Call Center Agent Performance Survey
Illustration by John Melven

Vacations are dwindling down. Schools are ramping up. We’re planning our agent celebrations for Customer Service Week next month. It is a busy time of year. Our September issue focuses on many agent issues; performance metrics, attendance, agent desktops, employee engagement, customer experience…and more. Our agents have tremendous impact on our customer satisfaction. Let’s not get so busy that we overlook their impact!

Here is what you’ll find in our September issue:

FEATURE ARTICLES

Agent Performance Metrics
By Susan Hash
How effective are your performance metrics? Do they align with the organization’s strategic business goals? Highlights from our 2016 Agent Performance Report, co-sponsored by Transera, a BroadSoft Company.

First Step: Showing Up
By Jay Minnucci
Frontline agents are the ones with the greatest impact on customer satisfaction. They’re the lifeblood of the center, so they certainly provide a great return on investment. Unless, of course, they don’t show up.

It’s Time to Optimize Those Ugly Agent Desktops!
By Brian Hinton & Matt Morey
Given its (potentially very big) payback, agent desktop optimization should move to the top of your “to-do” list. A look at the functionality that can deliver the most positive outcomes.

INSIDE VIEW
CARiD
By Susan Hash
An online automotive parts and accessories retailer delivers a concierge-like experience one customer at a time.

DEPARTMENTS

IDIOM INSIGHTS
Face the Music… Call Yourself!
By Kathleen M. Peterson
Hold music shouldn’t be an irritant for callers. The consequence of poor music selection is damage to the customer experience and the brand.

LEADING THOUGHTS
It’s Not Quality Management
By William Durr
Speech analytics and customer surveying applications have transformed the QM process into brand management.

PERFORMANCE MATTERS
How to Deliver Engaging Customer Experiences, Part 4: Driving Employee Engagement
By Bill Stavros
When your employees are happy, the organization prospers. How to apply Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs in the workplace.

SERVICE QUALITY
Strategies to Improve Quality of Service
By Dennis Redden
3 key strategies that deliver maximum impact on service quality.

SUPERIOR SERVICE
Hello From the Other Side
By Marilyn Saulnier
Companies can’t hide their bad behavior in today’s era of empowered customers. 5 steps to delivering a customer experience you can be proud of.

THE VIEW FROM THE SADDLE
Saddletree Research Kachina Awards
By Paul Stockford
Introducing the Saddletree Research Kachina Awards for Innovation in the North American Contact Center Industry—it’s not just another “Participant” trophy.

Please note: Contact Center Pipeline is a subscription magazine. To view all articles, please consider a subscription. Enter “Summer2016” in the coupon code during checkout and receive 50% off your digital or print subscription.

SPONSOR SPOTLIGHT
Why Customer Analytics Are Key to Unlocking Customer Experience
By Tom Goodmanson, Calabrio
The conversations between agents and callers uniquely position the contact center to provide customer insight like no other inbound marketing channel can.

SPONSOR SPOTLIGHT
Sennheiser: 70+ Years of Perfecting Workplace Headsets
By Sennheiser
A Q&A with Sennheiser—a pioneer in the global audio industry with 70 years of success creating high-performance audio and recording technologies.

SPONSOR SPOTLIGHT
Finding a New Facility? Is It on the Top of Your Mind?
By Paige Webster, Webster Global Site Selectors
Understanding the critical real estate search during the expansion or relocation process.

Thank you to our September sponsors: Calabrio, Customer Contact Strategies, Execs in the Know, Human Numbers, ICMI Events, inContact, IntelePeer, Interactive Intelligence, Sennheiser, Service Agility, Strategic Contact, TelStrat and Verint. They help make Contact Center Pipeline possible!! Please visit all our sponsors in our Pipeline Directory.