The Contact Center Blog

Software as a service (SaaS)

It was great to see the comments on my first article “Virtualization in the Contact Center” - how it made a positive impact on your business and for others a “kick-start” for deployment.  You may have been wondering, where I disappeared to?   I have been quite busy with new deployments in summer and hope to post more consistently in the coming months.

Software has always been known as something you install with hard (CD/DVD media) or soft (downloadable) goods.  Software had a traditional way of running “installed” on the company’s infrastructure (servers/personal computers).  This now changing with software as a service (SaaS).

Many of you have heard the coined term as “Web 2.0”.   This is commonly associated with web applications that facilitate interactive information sharing, interoperability, user-centered design, and collaboration on the World Wide Web.    Software company’s were quick to adapt with Web 2.0 and offer Software as a service (SaaS).    With this business model in mind, we no longer rely on local computer overhead and software licensing duplication.   Many new and existing software vendors offer a pay-per-user approach.  

What are the advantages?   To save money by not purchasing servers (low monthly obligation versus high up-front cost), instantly able to scale and be flexible to business demand, faster time to market, security (most SSL encrypted) and reliability (cloud based server clusters).  Most software as a service (SaaS) programs run directly from the web browser or may require a simple installation of Sun Microsystems JAVA (minimal administration from an IT perspective).

What are the disadvantages?  No internet - No application!  Software as a service (SaaS) is not perfect and it will not provide the same benefits to all users.   To the point, some may find it hard to give control or trust to third parties to manage their applications and data.  Certain contact centers would require industry specific business applications for which software as a service (SaaS) solutions are not available and companies without clear business objectives and defined business processes will not benefit by it.

Are you going to utilize software as a service (SaaS) this year or next year?  Do you currently use it?   Do you use Google Docs? Open Office?  Office Live?  Virtual Hosted ACD/IVR/Agent consoles?  Predictive Dialers?  Workforce Management?   CRM?    What successes/challenges have you come across?  I am looking forward to your feedback on this service.  

Get the Best ROI from Your Call Center – Build a Relationship

In order to ensure that you have the largest ROI possible from your contact center, there are two main things that need to be taken into consideration.  First, ensure that the choice to outsource is not a ‘quick-fix’, but rather a long-term investment and commitment.  The cost of start-up fees, the research done on the outsourced companies, and the trust you are placing in the successful company does not fit well with anything other than a long-term commitment.  Even if your need to outsource is project-based, if you plan on going back to the outsourcer in the future you can build a relationship with the company and get more for your money.

Also, it is important to make sure that the company you outsource to is the right fit for you, your company, and your needs.  Does your culture align with theirs?  What about their approach to customer service, training, quality, values and beliefs?

Do not be afraid to ask questions, ask for references, and an official proposal.  Remember that you are interviewing this company for your business – they should have all the answers ready to give you.

 

New report shows 68% of consumers hang up if they have trouble hearing an agent

Last week I was reading my industry news emails and came across a bulletin from Contact Center World, titled "Call Center Frustrations May Cause Consumers to Shop Elsewhere".  While I automatically thought - "well, yeah!" I still clicked through to see what proof this article contained, and am happy I did.

The first line catches the readers eye - 68% of consumers hang up if they have trouble hearing an agent.  This includes a bad connection, poor voice quality, faulty speech recognition software, an agent mumbling on the phone or having an accent that is thick and difficult to understand.

The report, as pointed out in the Contact Center World article, is based on a survey of 3,925 consumers in the United States, U.K, Germany and France, and makes a good point about the investment a call center needs to make in their services.

Call centers are in business to serve people.  So it astounds me when some companies don't properly invest their time and resources in technology and people that work for them.

When you look to hire an outsourced call center, there are many things to consider to ensure proper fit.  However at the forefront of your questions should be an inquiry into the technology used, and people hired to work on your project.  Does the technology meet industry standards?  Are agents accent-neutral and easy to understand?

Customer call you for help, so don't leave them unsatisfied!  An inbound call center is your opportunity to really impress your customer base with exceptional customer service and quality - so take it!

Christmas is coming faster than you think – food for thought.

There’s only 91 days left until Christmas!  That’s right, less than 100 days.  I remember in my grade 1 class my teacher counted the first 100 days of school, and boy did that time fly!  I was busy, engaged in activities, and focused on other things such as playing and learning cursive - not a countdown.

The same thing now often happens as an adult.  I mean, how often do you catch yourself saying “time flies” or “where did the time go?”.  

This is exactly the reason you need to begin thinking NOW about your holiday customer service strategy.

“How are customers going to place orders over the holidays?” 

“What if a customer has a question after normal business hours, am I going to make them wait for 9am or offer alternatives to order online, or via phone?”

“What kind of support will I need for my holiday sales and promotions”

“Will I need outsourced help?”  

These concerns need to be addressed now.  Along with post-holiday customer care for problems with merchandise, questions about products, inevitable returns and exchanges, and the overall communication strategy you intend to carry out with your customers.

So – have you begun crafting your holiday strategy yet?  If you have, do you have any advice for others who are just beginning?

Instead of Shooting the Messenger, Why Not Allow The Messenger to Help You?

I work in the call center industry – I’ve been on the call center floor and have seen the agents hard at work helping customers, I’ve seen the dedicated team it requires to recruit and train employees, and I realize the vital role call centers play in our corporate world.

My company is inbound.  We’re the people you call when your software isn’t working properly and you need technical support, when you want to make a purchase over the phone, when you want to track an order, and when you register for an event.  We’re also taking your emails and are there for you when you want to use live chat to solve your problem. In other words – we’re here to help you in any way possible.

What really bothers me is when I hear people bragging how they yelled at the person on the other line when they call in for help, or boasting that “oh I’m so rude to call centers”.  The old saying goes “don’t shoot the messenger”, and I think it’s important to step back and remember this.  The agents on the other end of the line are there to help you.  So please be kind and considerate the next time you call in for help over the phone, on email or during chat.  Agents just want to do their job and do it well – why not help them out and ALLOW them to provide you with a pleasant experience?  

Back to School? It’s All The Same In The Call Center Industry!

With kids hitting the classrooms yesterday to begin a new school year, the term “back to school” has been all over the internet, radio, tv and social media.

Summer is over, many have taken their vacation time and are back in the office, and it’s time to get back to the grind.

Yet, in the call center – there never was a summer break.  Sure, there are different companies whose business is based on season, but in an outsourced contact center there is never a lull.  Which is one reason why you can rest-assured that service levels remain consistent throughout the year – our agents are never out of practice, and proper Workforce Management technology ensures that optimal staffing levels are maintained at all times.

Ahh, the organization of a call center and its smooth operation.  Now if only your back-to-school routine could be this smooth.

Promoting Productivity in the Call Center Environment

How do you promote productivity amongst agents?  As much as we’d like to believe that doing the job, doing it well, and knowing that by doing so you’re helping people is enough incentive, the reality is that agents want more.

In a large contact center, it’s easy for individual agents to get lost in the masses – which is why step number one to ensure agent contentment, continued productivity and retention is creating a boutique atmosphere with a limited number of seats.  For example, having 2 locations with less than 200 seats is better than one location with 400+.

Do you hold contests in your center?  What about community activity days?  These simple things will allow agents to interact with others in the contact center, including floor managers, human resources, marketing and business development.  In short, it will help them see the larger picture that this is a business, it is a business of serving people, and that other employees in the company recognize the hard work agents put in to their jobs in order for the rest of the company to thrive.

Another favorite way to promote productivity is to recognize a job well done.  What does your contact center do when it receives a thank-you for a job well done by an agent, from either the customer who called in, or the client who was represented on the call?  Hopefully, you forward that message on to the entire team!  “Hey everyone, look at the amazing job Sue did today and the thanks we received.  Well done Sue – keep up the good work!”  Wouldn’t you like it if every time your boss thought you did something well, he/she emailed the entire company telling them of your achievement?   Thought so. 

These are just a few of my favorite ways of promoting agent productivity.  If you have any others, I’d love to hear them! 

Call center or contact center?

What search term brought you to this blog – was it “call center” or “contact center”?  Which do you use on a regular basis?

More importantly, what term is the general public more apt to use?

Most people think call center.  Plain and simple.  But as email and live chat prevail as viable means of contact with customers online, will the term “contact center” finally prevail?

Call center focuses on calls.  Plain and simple.  Contact center is an all-inclusive term that takes into consideration the email and live chat services also outsourced by many companies today, and a term which will also include any future outsourced services (text message inquiries anyone?  See my previous blog - Texting the New Calling?).

Many dictionaries include the term “call center” in their index, yet “contact center” has yet to gain wide-spread, formal use by clients who employ these services, despite the use of it by many service providers.

So again I ask – what got you here – call center or contact center?  If it’s only a matter of time before contact center catches on, will it signal the end of “call center” as part of the English lexicon?

What Makes a Contact Center Agent Unique

Would your hiring requirements be the same for an agent in a sales queue, versus a customer care queue?  No, and it doesn’t make sense to have the same criteria for an agent who will be in a call center answering phones, as one that will be engaging customers in online chat.  

Beyond the obvious requirements of a contact center (chat) agent to have a certain typing speed and superior knowledge of the written word.  There is a need for these agents to have a particular acumen for reading between the lines in a chat conversation in order to determine the tone, demeanor, and current disposition of the person being engaged in the chat.

For example, the ever-prominent ellipsis in online conversations... what does it mean?  As I just used it, the ellipsis is a textual means into a further point or question. But more often than not in an online chat, it means an uncertainty by the person using it.  If a customer, for example says “okay….” It most likely means he/she requires a little more reassurance or guidance in making their purchase or trouble-shooting their problem, and it is the agent’s responsibility to recognize this in order to meet that customer’s needs.

Then there’s endless short-forms used in chat, and while an agent shouldn’t be employing the use of these short forms, he/she must possess a secure knowledge of their meanings, at risk of otherwise being unable to understand the customer’s meaning. IDK why so many ppl need short forms, but FYI many do use them, AKA as acronyms.  B4 you LOL at me for pointing this out, plz visit any chat room for proof and an “OIC” moment.  Did you get that? 

These are just a couple things that new chat agents should be trained for before going live.  What are others that are trained in your contact center?  What do you train your contact center agents for?

Technology To Uninvent

A few weeks ago, MSN.ca published the satirical article 12 bits of technology we would uninvent to outline the technologies they could simply do without.

One of them was Automated Phone Systems and that couldn’t be truer! There is nothing worse than calling a company, hoping to speak to someone as quickly as possible and then having to go through the touch-tone motions of pressing numbers to finally get the answer you want. And, even then, don’t you find yourself just jabbing at the “0” to get to customer service quickly? That’s definitely something we all do.

A human voice can go a long way in making the customer experience easier and contact centers are there for that very reason. Helping a customer get their issue sorted out is their number one priority and they do it all without the help of an automated system!