voice-channel

3 Mega-Trends Defining the Contact Center’s Future

By Shai Berger on April 15, 2014

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3 Mega-Trends Defining the Contact Center’s Future I just returned from Frost & Sullivan’s Contact Center Executive MindXchange, where I had the pleasure of interacting with many leaders in our industry. Over three days, vendors showed off their newest features and executives shared what issues challenge them today and what they worry about down the road.

On the flight home, I spent the time looking through my notes trying to find larger patterns. We cover “trends” on this blog quite often (e.g. Top 10 Customer Experience Trends, Top 10 Contact Center Trends). What I want to talk about today are “mega-trends”, which I define as bigger strategic patterns that drive multiple, more focussed, trends.

These 3 mega-trends are the most powerful forces in our industry today. Continue reading →

3 Best Practices for Building a Multi-Channel Contact Center

By Shai Berger on March 11, 2014

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3 Best Practices for Building a Multi-Channel Contact Center As consumers, we want a good experience… no, scratch that. We want good “engagement” with the companies we deal with. And we want it across an increasing number of channels.

A recent study reports that 77% of consumers use more than one channel when seeking service, so a key ingredient to happy consumers is offering support where and when they need it.

With 88% of all organizations delivering a multi-channel service experience, the differentiating factor will now be in the quality of those interactions. How can your call center meet the rising expectations of consumers? Here are 3 “best practice” tips worth reviewing. Continue reading →

Top 4 Takeaways from our Latest Google Hangout on the Customer Experience

By Daniela Puzzo on November 5, 2013

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Top 4 Takeaways: Google Hangout on the Customer Experience Last week, Fonolo hosted a Google Hangout to discuss the future of the customer experience. This great panel of industry experts shared their comments and stories on some of the biggest stats and trends affecting the customer experience. To save you some time, we’ve extracted video snippets from each topic.

Let’s take a quick look at the panelist introductions: Kate Nasser The People-Skills Coach™, Annette Franz from CX Journey, Roy Atkinson from UBM Tech-HDI, Rachel Miller from Nimble, and Shai Berger from Fonolo. Continue reading →

Chat-Based Customer Service at its Best and Worst

By Shai Berger on October 24, 2013

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Chat-Based Customer Service at its Best and Worst The use of text-based chat for customer service has exploded in recent years. According to a recent report from Forrester, its use increased 43% between 2009 and 2012. Contact centers are drawn to live chat because a single agent can handle multiple simultaneous chats, as opposed to only one simultaneous voice call (which leads to lower average cost-per-call or cost-per-contact).

Another reason live chat has been so popular is that it aligns well with the new communication habits of consumers, especially younger ones. In terms of new channels for customer service, the rise of live chat can really be seen as parallel to the rising popularity of social media. Both are text-based and asynchronous modes of interaction. Chat is private and one-to-one, while Twitter and Facebook are public and one-to-many. Continue reading →

Omni-Channel vs Multi-Channel and the Future of Retail

By Shai Berger on October 9, 2013

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Omni-Channel vs Multi-Channel and the Future of Retail The contact center industry has been using the term “multi-channel” for over a decade to describe the transition from communicating by phone only, to communicating by email, chat and social media. In fact, it was this shift that got the “call center” renamed to the “contact center”.

Meanwhile, retailers have been using the term “omni-channel” when talking about how the in-store customer experience relates to the experience on the phone and through web and social channels. Or more generally, connecting the physical to the digital.

At some point, those two terms were bound to bump into one another. It seems like the time has come. Last month there was a terrific thread on the LinkedIn Group, “Mobile Customer Experience” (one of our top LinkedIn Groups) that tackled this issue directly. Continue reading →

The 3 Best Customer Experience Infographics

By Jason Bigue on September 11, 2013

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The 3 Best Customer Experience Infographics Thanks to the Internet and social media, it’s never been easier for your customers to share their praise – and their complaints – about your organization. All of which can have a dramatic influence on your future prospects.

Here are 3 must-see infographics which illustrate why offering a superior customer experience matters more than ever. Continue reading →

The Smartest Customer Service Tactics That You Can Deploy Today

By Jason Bigue on August 27, 2013

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The Smartest Customer Service Tactics There’s a big difference between good customer service and a great customer experience. Delivering world-class service is much more than hiring well-mannered customer service staff. It requires a total commitment to service excellence at every level of the organization.

With so many tools & technologies available today, how can you make sense of what’s right for your contact center?

Here are a few key approaches to helping deliver a better customer service experience. Continue reading →

Why Long Hold Times are Drastically Affecting Your Brand Reputation

By Daniela Puzzo on July 4, 2013

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Did you know that the average person waits almost 43 days in their entire lifetime on hold! In fact 86% of people are put on hold everytime they contact a business. Ever wonder what that does to your brand perception? Clearly customers aren’t satisfied and before the days of social media they would just rant to friends and family. Ohhhh how things have changed.

Continue reading →

Will WebRTC Change the Customer Service Game?

By Shai Berger on January 16, 2013

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WebRTC is a technology framework that makes it possible to have “Real-Time Communication”, i.e. voice and video calls, directly in the browser. It’s been steadily maturing over past few years, and now that WebRTC is built-in to three of the top browsers (Chrome, Firefox and Opera), it is poised to make a big impact.

What is WebRTC? Imagine having functionality like Skype on your computer without installing any plug-ins or software. Like Skype, WebRTC could be a real game-changer for the world of phone calls.

I’ve covered the importance of the voice channel for customer service here and here. (Bottom line: Your company has to get it right to stay competitive.) So does that mean WebRTC is a game-changer for customer service?

Continue reading →

Why Focusing on Voice is the Key to First Call Resolution

By Shai Berger on June 13, 2012

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Voice for Higher First Call Resolution One of the biggest trends in customer service has been the expanding number of channels in the mix. Specifically, social media has received a huge amount of attention lately.