Screening for Writing Ability in Call Centers

Posted by Dawn Kirspel - June 6, 2013 - Blog, Call Centers, Customer Service, Guest Blog, Hospitality, Retail

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Screening for Writing Ability in Call Centers

When e-mail emerged as a new option for consumers to communicate with companies, everyone knew the volume of e-mails would grow. After all, in an extra busy, online-centered world, fewer people are willing to wait on hold for the next available representative.

What many call center leaders were not ready for, however, was the unbelievable mushrooming of not just e-mail but social media too. In addition to coping with technology challenges and coordinating “who does what,” managers recognized that not everyone on the front line could write as well as they could talk.…

7 Tips For Improving Call Center Training

Posted by James Fitzgerald - May 14, 2013 - Blog, Call Centers, Customer Service, Food & Beverage Industry, Hospitality, Retail

“There’s always room for improvement,” is how the saying goes. If you think this is true of your call center training, then these 7 tips will be helpful to you:

1. Have the right people training your employees: Your trainers should be experts in the subject matter. Ideally, they should have been an agent themselves. This first-hand experience will allow your call center trainers to be more credible. Additionally, your trainers must be excellent communicators and be receptive to feedback from management, peers, and the trainees.

2. Use real-world examples: Use stories to engage your trainees.…

Welcomers Make The Best Managers

Posted by Dawn Kirspel - May 7, 2013 - Blog, Call Centers, Customer Service, The Welcomer Edge

A Welcomer isn’t just good at building relationships with your consumers, they also make incredible leaders and managers. Having a Welcomer in a management role in your business will encourage team members to act and think like Welcomers. Since a Welcomer naturally wants to help others, they are natural leaders who make an effort to develop their staff.

Watch our Welcomer Tip of the Month to find out some quick and simple tips for customer engagement!

Providing excellent customer service is key to business success. Give your business the competitive edge, The Welcomer Edge! …

The Trouble with Social Spam

Posted by Dawn Kirspel - May 2, 2013 - Blog, Call Centers, Guest Blog, Hospitality, Retail

Customer Service operations have evolved this past decade to embrace the discipline of social web listening and engagement. Now customer service agents specializing in social media spend their time reading blogs, tweets, and Facebook posts in search of a way to help clients in need. But social care agents are bedeviled by Social Spam. And slogging through social Spam gets in the way of helping customers in addition to robbing precious time from customer care teams. Here, we discuss Social Spam and ways to deal with it.

What is Social Spam?…

Are you in the game? – Day 2 of the SOCAP Symposium

Posted by Dawn Kirspel - May 1, 2013 - Blog, Call Centers, Customer Service, Food & Beverage Industry, Hospitality, Retail

Day 2 of the SOCAP Symposium did not disappoint. Today was filled with great sessions that gave me tons of terrific notes to bring back to the team. The day opened with a great speaker, Gabe Zichermann (my personal favorite of the Symposium) who spoke about gamification – what an amazing concept for contact centers.

Here are a few tweets from the day:

Gamification changes behavior by focusing on positive behavior @gzicherm #symp13

RT @gmogy: Use the power of gaming to change behavior. #symp13 @gzicherm.…

Data, data, & data – oh my! Day 1 of the SOCAP 2013 Symposium

Posted by Dawn Kirspel - April 30, 2013 - Blog, Call Centers, Customer Service, Hospitality

I have been lucky enough to attend the SOCAP 2013 Symposium in New Orleans. The theme for the Symposium is big data and to me, it’s like Christmas in April! As a big fan of data, I have been loving every moment of the presentations and panels.

For those who aren’t able to attend, here are some of our tweets from Day 1 of the SOCAP Symposium. – the day of data!

RT @bdcheung: #BigData best practices: Be the enabler. Involve the business from the start. #SYMP13 @MattAriker

#BigData best practice: start small @mattariker #symp13

RT @bdcheung: Interesting idea of thinking about a “data lifecycle” #BigData #SYMP13 @MattAriker

RT @JenniferatWest: “Avoid ineffective collecting of data that does not pertain to your initiative.” With Matt Ariker at #symp13

RT @DigitalRootsCRM: The “Big 3″ of #BigData: Speech, text & video analytics + behavioral data = predictive analysis via @MattAriker

If you don’t ask the right questions…you’ll get accurate answers to the wrong questions @mattariker #symp13

RT @scott_gluck: Big data helps you understand the Why behind the What….…

Survey length doesn’t matter

Posted by Dawn Kirspel - April 23, 2013 - Blog, Call Centers, Customer Service, Food & Beverage Industry, Hospitality, Retail, Small and Medium Businesses

One of the questions we are frequently asked by clients is: “Is our survey too long?” Our reply is that the survey length doesn’t matter. Well, it does matter a little bit, but we have found that if you…

Ask the right questions of the right people, utilizing the appropriate methodology, that survey length really doesn’t matter.

It is crucial to take time and consideration when creating a survey. Don’t get bogged down about the number of questions. Be smart about what you are asking and you will get all the information you need.…

Call center coaching in disguise

Posted by James Fitzgerald - April 16, 2013 - Blog, Call Centers, Customer Service

Call center coaching revolves around delivering the message effectively to your agents. Tired of one-on-one meetings with your representatives to deliver feedback? How about a different plan to get your point across by providing “weekly tips.” These are short emails that include information and instruction on a particular topic.

How to get started with your call center coaching weekly tips:

Think about a recent issue or question you’ve received from one of the agents. Design a weekly tip around that subject that contains four key components:

Create a title that grabs their attention.

…

Contact Center of the Future

Posted by Dawn Kirspel - April 11, 2013 - Blog, Call Centers, Customer Service, Guest Blog

So you may have heard that Marketing is the new customer service. Or perhaps you’ve been reading a lot about the fact that you need to fish where the fish are. Whatever the spin, the contact center of the future needs to be thinking about the consumer of the future. Creating solutions and developing services that enable easy access between the consumer and the brand, taking a more proactive approach to consumer interaction and leveraging the warehouse of rich consumer data that is available to better support and service their organizations, are three areas that today’s future Contact Centers need to be thinking about now.…

5 Tips For Leaving A Memorable Last Impression With Consumers

Posted by Dawn Kirspel - April 9, 2013 - Blog, Call Centers, Customer Service

You never get a second chance to make a first impression. Nobody knows that more than contact center professionals. Most consumers do not take the time to call your company with a question or complaint and those who do will most likely only call once in their lifetime. So you only get that one opportunity to make sure they leave the conversation feeling delighted, more loyal, and engaged with the brand. This is why we also feel that the last impression you give when ending the call is just as important as the first impression you make when you first pick up the phone.…

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Watch our Welcomer Tip of the Month to find out some quick and simple tips for customer engagement!

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What is Social Spam?…

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For those who aren’t able to attend, here are some of our tweets from Day 1 of the SOCAP Symposium. – the day of data!

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How to get started with your call center coaching weekly tips:

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