Tag Archives: contact center

Best Practices: Callback Technology and Intelligent Routing

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By Michael Haisten

Enterprises that decide to offer a callback option enable their customers to avoid quite possibly the most frustrating problem with call centers, excessive hold times.  In cases where the callback option is presented via the company’s website or mobile application, customers are also able to skip navigating an Interactive Voice Response (IVR) system, another frequent source of frustration.    By allowing customers to choose whether they want to wait on hold or receive a callback at a convenient time, enterprises are providing a sense of empowerment which results in increased levels of satisfaction and loyalty.

On the other hand, the enterprise is able to more evenly spread its demand throughout the day.  Agent productivity and service levels are improved by shifting calls from busy periods to the slowest periods.  Idle time in the call center is reduced.  Callbacks also reduce the number of abandoned calls which can increase sales and revenue.

So how is callback technology best implemented?  Here are some rules of thumb, many of which are slightly modified concepts from regular inbound calls. Continue reading →

The Intersection of Customer Experience Boulevard and Contact Center Road

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By Joseph Katz

When you’ve spent as much time in the contact center space as I have, it tends to shape your thinking just a bit. For example, whenever the topic of Customer Experience Management comes up, I automatically think of customer service.

I realize that customer experience (or CX as it’s known) has been an area of heightened interest in recent years for the very reason that it does not limit itself to one particular area. To understand things from a customer’s perspective, you have to look at everything from which way the doors open at the local branch to the color of the envelope used to send the monthly bill.

The forest from the trees
Most companies nowadays have someone who heads up Customer Experience; I can think of a few companies who have a whole team of these folks. I’m always fascinated by these individuals because of their attention to detail and their ability to see things through the eyes of a customer. Most of us lose that view of the “forest” simply by living in and amongst the “trees” for too long.
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Part III: Supercharge Your Mobile Customer Care Apps

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By Edwin Margulies
(Part III of III)

Get Feedback!

I don’t know too many people that enjoy “taking a survey” at the end of a call center transaction or even in a pop-up window on a web site. Yet more and more, people nonetheless want to broadcast their sentiment. Take all the tweets and Facebook posts on brands and products. Those are “democratic” or at least “free market” forms of feedback. And social feedback is on your customers’ terms.

So what about harnessing the trend towards sentiment feedback and taking the bold step of putting it right in your mobile phone application? Yes that would mean encouraging customers – with standard icons – to make mention of a customer service experience they just had with your firm. Continue reading →