Knowledge is power. For contact center representatives, it’s the power to access the right information, the right resources, and/or the right processes to serve customer needs. For customers, it’s the power to get consistent information no matter which channels they use to retrieve it. There are many different forms of knowledge and job aids across… Read More »
Contact Center Technology Meets Social Media
Social media can leverage many of the same technologies that support other contact center channels. Yet unlike traditional channels, most of the action on social networks revolves around the often casual exchange of information between individuals, their friends and family, communities, and organizations. As a result, we need something more from the technology to support… Read More »
Got Technology Testing?
Imagine that you’ve finally secured budget to add new functionality and technology to your contact center. You’ve labored through vendor evaluations and inked a deal. You go full speed ahead on implementation to start living in the “promised land” of your newly enriched applications environment. But wait… As you cutover to production, the new stuff… Read More »
Technology Optimization: Customer Relationship Management
CRM comes in many forms – home-grown, premise-based, and more recently, hosted or Software as a Service. Although “CRM nirvana” is an enterprise-wide tool, the challenge of getting all of the data, processes, and organizational elements aligned to leverage the technology can be overwhelming. So the starting point for a useful solution is figuring out… Read More »
Contact Centers Are Going Mobile
According to the CTIA, there are well over 300 million wireless subscribers in the United States alone. Society as we know it has gone mobile. And where society goes, the contact center is sure to follow. Banks, airlines, credit card companies, and retailers are just a few of the places where mobile applications are becoming… Read More »
Technology Optimization: Interactive Voice Response
My friends and family love to tell me their latest miserable customer interaction experiences, and I bet yours do too. I’d also bet that new acquaintances offer an animated account of a recent IVR horror story when they find out what you do. Of course the good news is you can readily share your favorite… Read More »
Get Insights, Take Action
If you’re a contact center manager, you live between a rock and a hard place. Your leadership wants you to deliver great service while augmenting revenue and lowering costs. Your customers expect a personalized, effective interaction regardless of media. Amidst the usual fare of operational challenges, you try to squeeze in some time to review… Read More »
Technology Optimization: Quality Monitoring
Try this analogy: Compare quality monitoring in your center to differing approaches to health management. One model awaits the presence of symptoms before bringing specialists into action to treat the disease. The other promotes health proactively for the whole body as a means to ward off problems. I’m all for the latter when it comes… Read More »
Technology Optimization: Workforce Management
When I scout for the potential to hit a technology optimization home run, Workforce Management (WFM) comes to mind immediately. Its capacity to forecast, schedule, and track the overwhelmingly largest line item cost in your center (your staff!) certainly warrants a place in the starting line-up. Perhaps it hasn’t had the best batting average over… Read More »
A New Working Relationship for IT and the Contact Center
“Come gather ’round people, Wherever you roam…” Yes, folks. The times they are a-changin’ for contact center technology management. Here’s just a few of the reasons why: IT has an increased burden on its time and resources driven by business needs… and most IT shops have not been able to staff up to handle the… Read More »