Category Archives: Call Center

4 Customer Service Books Every CS Pro Should Own

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4 Customer Service Books Every CS Pro Should Own-450As Harry Truman famously stated, “Not all readers are leaders, but all leaders are readers.”  Wise words. Although this is true, how do customer service leaders strategically read to a) learn how to turn themselves into optimal leaders; and b) transform their teams into the high-performing customer service engines they aspire to be?

With this being the “Era of the Customer,” it is now more important than ever for customer service professionals to stay ahead of ever-changing trends in the vast landscape that is the customer service and customer experience industries. Yes, an unwavering intellectual curiosity is a must in such an industry, but as you well know, it’s not always enough. There exists a myriad of books out there to choose from, and while it may seem daunting to know where to begin, we Fonolonians can give you a leg-up.

 

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Are You Prepared for Unpredicted Spikes in Call Volume? [Slideshare]

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Are You Prepared for Unpredicted Spikes in Call Volume [Webinar]While today’s tech-savvy consumers are using more non-voice channels to connect with businesses, the act of picking up the phone to quickly and verbally resolve an issue (complex or otherwise) isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. The problem with this? According to an Accenture study, consumers’ top two complaints were:

  1. Having to contact customer service multiple times; and
  2. Being kept on hold for too long.

This consumer pet peeve is exacerbated by the fact that contact centers routinely face expected, and unexpected, spikes in call volume. Expected spikes can be a result of seasonality and promotional events, and unexpected spikes can stem from product recalls or natural disasters.

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How to Prepare your Call Center for Cyber Monday and Black Friday [Guide]

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How to Prepare your Call Center for Cyber Monday and Black Friday [Guide]While Black Friday and Cyber Monday may seem a long ways off, smart retail contact center and call center leaders are already planning for the variety of challenges this period poses. In 2018, Black Friday pulled in $6.2 billion in online sales and Cyber Monday saw $7.8 billion in sales (both record highs). Given these numbers, it’s unsurprising that calls to businesses rose more than 375% over the past two holiday seasons. While this unbelievable sales flood is a boon for a retailer’s bottom line, it can be a painful time both for customers seeking assistance and those in charge of retail contact centers.

It might seem tempting to neglect the customer experience in favor of the “just get it done” mentality that stems from such a drastic increase in call volume, it’s important that your call center aims to please during the busiest sales periods of the year. After all, this is how customer relationships are made or broken.

So, how can call centers improve customer interactions during the most important weekend of the year? Look no further … we have you covered! In this tip sheet, you’ll read about four of the most important ways you can get your call center into gear with specific action items. (Download the full tip sheet here!)

 

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Behind the Curtain: Demystifying AI and NLP [Live Discussion]

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demystifying AI and NLP

Anyone who works in the customer service arena has witnessed an explosion in the hype surrounding artificial intelligence (AI) and natural language processing (NLP). Why is this the case? Popular AI tools like chatbots use NLP (or, the ability to understand human language) to interact with customers on a more sophisticated level than the IVRs of old. There is no doubt that these technologies will play an important role within the industry in the years and decades ahead. However, as the hype grows, and the bandwagon gets bigger, it’s easy to become confused.

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Acquisitions Point to Messaging’s Future in Customer Service

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Acquisitions Point to Messaging’s Future in Customer ServiceBig question: How should text-based communication work alongside voice for customer service? In the dark ages, the only answer to this was email, in its own silo, and a call center, in its own silo. Then real-time chat came along. And then messaging, powered by massive platforms like Facebook and WhatsApp, made an appearance. Meanwhile, driving in its own lane, is good ‘ol SMS.

For now, you can find companies trying any or all of these strategies. You can read success stories in each. But, at some point, it’s likely that one of these channels will become the dominant companion to voice. By that I mean it will have enough critical mass that it’s just assumed by consumers that any large company will offer it, in the way we assume any large company has a toll-free number and an email address.

 

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The Contact Center Guide to Managing Spikes in Call Volume [Industry Report]

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Managing Call Volume Spikes Industry Report

Contact center managers are, at their core, problem-solvers. One of the most challenging problems they often face is dealing with unpredictable spikes in call volume. Sometimes the causes of call spikes are understood, even anticipated. Yet, in many cases, these periods of peak call volume come as a real shock to everyone in the contact center. For example, a marketing event promoting a product sale would be an easy predictor for an influx in calls, whereas an unexpected power outage or sudden bout of the flu in the contact center isn’t something that can be readily planned for. Or is it?

This guide will tackle those questions, and more, head on!  Continue reading →

4 Brands Using Cutting-Edge Customer Service Technology

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4 Brands Using Cutting-Edge Customer Service TechnologyWith the powerful tool of social media, customers everywhere now have an expansive platform with which to voice their feelings about their customer service experiences. This puts a huge amount of pressure on call center agents to perform. Of course, companies hope that their customers use these social platforms to sing the praises of their brand. But, of course, this is not always the case: An IBM study found that customer service operations are often both pricey and inefficient. Companies spend $1 trillion on 265 billion customer service calls each year and 50% of the complaints were unresolved.

It’s not a great track record.

 

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Success Story: How Canada’s HVAC Experts Deliver Customer Excellence with Call-Backs

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Reliance Home Comfort and Fonolo Call-Backs Success Story Customer service is a serious business.

We know this better than anyone else: On a daily basis, we witness our customers working tirelessly to provide exceptional journeys for their own customer base. They are able to achieve greatness because of one important thing: They take service seriously, and in the long-run, this worldview results in success. Today, we bring are pleased to present you with one particularly inspiring success story, featuring a Canadian HVAC, plumbing, and water-heating service provider (and beloved Fonolo customer): Reliance Home Comfort.

Trusted by 1.8 million homeowners and businesses, Reliance Home Comfort is one of Canada’s largest and full-service providers of heating, cooling, water heaters, water purification, plumbing, and protection plans.

 

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Are You Prepared for Unpredicted Spikes in Call Volume? [Webinar]

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Are You Prepared for Unpredicted Spikes in Call Volume [Webinar]After the grounding of all Boeing 737 Max 8 aircraft, calls to Air Canada’s customer service prompted a recording that said call volume had “temporarily exceeded the company’s capacity to answer or even place callers on hold.” While this was an extreme event, every call center faces the same problem at one time or another: Unpredictable spikes in call volume. These causes can be understood, even anticipated. However, as in the case of Air Canada, these peak periods can also come as a shock to the system.

While today’s tech-savvy consumers are using more non-voice channels to connect with businesses, the act of picking up the phone to quickly and verbally resolve an issue (complex or otherwise) isn’t going anywhere anytime soon.

The problem is that when calls spike, hold times spike, too. 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. A quick glance at onholdwith.com confirms how much hold times infuriate consumers. 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.

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4 Contact Center Reports Worth Your Time

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4 Contact Center Reports Worth Your Time - ReportsNow that Game of Thrones has ended, you’re probably thinking, “What should I do with all of the extra time I have now?” Allow me to suggest something: It’s a great time to catch up on industry reading. There’s a large (metaphorical) stack of reports to go through here at Fonolo HQ, so let’s dive in!

Below are four reports that we think are really worth your time. We are grateful, as always, to the companies that sponsor these reports and make them available to the public. Having this info out there helps the industry engage in better conversations and, ultimately, bring better products to market.

If you haven’t read the reports from our last round-up (in February) you can find the list here. In addition to today’s batch of four reports, please check out our new re-issued report on managing call spikes in the contact center.

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