Tag Archives: contact-center-manager

Milestones: Fonolo’s Platform Gets a Facelift

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Fonolo Announces New Web Platform Widget

Over a decade ago, in 2007-era Toronto, Shai Berger, Jason Bigue, and Mike Pultz launched a little rocket of a company called Fonolo, unsure of where and how far it would take them. Many memorable years later, and with more employees climbing aboard along the way, Fonolo has grown to be known as the pioneer in cloud-based call-back solutions, to the delight of those in the call center industry.

Today we are chuffed to announce yet another milestone moment in the company’s growth and commitment to its customers: The release of our advanced new call-back platform. The new platform offers a breadth of new features supporting increased security, reporting, customization, and accessibility, intended to provide customers with the tools they need to handle the growing call-volume and complexity in their contact centers.

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What’s Holding Back the Contact Center Industry?

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What's Holding Back the Contact Center IndustryContact centers are like people: We’re all at different stages, chugging along healthily but sometimes faltering along the way.

As we begin to look back at 2018, one thing is becoming clear: Not every contact center is created equal. While some are overhauling and optimizing their entire operations and adapting to the demands of modern consumers, there exist some (even those belonging to notable brands) that lag a step or two behind the speed of change. This is not a criticism – it’s simply the reality, an industry-wide circumstance brought about by the learning curves and rapid technological changes to the customer service space in contemporary times.

 

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The Best Advice for Contact Centers in 2018: The Experts Weigh In

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The Best Advice for Contact Centers Experts Weigh In

It’s a noisy little planet we live on. In contemporary times, the deafening sounds of the outside world via the news, social media, the subway, the radio, the street, and even the phone lines can distract us from our long-term professional and personal goals. It’s simply become too loud.

This is especially true for those of us involved in the cacophony of contact centers; we are essentially the appointed, trusted ‘brand listeners’ who hear many, many voices on a given day, including those of both customers and colleagues. Taking in the noise is part of the job, and we’re good at doing it.

But if we momentarily dial the sound down, we are rewarded with a) some mental clarity; and b) the sweet, sweet sounds of intelligent, helpful voices who deliver some music-to-our-ears advice on how to survive and thrive in 2018 and beyond.

Here, experts and influencers in the CX and CS industries give us incredibly valuable soundbites on best practices, boosting morale, improving performance, implementing technology, building partnerships, and delivering well-orchestrated customer support offering to your burgeoning audience of customers.*

Contact center professionals? Turn your podcast down, and turn this article up to eleven.

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Give Thanks to Contact Center Agents

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Give Thanks to Contact Center AgentsPicture this: By dinner time tomorrow you’ll be sitting around the table enjoying a festive Thanksgiving meal and preparing yourself for the lethargic feeling you’ll have after consuming an unimaginable amount of food (nom-nom). You’ll sit back on your favourite spot on the sofa, put your feet up and have thoughts of gratitude. How thankful you are to be surrounded by great family, caring friends, and all the gifts of life we’re lucky to have. Now let’s take that scenario and think about how to show the same amount of gratitude to call center agents.

Even though employee appreciation may seem like common practice, most contact center agents feel unappreciated and disengaged. Managers may think they’re showing appreciation, but more often than not, those thanks are not heard. With Black Friday around the corner and the holiday season quickly creeping in, the call center is sure to get inundated with calls and requests. If you’re trying to bridge the gap this Thanksgiving, you can start with these simple tips to increase agent engagement.

 

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Survey Data Shows Call-Back Popularity Growing

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Survey Data Shows Call-Back Popularity GrowingToday’s demanding consumers have high expectations when it comes to the call center experience. A surefire way to fall out of favor with a customer is to leave them on hold for more than a few minutes. (For proof, head over to onholdwith.com and check out the feed of complaint-tweets.)

The solution to hold-time is to offer a call-back as an alternative. Virtual queuing means that each caller’s place in line is held and the caller is free to enjoy their day while waiting. Call-backs can also be offered on a scheduled basis, where callers can choose a time slot in the future. (We covered the surprising power of scheduled call-backs in this post.)

At Fonolo, we’ve been preaching about the benefits of call-backs for many years, and survey data shows that the industry is responding as the percentage of call centers offering this option continues to grow. Our goal is to see every call center offer call-backs, so that no one has to wait on hold ever again.

 

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The Anatomy of a Successful Contact Center Manager [Infographic]

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The Anatomy of a Successful Contact Center ManagerIf you’ve chosen a career as a contact center manager, it won’t take long to realize how demanding the job is. It takes someone with many special qualities to succeed in this line of work. We’ve spoken to our fair share of call center managers, and we’ve noticed that many of the shining stars share a variety of common attributes. That’s why we’ve developed this handy dandy anatomy chart to highlight the characteristics needed to successfully handle this role. Continue reading →