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 »
Posts By: Lori Bocklund
Are Your Contact Center KPIs Up to Snuff?
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 »
Why our Team Took an Improv Class – and You Should Too!
I instilled fear in my team when I scheduled an “Improv” session at our recent annual meeting. I’m sure they had visions of being “onstage” and having to come up with something incredibly clever and funny. In reality, everyone left feeling like it was one of the best “team-building” exercises they’d ever experienced. Let me… Read More »
The Joy of Callback Queuing
I was in a taxi on my way to LaGuardia on a snowy Friday afternoon. A proactive text message informed me that my flight was cancelled (drat!), launching my desperate effort to find a route home. Of course everyone was calling the airline, so the queues were backing up. They offered a callback, so I… Read More »
Is Mobile the Next Great Thing?
While I try not to be sensitive, I cringe whenever folks regale me with their latest miserable customer service experiences. Studies show that customer satisfaction measurements lag far behind internal view measured through quality monitoring scores. Where are the “Wow!” experiences we all seek? A good mobile app, integrated with the contact center, can achieve… Read More »
Can’t We Just Outsource It?
There are a lot of reasons why executives are drawn to outsourcing like moths to a flame. Financial pressure. Growth/acquisition management. Dated technology (and no heart for investing). Tight time lines for action. Need for flexible staffing model. Belief that contact center specialists are simply better at it. But there’s more to outsourcing than meets… Read More »
Efficiency and Effectiveness Evolution Spectrums®
Many of our clients want to know how they compare with centers of like size, maturity, and industry. They’re often drawn to benchmarking resources and other studies and surveys. While interesting, the data that drives these reports do not necessarily reflect what the best centers do, nor do they focus on what’s possible. And even… Read More »
Put the Right Resources to Work on Your Technology
Technology is so easy to blame. For what? For not meeting metrics, keeping costs under control, delivering great service, driving enough revenue? The list goes on. Center leadership, staff, and support team members often exclaim, “If we only had …!” as they point at technology as the culprit. They don’t have what they need, don’t… Read More »
Mobile and the Contact Center: The Game is Changing
We recently got rid of our landline, and I bet many of you have already done the same, or will soon. We live by the smartphone. It’s our “go to” directory, information, web, and application source. We use it to self serve or seek assisted service with companies big and small. Whether we make contact… Read More »
Contact Center Technology Monitoring
We all use tools to monitor important elements of our personal world in ways that we never did before: GPS and text messaging on the kids’ phones, home security systems with remote notification and control, apps to follow activity with your favorite sports teams or stocks, and updates about your flights or financial accounts. Now… Read More »