the WHY… why we do what we do.

The contact center often has the data to guide improvements but lacks corporate initiatives to ensure that information gets to and engages critical departments.

Organizations need the ability to blend case-specific data with more traditional metrics. The goal is to understand the entire experience as it relates to customer service.

Social customer service is perhaps one of the most beautiful marriages of service and marketing that could exist.

Experience design is the process by which brand cues are crafted as part of the ideal customer experience.

A job is something you accept. A profession is something you choose. The work we do is far too important to be left to people that are simply filling jobs.

You can’t provide the customer with an optimized 2016-style experience when you’re still relying on vintage 2000s technology to make that happen.

It is truly amazing how much differently we can view the world when our primary focus is outward, not inward.

It is easy for agents to get discouraged by the constant deluge of post-holiday cancellations. Show that they are making an impact by sharing positive retention statistics.

Far too often, contact centers field so many initiatives and demands that this time of year passes like ‘sands through the hourglass’ and the new dawn passes unnoticed.

Tigo moved away from traditional efficiency metrics like average handle time and service level to customer experience, which often also improved efficiency.

Customer-centric leaders know the customer experience brings a brand vision to life. They work hard to unite the organization to a shared vision of the ideal experience. They also ensure everyone understands their role in delivering the ideal experience.

Responding to an emergency with a solid contingency plan in place will ensure that the right number of sandbags are in the right place to hold back the rising water.

Measure agents on what counts the most to your customers, while investing in training and technology to help them manage each interaction across every channel quickly, seamlessly and knowledgeably.

Connected consumer applications means managing devices and services across multiple vendors, with customers uncertain where to turn when problems arise.

In today’s hyper-digital and rapidly changing world, it’s no longer enough to respond and adapt. You have to anticipate.

When a coaching culture is in place, people understand that it’s their job to step into the kinds of conversations that they’re currently avoiding and address the issues so they can move things forward.

Digital channels unveil a wealth of new, convenient opportunities for two-way communication between your customers and your brand.

To build a culture where employees are engaged and inspired to do great work, they need to actively be involved in giving, receiving and observing recognition across the organization

Confusion is a constant companion when it comes to CHAOS and confusion often leads to conflict.

Automation, digitization, WFH, and rising expectations are reshaping the business customer experience.

We have some noticeable movement this year. It reflects our dynamic industry in what the vendors are offering, how the labor market is changing, and how centers are maturing.

As centers tackle their challenges and pursue their priorities, I believe we will see a strong focus on the agent experience, and the result should be better customer experience, as well.

Business has changed—forever. We must accept this and take steps to evolve. If we don’t, all the pains we are going through now and the lessons we learn along the way will have been for naught.

The overall theme for 2021 is: It’s all about the response to COVID and its impacts.

Demonstrate your contact center’s value beyond the traditional scope of customer service and phone calls.

It’s the leader’s job to model a love of learning for everyone in the organization—and humility is at the heart of that.

Even those organizations that struggled with technology weaknesses and the deployment of work-from-home navigated that weakness with the strength of leadership.

Ignored or poorly managed visibility is a chronic condition that leaves many centers suffering from enterprise isolation.

Altruism is the concern for the growth and development of the company without the added agenda of self-interest.

The pandemic has encouraged the adaptation of new business models that place service at their core.

Video interactions are professional speaking engagements as much as they are meetings.

The on-demand environment provides employees with the opportunity to find work that is meaningful to them.

When you get a one-star rating on any retail site or review platform, the customer isn’t just talking ABOUT you. Customers who give you poor ratings and reviews are, in fact, talking right TO you.

Companies that did not measure the impact of the VoC were much more likely not to have improvements in satisfaction year-over-year, and several actually reported significant declines.

The lessons of 2020 are already abundant, but they are not complete. There are more lessons to learn and they may be more complicated than those we’ve dealt with to date.

There is a huge amount of mutual empathy being shared around the current situation, often initiated by the agents.

The partnership with Customer Care provided the perfect ‘test-and-learn’ platform to determine whether a text analytics solution could identify customer needs, trends and opportunities to improve the customer experience.

We believe that the answer to long-term sustainability is to build a model that effectively supports your agents rather than replaces your agents.

How WFH contact center employees can best engage with customers and colleagues.

How you respond to your customers in the coming weeks will likely have a tremendous impact on the future of your brand.

Customer experience excellence is a great marketplace differentiator. But it is only sustainable when supported by all elements within the enterprise.

What is the ROI on readiness? Peace of mind and the ability to respond.

We need to be extreme in terms of building trust, caring for others, showing genuine empathy during these very challenging times.

Don't be afraid to get rid of channels if they aren't performing and your customers aren't embracing them.

Social care has forced companies to learn to take their customers’ perspective as-is, without pushing back.

Customer security is part of the entire customer experience. Safe and secure customer information is part of creating a customer journey with minimal customer effort.

As with the customer experience, EX isn’t something that just happens; it must be intentionally designed.

The bottom line is this: If your company culture is healthy and strong, you’re going to be able to adapt and pivot.

2021 is not about ‘going back to the good old days’ (of 2019). It is about moving forward into an era of digital transformation, AI and hybrid/work-from-home teams.

COVID ‘shined a light’ on the importance of the contact center, and it now features far more prominently as the ‘face’ of the organization.

Emotion is ‘a complex reaction pattern, involving experiential, behavioral and physiological elements.’

Virtual marketplaces for contact center solutions are growing in popularity.

Many times, analytics are not analytics at all. They are simply taking a look at the metrics and assigning a good or bad value to agent performance.

Removing friction from service delivery doesn’t mean making it so that customers never see the human side of your brand.

This additional focus on connecting will remain even when we return to the office. It has become a critical part of our culture, a reflection of how we work and engage with each other.

Regardless of channel, speed continues to be one of the most important factors in effectively delivering positive customer experiences.

Sophisticated buyers recognize the value of technology, efficient processes and well-trained agents in delivering ROI in terms of sales.

Between disruptive technologies and rising customer expectations, every day is a new horizon

The ability to properly plan, and measure the performance of the plan, improves your contact center’s visibility as a valued asset.

More than anything, agents want to know what the future holds. While we cannot predict the end of this pandemic, we can keep folks up to date on what is being considered.

Organizations must build these teams with the intention of adding value to brand—and as an important revenue driver.

Executives across many industries are more aware than ever of the value of the contact center.

Calls matter, private conversations matter, and learning about how the frontline feels about working from home matters.

It is vital to optimize each stage with the appropriate strategy in mind, and have the proper tools in place to provide the desired experience at the right time.

The modern contact center means a more agile approach; working anywhere while meeting service level objectives and taking care of the customer on whatever channel they prefer.

In honor of International Women’s Day, Mike Aoki interviews 5 industry executives who share their early leadership challenges, achievements and advice.

Change practitioners act as translators between the technical and people sides of a solution, connecting the solution to the day-to-day impact on agents and how they successfully bring that to life.

The key is approaching things in the right way, which includes a heavy dose of communication delivered with a dash of gusto.

Today's contact center is the meeting point for brands and consumers to come together and build foundational relationships for trust and loyalty.

In today’s data-soaked world, service leaders need to become knowledgeable about data quality management and how it affects the outcome of your service operations.

Not many could have imagined where we find ourselves, yet here we are. If nothing else, we must be prepared for the unknowable, and that has to start now.

Agents need MORE, not less, training during a recession because there are greater demands on their skills.

There is no single magic metric that will offer a clear indicator of your center’s performance or guide your operation to a successful outcome.

Companies that bridge the physical gap between leaders and employees early in 2021 will surpass pre-pandemic performance levels. Those who allow the virtual gap to widen will experience a performance decline.

We don’t need to become Amazon. We need to be great at what we’re great at.

It takes courage to bring forth difficult news. It takes mindfulness to not react immediately. No one can tantrum themselves to a solution!

When it comes to the customer experience, data doesn’t tell the whole story. Customer behavior is primarily driven by emotion and how the experience makes them feel.

As managers, your job is to elicit the ‘right’ behavior at scale, repeatedly.

Keep an open mind and bring the ‘can do’ attitude that your executives expect.

We try to be superior at what we do. We want to offer the absolute best we can to the customer. We’re not driven by one quick sale; we’re driven by always doing the right thing.

A results-focused CX leader knows the way forward should be mapped out in advance. Goals and roles should be clear. The performance framework should be systematic and measurable.

You must create a learner-based culture of strong and smart business people that are treated and provisioned in a way that optimizes, not minimizes, their talent.

The rampant spread of highly contagious variants of the virus has more companies grappling with whether to require employees to be vaccinated before returning to the workplace.

The beginning of the new year offers the opportunity to invest time and energy into getting the ‘assessment ball’ rolling.

Leaders have a unique responsibility to influence the overall direction that their business unit will assume. This is true even when one is faced with the kinds of conditions many must confront today.

Enable easy and near-real-time course corrections, and be more sympathetic to changes in customer behaviors.

Getting technology right is about not letting the day-to-day fire drills stop the ongoing activities to plan for, implement and optimize changes.

Customers make decisions about the ‘kind’ of company they are working with based on their connections across the entire organization.

Leaders must demonstrate that their heart is in the job, and that is only possible when humility governs the use of strength.

Remember, CX is not a one-and-done process. It’s an evolution. No one gets it perfect the first time.

Belief and certainty can be so strong they blind us to areas of weakness.

It will be essential to build out an organization and a team that can handle the new normal in our industry—fast-paced with high expectations from clients.

Chat, text and social media enable contact centers of all sizes to maintain consistent, exceptional outcomes for customers.

Rapport-building is both an art and a science. The very definition of the word describes beautifully the job of most contact centers.

Why is it so difficult to provide proper governance that will break the chain that links funding for staff and training to 20th century private practice models?

I believe the industry is poised to enter a new phase of productivity.

When employees behave at cross purposes to your desired business outcomes, what is really going on in their lives?

Generational norms and expectations will drive widespread adoption of omnichannel in the contact center whether the contact center likes it or not.

Healthcare contact centers are growing not only in numbers but also in scale.

It’s time to conduct an in-depth review of three WFH factors: benefits, trade-offs, and risks.

How COVID-19 has upended BC/DR and staffing strategies

Replacing COVID issues at the top of the challenges was formulating strategies that propel the contact center into becoming a central component of the operations of the organization.

Departments need to cooperate and share the wealth to succeed in this brave new world.

Rather than removing all physical presence, technology and digital software need to be integrated into in-store offerings to reduce the pain points of either channel.