In a recent series of articles with Contact Center Pipeline, I’ve focused on Contact Center Costs and the Role of Technology as well as strategies for calculating a Return on Investment (ROI) that might shake some funding loose for technology. As discussed in the second article, three common paths for business case development include: Efficiency… Read More »
Here’s the scene: It’s the busiest hour of the busiest day. With beefed up self-service through online and mobile applications, customers take care of the easy stuff on their own and reach out to agents when they can’t find what they need. Meanwhile, agents are overwhelmed, trying to retain knowledge on an increasingly complex and diverse… Read More »
Many contact centers have a big goal: Increase First Contact Resolution (FCR). Leaders know it can improve efficiency, lower costs, provide a better customer experience. This post looks at tools that may help you achieve (or improve) FCR. As usual, these tools go hand-in-hand with good processes and the right contact center support and IT… Read More »
We see common situations in our contact center assessment projects: The IVR needs fixing. It’s been static for years. But nobody thinks it matters too much. Or they are afraid to touch it, out of fear it will “break” something. Without reports, they lack visibility to the problems and the data to show the potential… Read More »
Our 2018 contact center technology survey shows that some things never change, even in an era of massive change! It had been six years since we reached out to contact center professionals to take stock of their technology views. Over the intervening years, the prevailing standards of service excellence have continued to rise. New technologies… Read More »
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is breaking the hype meter in the contact center industry. While it’s only in the early adopter stages, it appears to be grabbing the attention of contact center technology sellers and buyers. With all the confusion such enthusiasm creates, it seemed a little primer is in order. AI processes and interprets large… Read More »
Our annual challenges and priorities survey, as well as our project experience, show that high attrition, absence and adherence issues, and the uphill battle to gain budget approval for additional staff remain pain points for many centers. While technology is not a “white knight” riding in to solve the staffing problems, it can be used… Read More »
Request for Proposal. RFP. Contact center and IT leaders, along with their procurement departments, turn to this tried and true approach when seeking a fair, competitive analysis of a variety of options. In some circumstances, a formal RFP may still be a good option, if not required. But the evaluation process needs to evolve with… Read More »
Low cost contact center technology solutions abound in today’s market. Centers can quickly implement cloud-based applications at a low price point (well under $100 per agent per month!). These options may seem like a slam dunk for companies with limited IT resources, aging or ineffective systems, and limited budgets. And they can easily tempt others… Read More »
Strategic Contact has facilitated an annual survey on Credit Union Contact Center best practices for the last two years. This year, we are doing some “bite-sized” surveys to enable us to dive deeper into specific issues of interest to CU contact center leaders. Our first topic is near and dear to many: hiring, coaching, developing,… Read More »