Category Archives: Call Center

Telltale Signs: How to Identify Call Center Agent Burnout

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How to Identify Call Center Agent BurnoutCall centers have become notorious for possessing one of the highest employee attrition rates of any industry. According to Talkdesk, call centers have a turnover rate ranging from 30 to 45 percent. This is a staggering number, given that the average employee turnover rate in 2015 for all industries in the United States was 16.7 percent.

This isn’t entirely surprising: Call centers are stressful work environments. Agents are required to deal with challenging, frustrated customers, with the knowledge that the calls (and their performance) are being monitored and timed. On top of this, a U.S. News Careers report found that customer service representatives suffer from below-average job flexibility.

We’ve previously discussed ways to combat agent burnout, but today we ask: What are the symptoms? How do we properly make an early diagnosis? Identifying the symptoms of burnout as soon as possible can significantly boost your service quality, workplace satisfaction, and bottom line. Continue reading →

4 Contact Center Reports to Kick off 2019

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4 Contact Center Reports to Kick off 2019It’s been a while since we did a report round-up post. It’s not for lack of material! Our inboxes here at Fonolo HQ are full of great reports covering call center technology and trends. The steady pace of industry news has simply made it hard to find a quiet week to slip in a post like this.

Below are four reports that we think are worth your time. Thanks, as always, to the companies that sponsor these reports. The availability of this information helps the whole industry become more innovative.

By the way, don’t forget to check out the report we just released: On the Horizon: Customer Service Trends in 2019. It features a sparkling new sci-fi theme that helps to keep the pages turning.

 

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#Trending: Call Centers Are Addicted to Call-Backs

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Trending - Call Centers are addicted to call-backsHere’s what we know: In the call center industry, it feels as though there is a carousel of new and emerging call center trends forever in rotation. A trend doesn’t even have to be new or never-before-seen, mind you; it could very well be an existing technology, process, product, or service that has finally garnered the attention it deserves.

In the call center industry, something big is trending: Call-backs. And it’s no surprise that call centers are addicted to this solution because, quite simply, it’s the secret to customer happiness.

 

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How to Efficiently Manage Service Levels with the Right Technology [Webinar]

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How-to Efficiently Manage Service Level with the Right Technology‘Service level’ measures the accessibility of a company to their customers, and that company’s ability to manage call volume fluctuations and execute their staffing strategy. It is directly tied to customer service quality and is often a vital indicator of a contact center’s overall performance.

A declining service level can point to a number of issues: Poor scheduling; calls taking longer than expected; unplanned call fluctuations; and much more. On the other hand, if a contact center’s service level is improving, it’s usually a sign that the right technology, optimal agent scheduling, and accurate call planning are in place.

How can contact centers better manage their service levels? Leveraging the right technology can go a long way in improving a less-than-optimal service level and,  as a result, the overall quality of customer service. From optimizing workforce management to enabling agent call-backs, managers and decision-makers who implement the right technology will reap the rewards.

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New York Times Op-Ed Mentions Containment Rate

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New York Times Op-Ed Mentions Containment Rate 1

Containment rate is a well-established performance metric in the customer service world, but not as well-known as NPS or hold time. I would say it’s on the “wonkish” side as far as metrics go.

So, you can imagine my delight to see “containment rate” mentioned in a New York Times Op-Ed last week! Not surprisingly, it was in the context of a “robots-will-take-our-jobs” thesis, but it at least was a more nuanced approach than what we usually see in the mainstream press.

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4 Takeaways from Our Live Discussion on The Future of BPOs [Video]

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4 Takeaways from Our Live Discussion on The Future of BPOs Last week, Fonolo hosted an insightful live discussion on the future of BPOs. The expert panel discussed whether reshoring is a permanent trend, the impact of AI on BPOs, 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: Reagan Miller, Jeremy Watkin, Thomas Laird, and Shai Berger.

 

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Avaya’s Annual Show Highlights Strength, New Directions

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Avaya’s Annual Show Highlights Strength, New Directions

Avaya made good use of its annual Avaya ENGAGE® conference to show off its new branding while impressing partners, press, analysts, and customers with its momentum. There were too many announcements at last week’s show to cover them all in this post. So, I’ll just touch on some highlights, give links to the most interesting coverage, and summarize what the analysts thought. We will circle back to some of the specific topics in later posts.

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17 Surprising Stats About Call Centers

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17 Surprising Facts About Call Centers 1We have 17 gifts for you today, or rather, 17 intriguing facts about call centers!

You may know a few of these already, but trust us: It never hurts to revisit some of the pivotal advancements, trends, stats, and interesting facts that have made waves in the call center industry (both past and present). With the “era of the customer” in full swing; the increase in customer expectation for omnichannel communication; and the never-ending developments in communication methods through AI-powered self-service; it is easy to overlook the importance that the call center plays in the customer experience.

Although customers begin their service journey with self-service before contacting an agent, the reality is that once self-service fails (which it does when the support issue is too complex, or when the stakes are higher for the customer), customers will take to their phones to resolve their issues. So, there is a limit to self-service, which will always lead the customer back to the loving arms of the call center.

Without further ado, here are some surprising, fundamental, and/or entertaining stats about the call center, a customer service lifesaver that is here to stay:

 

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[Slideshare] Looking Ahead: Predicting the Future of BPOs

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4 Takeaways from Our Live Discussion on The Future of BPOs

Companies have been outsourcing their call centers for decades to lower costs, increase productivity, and enable scaled-up customer support during peak times. It is so prevalent in the call center space that the term “Business process outsourcing” (BPO) is often used interchangeably with “outsourced call center.” In the last few years, the call center outsourcing industry has seen revenues crossing $140 billion. This growth is expected to continue, with Cushman Wakefield predicting 6% yearly growth up to 2020.

At the same time, major changes are impacting BPOs. Firstly, the impact of artificial intelligence is predicted to be extremely disruptive. For example, the outsourcing industry in the Philippines (the country with the most call centers in the world) is worried that the rise of artificial intelligence (AI) will eat into the 23 billion-dollar sector. Secondly, in recent years there has been a growth in “reshoring”: Call centers are returning to North America, a trend driven by several factors including low wage inflation and an increased focus on customer experience. Finally, BPOs are weighing up the benefits of adopting a multichannel approach as siloing the different customer service channels becomes taboo.

While BPOs are no strangers to challenging times, the next few years promise to be particularly interesting for outsourced call centers.

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The Top Contact Center Acquisitions of the Last 6 Months

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The Top Contact Center Acquisitions of the Last 6 MonthsThis post was supposed to be about the “Top Contact Center Acquisitions of 2018”, but two significant deals occurred in the last two weeks, and I didn’t want to wait another year to include them on the list. Plus, we already published a blog on “5 Intriguing Call Center Acquisitions from the First Half of 2018”, so there was no point in repeating some of the deals that were covered in that post.

We continue to see a very active M&A market in the contact center space. Sometimes people call this “consolidation,” but I think that oversimplifies the motivations behind these deals.

So, here we go, in reverse chronological order:

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