Tag Archives: contact-center

Four Metrics that your Utility Contact Center Needs to Track

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Four Metrics that your Utility Contact Center Needs to Track Following widespread industry deregulation, the energy and utilities sector has become increasingly competitive.  With more and more choices available to customers, providing quality customer service is more critical than ever. Customer loyalty is no longer guaranteed, with negative experiences driving ratepayers to the competition: 43% of utility customers who have a negative experience are still members after a year, compared to 74% of those who’ve had a positive experience. It’s a perfect storm of high consumer expectations, a host of new challenger brands, and online price comparison sites.

In this new era, customer service has become the battleground for organizations in the utilities sector. Those that win on this front are retaining customers and growing revenue. Those who lose are losing big. For example, in 2018, British Gas announced the loss of 340,000 customers and a 20% drop in profits.

Those looking to regain some ground through their customer service offering must first equip themselves with the data necessary to make informed decisions. What metrics should you measure, though? Here are the four key performance indicators (KPIs) your call center must be tracking.
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3 Ways to Prepare Your Retail Contact Center for the Holiday Rush

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3 Ways to Prepare Your Retail Contact Center for the Holiday RushHere’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 →

How to Prepare Your Call Center for Seasonal Call Spikes: Utilities

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How to Prepare Your Call Center for Seasonal Spikes: UtilitiesIt’s no secret that once upon a time, utility companies could get away with less than stellar customer service. Nowadays, increased competition means that customers have more alternatives than ever before, and are willing to switch providers if they are unhappy. Even utility companies that operate in a de facto monopoly have regulators mandating certain customer service levels with corresponding CSAT scores.

While utility companies can certainly do their best to control customer service metrics like CSAT, they do not control the weather. Hot or cold, call centers in the utilities industry experience drastic spikes in call volume due to seasonal weather changes and unforeseen weather events. A widespread outage caused by a winter storm or a heatwave can completely overwhelm your organization’s customer service department and its phone lines.

While it would be easier 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, especially during the busiest seasons of the year. After all, this is how customer relationships are made or broken.

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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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The Lowdown on Downloads: 3 Customer Service Apps to take on your Summer Travels

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The Lowdown on Downloads 3 Customer Service Apps to take on your Summer TravelsBack in 2009, Apple filed for a trademark on its buzz-worthy phrase, “There’s an app for that.” Almost a decade later, there’s no shortage of apps cluttering up the Android and Apple marketplaces. While many factors are at play here, the growth of the mobile app market has been partly driven by the fact that more and more businesses are integrating mobile apps into their customer service strategies.

When it comes to travelling, people are increasingly reliant on their smartphones. From last-minute flight changes to on-the-ground local expertise, there truly is always “an app for that.” With the Transportation Security Administration calling 2019 the “busiest summer travel season ever,” these three customer-focused apps are not only worth downloading, but can provide valuable insights into what customers expect from businesses.

 

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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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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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