Speech analytics has garnered a tremendous amount of attention over the past few years. Among the top benefits cited: Accurate information on why people call Highlight areas of focus for operational efficiency gains Insights on the drivers of customer retention or defection Improved agent training and associated performance Tangible feedback for product and service enhancements… Read More »
With frontline staffing comprising two-thirds or more of a center’s budget, it comes as no surprise that workforce management (WFM) is a mission critical discipline for contact centers. In fact, we’ve been on that soap box for years! Every center needs an effective means to forecast labor requirements, set schedules, monitor adherence, and provide reporting…. Read More »
Too often, the pursuit of technology is driven by speed and constrained by resources. Experience shows this to be a bad combination.Technology success demands careful implementation planning as well as effective technology monitoring and support. Implementation and Testing Getting implementation right takes time, well-structured plans, and commitment from the contact center, IT, vendors and/or their partners…. Read More »
I always look forward to ICMI’s Contact Center Expo and Conference. It gives me a concentrated look at what’s happening in the industry apart from my day-to-day work with clients. And, of course, I always enjoy hanging out with folks who love contact centers as much as I do. Here are some observations that I… Read More »
Change seems to be reaching new heights. Additions, consolidation, and moves affects the number of sites. Companies add outsourcers, use existing outsourcers in new ways, or move outsourced activity in-house. Then there is the whole merger and acquisition scramble which can set everyone on edge, whether it is with the vendor that supplies the technology… Read More »
Maxed out. That’s how we find many contact center leaders and their IT counterparts. Too much to do, not enough time to do it, and the urgent always trumping the important. Sound familiar? Most centers find ways to attend to their technologies’ daily demands, some of which are routine (e.g., run reports, build schedules) and… Read More »
Omni-channel is new buzz word to promote “seamless” and “integrated” customer interactions across all modes of contact. It’s not a new concept. For years, it’s what people intended for “multi-channel customer contact.” They just haven’t been able to achieve it. So to make old things new again, the market has a new word. Unfortunately, changing… Read More »
Momentum and excitement builds around new contact center technology as you make a vendor and product selection and set forth on your journey with exciting possibilities ahead. Unfortunately, a variety of implementation challenges can arise that knock the wind out of your sails. To optimize results, invest the time up front to plan and prepare…. Read More »
While contact centers and their IT departments have plenty of demands on their all too limited time, consumer information protection, and data security needs to get on the radar. The Payment Card Industry (PCI) Data Security Standards (DSS) provides a set of technical and operational requirements that applies to anyone who “stores, processes, and/or transmits”… Read More »
Even though the contact center industry has been around for decades, it’s still hard to define, manage, and meet Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). Beyond the fundamentals – e.g., total contacts, service levels, abandons, handle times, et al – management is concerned about: First Contact Resolution Business Outcomes (sales, saves, conversions, etc.) Cost per X (contact,… Read More »