Remote Working

I just wrapped up my 13th anniversary message for the March issue of Contact Center Pipeline. In doing so, I was reflecting on our very first issues of the magazine back in 2008. Just...

GreenState Credit Union of North Liberty, Iowa, is a 290,000-member financial cooperative with assets of $7.8 billion. It prides itself on its excellent customer service that is delivered through its 23 branches and by...

Work from home (WFH) has finally become an accepted business continuity/disaster recovery (BC/DR) strategy. And it appears that it is becoming a large and a permanent part of companies’ employment strategies. I am personally very...

Everyone likes simplicity, especially in the world of customer service. The best contact center agents will simplify difficult situations for callers, and smart contact center managers will simplify training and workforce development for their...

Video has been refined for use in business for over 15 years and it is certainly a key part of any digital transformation strategy. But while the industry has talked about the use of...

“Rewritten by machine and new technology/And now I understand the problems you can see” Video Killed The Radio Star (The Buggles) No, video did not kill the radio star, contrary to the famous lyrics that launched MTV...

During the first quarter of 2020, I recall when COVID-19 started appearing more prominent in the U.S. we as a call center weren’t sure how everything would play out. Though we had several plans in...

In today’s business environment people matter. Customers rightly want the option of speaking to live agents. Automated self-service alone, even with sophisticated tools like artificial intelligence (AI)-driven chatbots, is not enough to enable superior...

“Now that we’re working from home, no one else (in the company) knows who we are,” said a veteran contact center agent during one of my sales training classes. His frustration was echoed by...

2020 was a tough year for contact center supervisors. While the quick shift to work-from-home was a shock to almost every level’s work routines, no role has transformed as much as that of the...

5th Talent International has completed three contact center work-at-home studies since the beginning of the 2020 pandemic. We learned that most employees prefer the hybrid model, which is a mix of splitting their time...

As COVID-19 restrictions ease, contact center leaders are planning what their future work environment will look like. The hybrid work model, in which agents work at home but come into the center a few...

Today’s customers want to get in touch with businesses fast, and live chat is a strong tool for meeting that expectation. Not only does live chat let agents monitor and engage website and app...

Old and in the way, That’s what I heard them say. They used to heed the words he said, But that was yesterday. I had a birthday in June, and it suddenly struck me that I’ve lived for...

I am taking liberties with Zoom’s brand name, as it appears that the masses use the word Zoom as a noun, referring to video meetings in general. This is true even when using Teams,...

Our top 5 blog posts in August are very representative of the current environment we continue to find ourselves in. Our Pipeline readers are confronting the challenges remote work can bring. Candace talks of...

Many organizations weathered the COVID-19 crisis by focusing first on the welfare and well-being of their employees. The quick shift from on-premise to work-from-home (WFH) last year helped to safeguard companies’ human asset. Yet...

Time for another trip down memory lane or, for most of you, probably another history lesson. Let’s start this one in 1968. 1968 was the year American singer-songwriter Joe South released a song called “Games...

The past year was a challenging and transformative time for many people as a global, once-in-a-generation health crisis upended critical components of how we work, play and connect. From remote workers to Netflix bingers, a...

Workplace trends come and go. From the hierarchical corner office setups and cubicle rows that dominated most of the 1900s to open-plan campuses with free lunch and foosball that came with the internet boom...