Time to Take a Growth Readiness Assessment

Clarity, the right phrases, emphasis, off-center empathy deliver that necessary message.

Why CX and EX are not independent of each other.

A Sponsored Article by Kustomer

How a robust QM program can remake the CX.

Can the right data, sound practices, and the cloud regenerate this customer contact method?

It is one thing to coach a new agent, another for a seasoned staffer.

How customers, agents, and business operations can benefit from obtained insights.

Digital channels, immediacy, and WFH are shaping the conversations.

How contact centers can help in this new interaction world.

10 Ideas for Managing Your Personal Brand

What Will Contact Centers Decide

Simplifying customer and agent processes are the routes forward.

How to handle the anger plaguing customer service.

Contact center customer service issues, best practices, and trends

Communications, software efficiency, gig working, start-up thinking add up.

Why Many Call Centers Have Given Up On Customer Service Training.

Management must make the time to appreciate all agents.

How to manage increasingly complex retail customer service.

Savvy training, development, and yes fun can win the season.

Self-Assess and Take the Next Step in Resiliency Readiness.

A Sponsored Q&A with WiserOwl Founder, Robert Bradshaw

Agent Response to Outdated KPIs.

Third in a Three-Part Series on Adaptability and Adaptive Leadership.

How contact centers can handle difficult situations.

Self-service, automation, and testing key: and critical.

Guiding principles for leading change in the contact center.

Automation, new channels, WFH, and the Great Resignation are shaping workforce management.

New legislation targets implicit biases, potential harmful technology.

How can organizations best handle inbound customer contacts in the new normal?

Well-planned (and compliant) outbound customer contact is becoming critical to support an excellent CX.

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

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

How task mining and RPA can help agent productivity, and ultimately the customer experience in contact centers.

How best to manage contact center workforce challenges

How to empower new employees to understand “who” and “why”

Working from home can feel like being stranded on a desert island.

Influence occurs when you are authentic, as you invest in others. It is the ability to have a positive impact on others or to gain their buy-in.

For supervisors, navigating constantly changing and ambiguous circumstances adds to the stress load.

Don’t focus on KPIs at the expense of everything else. The most successful workplace cultures are both metrics- and mission-driven.

Delivering ‘peace of mind’ uniquely through the human connection generally results in lasting customer relationships and greater satisfaction.

You don’t need a reason to pick up the phone and talk to your team.

Half of training professionals reported wishing their training was more hands on and engaging.

Training sessions are never the destination; they’re the start of the journey.

The only role in your organization that can affect the behavioral change of your customer-facing teams are your team managers.

Age diversity can improve organizational performance and productivity.

If you don’t back up a diverse team with a meaningful inclusion strategy, you’ll have checked a lot of boxes but be left with a contact center full of people who feel as though they don’t belong.

Leaders who are aware of their tendencies, biases and blind spots tend to be more open to growing into the best version of themselves.

Some stories help explain a topic, but those that make a more significant impact start with a problem and later reveal the solution.

Amazing team leaders always remember that they are leader, coach and mentor.

Too often we are focused on following the roadmap to call center self-improvement, when letting everyone (leaders and CSRs) challenge conventional wisdom brings change much faster.

Engagement is a key ingredient in feeling valued; it is also a prerequisite for an optimistic culture.

AI is taking on transactions formerly done by tier 1 agents, and agents are now moving up to tier 2 customer interactions.

We hire amazing people and then stop them from using the strengths we so value. The outcome is a demotivated employee who either leaves for a better role, or worse, stays but disengages.

The conversation running in my head kept me from listening to what the agent said.

Twitter has been around since 2006, which means most brands have more than a decade of experience providing customer service in this channel.

When frontline employees use deep acting to interact with customers, absenteeism and turnover are reduced.

When you’re deciding how to select candidates for any role, it’s important to identify the characteristics that are predictive of success, and to find an accurate way to assess them.

How do I calculate return on investment? By smiles, laughter, appreciation and camaraderie.

Developing skills takes time and continuous effort and can never be obtained from attending a workshop, in-person or virtual.

As working from home will likely remain the norm, call centers face a new test—how to reshape hiring and performance management practices to bring ‘never on-site’ workers into the fold.

Injecting more than the usual amount of knowledge checks into the middle of presentations helps to keep the class engaged and makes learning a two-way exchange of information.

How and why people feel the way they do is very complicated. It gets even more problematic when viewed across your entire ecosystem.

It is like going to a foreign country and learning to drive on the opposite side of the road. The fundamentals are the same. You just apply them differently.

Even now, 2020 continues to be a series of challenges—and perhaps no group has faced and met more than frontline employees engaged in customer service.

How you treat your best employees during a downturn will influence whether you retain them when times get better.

Identifying and acting on shortages or surpluses of contact center agents must be more dynamic.

Older agents are more inclined to seek moderate or complex tasks than the youngest agents.

We must prepare frontline agents to respond with empathy in these situations, however scary or uncertain that may feel.

It’s important to make sure lack of will isn’t masquerading as lack of skill.

Virtual shock can occur even if the employee loved their job in the past or enjoys working from home.

Be a knowledge broker, looking for ways to facilitate knowledge.

What’s curious amid the gloom is that, during the pandemic, employees have been more engaged than they have been in 20 years.

51% of employers don’t offer soft skills training or training that teaches essential communications skills. COVID-19 is giving businesses a reason to ramp up this training.

Leaders need to make sure in times of war, and in times of trouble, they are visible.

COVID-19 has created a continuously elevated state of stress that is manifesting in the form of intense emotional reactions—both inside and outside of the workplace.

Starting a new job is intimidating. Starting a new job in this pandemic while isolated can be even more so. It’s your job to make sure that’s not the case.

Even the most empathy-willing agents will struggle to show empathy when they’re overburdened, like they are now.

CX is understood by the people who practice it. Very few people outside of the CX community understand how deep and complex the discipline is.

Employees need to be able to exchange work experiences and knowledge during the day with one or two clicks.

Employees need to feel heard and valued, especially in a time of uncertainty.

Training participants are not observers. Online training isn’t a television show with the learner passively absorbing the content. Learning just doesn’t work that way.

Understanding communication styles and needs based on personality temperament is very helpful as we navigate through stressful times.

Agents previously challenged to get people to just pick up the phone now can’t seem to get them off the phone.

Even though artificial intelligence has its advantages, it does not have the capacity to show compassion, encouragement or patience to a hurt world.

In the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, it is vital for contact center leaders to step back and think strategically about how to position their people, channels, technology and practices for the longer term.

When agents feel like they are capable of doing the work, because they have the numbers to prove it, they perform beyond expectations.

We’re always looking for ways to make the process easier for customers, to minimize any friction and deliver a positive experience.

Getting virtual new-hire training right takes 12 to 18 months.

Even when your agents know what to do, they still want to receive more constructive feedback.

The key to all voice interactions is to reflect positivity and optimism by using words and phrases that build, not break.

The current pay structure in many contact centers encourages minimum performance and the accumulation of increased pay through tenure not merit.

Not everybody is ready to face themselves and to move beyond the things that got them incarcerated in the first place. But many people are, and Televerde gives them that chance.

Contact center culture is an outcome, not a plan. Culture occurs as a result of actions… not posters, slogans, promises or innuendos.

When you give people the opportunity to grow and stretch themselves, you’d be amazed at what can happen.

Focus on the experience the member is having with your company. Put yourself in their shoes and make it an experience that you’d want to have if you were that customer.

Sixty percent of consumers globally expect to be able to engage with an organization at any time and on any channel.

We need to move the conversation about learning away from its role in onboarding and instead focus on support throughout the entire agent experience, from their first day forward.

Thousands of miles might separate them, but their workforce mindset must be as one to perform in unison.

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

Today’s unemployment rate ought to frighten leaders into providing environments that generate enthusiasm, learning and contribution rather than rules-driven dictatorships.

Coaching must be a back-and-forth dialogue between the supervisor and agent to come up with a solution.

We are now in a social environment in which conversation has morphed into text messages, social media postings, photos and “emojis.”

Smart employee engagement strategies focus on whether employees have emotional ties to their job.

The concept of work-life balance is gaining traction in North America as labor shortages allow workers to be more selective about the companies for whom they choose to work.

Coaching is how you empower, and empowered employees will be the spark for companywide success and growth.

Sometimes, just negotiating with your provider may be enough to lessen the burden your employees may be facing within their daily budgets.

At times, the person without direct contact center experience might be more effective.

Many leaders position customer service courses from the perspective of the company and its customers.

Feedback from current and former employees can have a considerable impact on an employer’s recruitment efforts.

People are hungry to find ways to be helpful and to serve one another better, whether it’s their customers, family members or fellow employees.

Invest in your team’s skills so that your agents can provide a better customer experience.

Even the most careful, professional and fastidious agent is prone to human frailties.

Happy workers = happy clients and pleased customers. They all interconnect.

Veterans offer the contact center industry a highly qualified pool of candidates.

Practical, actionable advice for positive coaching and feedback results.

Strategies to retain top talent during the holidays and beyond.

Employee-centric decision-making drives high engagement and fast growth.

Nature—and drama—loves a vacuum. People who don't understand what's happening will eventually make up their own scenarios, spinning the narrative in whichever way causes the most excitement.

We have leveraged a variety of opportunities to recognize and show appreciation and gratitude for our teams' actions that align with our mission, vision and values.

Providing meaningful recognition is the key to enhancing engagement and delivering organizational results.

To deliver a positive customer experience, honor the agent experience.

Invest in your people by applying a Continuous Cycle of Improvement.

Companies are using enterprise social networks to communicate and collaborate regardless of where people sit.

These are men and women who’ve sacrificed so much for our country, they deserve the dignity of work and financial stability for themselves and their families.

Flexibility in the face of condensed timelines—typically a new program launch with little notice—requires an innate “readiness” that can only be achieved when contact center leadership is dialed into all aspects of internal and external operations.

If the workstation is not optimal and the criteria of good work design are not met, then the stress on the body from an improperly designed workspace (or improper work habits) can lead to serious issues.

I realized that a truer sense of leadership is getting to know people on a deeper level and finding out what is meaningful to them.

We can train the technical skills and we can train agents to navigate our products and services, but we can’t train someone to have a serviceoriented attitude and passion for helping customers. That is the core of what we do.

Taking a fun approach to requisite activities like training, coaching and communication demonstrates leadership’s willingness to put the same level of effort into the frontline experience as the front line is expected to put into the customer experience.

Competition for skilled labor is high, placing upward pressure both on wages and on employee expectations for modern work spaces.

At its heart, training is about helping people cope with change by getting them comfortable with a new responsibility.

You can do everything in your power to prevent technology issues, but you won’t stop them all. The question is: How do you react?

A good coach knows when to offer constructive criticism, but a great coach knows when to celebrate the wins and achievements of his or her team members.

Turnover is highest among entry-level agents (27%), and then tapers off for those in higher skilled and supervisory positions.

You want to hire for engageability, and you also want to start proactively engaging candidates from first contact.

When you spend one-on-one time with your employees, there are tearful conversations as well as joyous ones. It’s all part of the human element, which is the most challenging part of my job and also the most rewarding.

Providing a consistent experience—especially when your company has multiple trainers delivering content—is critical to a successful program.

Perhaps more than anyone else, direct managers have the greatest impact on workplace satisfaction and how employees feel about building a long-term career with an organization.

Since it was founded in 2001, the NECCF has grown and remained committed to addressing the day-to-day management concerns and strategic planning needs of contact center professionals throughout the region.

We’d rather give someone guidelines on how we want customers to leave the experience feeling, and then provide them with the tools and knowledge to make customers happy.

The primary damage to the bottom line comes from damage to loyalty and word of mouth from agents who burn out, but do not leave, and from good agents who do not have effective tools and support.

What employees most want is recognition from management and peers and a feeling of progress in their career

To determine whether your employees are lacking from training or coaching, the first step is to assess where they are in the learning and development process

Strike a balance between rewarding sales and maintaining great customer service. Sales should always be conducted ethically, with a goal toward helping your customer get the best performance and value.

Gamification may be the solution much of the industry is looking for to smooth out some contact center wrinkles that have confounded it for decades

WFM practices exist at the crossroads of employee needs and organizational requirements. How an organization navigates the delicate balance says a lot about the value placed on agent needs

“Workforce issues will need to be considered equally with customer service issues. It’s time to focus on optimizing both the agent experience and the customer experience.”

We’d rather give someone guidelines on how we want customers to leave the experience feeling, and then provide them with the tools and knowledge to make customers happy.

Ignoring an outbreak of negativity is just as dangerous as ignoring poor performances.

In 2017, workforce issues will need to be considered equally with customer service issues. It’s time to focus on optimizing both the agent experience and the customer experience.

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.

The primary damage to the bottom line comes from damage to loyalty and word of mouth from agents who burn out, but do not leave, and from good agents who do not have effective tools and support.

When you do the same thing, day in and day out, without ever taking time to objectively look at it and clean it up, you really create a mess over time.

Any opportunity I have to encourage, enlighten or connect with my team, I try to do it, because I was in the role. I understand.

Consider what it must be like the first time someone listens to the entire interaction you had with a customer and dissects it word for word.

The transformation of the contact center to the customer engagement center has partially been catered to and driven by millennials.

Veterans offer their employers the same work ethic, organization, drive to succeed, discipline and job focus that they relied upon while serving in the military.

As leaders, we want to learn something new every day—and more importantly, we want to teach something new every day.

Seasonal agents may go on to become permanent, full-time agents. Properly treated, they may also become customers and cheerleaders for your brand.

Remember that an employee who is great at doing a job, isn’t always the best at teaching others to do it.

It is not an exaggeration to say that frontline agents are the lifeblood of the contact center, so they certainly provide a great return on the investment. Unless, of course, they don’t show up.

The automotive after-market parts and accessories business isn’t necessarily one that is focused on providing clients with a wow experience. We’re creating that opportunity for our agents and our clients.

By simply meeting the most basic needs, employees still view their position as only a job and not yet a career.

Nothing shows appreciation like senior executives taking the time to come to the center and personally thank the frontline staff for everything they do to help the company meet its goals.

Our callers are often very desperate and in a horrific state of despair. Many times the call to our center is the last one the individual is planning to make so the way our team performs is critical.

Unlike raising pay scales or improving advancement opportunities, stress on the job is one causal factor that contact center management can deal with.

Sometimes, creating a change in your customer service requires a change in the vision for your entire company.

Filling your new staffing schedules can be the toughest part of the season, but you may have more options than you realize.

There is a limit to how much any learner can absorb in a given session, and all good instructors build lessons around these limits of attention span, memory and cognitive overload.

The most important voices that we hear are the ones that challenge us to be the best version of ourselves that we can possibly be.

The only absolute that I have learned about engagement in a contact center is this: If your agents aren’t engaged, you won’t be a top-performing center.

Contact center agents who are smart enough to make decisions for customers without needing permission have to wonder, though, why they can’t make decisions for themselves.

Recognition is usually the first thing to slip when the walls are closing in and you’re struggling to fight fires.

Cowboys work hard and take pride in their work. When a cowboy makes a promise, he keeps it. When he says he will do something, he does it.

Great customer experiences and employee satisfaction is driven by training and coaching that is planned as part of an overall operations strategic plan.

Millennials became the largest segment of the American workforce in the first quarter of 2015. With baby boomers retiring in droves and Gen Xers maxed out, about every third worker is now a millennial.

Employees don’t realize the impact they can have. By simply liking, tweeting or sharing a blog post written by the CEO or content that is on the company website, it gets more people to read it and to engage with it.

We want to create an incredible place to work for our employees, but at the same time, we hold them accountable for delivering elite results. The combination of those two things—accountability and reward—is the core of our culture.

While creating engagement around growth and development, recognition and personal relationships is a challenge for leadership in any company, Klundt feels that it is also the biggest opportunity.

Your communication strategy will have a great impact and should be consistent in its form and in the key messages that employees will retain from it.

Traditional onboarding programs that include videos, lectures, extensive reading and completion of forms can get dull very quickly. Consider low-cost tactics used by event planners to help forge crucial workplace friendships.

While the term ‘gamification’ itself conjures up images of fun and friendly competition, its purpose in the contact center is absolutely serious.

Daily connection with a supervisor is critical. If you let at-home agents work all day with no interaction with leadership, they can feel even more distanced and less engaged.

Accountability often collides with ethics. As organizations dial up accountability, employees in danger of facing sanctions will sometimes make horrible decisions.

The ability to analyze and improve processes that flow across functions calls for creative problem-solving abilities, as well as a thorough knowledge of the business, products and the supply chain.

More often than not, top performers are already employed somewhere and are therefore considered ‘passive’ job seekers.

De-escalation is the art of maintaining a focus on the outcome.

Tools and tips to collaborate and connect with your work-at-home team members.