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Is Your Vendor Relationship In A Combat Field?

Call center vendor relationship management is no doubt an important function of your company, especially if you outsource your call center services. The call center is your business partner because go between you and your customers. When the assigned agents to your products and services offer exceptional service, it reflects well on your brand. If they do not, it hurts your brand and affects your bottom line. Therefore, it is in your best interest to manage that relationship well. The call center, on the other hand, cannot sit pretty and let the client do all the work; it is their responsibility too to take care of that partnership. As you can see, both parties have to put in effort in building a beneficial relationship. Other than the mutual understanding between your company and the call center, you need other essential things in place. These include, A contract that outlines the roles and responsibilities of each party A working budget Key Performance Indicators The question therefore is, is your call center vendor relationship in a combat field or after the wellbeing of your client. What do I mean by this? Being in a combat field means, you keep fighting with each other. Such a scenario occurs when there are gray areas in the contract, or one party fails to deliver on their promises. However, when you manage expectations before Here are some key areas that can help you improve your vendor relationships. Ensure there are no ambiguities : The first step is to ensure that there no ambiguities. Do not assume anything is obvious to the call center. Ensure that they understand your company vision, mission and the objectives you want to be achieved. You need to come up with the best way to educate the call center. How you deliver the information, will determine how they translate it into the excellent customer experience. For example, if your company interest is on first contact resolution more that average handling time, ensure that they understand. Otherwise, you will end up with a conflict between your business goals and what the call center implements. Clearly outline the key metrics that influence your business positively, and align them with your business vision. The call center will get a good understanding of your company and thus deliver superior customer service. Think outside the box : Just because you have been doing it that way, does not mean that you should continue doing it that way. You need to check whether there are areas that can improve the overall performance of the call center and strengthen the relationship. Put into account all the changes that have taken place, from available products, customer preferences, market changes among others. Think about other elements like confidence, trust, and understanding that can affect the results of the relationship. When the contact center knows you trust them to provide the best, they will propose innovative ways that can meet your customers needs better. Sitting together and discussing the best ways to achieve your objectives, and even customize solutions. Utilize the knowledge and experiences of the call center staff to create exceptional experiences for your customers. Communicate clearly : At the core of the above is communication. Lack of communication leads to conflicts, that if not resolved becomes worse with time. To avoid getting into the combat field because of miscommunication, appoint a dedicated manager to the call center. The center should also have a dedicated manager who will be the contact person. When information passes through many people from both parties, misunderstandings are bound to occur. For example, if one manager has a discussion with the client and agrees to change the performance metrics, but does not pass the right information to the team, the client will get a wrong report. In summary, when you manage vendor relationship correctly, you will keep your customers happy, leading to business growth. When you apply these three tips, ensure there are no ambiguities, think outside the box and communicate clearly, you will improve your relationship tremendously. Direct your energies to strengthen the relationship thus eliminating any possibilities of misunderstanding. Remember the human aspect to bring life into the relationship.

5 Challenges in Deploying a Multi-channel Call Center

To satisfy the connected customer, you need to interact with them through their preferred mode of communication. Some customers want to reach out via phone, email, live chat or social media. Whichever channel they contact you on, you need to be present lest you lose them. A multi-channel communication goes beyond the traditional hotline to include social media platforms, email, text messaging, live chat and self-service options. Your ability to stretch your call center to include the above will ensure that you provide a seamless and consistent customer service experience. Transitioning your call center to a multi-channel call center is the key to your business growth and could be the most challenging venture you will embark on as an organization. Among the challenges that you need to overcome, the below five top the list. Determining the right channels for your customers A successful multi-channel strategy is one that deploys the right channels for your customers, not just any channel. Customers are satisfied when you meet their needs when and where they want. Therefore, you need to determine which channels your customers are at and develop those first. As you think about the right channels for your customers, you need to consider their alignment to your business. They need to make business sense regarding capital requirements but also serve the customers well. You have the capacity to direct customers to the channels that will work for you. Failure to do this will lead to business revenue losses and dissatisfied customers. Technology Advancement Rate You need computers, internet, and software to provide quality customer service. Technology is advancing at a fast rate as every waking moment new technology is birthed that is meant to make things easy and fast. The challenge then is acquiring the best technology to fit your needs and your customers’ needs without having to do a complete overhaul to upgrade your systems. You don’t want to purchase outdated machines because that is what you can afford. You need to keep up with the latest technology. It will cost you if you don’t have the right technology for the job because, you will have spent a lot of money to upgrade your systems and at the same time, stop business operations as that happens. High Start Up Cost Like starting any other business, the start up costs is a huge challenge. You need ample capital to finance the expansion. You require facilities to house the call center, equipment, customer care agents and managers, and day-to-day operations kitty. The size of your operations will determine your capital needs, if you call center is already big, your other channels need to be big as well, and this increases your capital needs. Human Resource Needs Call centers have huge demands for customer care agents because they operate 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. They also have the highest employee turnover worldwide. When you expand you call center to be multi-channel, you will need to hire agents who can handle those channels. The challenge then is finding the right agents, who will stick around for a long time and see that business function grow. Under no circumstance should your multi-channel call center be understaffed. Training Needs In line with the human resource needs, it is not enough to get the right people for the job; you need to train them well. A customer does not care whether the agent on the other side is a newbie or experienced; their concern is getting assistance. Your training and development program should ensure that customers get superior customer experiences. Your trainers also need to be experts in the multi-channel deployment for them to train well. With a well-trained team, your transition into a multi-channel call center will be easier. To satisfy the diverse needs of customers, you need to operate in a multi-channel environment. As you plan to transition into one, consider these five challenges; determining the right channels for your customers, technology advancement rate, high start up costs, human resource needs and training needs. When you overcome them, your journey to run a multi-channel call center will be easier, and the destination will be highly satisfied employees and customers.

How Do You Handle Failures?

Occasionally we fail even after careful planning. Nobody likes to fail I know I do not. However, failure is a part of our life. Have you ever failed? Most people fail before they experience success. The differentiating factor is what you do after the failure. You can sit there mourning and sorrowful, or you can rise up, wipe off the dust and keep moving. It is all up to you. It is personal! Here are tips that can help you be a success after failure; Own your mistake When you fail, take responsibility for your mistake. Before you point to someone else, look within and acknowledge how your actions or inaction led to the failure. If you are in a leadership position, it is important to take responsibility. Your subordinates will respect and trust you more. It is not an easy thing to do especially if the mistake is huge, but it shows your maturity and responsibility. Besides, you will learn more from it after owning it not the other way around. Share it with someone There is a high chance that after a failure, you will withdraw from yourself. Maybe you will bottle up your emotions and punish yourself daily. Talking to someone will help you to experience success by going beyond failure. Share your pain and frustrations with someone. Take caution however with whom you share your true feelings. You need to talk about it with someone who can motivate and encourage you to take the lesson and move on, for example, a mentor. Learn from the failure Thomas A. Edison quoted “I have not failed, I just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.” This mental ability to see the benefit of a devastating experience will bring you success. It is not an easy thing to do, but it is essential to do it. To lighten it, expect to win some and lose some, that way you are ready for what may come. Not to mean that you do not give your best shot, no! There is a valuable lesson to learn. For example, early in my career, I rolled out a marketing campaign that failed miserably. It was such a huge mistake, with no results at all. I was like I need to go find another job and get out of this business. However, my mentor at the time gave me the above advice, and I sure implemented it. I learned that my lack of proper planning and research led to the failure. I did a much better job in my next campaign and from then on have been learning every day. Separate yourself from the incidence See the failure as a separate incident and not your identity. Most of the highly successful people failed at some point. Their ability to separate their identity and their failure made them reach their goal fast. The actions taken after the failure also define them as success or failure. Important to remember is that failure is something that occurs not something that you are. Take action Take the initiative to correct the failure. A common problem that tends to hold many people in a failure state is worrying. Worrying is like a rocking chair; you will move but make no progress. Do not let worrying and fear of making the same mistake enslave you. Face your fears to realize your potential. In conclusion, to succeed after failure, you need to own the mistake, share it with someone, learn from it, separate yourself from it and take action. I believe the bigger the failure, the more significant the success you will have after applying these tips. How have you handled failure before? This blog was first published on LinkedIn

Tips to Manage Successful Vendor Relationships

Successful vendor relationships are essential for the growth of your organization. The ways you regard and behave towards each other, with either strengthen or weaken your business operations. It is, therefore, in the best interest of the organization and vendor to create and manage good working relations. Other reasons that should encourage you to foster healthy relationships are cost efficiency, market development, and quality development. A good vendor will always work to ensure that their products or services meet your organizational needs, and if the current ones do not, they will customize them. The relationship will be more of a partnership. With that in mind, here are tips that can help your department manage successful vendor partnerships. Understand Who You Are The first step is for you to know who you are. What are your business goals? What are the organization’s priorities and boundaries? Depending on the vendor you are seeking to start a relationship with, they need to know who you are and what is important to you. Your company vision, mission, and core values explain who you are. However, you need to take it a step further with the vendor so that they can gain more insight into who you are and what you are looking for. When you have a clear understanding of who you are, you will transfer the same knowledge to the vendor and thus start the relationship well. Know your Vendor Next, know who your vendor is. Given that it is a business relationship, you need to know your vendors company well. Seek to go deeper than what the sales representative takes you through or what they state in their business profile. Other than making a sale, what else are they interested in offering your company? What is their record of accomplishment with other firms? That information will help you know and decide whether they have what you need or not and whether you will work well together. Have Proper Communication Channels Nothing will get done without proper communication, including the first two steps of knowing each other’s companies. Through open communication, you will build trust, which will glue the relationship. Keep the communication lines open and frequent so that you can resolve anything that comes up immediately instead of pushing it until you have a meeting. Other than phone calls and emails, physical meetings are essential. You can assign a manager for each vendor who will be a liaison between the organization and the vendor. Document Everything Before commencing the project, it is vital to put everything in writing. The vendor needs to know what their roles and responsibilities are, the consequences of not following through on their promises and the rewards of a success project. The organization needs also to outline how they are going to support the project and any other important role. Every detail should be in that contract and both parties to agree and sign. Doing this will help the company and the vendor avoid miscommunications or misunderstanding, and they can easily reference it as the project progresses. Acknowledge Good Performance When the vendor does an excellent job, acknowledge it and encourage them to keep doing it. Yes, you are paying them for a product or service, but they will be motivated to go the extra mile because of your appreciation. Remember, the human factor in the vendor relationship. The vendor representatives will feel valued and appreciated leading to improved performance. These five tips, understanding who you are, knowing your vendor, having proper communication channels, documenting everything and acknowledging good performance will build a successful vendor relationship. When both parties are accountable to each other and respectful, the partnership will be stable.

Hiring Live Chat Staff

Recruiting the right employees is the cornerstone of any organization. When you think about live chat support, you need a special work force to offer a seamless experience for your customers. Depending on the size of your organization, the size of the workforce will be either high or low. For the purposes of today’s discussion, we will look at a company that needs a large live chat workforce. For instance, you are looking to build an in-house staff and are consulting an expert in the industry to help you set up that department. What should you be looking into? What key items should be included in their proposal? Before we get into their deliverable, industry experts will not only advise you on the workforce management but also on performance management, compensation plan, processes and quality assurance. They have the knowledge and expertise to give the right people for the job. Here are the key items that they should highlight in the workforce management:- Job Descriptions You need several people in that department, and they all need elaborate job descriptions. Only with a job description, can you hold someone accountable for that role and can commit to it. They understand what you expect from them.If you do not have experience in running a live chat department, you may not know what their job descriptions should be exactly and who should be in that department. Your expert consultant will therefore, be in the best position to develop the job descriptions for the various staff you need. Hiring Process With the job descriptions in place, the next thing is the hiring process. The hiring process should be specific to the job. Application review : The first step should be to review all the applications submitted. Background checks and experiences are scrutinized at this level. The priority should go to those with relevant experience to your company. Assessment : The shortlisted candidates should be called in for an assessment. Given that live chat requires lots of speaking to customers via chat, the assessment is mainly on their grammar and typing skills. You would not want to end with employees that can speak well but not type well. Interview : A one on one interview will give you the opportunity to learn more about that individual. This prescreening interview confirms their industry knowledge as well checks their profile skill set On the job training : This can be done online where they prospective candidate chat aptitude and language are assessed. They get to experience firsthand what live chat is all about. Final interview : By this time, only the most qualified candidates have made it. The whole operations team is present for this final interview, not just the HR. When you follow the above hiring process, you will most definitely hire the right people for the job. Tools and Templates Finally, you need to understand what tools and templates they are using to make the recruitment process easy and successful. These tools and templates outline the basic skills set, skill based tests and evaluation sheets. In conclusion, these 3 points job description, hiring process and tools and templates will guide your recruitment in the right direction. You cannot afford to make a mistake in the recruitment of live chat staff. However, if you feel that you need live chat support but do not want to create an in-house team, you can outsource that function to a capable contact center. Whichever way you choose to go in-house or external contact center, live chat should be part of your customer service strategy.

How Mentors Help and How to Find One

Professionally, mentors are uniquely responsible for your overall trajectory, as they frequently come from the same or a similar field and give you access to wisdom only resulting from years of experience. However, finding the perfect mentor is as difficult as pinpoint exactly what your want from your professional life. In fact, deciding when to pursue a mentor is similarly challenging, because until you’re ready, it’s hard to see how they’ll push you to new professional and personal heights or understand who will act as effective leaders and coaches in your life. Have 20/20 Foresight Ideally, your mentor will be an expert or seasoned professional in your professional field. While every industry experiences significant changes, they typically occur over time and even seemingly shocking advancements might’ve been highly predictable for industry insiders. The younger decades of your career are the perfect time to make mistakes, because you’ll have plenty of time to recover for those largely expected errors. However, a mentor has the wisdom to steer you away from ineffective plans of action and towards the best solutions. Essentially, you can use your mentor’s 20/20 hindsight as your foresight. Gain Access to a Positive, Knowledgeable and Supportive Individual Positive support systems are integral to the success of any individual. By definition, mentors are positive people who genuinely believe in the abilities of their mentees. When you don’t know how to proceed or need help finding a professional solution, you know a knowledgeable individual who is prepared and happy to help you. Every professional will have moments of uncertainty or significant stress in his or her career, and in these situations, a mentor’s positivity can serve to improve morale and self-confidence. Understand Your Needs and Commit As an individual, what do you need to stay motivated? What will you need to successfully attain your personal and professional goals? Of the list you have just created, what can a mentor effectively provide? Once you’ve pinned that down, you will have a much clearer idea of the type of mentor you require, because you’re in tune with personal and professional needs. Next, you have to commit to the search for a quality mentor. You might find the perfect match in the first individual you contact, but don’t expect that to happen. Additionally, don’t be afraid to say no to a mentor if you think they are not the best fit. When your mentor invests in you, he or she is also affected when you fail to meet a deadline or miss an important meeting. If you want this relationship to be a success, hold yourself accountable personally and to your mentor. Everyone has bad days, but remember your mentor is committed to your advancement, so you should attempt to match and exceed his or her dedication. Young professionals frequently benefit from the guidance of mentors, who equally invest in the success of their proteges. Like any relationship, finding the perfect match may take some diligent searching, but mentees stand to gain the powerful benefits of sound wisdom, expansive industry knowledge and positive support.

Six Steps to Articulate Contact Center Strategies

Every company has a strategy. The online business dictionary defines strategy as a method/plan chosen to bring about the desired future, such as achievement of a goal or solution to a problem. It is also the art and science of planning and marshaling resources for their most effective and efficient use. These definitions are straightforward and to bring them closer home. A business exists to solve a problem, and the strategy guides them on the steps to take to solve those issues. For example, a contact center exists to provide customer service support to various companies; therefore, they need to have a strategy in place to provide the best customer service support on behalf of their clients. With the understanding that contact centers work on behalf of other companies, here are steps to take when articulating contact center strategies; Step 1: Understand your client’s corporate strategy A client will come to the contact center with the aim of outsourcing their customer service support function and expect that you will offer excellent services that will leave all their customers satisfied in a cost efficient manner. On the other hand, the contact center will be ready to offer the service and will take the client through their procedures. To start the relationship on the right foot, you need to understand what your potential client’s company stands for. What are their vision, mission and core values? Who are their key consumers? What do they want to achieve with their customers? When you sit down with your client, you will understand whom they are and how you can plug in to offer a seamless experience for their customers. Bear in mind that whatever strategy you recommend to the client should not undermine their efforts thus far. Align your strategy to what is important to your client. Step 2: Understand your client’s customer segmentation How has the client defined his customers? A company normally has a primary and secondary customer segments. You need to find out which customer base they want to work more on. What are the main issues they want to be resolved. For instance, they may want to increase revenues from the primary segment by reducing customer service expenses. With that information, you will know the best strategies to develop and implement, that will help them achieve their objective. You will also understand how to differentiate between the two customer segments, thereby, appoint the right agents for the job. Step 3: Understand the applicable boundaries As the contact center, you are the bridge between the client and their customers. If you do not align the company’s strategy with your strategy, you can easily have a disproportional impact on the overall attainment of the company goals. This third step will help you know what is applicable and what is not. For example, the client might require something that is against the contact center policies and procedures. You should not cross that boundary no matter what and the client needs to understand that as well, thereby, manage his expectations. The contact center and the client should be comfortable with the agreed boundaries. Step 4: Examine your KPI’s Next step is to examine your existing KPI’s and metrics. It is important to do so because you already have tools in place to measure them. Check whether they will apply to and meet the clients’ needs. As you examine them, remember to consider how your employees have been working, and how any change implemented will affect them. For instance, if you have measured quality metrics more like FCR and now you have to focus on efficiency metric like Average Handle Time. How it affect your employees? Will they feel conflicted? Ensure the strategies you put in place will not affect your employee satisfaction at work; otherwise, they will all quit. Step 5: Monitor and review your forecasts Workload forecast is vital for the contact center because it facilitates scheduling. With the new client, how do you anticipate the demand forecast to change? By looking at the current channels their customers prefer, you can forecast the channel that will be busy. You expect either the calls volumes or chats or emails or self-service to increase or a combination of them. Need to have proper forecast because if you are under-staff, customers will be dissatisfied thus affect the client’s business as well as yours. If you are overstaffed, you will waste resources thus affecting your revenue. Step 6: Examine your company operations Finally, you need to consider how the changes will affect your business operations. You have looked at the people, technology and processes, and now you need to look at the structural change. Any change will cost the company, and you should justify the costs to the management before any implementing any of them. Any changes to the contact center operations should improve the strategic alignment. With the above six steps, you can articulate contact center strategies that will enhance the organization’s objectives while meeting clients’ expectations.

How to Manage Change Effectively

We all know navigating change successfully can be tricky at times. In fact, if we allow it to overwhelm us it can be frustrating and disheartening. However if you are smart about it you can learn to manage at least the response to it. Here are a few tips I have been talking to my teams about lately since change is a constant. Accept Change as a fact of life! Our inbox is never empty, and once we learn that new technology that IT placed in front of us, we have to learn a new better one. Face it our world is changing at the speed of light so just accept it. Commit to always be learning! They say if change is constant then learning must be continuous. As long as you are constantly learning it will help you at least feel like you’re moving with the ever changing worlds we live in. You will feel better if you commit a lifelong of learning. Get Healthy – (one I fail at constantly but need to change) Change, even if its positive change is stressful, I have been trying to get healthy for years but have failed to change my eating habits, and have not gotten proper exercise and now my doctor is telling me I need to. Take my advice don’t wait till that happens. If you only accept change in the workplace you are missing the boat. Change can be an opportunity If you change your attitude about change that is the best management advice I can give. I have said before I will take Attitude over Aptitude any day. Instead of digging and resisting the changes, Allow yourself to embrace it and see where it takes you. Have a Strong Network of Support Just like anything in life, some changes require you to lean on others for emotional support and advice. Have that network and use it. Talk to God In my experience the only thing that is constant in life is God. God is the same every day, period. God has given us the best gift ever, unconditional love no matter what happens, embrace it. Have a Blessed Day!! This blog was first published on LinkedIn

Unique Defining Characteristics of Millennial

There has been much talk about the millennial generation because of their huge numbers – 80 million in the US alone – and their unique characteristics. When compared to the other generations, they have attracted the most attention in the workforce. However, the main differentiator between Generation Y with all the other Generations is their internet use. The millennial generation expects so much from their jobs than just a paycheck to make ends meet. Given that they are well educated (by their baby boomers parents who worked all their lives to see them excel in school), highly skilled in technology, have loads of energy and can multi-task, they have very high expectation of themselves and what they do for life. How then can you capitalize on above traits to grow your business? Here are four unique defining characteristics of millennia’s as employees;- They have a Social Mindset Being digital natives, they grew up with the internet. They would rather watch a movie on You tube and Tweet the afternoon away than watch TV. This exposure means that they have no borders; they are self-aware and aware of what is happening around the world. The social mindset also means that they are open minded to change as long as it is in line with their values and convictions. They are willing to volunteer and support social causes. They also easily accept diversity and tolerate each other’s differences and attitudes. It makes it easy for them to work in teams and still perform well. They Thrive on Performance Feedback Generation Y employees thrive on constant feedback. They prefer getting the feedback immediately as opposed to at the quarterly or annual appraisal meeting. As a manager, you need to ensure that you give your millennial employees frequent and immediate feedback. As you think about feedback, you can incorporate things like checklists to help them perform better. This generation likes knowing that what they are doing is adding value to the company and by providing them with a checklist, will help them realize that. Think about mentorship too as they are hands on and want to learn as much as they can without getting bored. The bottom line is, the way you deliver the feedback should keep them motivated, and you will enjoy business success working with a highly motivated Millennial team. The motivation should be from the senior management down to their immediate supervisor. They Need Strong Engagement As mentioned above, Generation Y is very hands on and get bored quickly if they don’t stay inspired to work. By engaging them, you will eliminate the above issues and have a vibrant team of dedicated employees. Tips on how you can fulfill the engagement need Provide career advancement opportunities based on performance that will motivate them to work harder and smarter and therefore, earn the promotion. Provide learning and development opportunities- this can be in the form of training, coaching or mentorship. Provide Corporate Social Responsibility. They like contributing to the society and allowing them to participate in CSR, will help them meet the needs of the communities around them, and also fulfill the need of doing meaningful work. Provide work-life balance. They believe that they need to balance work and life, therefore, create that for them. For example, have flexible schedules. Create an environment that contributes positively to their health and well- being. Such a space will engage them, and thus they will look forward to coming to work. Engage the millennial employees and you will experience success and business growth. They Work Well in Teams The Millennial employees work well in teams not individually. The feeling of togetherness or doing something collectively gives them the energy to accomplish it. Your role, therefore, is to create a team-oriented culture. In a contact center, it is easy to create a team-oriented culture because they have to work in teams for them to meet the set targets. In conclusion, the millennial is a special generation because they will form 80% of the work force in a few years. Understanding some of their defining characteristics like them having a social mindset, thriving on performance feedback, needing strong engagement and working well in teams will keep your employees happy, leading to low turnover.

Providing Superior Online Customer Support

These days, customers no longer shop exclusively through brick-and-mortar stores; online retailers have changed the game, permanently. Likewise, customers no longer expect product support to be delivered exclusively at a store counter or over the phone. Online customer services provide more flexible solutions for assisting clients remotely. As with more traditional methods, however, there are definite dos and don’ts for providing exceptional online customer support. Consistency is Key Similar to marketing, consistency is vital when it comes to a company’s online customer support presence. The tone and information being conveyed to customers should be cohesive across the board, paralleling the experience they would receive via phone or in person. This not only ensures an ideal interaction, but also greater confidence in your brand. Online and On Time Imagine visiting a major retail store and finding its doors locked midday on a Tuesday; you might feel bewildered and think twice about returning in the future. Your online customer support channel must take the same mentality, posting set operating hours to avoid confusion and frustration. Larger companies providing round-the-clock support still must be prepared for hang-ups. Much like a phone recording reassures callers that they are still in the queue awaiting service, your chat service should be provide an automatic response after a predetermined duration. Keep customers in the loop to keep agitation to a minimum. Security Sensitivity Despite the parallels, online customer services vary from other support methods in several ways. Transmitting unsecured data over the Internet is risky, and it’s important that your website makes customers aware of this. Provide them with the ability to send such information via secured web forms or telephone and ensure that your staff is trained to discourage sensitive details from being sent via chat. This includes passwords, personal info, and credit card numbers. Coming on Too Strong It’s helpful if your online customer support is readily available via call-to-action buttons or preset triggers. Trust your client to take the next step, however—trying too hard to initiate dialogue is tantamount to a pushy clerk. In many cases, it discourages interaction rather than encouraging it. If your chat numbers aren’t what you envisioned, consider displaying support agents’ names and/or photos to add a human touch, or decrease the amount of information required upfront to initiate the session. Train for Success Online customer support is all about communication, so make sure your staff is trained accordingly. The technical-minded people who make up your support team might think differently than your average customer, so it’s important that your reps stick with simple, straightforward language. Overly-technical descriptions may further cloud customer issues, exacerbating problems instead of working to resolve them. There are several other ways to promote an ideal customer experience. Make sure to emphasize for your team the importance of conveying a friendly, helpful disposition, which is often more difficult in text. Going beyond agent names and photos, you might implement the use of emoticons to keep the mood upbeat. Last and certainly not least, ensure that your team has the tools to succeed. High-volume support channels should be equipped with ticketing systems to keep responses organized and prioritized. Call scripts, data sheets, and other literature should be readily available so that customers are efficiently provided with clear, consistent information. Conclusion Many contrasts and similarities exist between online customer service and more traditional channels. The most important thing to keep in mind is that your goal is the same, regardless of the platform: staff good people that will deliver a consistent experience for your customers in a timely fashion. By respecting these basic tenants of customer service, your chat—and your brand by extension—are sure to enjoy success. This post was first published on LinkedIn

Top 10 Leadership Qualities That Matter Most to Millennials

Vast changes have taken place in the work environment, and more than a few of them have to do with the new breed of employees: millennials. Just as effective leaders have to change up their leadership styles to stay ahead of the game, they also have to exemplify specific qualities to attract and retain younger employees who have different needs and expectations than older generations. Brush up on 10 qualities in particular that have the most impact on millennials. Open and Honest Communication While employees of any age like open and honest communication, it’s especially important to let millennials employees know how they are performing in the workplace. Not only that, but younger employees are now more aware than ever of the multitude of options they have in the industry, making it imperative that leaders be as transparent as possible with them to make sure they stick around. Recognition Employee contribution recognition is one of the most important leadership qualities when it comes to working with millennials. Leaders should be clear on company objectives and goals and let millennial employees know their incentives for achieving those goals. A Sense of Trust Younger employees are often slow to trust, and that’s especially true of individuals in positions of authority. Leaders, managers and supervisors should always be 100 percent honest with millennials to put them at ease and bring out their best. Showing Respect While they may only have entry-level jobs, millennial team members should be treated with respect. Turn the Workplace Into a Classroom Make sure you give younger employees plenty of opportunities to grow in the workplace. Training sessions and mentoring programs are a great way to give employees a sense of pride and excitement. Lead by Example Rather than tell millennials what to do or what the company philosophy is, leaders should exemplify the qualities they expect to see and embody the company philosophy. Give Them a Reason to Confide in Their Leaders You can’t simply expect millennials to respect and have confidence in their managers and supervisors simply because they are in a position of power. It’s more effective for leaders to show they are willing to be the best leader possible by attending trade shows, learning about effective leadership qualities and completing skills training. Invest in Their Personal Lives Like everyone else, millennials have lives outside of work, lives leaders should be interested in. When you do take an interest in the lives of younger employees, make sure you only do so in the parts that are relevant to work and work performance. Use the Same Tech the Same Way Millennials are seemingly attached to their phones. Leaders should use this to their advantage and make it possible for employees to complete work on the go. Open to New Work Methods Millennials might also enjoy having the option of telecommuting and working in a space of their choosing. Leaders who understand the allure and benefits of freelancing and working from home are leaders younger employees are likely to want to work with. Leaders should change up their work-styles to attract and keep millennial employees. Doing so not only makes them better leaders, but more aware leaders and individuals as well.

The Social Media Customer Service Revolution

Don’t let the name fool you—social media is about much more than sharing vacation pictures and catching up with old friends. Twitter, Facebook, and social media platforms throughout the Internet are being utilized as broad communication tools, by individuals as well as organizations. So what exactly does this mean for your customer service campaign? Social customer services take support matters out of the shadows and into the public eye. In addition to free exposure, it provides another avenue by which customers can build their relationship with your brand. It shows current and prospective clients that you care about your customers and can also help to clear up common problems or confusion proactively through public responses. Employ these tips to make sure you’re getting the most out of your social campaign. Keep in Touch Social networking rule number one: stay connected. Make sure to monitor your social customer service accounts regularly in order to respond quickly to inquiries. Prioritizing your responses through these channels makes your business appear bigger, more organized, and makes it clear that you value customer satisfaction. Turn Negatives Into Positives Social media users are known for making their feelings known, often with blunt honesty. When you receive strongly-worded complaints, don’t give in to the temptation to erase them. Responding effectively and winning over that type of customer is an excellent way to instill confidence in the public, while also avoiding the tricky minefield which occurs when a user cries censorship. Organize Your Communications Just as you likely have separate e-mail addresses or phone numbers for general inquiries and customer service, you should consider opening separate social media accounts: one for general business needs and one exclusively for social customer services. This is especially true for larger companies which elicit large volumes of communications. Make sure that both accounts are actively maintained by qualified people in your organization. Learn the Tools of the Trade Social networks are constantly evolving, shifting to meet the needs of its constantly-expanding user base. It’s vital that you and/or your social media representatives keep tabs on changes and updates, maintaining a clear understanding of various platforms and how best to exploit them. Facebook in particular is known for making sweeping changes, often without much advance warning, so always ensure that your organization is up to speed. Good Will: The Great Equalizer You’ve probably heard the phrase “kill them with kindness,” advice routinely given when someone is confronted with a difficult person who they must cooperate with nonetheless. Complaints can be tough to deal with at times, whether due to the volume, the tone, or a combination of both. Your goal is to take it all in stride, just as you would in person or over the phone. Communicating over the Internet is like driving a car: people are much more inclined to shout things they’d never say in a civilized conversation. Don’t sink to that level—keep your attitude upbeat, positive, and unflappably polite. When the public observes a hot-headed customer that is treated with kindness and grace, you win and so does your brand. In Summary Social media services can open all new lines of communication for your business, helping you reach expanded customer segments and allowing you to promote your brand with an investment of just a little time and energy. Effective utilization is one of the most powerful and affordable tools at your disposal; an inability to adapt, however, might just leave your business in the dark. Here more about it at the iARE Annual Conference : Etechgs Events This blog was first post on LinkedIN

4 Tips for Enhancing Contact Center Etiquette

Call/Chat etiquette is one of the most important aspects that can make or break your contact center. When your agents, who are the face of the company, have great etiquette, high customer satisfaction levels often come along with it. Not to mention great etiquette brings loyal customers. Every positive experience a customer has with your agents will nurture that loyalty and provide strong positive brand advocates. Remember you represent your organization and are the face of your clients. Customers look for those organizations who represent not only themselves, but the clients brand with best in class service. Below are tips that leaders and agents can use to enhance call etiquette. Regularly Train and Coach Agents Coaching is key! Leaders should be in coaching and on-going training mode constantly. Training should not end after onboarding; you must continue to develop your agents in order to provide them the necessary feedback and tools to be successful. A well trained agent can be the differentiator between a good and bad customer experience. Refresher training and daily coaching helps agents remember the most important things to do. It equips them with the right, and most recent, information about a product or service and in turn provides them the confidence that often translates to the experience customers want. Respect the Customer All customers deserve your undivided attention and the utmost respect. Yes, even that angry customer! Put yourself in their shoes. Focus on understanding the customer’s needs, accommodating them and offering them a solution. Allow them to vent, voice their concerns and then offer what you can. They are looking for resolution and being respectful of that can often defuse the situation and allow the experience to become positive for both the agent and the customer. Maintain Professionalism We have all been coached on proper protocol and most organizations have a contact center code of conduct relating to call quality. Maintaining professionalism means you work within that set code of conduct and maintain the quality standards from the moment you pick up the phone or begin a chat to when you end the experience. The customer can tell whether you are professional or not by the words you use and the tone in which you use them. Follow your flow and most importantly listen to the customer. Be aware of your responses and your ability to offer solutions. Be timely, responsive and understanding. Remember this is the customer’s experience and you are one who will determine what type of experience that will be. Monitor Calls/Chats Call/chat monitoring for quality control is paramount in the contact center. However, it is also your best source of developmental needs and positive recognition! How can you know why an experience is scored low or high if you are not engaged in reviewing them daily? Utilize monitoring, have calibration sessions not only internally, but externally. Review what is working and what is not, and utilize that for on-going training, coaching and development. While there are many other ways to maintain contact center etiquette these four tips, regularly training your agents, respecting the customer, maintaining professionalism, and monitoring calls/chats can quickly provide a foundation for a better customer experience to build upon. Remember your customer’s experience today is their story about your brand tomorrow! This blog was first published on LinkedIN

Mobile Shopping: How to Create a Perfect Customer Experience

As mobile shopping becomes the common denominator influencing and informing consumer behavior, the opportunity to increase return on investment is expanding exponentially. To produce a profitable customer experience resulting in loyal conversions, your goal should be to create an experience that will: Persuade them to pay the rates you need to charge to be profitable Attract new customers to purchase your services and products Encourage them to continue to do business with you Drive them to tell others about your business Interest them in purchasing more from you When businesses build customer-centric frameworks, the process guides the form and intensity of the experience to offer the right set of features in the best way for each customer’s needs. Developing an Understanding of Consumer Needs Customer experience is an essential component of customer relationship management (CRM). The reason it is relevant is because a positive experience with a business is more likely to gain a loyal customer. Businesses must begin by developing a precise understanding of consumer demands and how mobile shopping sites can meet those obligations. Only then can they make strategic determinations regarding features, purpose, and overall consumer experience. These vital aims, in turn, determine what to measure and what distinguishes success. Following are the top six ways to create an ideal customer experience. Personalize the shopping experience : The businesses delivering an outstanding customer experience tailors and designs the experiences for various and individual shoppers. Build brand loyalty : A strategy can help produce higher customer satisfaction, decrease churn, and improve profits. A well-designed strategy begins with establishing the the experiences you want to present, then ensuring those experiences are constant across all platforms. Optimize the mobile user experience : The most successful organizations understand that shoppers interact with diverse elements of the company and over various touch points. They acknowledge customers engage with many employees when they request support and service, shop, or talk to billing or accounts support staff. Leverage technology : A well-known difficulty companies encounter is trying to employ software and technology to produce a customer experience. However, this can result in the focus being on what the technology can do instead of what you can do to create a beneficial experience. Deliver value to the customer : The best companies produce relevant intentions by sharpening the company focus on delivering them, such as placing an emphasis on cross-functional collaboration. For example, the supply chain and marketing teams are aligned across the entire customer experience to deliver a constant value statement. Capture real-time customer feedback : Ask for feedback and capture it in real time. Blog-interaction surveys can be delivered through a mixture of calls and automated tools through email. It’s critical to tie customer feedback to a particular customer support representative because it shows every team member the difference they make to the success of the company. Whatever the industry, mobile shopping customer experiences provide major opportunities to solve customer problems, alleviate frustration, and create memorable interactions. Etech Global Services partners with you to offer dedicated technology to generate the perfect customer experience.

How to Motivate your staff

Thinking of new ways of motivating your employees is a challenge especially for a company that has been in operations for many years. The need to keep your employees productive magnifies that challenge. However, whatever you do should be a reflection of all the contribution each employee has made to make a success, putting into account the diverse individual tastes. The human resource department can work with department leaders to ensure that what they do will be appreciated and valued, and will motivate the staff. When your staff is motivated, they will be energized to work harder and smarter. With that in mind, how then do you motivate your employees? Here are useful tips that can help you this year to turn around things. Say Thank You In the day-to-day running of the company or a department, you may not thank your employees enough for a job well done. Anytime is the prime time to do so. When you thank them, they will be inspired and motivated to keep doing a great job. Try something new this year, instead of sending out thank you emails; give each employee a handwritten thank you note. When the employee receives that handwritten note, they will feel appreciated and valued. Just the thought of their manager taking the time to write out the note will make them happy and motivated. Recognition in the Company Newsletter If your company produces a monthly newsletter, it will be a good idea to recognize the superstars of the month there. You can dedicate pages to recognize the employees who did well throughout the year, and in the various departments. Ensure that you make public the criteria you use to recognize staff so that each employee knows what they have to do to receive that recognition. The recognized employees will be motivated to keep up the good job and the once yet to get there, encouraged to add more effort. Overall, recognition is a powerful motivator. You can also take the recognition a notch higher by mentioning the high performing employees in the company social media platforms. Flexible Working Hours A contact center is a busy place, and the demands keep increasing especially during the festive season. When you plan their schedules well to give them more time with family, they will be more productive when at work. Given that the festive season spreads from one month to another, you can offer all the employees flexible schedules during the festive season. Another way that you can consider is to give them time off the phone. That time no matter how short will re-energize them thus motivating them to achieve more when on the phone. Motivating your employees does not have to be a difficult exercise that gives you sleepless nights. It should also not be an overly expensive affair that leaves the company accounts bleeding. You can combine the above three tips or use them separately. The key is to ensure that you touch each employee in a special way that shows him or her that you care, and you want to work together the coming years.

Importance of Text Messaging

Mobile devices have become indispensable tools in the 21st century. Most notably smart phones have changed the way consumers interact with brands. With a single click, a customer is online and can access any information they want. Contact centers, being the bridge between consumers and companies, have to provide customer service where the customers are. Text messaging is a fundamental platform when reaching out to them. Did you know research shows individuals read an SMS within the first four minutes of receiving it? Check out these statistics to further understand the impact of cell phones and smartphones in the marketplace: More than two-thirds of Americans own a smartphone or a tablet. 90% of adult Americans own a cell phone. 98% of teenage Americans own a phone. And these are the four primary benefits of why you should be using text messages in your contact center: Lower Communication Costs Most contact centers have high operating costs. Finding a way to reduce these costs and still maintain the quality standards of service is vital to the company’s growth. All communication mediums have costs attached to them, service provider costs attached, and contact center costs. Sending text messages is cheaper than making outbound calls. Both are effective ways of reaching customers, nevertheless, when you are looking at reducing costs, text messages will save the day. For example, an outbound call may cost $3.80 to $ 31.68 while an SMS could cost as little as $0.10 to $0.25. The difference in cost is huge when multiplying the number of outbound calls or SMS made by a contact center. And this new, updated, final cost will make a significant reduction in operating costs. Effective Service Delivery Being effective is important in a contact center. You do not want to run programs for the sake of it. You want to have tangible outputs from the input. We measure effectiveness in terms of time and value created within that time. From the agents’ perspective, sending out an SMS notification takes 2.5 seconds compared to sending the same message via a telephone call, which will take 2 minutes. Simply put, agents can reach dozens of customers in the same time it takes as making a single phone call. Customers also expect an instant response and what better way to provide that than through the device they look at every few minutes. Have you ever left the house without your smart phone? A majority of people would risk being late and go back to fetch their phone before spending the whole day without it. Consumers are admittedly attached to their smartphones. Agents and customers are more satisfied with this service delivery because it saves time and is effective. Enhance Marketing Promotions Marketing is about informing customers of your latest products and promotions, whether it is a new product or an advancement. Promotions are at the core of a marketing campaign, it is important to run one that is cost-effective. For example, a retailer who wants to run an in-store promotion can send out targeted texts before the event date. Customers who receive the communication will be ready for the day, and it will save the retailer advertisement money. Not only can you inform your consumers about the event, but you can also send reminders and discount coupons. Your business will certainly remain top of mind with your customers. This is being proactive in your marketing campaign while increasing revenue. It is also easy to track response rates of text messages by analyzing the data collected during the event. Improve Staff Communications A contact center can employ thousands of team members. Sometimes planning work schedules can be difficult due to demand increases such as during a crisis and you need to quickly outsource extra staff to ensure customer satisfaction. With text messages, you can inform seasonal agents when work is available and they can respond immediately to confirm availability or otherwise. For permanent staff, when shifts have to change for any reason, you can send them an SMS regarding these changes and what you expect them to do to cover the shortage. Text messages save your in-house staff time and effort in calling their colleagues. It also reduces the number of agents involved in such an exercise. Introducing text messaging to the call center can reduce costs, provide efficient service delivery, enhance marketing promotions, and improve staff communications. Begin to include text messaging with the other lines of communication within your call center. Take advantage of SMS for convenience and reliability. This blog was originally published on LinkedIN

Motivating the New Millennial Workforce

Millennials are currently the largest sector of the workforce, albeit by a small margin. However as Generation X transitions into retirement, company executives and managers must cater to a new generation with a different mode of thought. When thinking of a leader as an influencer, he or she is responsible for motivating and inspiring employees to greater levels of productivity, but what moves millennials into fervent or dedicated workplace performance? How should managers tailor leadership skills and training to the needs of a new perspective? Give Them True Vacations If you’ve been paying attention to recent shifts in social perceptions, you’ll already know millennials are completely over working long hours for money they’ll never get to spend because they’re always at work. Allow for sick days, but make sure employees have a chance to take a long 10-day vacation too. Three or four days away from the office are hardly enough time to fully unplug the various work-related electronic and emotional connections. Employees need a reprieve and frankly, some of the best solutions result from a rested minds subconscious. Millennials hardly mind the work grind, but they want to know they’ll get the time off they’ve earned. Exchange Trust for Increased Productivity Millennials are creative thinkers and problem solvers; so sitting in a stuffy cubicle is not their ideal workspace. Of course, certain positions require office time at least intermittently, but giving your millennial workers the freedom to move around or work from home might just inspire them to be more productive. Trade in your performance reviews and rubrics for frequent email or messaging check-ins. You can still get frequent updates on project progress and your employee has the freedom to create a timetable that will allow them to visit the doctor’s office before 5pm and complete their assignments by the deadline. This method requires a bit more trust, but don’t mistake a millennial’s thirst for flexibility and independence for a lack of work ethic. Empower Creative Thinkers and Support Ethical Initiatives Who do millennials want to work for? They seek companies with a reputation for innovation and/or ethical practices. Innovative and ethical environments provide millennials with empowering managers and enterprise protocols that will treat them well regardless of the situation. This generation wants to pitch new ideas to a manager who’s truly considering the proposal while knowing their employer will fulfill promises of advancement, medical benefits and time off when applicable. Moreover, employees want to distance themselves from the possibility of waking up to see their company made headlines for a scandal or unethical practice. Employee motivation is always at the forefront of manager’s mind, but what worked for Generation X won’t play as well with millennials. They are looking for employers they can trust to provide quality work environments and careers without asking them to sacrifice they personal lives or ethical standards. Managers will need to focus less on productivity metrics and more on fostering effective communication between employees and management. Millennials are happy to put in the work for personal and company progress, if you believe in them and they believe in you.

Affordable Strategy and Techniques to Improve Customer Service

Offering excellent customer service has tremendous benefit to any organization, and it is one of the top priorities for every employee. The top management assigns a team to develop strategies and then train the employees for a seamless implementation. Poor customer service hurts your business by driving away customers, who spread the bad news to others, thereby, killing your business. However, when you provide superior customer service the payoffs are enormous, from high sales, satisfied clients who become your brand advocates, increased profitability to happy employees. For your business to grow steadily, you need to increase cash flow as you lower operating expenses. Therefore, you cannot afford to have none or a poor strategy to improve your customer service. Have the following tips in mind when you are formulating the strategies and techniques to improve customer service, they are affordable too. Carry out a situation analysis The step is to understand where you are now. Approach it from the customers and employees point of view. Carry out a customer survey to get satisfaction scores. Compile the data and work with an average of the total. For the employees, use data from quality metrics like First Contact Resolution and service metrics like average speed of answer. It will help you understand internal problems that may be hindering superior service delivery. You also need to know how your employees define their roles at the contact center. Does an agent say, “I answer calls and respond to live chat inquiries?” or does he or she say, “I resolve customers issues the best way possible?” How an agent understand their role influence how they perform. Put all the above information together to get a clear picture of where you are. These will be your objectives as your progress with the strategy formulation. Scrutinize your Procedures and Processes Employees are not the only factor that can affect customer service; the contact center systems and processes can. What is the procedure for agents to resolve issues? Do they have to escalate all issues to the manager or are they empowered to handle the issues? Are your systems user-friendly? For example, when a customer logs into your website and wants to interact with an agent online, do they have to spend several minutes locating the live chat icon. You need to make your services accessible and available. Today’s customer expects instant gratification, or else they shop elsewhere. The procedures and processes should make it easy for the employees to meet customers’ needs. Work on the Improvement Areas You now have data on customers, employees, procedures, and processes. Now, look into the areas that need immediate action and start with them, and roll out the rest with time. With improvement, the focus on the employees and processes, and the changes will affect the customer. Take your employees through thorough refresher training, and focus on the weak areas. For example, if you found out that the call transfer rate was high, the training should emphasize on product knowledge. Loop in the line managers The best people to oversee the implementation of the strategy are the line managers because they spend most of their time on the floor with agents. Ensure they know and understand the strategy and the value it brings to the contact center. You can train them on a separate day, to empower them further and thus give them the right tools and information to make the strategy work. Line managers go beyond overseeing the implementation. For example, after the training, they can coach the employees to greater performance improvements. Effective line managers lead their teams to success. Monitor and Review After equipping everyone with the correct information and tools, you need to monitor their progress. How are the employees performing in light of the set objectives? For example, if they were to improve the FCR, has the rate increased or decreased? After gathering the data, conduct review meeting with line managers and selected employees. At the core of the monitoring and reviewing is to check whether the implemented strategies had financial implications to the contact center. They should not increase your operations cost but lower them. In summary, when you carry out a situation analysis, scrutinize your procedures and processes, work on the improvement areas, loop in the line managers, and monitor and review the strategies and techniques, you will improve your customer service. Be patient in the process as it takes some time to change from one policy to another.

4 Ways to Deliver better Customer Support utilizing Chat

If you look at monthly satisfaction rates for chats and tickets, satisfaction for a regular customer service chat is typically much higher than for a support ticket. This anomaly has a rather clear cause: When clients’ cases are pushed to support tickets, they are usually already dissatisfied with the service they have received. Why? Support ticket cases are the ones that can’t be handled easily, are hard to crack and require quite a bit more time to resolve. This longer wait time does little to calm upset clients. How do you take a disappointed client and, in the end, turn them into a satisfied customer? Although not every case can be expedited, there are certain shortcuts you can use to deliver better service to your ticket customers. Give Tickets to Those Who Can Resolve Them : Although this may seem like an obvious statement, it is a vital part of keeping customers happy that many companies might inadvertently ignore. If you know that the person who initially responds to a support ticket is going to pass it along to someone who actually possesses the knowledge and skills necessary to resolve it, there is a serious problem. The ticket should go directly to someone who can take care of it immediately to increase customer satisfaction. In some cases, there might be a difficult ticket that no one wants to pick up. Support teams should be encouraged in these situations to see finding a solution as a challenge that needs to be overcome. Utilize Tiered Support : Different cases require different levels of expert knowledge to handle. This makes a tiered support system crucial in efficiently handling cases after live chat fails. A basic tiered support setup involves two separate groups of agents: those who receive incoming cases from customers and the experts who actively deal with the cases. The receivers are the first to pick up the ticket, then they escalate it to the experts, who deal with it depending on the case type. One expert could deal with managing payments. Another could handle returns. This allows experts in certain areas to handle the cases that they have been so thoroughly trained on. It makes little sense to have experts in one area handling matters from other areas. This assures that the workers with the highest credentials are immediately assigned the cases that only they can handle. Keep Track of Tickets : One of the easiest ways to further anger an already bothered customer is to lose their ticket. Tickets are commonly lost when they are assigned to a person who is out of the office for more than a day or so. It is completely avoidable and should never happen. Only actively working individuals should receive new tickets. Provide the Details : If a ticket is passed to another worker, it is vital that all the ticket’s details are provided. Without that information, resolving the issue can be greatly prolonged. Any missing information will have to be filled in a second time by the requestor, which will lead to a longer case resolution and an overall poorer experience. For the cases that cannot be resolved via live chat support, tickets are unavoidable. However, the customer experience can be positively affected if support technicians simply follow these four steps.

Overcoming the Accent Barrier Using Live Chat

The Internet has helped to level the playing field in many regards, allowing business and commerce to span across countries and continents where such opportunities did not previously exist. One of the notable effects of this blurring of geographical lines has been that support representatives are often asked to serve customers who live in a different country, and thus, usually speak a different first language. At heart, this change is positive, allowing many people to find work in areas where limited opportunity exists. However, it does also create some amount of disconnect in cases where buyers are less satisfied with service which is inhibited by language barriers. In many cases, it’s less a matter of the words chosen and more about how they are naturally spoken based on local accents and dialects. This is one area where a live chat tool can be of great benefit. A Matter of Nuance Whether your business utilizes an offshore call center or simply employs local workers whose first language differs from that of your typical customer, you might already understand the impact of communication disconnect. This is not to say that hiring from all walks of life is a mistake or a threat to your business. On the contrary, many organizations benefit greatly from diversity in the workforce. The trick is utilizing the right kind of communication platform to capitalize on your team’s strengths. By relying on live chat tools, you can eliminate the hang-ups that some individuals experience when there is a difference in pronunciation. As contact center services can range from product questions to billing inquiries and company complaints, it’s important to ensure that nothing is effectively lost in translation. Quantifying Quality The CFI Group performed a study in 2010 which asked customers to rate their satisfaction with U.S.-based call centers versus those outsourced to foreign countries. The results were telling: Stateside, the satisfaction index reached 79 of a possible 100 points. For those locations staffed primarily by foreign representatives, the number dipped to 58. This relates to how easily understood agents were considered to be (score of 85 for U.S. versus 54 for international entities) as well as the perceived interest in resolving the customer’s issue (scores of 85 compared to 70). However, when comparing courteousness, the difference was less notable: a score of 87 for American call centers to 75 for offshore operations. This displays that most clients are receptive and understand that representatives mean to help, but the need for an equalizer still exists. The Live Chat Difference When utilizing a chat service for your e-commerce site, you can instantly eliminate the challenges presented by different accents among your staff members. As communications are text-based, there is little room for misinterpretation due to mispronunciation. Instead, customers can focus on receiving accurate, efficient information which will help them proceed with confidence in your company. In this instance, offshore call centers can actually be of great benefit. When your operations are broken up into different time zones, your team may in fact be better able to serve the greatest volume of customers without asking your team to work odd hours according to where they live. Final Thoughts The study by CFI Group highlights one core lesson: Trust is intertwined with understanding. If it’s difficult for shoppers to interpret what’s being said to them, it’s also difficult for them to trust the information. Consider the needs of your particular business and make sure to choose the right avenues of communication to receive the greatest benefit from your team of service representatives. This blog was written by Jim Iyoob, EVP Customer Experience and Operational Excellence for Etech Global Services. For more advice on creating an effortless customer experience utilizing chat or if you would like to learn more about Etech, feel free to contact me

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