Independent Contact Center Consultants: Bridging Strategy, Technology and Operations Since 2004

Posts By: Lori Fraser

No “Secret Sauce” to Sales Success

If you’re launching a new sales contact center or looking to bolster lead conversions in an existing center, it’s well worth the effort to institute contact center “best practices” to get the most out of your investment. Your staff’s core knowledge of your products and services is an excellent base upon which to build a… Read More »

10 Questions to Ask About Your Performance Management Tool

How would your contact center rate its Performance Management? Have you brought the right combination of people, processes, and technology together to identify and capitalize on opportunities for continuous improvement? A recent SHRM (Society for Human Resources Management) Foundation paper reports that less than 30% of those surveyed have an effective Performance Management system that… Read More »

Data Doesn’t Mean Much Without Analysis

As a contact center consultant, I visit lots of centers and examine mountains of reports. What repeatedly amazes me is all the effort put into getting data and preparing reports with little energy expended on root cause analysis to drive prioritization of continuous improvement activities. Instead, they’ll charge ahead with new initiatives which increase contact… Read More »

A Picture That Paints 1,000 Words

It’s said a picture paints a thousand words. We help clients craft “elevator stories” about their contact centers (with associated visual images) so company leaders fully understand the centers’ value and needs. We also help them prioritize projects and investment opportunities into clear calls for action focused on a few recommendations with the greatest returns…. Read More »

Make Technology Your Agent’s Best Friend

Where have the simpler days gone? This is a common plea in the contact center. Self-service, an explosion of contact channels, varied customer needs, and a revolving door of product and service offerings have made work on the front lines increasingly complex. Agents want and need help! Fortunately, there is a wealth of technology that… Read More »

Make First Contact Resolution a Priority

As I work with contact centers across all sizes and vertical markets, I hear a consistent theme focusing on serving customers in excellence. So why aren’t more customers raving about their experiences? And why do some centers excel in service while others only talk the talk? While there are no simple answers, I can offer… Read More »

Performance Management for Self-Service

It is rare to see centers conducting quality monitoring (QM) or capturing Voice of the Customer (VoC) for self-service. Once the applications pass their respective usability and functional tests, the center simply monitors usage statistics and raises concerns when outliers are noted – e.g., excessive “opt outs” to agents. And yet the customer experience with… Read More »

Four Levels of Contact Center Performance Management

Everybody wants to provide quality customer interactions. Unless you’ve got really deep pockets and unlimited resources from which to draw, you won’t be able to achieve performance management nirvana in the blink of an eye. But if you have a road map and the patience and determination to follow it, you can steadily progress from… Read More »

Technology-Enabled Service Excellence for Contact Centers

Technology is the great enabler of service excellence. It helps you present standard messages at agent desktops, identify opportunities for process improvement and training, monitor and reinforce adherence, and close the loop with customers to get their perspective on the messages they receive. According to Contact Babel, 62% of organizations use scripting applications to standardize… Read More »

Where’s the Customer in the “Voice of the Customer”?

Voice of the Customer (VoC) – a.k.a., Customer Experience Management – is a hot topic. After years of process initiatives to save a penny here, a nickel there, everyone is jumping on the VoC bandwagon to find out what their customers’ think of their organizations and products. I’m a big advocate. Ideally, the organization administers… Read More »