Author Archives: Daniela Puzzo

Why You Should Read these Contact Center Books

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Why You Should Read these Contact Center BooksIf you’re like me, you love to lose yourself in a good story. Whether they’re long or short, impactful books have a profound way of reaching readers on a deeply personal level. Inspiring the reader to escape into her own imagination, compelling stories bring much needed pauses in otherwise hectic lives – something we all appreciate.

The personal gratification we experience from a good book applies to most any genre or style of novel: Self-help books, poetry anthologies, historical epics, and professional development books are all fair game. In honor of #BookLoversDay, we’re focussing on some inspirational reads for those folks working in the contact center world. To avoid bombarding you with a dozen or so to chose from, we decided to focus on three solid reads.

Get ready for these riveting reads…

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Customer Care vs. Customer Satisfaction

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Customer Care vs. Customer SatisfactionWe deal with a lot of buzzwords and phrases that saturate the customer service industry, some of which have become a little bit tired. One in particular that we really detest here at Fonolo is “Delight your customer”. Personally, when I hear that phrase, I experience a range of emotions. It seems to be healthy balance between shock (Why in the world would one use that phrase?) and sheer irritation (sort of akin to nails on a chalkboard!).

But, hey, who am I to judge? These things are all just a matter of opinion, right? We all have go-to vocabulary that we either love or loathe. Still, there are two words in particular that I feel everyone should pay attention to. These words hold true sustenance and can dramatically impact the success of your contact center team: customer care and customer satisfaction. The problem is that some companies, while familiar with these terms, really don’t connect with them on a deeper level. How you attend to your customers’ happiness levels and overall satisfaction requires critical thinking.

Let’s spend some time deciphering what these words mean and why they should be top of mind.

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Are You Measuring the Right CX Metrics? [Slideshare]

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Are You Measuring the Right CX Metrics? Is your immediate response, yes? Well, think again. Research has shown that many contact centers are focusing on internal metrics only and, as a result, they are losing valuable insights into their CX programs. Most businesses will claim that meeting customer expectations through a profound experience is a top priority. But achieving this is no small task.

We all know that customers are the lifeblood of any business and unless their perception of your brand is optimal, your business will not succeed. Companies that focus on providing an outstanding customer service experience ultimately reap the benefits – more loyalty, better acquisition, increased spend.

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What Are the Top CX Metrics for Improving Your Contact Center? [Webinar]

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What Are the Top CX Metrics for Improving Your Contact CenterThe ability to resolve an inquiry in one contact, regardless of the contact channel used by customers, is a major challenge for organizations, and critical in providing a great customer experience (CX). In fact, SQM’s research shows that 93% of customers using the call center channel, and 72% of customers using the website channel, expect that they will be able to resolve their inquiry in one contact.

There is much debate around what the right metrics are for measuring a customer’s experience when using single or multiple contact channels to resolve an inquiry or problem.  Unfortunately, research has shown that many contact centers are focusing on internal metrics only and, as a result, they are losing valuable insights into their CX programs.

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Tell-Tale Signs You Need to Upgrade Your IVR

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“IVR.”Tell-Take Signs You Need to Upgrade Your IVR

*Shudder*

Even the mere mention of the acronym is enough to make one cringe. We’ve all had less-than-stellar experiences interacting with a robotic, impersonal interactive voice response. Be it the endless menus, the hunting and pecking for options on the keypad, and worst of all, the failure of the system to understand your request, is enough to drive even the calmest person crazy.

The truth is, when someone contacts your call center, they demand (and deserve) time and attention, and if these expectations are not met efficiently it can be costly. Despite this, call centers continue to use IVR technology, as it is widely considered to be a necessary evil. It can drastically improve the efficiency of call routing and thus putting callers in contact with the right agents, a critical piece of the customer experience.

Although an IVR is highly praised from a call center perspective, it doesn’t change the fact that callers strongly dislike interacting with them. Luckily, the modern call center is changing as technology improves and becomes easier to use. Just look at call-back solutions, a once desired, nice-to-have is now absolutely mandatory in the call center realm. So, rather than completely roasting IVRs, below we discuss warning signs that it might be time for an upgrade. Continue reading →

An Easy Approach to Managing Contact Center Peak Times [Slideshare]

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An Easy Approach to Managing Contact Center Peak TimesWe’re here today to talk to you about *cringe* peak times.

Peak times tend to be a touchy topic for call centers. Almost every center experiences them, and most don’t know how to handle the volume without adding more agents.

Every contact center is different, which means that peak times can take on various forms. Some experience the surge on certain days of the week (typically Mondays), others surge during specific times pf the day, and some only experience surges on holidays. It really comes down to the type of business your contact center is supporting; but, regardless of the variety of industries, the solution to the problem remains consistent – and it has nothing to do with workforce management (WFM).

 

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How to Successfully Handle Call Volume During Peak Times [Webinar]

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How to Successfully Handle Call Volume During Peak Times [Webinar]Every call center faces the problem of unpredictable spikes in call volume. Sometimes the causes are understood, even anticipated. However, in many cases these peak periods come as a shock to the system. The reality is that voice remains the most preferred channel for customers, but its popularity comes at a price: long hold times.

Unfortunately, the effect of this on the customer experience is significant: 60% of customers will abandon a call after just one minute of waiting on hold. If you want to improve customer loyalty and keep your CSAT scores healthy, you’ll need to make sure you have the right safety nets in place. Continue reading →

3 Takeaways from Our Live Discussion on Top Call Center Metrics [Video]

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3 Takeaways from Our Live Discussion on Top Call Center MetricsLast week, Fonolo hosted an insightful live discussion on the top call center metrics you need to be tracking . This expert panel discussed NPS for customer satisfaction, popular call center metrics, the future of the voice channel, and so much more! To save you some time, we’ve extracted video snippets showcasing highlights from the discussion.

First, let’s take a quick look at the panel of speakers: Daniel Hong, Jon Arnold, and Shai Berger.

 

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10 Trends That Will Disrupt Customer Service in 2018 [White Paper]

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10 Trends That Will Disrupt Customer Service in 2018“I feel the need, the need for speed!”

In Top Gun, the 1986 classic, Pete “Maverick” Mitchell’s famous phrase effectively summed up the future of customer service (CS). While it wasn’t intended to evoke the relationship between business and consumer, over 30 years later, it speaks directly to the state of CS today.

Speed is arguably the most significant benchmark for every single customer service interaction today.  Businesses can never be too fast to reply, react, or resolve an issue. As channel choices continue to stack up, and consumers navigate through them with swift precision, the expectation to be ‘ready and waiting’ at all times of the day is now the gold standard in customer service.

Despite this, recent reports reveal that the average time to handle a customer service request is 15 hours and 17 minutes – a far cry from first-class service expectations. But of the 12 industries that improved customer satisfaction in 2016, nine of them had something in common: They each sped up First Response Time (FRT). When issues are resolved in the initial five minutes of first contact, the average customer satisfaction score is 90 (on a 100-point scale). If resolved in six to 10 minutes, the satisfaction rating drops seven points to 83, and continues dropping steadily as additional time passes. Therefore, responding quickly will help to stave off declining satisfaction.

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The Secret Sauce for Increasing Customer Happiness [White Paper]

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The Secret Sauce for Increasing Customer HappinessIf you run a call center, change is familiar. The functionality and technology is more advanced than ever before. Beyond that, the expectations of service, the metrics that gauge success, and the channels customers can use to maximize their efforts and minimize their wait times are very different.

Today, most changes to call centers are a response to consumer behaviour, rather than an effort to advance business initiatives. After all, customer happiness and engagement are amongst the most significant drivers behind the image, culture, and success of an organization. In fact, 82% of consumers surveyed by Zendesk in their annual Benchmark Report said they stopped doing business with a company because of bad customer service from call centers. Continue reading →

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