How to Manage Angry Customers
To paraphrase a saying from gladiatorial combat in ancient Rome: “For those who are about to be verbally abused, I salute you!” ...
Guiding Customers on Their Journeys
Businesses with contact center operations are facing a core challenge. Namely customers’ service expectations keep rising, but the agents whose job it is to...
12 Better Ways to Start a Customer Service Email
“Thank you for contacting us.” There’s nothing wrong with that little email starter sentence, but it’s not great, either. Think about it. In most...
Why Training Programs Fail and How to Avoid It Happening to You
We considered starting this article like this: “Two grizzled training veterans walk into a bar…” but that’s not exactly how it happened. We are...
Why Customer Service Is Not an “Entry-Level” Position
My 10-year-old son thinks I am so old, I roamed the earth alongside the dinosaurs! He is right in one way: I started in...
The Importance of Soft Skills Training Beyond the Pandemic
Even as local economies begin phases of reopening, COVID-19 is keeping most of us in our homes for the foreseeable future, and as a...
Don’t Reduce People to Numbers… or Should You?
Assessment tools have been an industry standard in human resources management for a while. At times, this may feel cold and very corporate, as...
Upskilling the Contact Center: Planning for Your Agents’ Future in an Era of Uncertainty
The impact of the coronavirus pandemic continues to unfold, shifting last quarter’s priorities to the back-burner. As more communities around the world go on...
Are Microskills the Key to Surviving the Bots?
As the next decade is upon us, we should all take a minute to understand the big trends that are going to impact our...
The Making of a Contact Center Superagent
The universal agent is certainly not a new concept for contact centers. Next-available agent routing models have long relied on the use of experienced...
Three Ways Contact Center Staffing and Training Has Evolved
It seems like every day we learn about a new brick-and-mortar retail giant that is closing stores across the country. Sam’s Club, Toys R...
Cautious Optimism… Taking Ownership of Communication
Cautious optimism is defined as “a feeling of general confidence regarding a situation and/or its outcome coupled with a readiness for possible difficulties or...
Follow “The 3 Cs” for a Meaningful Performance Review
Of all the things employees despise, end-of-year performance appraisals (PAs) are at the top of the list. The Washington Post has research to support...
Inside View: Valvoline
It has often been said that motor oil is the lifeblood of an automobile engine. While professional drivers and automobile enthusiasts know that using...
Inside View: DAT Solutions
In the B2B world, where businesses tend to compete on price, DAT Solutions stands out as a shining example of a service-oriented company that...
Executive Talk: Jim White, Santander Bank
Jim White is Senior Vice President and Director of Card Services at Santander Bank. Jim talks about the agent skill requirements they have in...
Lateral Moves: Another Path to Career Success
Since there are a finite number of management positions available within the contact center, some centers help their career-minded agents to gain skills and...
Gamification: A Holistic Approach for the Agent Lifecycle
Climbing a traditional career ladder is not for everyone. Some agents may be perfectly content to spend their entire careers in the contact center...
From Transaction Processors to Knowledge Workers
Service is delivered through people. Despite all the advanced technology and Six Sigma processes that we institute in our contact centers, the frontline agent...
