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How to Eliminate Hold Time in Your Call Center

By Daniela Puzzo on February 7, 2013

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How Can a Call Center Eliminate Hold Time - Fonolo Call Center Blog

UPDATED: January 2020

The best way for a call center to stand out as a leader is through the customer experience. It’s no surprise that an exceptional experience leads to more satisfied consumers, who continue to spend more money.

Most callers will begin subconsciously rating their customer experience from the beginning of the interaction, regardless of the channel; phone, web, social media, or mobile app.

Omnichannel customer service isn’t just about having multiple support options; it’s about delivering exceptional service on a channel that YOUR customers find most convenient.

Are you making them wait when they most need to speak to you?

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The Golden Rules of Contact Center SLAs

By Samantha Mehra on September 18, 2018

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UPDATED JANUARY 2020:

As the official written contract shared between two parties, a service level agreement is a commitment between a vendor that ensures specific services will be delivered. It’s a promise you make to your clients that you will maintain the service levels that they and their customers expect.

Anyone who works in customer service, be it in retail, health or finance, should get to grips with Service Level Agreements (SLAs) — and fast. If you’re looking to do just that, you’ve come to the right place. In this crash course, we provide you with:

Contact center SLAs in a nutshell
How to set a winning service level for your organization
Why you should be wary of industry standards
How to meet your service delivery levels

Read on: You’ll be an expert in no time.

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

By Drew Wilkinson on October 24, 2019

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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:

Having to contact customer service multiple times; and
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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Who are you #OnHoldWith? The Top On-Hold Offenders in the Retail Industry

By Samantha Mehra on September 3, 2019

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Build a deck. Outfit a room. Fill a prescription. Get a birthday card. Purchase a television. Scoop up school supplies. Order a couch. Snap up a subscription. Spend. Spend. Spend. Wash. Rinse. Repeat.

In every facet of a customer’s life, there is at least some encounter with the retail space, an investment of their funds in DIY projects, in personal healthcare, in family activities, in leisure, or in bare necessities. The retail industry is buoyed by this reality and is much obliged to exchange a customer’s hard-earned dollars for goods and services, but oftentimes is ill-equipped to serve the masses of consumers when they things go wrong with a product, service, or delivery. And make no mistake: Things always go wrong.

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3 Ways to Prepare Your Retail Contact Center for the Holiday Rush

By Samantha Mehra on August 20, 2019

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Here’s a sad (but true) story: The dog days of summer are almost at an end. As customers and clientele begin to re-emerge from their sun-soaked vacations, and step firmly back into reality and back-to-school or back-to-work shopping, contact centers in the retail industry and beyond will no doubt see a sharp influx in customer inquiries, emails, messages, and phone calls. Their volume will rise on every channel, and callers will be expecting exquisite and timely customer service regardless of the demands of the busy season. And, too, the numbers don’t lie: Last year, Black Friday yielded over $6 billion online, with Cyber Monday surpassing that number at $7.8 billion. (To say that customers are active during these shopping days is a gross understatement.) As we mentioned in a recent article, “calls to businesses rose more than 375% over the past two holiday seasons.” Continue reading →

Customer Service is not a Destination, it’s a Journey: Lessons from Ryanair

By Drew Wilkinson on August 15, 2019

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In the age of disruption, Ryanair may best encapsulate the contrarian, rule-breaking streak sometimes required to conquer an antiquated industry. Just before the turn of the millennium, Ryanair was a tiny, impoverished Irish airline competing with the national carrier, Aer Lingus. As recently as 2017, it was the most profitable airline in Europe, operating 2,000 daily flights from 86 bases. Although the blue and saffron airline has recently hit a spot of turbulence largely thanks to Brexit – announcing 900 job cuts and a 21% drop in quarterly profits – the airline offers a fascinating case study in customer service maturation. This is the oft untold story of how Ryanair cleaned up its notorious customer service reputation by putting the customer first.

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Four Podcasts Every Customer Service Manager Should Listen To

By Jessica Suezin on August 13, 2019

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Retail is transforming at an increasing rate, and more than ever. Advances in Artificial Intelligence (AI) are changing interactions between customers and brands and are allowing many of these processes to become automated. However, despite these rapid changes, many customers still prefer interacting with an actual person, whether it’s in store with a floor representative, or on the phone with a call center agent.

But how do we educate ourselves on current customer service practices when the rate of change is near impossible to keep up with? Well, podcasts are a great way for managers and retailers to keep up with the latest trends and strategies in the service vertical. Here are a few suggestions of customer service podcasts we love, and you will, too. They present the latest in customer service research in clear and comprehensive ways, and provide guidance on how to apply this research to improve the experience for your consumers.

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How to Prepare Your Call Center for Open Enrollment [Guide]

By Astrid Monge on June 27, 2019

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Open enrollment is one of the busiest and most stressful times of the year for healthcare insurance providers and consumers alike. In fact, many healthcare insurers start planning for open enrollment the minute the last season has come to a close. This is good thinking, as no company wants to find themselves getting ready only a few weeks before November 1st. Regardless, one of the main challenges during this time period is communication, with the cumulative call center volume in the federal marketplace totaling more than 14,569,000 in 2016 alone, according to the Centers for Medicare & Medical Services.

It makes sense: Customers are likely to be overwhelmed by the information they need to sift through in order to make serious decisions about their healthcare coverage. They are bound to have questions for call center agents. This, compounded by their desire to obtain the same level of customer service as they would from their favorite retail and tech brands, leads to massive spikes in call volume for most healthcare call centers. And while it might be tempting to forgo quality customer interactions and neglect the customer experience during this extremely stressful time of year, it’s of the utmost importance that call centers aim to please. After all, this is how customer relationships are made or broken.

How can your call center improve customer interactions during the most important time of year for consumers’ healthcare choices? That’s easy. In our latest tip sheet, you will learn the most important steps to take to get your call center into gear.

(Get the full tip sheet here!)

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

By Drew Wilkinson on June 11, 2019

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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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Acquisitions Point to Messaging’s Future in Customer Service

By Shai Berger on June 5, 2019

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Big 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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