The Mobile Experience Is About Convenience
Consumers are starting to spend almost as much time using their smartphones and tablets as they spend watching television (127 minutes per day vs....
The Welcome Call
In my last post, I looked at a few Do's and Don'ts of Proactive Contacts. Not sure how to get started with proactive work?...
Proactive Do’s and Don’ts
In many contact centers, proactive contacts seem to function as “filler work”—an activity that gets done when there is some down time (which, of...
Home-Agent Programs: 4 Common Mistakes
While the advantages of home-agent programs are undeniable, if your model is not well-defined, you’ll likely find yourself running into a few stumbling blocks...
Cut New-Hire Turnover with a Realistic Job Preview
In their eagerness to attract the best talent, companies often oversell the frontline contact center agent’s job during the recruiting process, which only increases...
Plan For Change
We love to conduct technology strategy projects and have shared how important we think those are for contact centers. We emphasize alignment of technology...
Management Training: Keeping Pace with Change
New technology, emerging channels, social media and rising customer expectations are all transforming the customer care environment. In our recent Contact Center Training poll,...
Empowered Agents: A Key to Customer Satisfaction
According to a study from Customer Experience Management, 71% of agents do not have the authority to satisfy a customer. OUCH! With high attrition...
WFM Excel Trick for Counting Days
I am a workforce manager, which means I need to count days for many reasons: payroll days for my staffing models; working days, so...
Inside View: Award-Winning Managers
What defines best-in-class performance? ICMI recently announced the finalists for its Global Contact Center Awards Program. The winners in each of the 12 categories...
Who Really Cares About Service Metrics Anyway?
I want to talk a little about why service metrics (e.g., Service Level, ASA, Abandon Rate or Max Delay) are so important and why...
The Top 5 Posts in April
In early April, interest in agent development rose to the top of the charts on the Pipeline blog—from insights about ensuring that the right...
Call Center Training ROI
Which types of contact center training produce the best ROI? In our recent Contact Center Training Special Issue, we asked experts from the leading...
Measuring FCR: Timing Affects Feedback Validity
Post-transaction surveys provide a customer-centric view of when first-contact resolution (FCR) has been achieved. But even with customer surveys, the most common methods often...
Basic Training for New Team Leaders
“Congratulations! You have been promoted to acting supervisor.” It was 1993 when my manager pulled me aside and gave me the good news. I...
Coaching and Training Social Care Agents
If your contact center is among the many that are considering adding social media to the channel mix, one of your top considerations will...
The Impact of Mobile
No matter what you think of mobile communication, you can be certain it is here to stay. It is not simply a different type...
Avoid Supervisor Training Failure
What is your training plan for a new supervisor? According to a study by Benchmark Portal, 33% of new supervisors receive no training when...
How to Align Frontline Training with QA Results
As more organizations turn to customer experience as a competitive differentiator, contact centers must ensure that staff are fully prepared to drive customer-centric goals....
Make a Long Story Short… PLEASE
“To make a long story short” is an idiom that dates back to the 1800s. In 1857, Henry David Thoreau penned these words in...
WFM Human Factors
Q: How do you know if you work in a call center?A: You hear the term “shrinkage” and it doesn’t make you laugh.—Greg Levin Human...
Top 5 Reasons Contact Centers Miss the Mark on Technology Implementation and Support
Contact centers rely on technology to meet their business goals, manage their operations, and interact with customers in a variety of media. Unfortunately, they...
Lost Art of Asking Questions Is Priceless
Proper questioning and inquisition has become a lost art in modern society. For many, it has gone beyond being a lost art in society...
Inside View: NCR Silver
One of the advantages of a small startup business is the flexibility to quickly adapt and respond to your customers’ needs. On the other...
WFM Budget Preparation: Calendar Days
Every year after the start of the 2nd quarter, I begin preparing next year’s staffing models in anticipation that someone on the executive team...
Career Path to Failure
Are you promoting your best agents to supervisors and managers? If so, you may be promoting to failure.
Those of us in the contact center...
VoC: Pinpoint the Calls That Matter Most
One of the key advantages of a voice of the customer (VoC) platform over a traditional quality monitoring (QM) program is the ability to...
Do Frontline Agents Receive Enough Ongoing Training?
We asked that question in a recent poll on Contact Center Training. The majority (84%) of participating contact centers reported providing ongoing training for...
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