Call center software industry

In this month’s webinar we will be covering how to manage inContact’s Universal Queue. I’m excited to share this information with you all because I know how important it can be to your contact center’s success.   Read more»

Workforce Management (WFM) is all about assigning the right employees with the right skills to the right job at the right time- all to benefit overall contact center operations and ultimately customer service. Based on our experience, WFM in the contact center can and should be fluid; meaning managers must continue to evolve their techniques to achieve superior results over time consistently.

In this blog, we will look at how WFM tools can drive transformational, positive change for agents in the contact center and the business overall. Below we offer some food for thought regarding WFM best practices as they relate to shift bidding, social media, scheduling change, service level agreements (SLAs), and work-life balance.
 
Shift Bidding and Scheduling

Incorporating shift bidding into the scheduling process doesn’t have to be difficult; in fact, new tools exist that automate the process. Automation is critical because it can help eliminate confusion typically caused by asking agents one-by-one for their schedule preferences. It’s also tempting to give priority to agents based on tenure or seniority, but shifts should be assigned based on performance, quality monitoring scores and other elements that motivate agents to improve their personal performance. Finally, look to shift trading or even work-at-home agents (WAHA) to keep your contact center happy, especially during the holidays!

Social Media Intelligence

Social media is already a major communication channel for younger customers, and can be a valuable tool in the contact center to reach this audience and to gather critical intelligence from the chatter. Before you embrace social media, think about what resources to allocate to monitor and handle posts. Do agents need additional training? If your agents are responding to posts, ensure those who are monitoring social media are providing options for getting your customers in touch with the appropriate party. The idea is to make it easy for the customer to get the answers they are looking for. Empower your agents to make that connection.

Finally, what are you doing with all of the intelligence provided by customers on the social sites you are monitoring? This information is invaluable as it provides insight into the mind of a customer that can be leveraged to improve your products and services down the road.
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Ongoing learning is vital for professional success and growth. As in many other industries, the contact center provides the opportunity for education in two main ways – through informal mentoring and through more formalized training and e-learning. Through the combination of these methods, team members can gain valuable skills and insights to better perform for the center and for their own professional growth.

Mentoring is a unique and valuable part of professional growth. The structure allows employees and management to establish bonds within the team to pair strengths and weaknesses. One major advantage of mentoring is an informal approach where team members may feel more comfortable asking questions in peer-to-peer environment, and it provides a big opportunity for “soft” skill development around closing and transitioning skills and general communication issues. 

On the other hand, e-Learning provides more measurable education opportunities and allows for team members to understand exactly how they are progressing. Assessments give visibility into agent performance and can provide motivation for improvement as well as positive reinforcement for successes. Using both of these approaches brings a rich learning experience to team members and emphasizes the importance of continual learning.

Keep these simple rules in mind for teaching in the contact center, and the experience will be a positive one!

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The customer experience tools we have at our disposal today are no doubt impressive. We continue to push boundaries to create advanced capabilities and work to stay on the cutting edge of the trends our customers care about. But at the end of the day, a successful contact center begins with the basics, and attention to the details around areas like quality management is essential to executing any successful campaign or running an exceptional contact center.

It’s important to get these baseline programs right, so we’ve outlined what we think are the top 10 characteristics of a successful quality management program or form. 

1. Synergistic: Quality management begins with the culture of an organization, and stems into all areas of the program. Quality management works best when it is informed by an established message that is derived from cultural values. Avoid contradictory messaging and strive to put quality assurance, training, incentives and motivation all on the same page.
2. Relevant: When choosing elements of a QM form, take a cue once again from your company culture and messages, and work to create a form that’s unique to your organization. Pull components from past experience, industry examples and instinct, but keep the elements relevant to the environment and manageable in terms of business capabilities. 

Are you looking for some expert advice to complement your contact center? Couldn’t make it to ICUC 2012? Look no further. From now until the end of the year, stay tuned to our new blog series, Industry Insights. In this six post series, best practices from your world and ours will be featured on the inContact Blog. Look for the second post, Industry Insights: 10 Characteristics of a Winning Quality Management Program, coming Monday, December 3. Don’t get left out in the cold this holiday season... stay informed. 

Leveraging Outbound Offerings in the Contact Center

A relationship is a two-way street, as they say- so why should an organization’s relationship with a customer be any different? Consider the number of times your contact center receives inbound calls or requests from customers. Now think about how often your organization is the one reaching out to provide value to the customer proactively.

Traveling for work can be a nightmare, especially when you don’t carry a Platinum, Diamond, or King/Queen of the Universe status with your preferred hotels and airlines like me. I just reached peasant level with my hotel and airline. However, I have experienced a heightened base level of service with one company that has kept me using them for several years. You’d never guess that it is a local taxi company in Salt Lake City. Interacting with them is the only piece of travel that is made easy for me. Here is how my last experience went.

Me: <I call the taxi company – phone is answered in two rings by an agent>
Taxi Company: Thank you for calling, is this Scott Logan?
Me: Yes it is. I need to schedule a cab for 5:00am tomorrow morning.
Taxi Company: Will that be from <my address> to the airport?
Me: Yes it will.
Taxi Company: Great, your cab will be there shortly before 5:00am.
Me: Thank you!
Taxi Company: Have a great day.

It took all of fifteen seconds and sure enough they arrived ten minutes to 5:00am. Breaking this down, they had a screen pop with my customer history available to the agent after identifying my phone number before the call was answered. From there she saw that I have mostly booked cabs from my house to the airport in the wee hours of the morning and prompted the discussion. On a side note, I was once even offered a coffee to be brought next time I was picked up by one of the cab drivers who normally works that early morning shift in my area. I declined because I am a picky coffee snob, but appreciated the offer.

The annual inContact User Conference (ICUC) is a chance for customers to mingle, network, and learn best practices from their peers and industry experts. ICUC 2012 was a major success with a 40 percent increase in attendance and more customer-led breakout sessions than ever before.

Centered on the changing landscape of customer service, ICUC took a thought leadership approach to tackling contact center issues.  Thanks to innovative technology and users who constantly push the boundaries to improve the way contact centers handle both agents and customers, the customer experience continues to evolve into a more positive and efficient overall experience. Check out some highlights of the conference below.

Peer Lessons 

One of the greatest values of the ICUC is the opportunity customers have to learn from each other, share challenges and success stories, and trade best practices. With evolving technology continuing to transform the contact center, we often learn as we go, and hearing from peers about their similar experiences helps everyone become smarter. Some highlights from the 2012 customer-led breakout sessions include:

Metrics are a major part of evaluation contact center success, and with more data available today, we’re able to get a clearer picture of performance than ever- if we know how to use the information. In customer-led session Metrics and Data in Your Contact Center, presented by Volunteers of America, DATACORE Marketing and KM2 Solutions, end users demonstrated how to tap into data collection and then leverage that data to move your organization forward.   Read more»

It happens everywhere – agents are in a slump, struggling to find motivation for their daily work, and management is searching for the appropriate KPI change or policy enhancement to improve the center’s performance and attrition.  When that is happening in your center, it leads you to wonder how the centers that waste time with a Friday afternoon ice cream bar, or spend unnecessary money on a monthly drawing for agents meeting their KPI’s have successfully found a way to retain their agents and maintain a high level of productivity while others are struggling with the same goals.   Read more»

In our fourth episode of On The Line, Heather sits down with Andy Bird, our Director of Product Management, to chat about our latest Dialer release. The interaction of dialer and inbound groups, agent scripting, and report information are discussed, as well as how these elements come together to give our customers more control and flexibity. Take a look!

Desktop real estate is valuable in the contact center realm and we are constantly introducing ways to boost simplicity and efficiency. In this latest episode of On The Line, Heather sits down with Madelyn Gengelbach, Senior Product Marketing Manager, to discuss some delicious comparisons involving our CRM Plug-In Agent. Get a look at some screen captures of the product, showcasing a few key features including click-to-dial, the slide-out panel, our unique ribbon interface and more!