Tag Archives: call-center

How the Hotel Industry is Changing Customer Service Patterns Forever

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Hotel Industry Changing Customer Service Patterns with Rise of TechnologyCustomer service has always been the linchpin that determined success or failure in the hotel industry. Whether it’s housekeeping, restaurant and bar service, or events, members and stakeholders have always had to put customer service first to ensure the health of its bottom lines. With the emergence of Airbnb and its threat to hotel business, coupled with the evolution of technology and its role in the way guests enjoy their experiences, the industry is developing new customer service practices and applications to stay relevant. Tony Elenis, president and CEO of the Ontario Restaurant Hotel and Motel Association (ORHMA), spoke to the changing demographics and issues that are impacting customer service trends in the hotel industry.

 

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A Call Center Glossary: The A-Zs

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A Call Center Glossary: The A-Zs of Call CentersOften, we use terminology and abbreviations that we become accustomed to in our everyday lives, especially within the call center space. Given that the average person spends one third of their lives at work, it is no wonder that we develop whole worlds of vocabulary to use within our professional environments. After all, it is simpler to say, “Where are we with AHT this week?” than to say, “Where are we with the average handling time metric this week?” It may seem insignificant, but cutting words down to vowels or single syllables is evidently preferable to a mouthful of phrases, particularly if they must be used regularly within the workplace. Just look at our use of acronyms and abbreviations in everyday life – ASAP (as soon as possible), LMK (let me know), TTYL (talk to you later), and the list goes on.

 

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4 Takeaways from Our Live Discussion on AI and Natural Language Processing [Video]

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4 Takeaways from Our Live Discussion on AI and NLP Last week, Fonolo hosted an insightful live discussion on the current state of AI and Natural Language Processing (NLP). The expert panel discussed how NLP relates to the general field of AI, the pros and cons of different approaches to NLP, and 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: Frank Schneider, Tobias Goebel, and Shai Berger.

 

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

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Healthcare Tip Sheet ImageOpen 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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Fonolo Investigative Report: Hold Time in Real Time: Booking with Air Canada

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Fonolo Investigative Report Hold time in Real Time Booking with Air CanadaPicture it: A young American family booking a flight to a city in another country via Air Canada. Imagine them having to wait for more than 20 minutes before a customer service agent gets on the phone, only to then be transferred to another department.

Picture this, too: Imagine trying to get a flight changed at the last minute and waiting on hold for more than 50 minutes until you finally get through.

And, imagine this: You receive a gift card for Christmas and it doesn’t work, so you have to wait for customer service to get back to you. And in this scenario, it feels like that takes days.

These three situations have all been experienced by people just like you and I looking to connect with Air Canada customer service professionals to either book flights, change flight times, or simply access information about travel requirements and needs. According to onholdwith.com, a community-driven website aiming to end hold time for good, website Air Canada is among the most notorious hold time offenders. In addition, data from the website shows a real-time view of Twitter complaints for Canada and research shows more than 119 complaints in just the last week alone.

 

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Four Reasons Why a Personalized Customer Service Experience is Important

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Four Reasons Why a Personalized Customer Service Experience is Important

Today’s customers are savvier than ever before and one thing many of them are looking for is a custom experience tailored specifically to their individual needs. A study conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of Ada showed that personalized customer service has a variety of benefits for the company providing these customized experiences. Companies with personalized customer service see a decrease in operational costs, more efficient call center agents and higher levels of customer satisfaction and engagement.

Despite the clear benefits of personalized customer service, only 5% of companies said they were implementing customized experiences regularly. With so few companies jumping on the customization train, brands have a huge opportunity to set themselves apart. Let’s take a closer look at some of the rewards you can reap by giving your customers that personal touch!

 

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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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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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