The Contact Center Blog

Virtual Customer Service

I recently  visited an online virtual tradeshow hosted by eTailXpo. This was the first time I attended such an event, and although there were some glitches I needed to get over, I was pleasantly surprised. It reminded me of the concept Second Life uses, which is an online virtual world you can explore and network in.

The virtual tradeshow resembled an actual venue, with customized vendor booths. Each vendor had representatives available via chat or email, and when stepping into a virtual booth you can communicate to any one of them. I visited the Google booth to test it out, and communicated with a rep using live chat.

Overall, I thought it was responsive and a great idea. I'm not sure how popular and successful a format like this can become, but just thinking about it brings up ideas of virtual contact centers and the possibility of adding something to the customer experience. Just a thought ...

- JU

Web 2.0 - Does It Affect Contact Centers?

The concept of Web 2.0 has been floating around for a few years now, but recently I've been hearing and seeing it more often. It seems to be a focus of many websites, where there are more interactive and intuitive applications for users.

In today's Web 2.0 world, information is more dynamic, easily being created and shared. This Blog is an example, allowing me to express my opinions. If you're a feed subscriber, you've been notified the moment this post was published. The point is that websites are more interactive and have information that more effectively caters to visitors, allowing them to better personalized experiences.

I just came back from a tradeshow, IRCE, where they had some speakers and sessions surrounding Web 2.0. A large majority of the attendees were online retailers.

How do you think Web 2.0 affects or relates to contact centers?

To start off, in my short opinion I feel the increase in interactivity for website visitors increases the expectations for finding information and answers almost instantaneously. As a result, services such as Live Chat and effective Email Response fits into this structure. Customer support via telephone is also still important, but service levels in this case need to be as dynamic as the websites. What do the rest of you think?

- JU

Smiling Over Live Chat

The one tip I really stress to new Call Center agents here at 24-7 INtouch is to remember to “smile” over the phone. Of course, no one on the other end can actually see the agent smiling, but they really can hear it in the tone of voice.

Which brings us to Live Chat. Almost every perspective client inevitably questions the human touch aspect of it. They’re right to ask. The truth is it’s much harder to communicate effectively via a written medium than it is verbally. Professor Albert Mehrabian theorized that in a face-to-face conversation, only 7% of the actual communication happening comes from the words.

So how do your create the right tone over Live Chat? These are some tips I offer to agents:

• Convey warmth by being extra polite throughout. Add a “please” or “thank-you” wherever possible to create the proper a tone.
• Always try to personalize pre-written or “canned” answers to make them feel spontaneous and to make the customer feel like you are talking to them. Stating the customer's name a few times during the chat might help.
• Pay close attention to the customer’s questions, ensure that they are not having to repeat themselves as this gives a highly impersonal feel.
• Skim the text you are about to send and avoid using statements that may be misunderstood or interpreted more than one way. Expressions or one-liners that may work in person or over the phone often fall into this category.

These are the ways we can “smile” over chat in the same way we “smile” on the phone. Well done Live Chat can be an extremely powerful tool in customer communications. It has emerged as what will probably be the future of website support and it has a number of advantages that a well organized contact center company could help you achieve.

-Jeff Fettes

Chat and Email Poll - Taylor Research Group

I came across this poll from Taylor Research Group: "How much has the percentage of emails and web (text) chats has has increased in the past year?". The results are interesting as ~ 87% of respondents all saw an increase, ~13% saw no increase, and not one respondent experienced a decrease. As shown in the industry, chat and email use is on the rise. For 24-7 INtouch we expect to see an increase in both chats and emails as our clients ramp up for the holiday season - as much as 20%.

Image source: http://www.thetaylorreachgroup.com/data/newsletters/200710_Newsletter.pdf

Welcome to the Contact Center Blog!

Well folks, here it is, finally, at long last, the contact center blog has arrived.  What is the contact center blog you ask?  The general idea was to create a blog where people who are stakeholders in contact center outsourcing companies, whether it be clients, suppliers, partners, or even outsourcers themselves can have open discussions on all things contact center.   Whether it be topics like operations, new technology, driving volumes, workforce, human resources or whatever, we want to encourage open and honest communication in our industry.

I'm sure your next question is "who the heck is this guy?"  Well, my name is Greg Fettes, and I am the President and CEO of 24-7 INtouch, a contact center outsourcer based in Canada.  You can check out my LinkedIN profile or visit the about us area on the 24-7 INtouch website.  At the risk of sounding too "salesy" (a big no-no on this blog from here on!), we have been recognized as one of the fastest growing companies in Canada two years in a row and pride ourselves in being a true leader in innovation for technology, process, and management in contact centers.  In fact, that is the underlying reason this blog got started.  It was a way to create a community that will push the industry in a new direction.  In the coming months you will see guest authors from inside and outside the contact center world make posts on different issues concerning contact centers.  But here's the trick; we are depending on you, the readers, to make comments and push discussions forward.  Maybe you agree, maybe you disagree, or maybe you have experiences that you can share that will bring the conversation in a new direction.  We will not be censoring posts or comments for any reason (except vulgarity of course!) so you will be free to absolutely speak your mind.   Anyways, enough background already, lets get on to the blog!

My plan for posting comments on the contact center blog will be to follow a somewhat similar format each week.  I am hoping to post regularly once per week on Mondays and have a few random posts throughout the week.  Please feel free to give feedback on the blog in general as my goal is to make it as useful and informative as possible.

Thanks and happy blogging!

GF