Category Archives: Customer Experience

5 Fascinating CX Predictions to Inform Your 2019 CX Strategy

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5 CX Predictions to Inform Your 2019 CX Strategy2018 has been a pivotal year for customer experience (CX). Industry wide, there is now a deeper understanding of CX as a multi-faceted, complex, incredibly important piece in the success (or failure) of any brand.

With this in mind, we’ve rounded up the most important and fascinating CX predictions for 2019, and provided our own thoughts on what they mean and how they will impact businesses in future. To stay at the top of your game in the year ahead, it’s essential to understand larger CX trends and how they are shaping our world and our industry. Read on as we detail five fascinating CX predictions to inform your 2019 CX strategy.

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Hold It!: The Top 10 Worst Companies You Called in 2018

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On Hold The Top 10 Worst Companies You Called in 2018HOLD EVERYTHING: The results are in.

Onholdwith.com, the Fonolo-powered site that mines Twitter for real-time complaints about being put on hold (and folks, there are many, many complaints), has today made its annual list of hold-time offenders available for all the world to see. And you may be surprised by who made the list.

OnHoldWith.com, launched by Fonolo a few years back, this year collected over a whopping 165,000 posts mentioning the phrase “on hold with” from Twitter. And as those of us in customer service know to a sobering degree, Twitter has quickly become a go-to platform customers use to shout about frustrating customer service experiences. The tweets informing the report this year confirm that: a) customers are increasingly turning to social media to publicly out companies for poor customer service handling; and b) a benchmark of this poor service is placing a customer on hold.

While the companies on this year’s top 10 list are doing exquisite things in their industries (and trust us, we are big fans of all of them), the results of this year’s report signal that brands could be doing things even better, starting with sprucing up their customer service offerings.

So, here’s a good question: Did your company make the list?

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The Top Contact Center Trends to Watch in 2019 [White Paper]

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Top Contact Center Trends 2019

It’s a bird! It’s a plane!

No, it’s the top contact center trends to watch for in 2019. And we’ve got you covered.

So many storylines, so little time. And as in any classic comic book, the storylines are familiar and sometimes predictable, but we foresee them taking captivating turns in the new year.

As the sun sets on 2018, contact center superheroes should watch for the plots, characters, and villains within them. As always, we keep watch of trends and issues pertinent to contact centers, continuously shifting due to technological  advancements; mergers and acquisitions in the SaaS space; the realigning of  customer service and experience priorities on the part of brands; and more.

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Why You Should Empower Your Customer Service Team

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Why You Should Empower Your Customer Service Teams

Good customer service is crucial to the success of any business. It also happens to be one of the hardest things to ‘get right’, even for the most seasoned of brands. Imagine spending eight hours a day fixing problems you didn’t cause in the first place. Now imagine that your hands are tied in a million different ways and you’re unable to resolve the bulk of the customer complaints that are on the rise. This scenario is real, widespread, and is likely the reason for high attrition rates in the customer service industry.

This is why empowering a customer service team can be key to the overall success of any company. While we could go on for days about the benefits that come from giving your call center employees autonomy, here are the top three reasons you should actively work to support your customer service employees.

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[Slideshare] Messaging vs Chat vs Texting: Battle for the Future of Customer Service

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Text Battle MessagingConsumers love to communicate with each other over text channels and, according to recent studies, they are eager to use this mode of communication to interact with businesses. There are three main forms of text-based communication battling for the future: Messaging, chat, and texting.

As a result, the world of messaging remains very fragmented (especially when viewed globally). No one channel is dominant enough to make the other channels irrelevant. This has profound implications for the world of customer service as companies are increasingly focused on providing omni-channel support. Continue reading →

5 Things Customer Service Agents Should Do On Every Call

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5 Things Customer Service Agents Should Do On CallsThere is no question that customer service is changing quickly. From website FAQs, to live chat options, to social media platforms, there are an increasing amount of channels which consumers can use to reach out for help.

Still, even with all of these bells and whistles, nothing beats the emperor of all customer service options: Speaking to an actual human being.

And the research doesn’t lie: While customers certainly appreciate and use the options available to them, 79% would still prefer to talk to a call center representative over the phone than opt for self-serve online. And, call centers tend to be one of the most-used customer service channels, second only to FAQs. So, given that human-powered customer service is thriving, we call center folks need to ask: What are the key things that should happen on every call to ensure the highest level of customer satisfaction?

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5 Must-Attend Customer Service Conferences in 2019

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Five Must Attend Customer Service Conferences in 2019Have you been searching for the best customer service conferences to attend in 2019? Well, look no further: You’ve come to the right place.

Sure, you could watch a few evocative highlights on YouTube instead, but attending conferences in the flesh still provides far more value. We’ve made the case before that conferences offer customer service professionals a host of rewards, including valuable knowledge, product exposure, and the opportunity to build new relationships.

The following conferences give you a front-row seat for hot-topic, contemporary customer service trends and how to take advantage of them; this could be anything from AI to advances in live chat. For 2019, we have hand-selected a list of the “must attend” customer service conferences based on overall quality, content, network opportunities, and potential key takeaways.

Mark your calendars for these educational and inspiring events, listed chronologically here (And: If you think we forgot a relevant event, feel free to reach out and let us know!). Continue reading →

Infographic: 6 Small Changes That’ll Make a Big Difference in Your Contact Center

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6 Small Changes That'll Make a Big Difference in Your Contact Center6 Small Changes That'll Make a Big Difference in Your Contact Center

It could be argued that customer service is uniformly about a few core things: Giving consumers agency; shepherding them towards a positive outcome to their problems; and providing solutions and smiles by whatever means (and using whatever technology) necessary. While this may seem simple enough, call and contact center managers of the 21st Century know better: It ain’t easy.

As we wind down the year, one exploding with news of mergers, acquisitions, emerging technologies, dying technologies, and the like, sometimes it’s good to go back to basics when the volume on industry news and trends has been turned up to dizzying, deafening degrees.

And, you know, we’re here to help. Our thanksgiving gift to you? Feast your eyes on the infographic below (along with the accompanying Coles notes) which acts as a handy cheat-sheet for those looking to revitalize their contact and call centers with simple changes (including gamification, service levels, and call-backs), all of which will continue to shape the landscape in 2019.

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How Will People Contact Companies Next Year? Beware Cohort Behavior Studies

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How Will People Contact Companies Next Year Beware of Cohort Behavior StudiesEveryone involved in customer service wants to understand consumer channel preference. Otherwise, how can you allocate resources between phone, email, chat, SMS messaging and social channels?

So, we’re all involved in a little anthropology project. In my best David Attenborough voice: “Let’s observe this 35 year-old male as he wishes to find out why his order is late.”

In fact, it may be harder than anthropology because we are looking forward as well as at the present and the past. We also want to know what the preferences will be next year, and in five years. Otherwise, how can we plan ahead? Technology takes time to deploy.

It’s understandable that there is a craving for data on this topic. Every year, many analyst firms and research groups try to illuminate the future with surveys. And one of the most common ways to present results from those surveys is via the cohort chart. It seems to give us the exact answers we need, but can also be misleading.

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Messaging vs Chat vs Texting: Battle for the Future of Customer Service [Live Discussion]

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Messaging-vs-Chat-vs-Texting-Battle-for-the-future-of-Customer-Service

Consumers love to communicate with each other over text channels and, according to recent studies, they are eager to use this mode of communication to interact with businesses. There are three main forms of text-based communication battling for the future: Messaging, chat, and texting.

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