Change is Good! Successfully Navigating Change in Your Center

By: Sean Hawkins

Change is inevitable! If you don’t manage it, it will manage you, and the results can be disastrous!  So, what are some ways to successfully navigate change?  This was the key agenda item discussed by contact center thought leaders Sarah Reed, Gerry Barber, Larry Eiser, Brad Cleveland at Contact Center Expo & Conference 2015. 

What made this session meaningful, besides receiving wisdom from a great panel, was the use of actual case studies.  The panelists were able to describe in detail the methodologies used to bring about change while avoiding some of the primary pain points associated with the change process.

The panel discussed the following four phases to change that must be managed:

• Denial
• Resistance
• Commitment
• Exploration

Each presents a unique set of behavioral challenges that will hinder effective change.  Emphasis was placed on how to reconcile these behaviors, right the ship, and bring a transformation that is meaningful.  A sentiment shared among the entire panel was to understand change is not a swift process. As Brad stated, “you can’t turn the ship around overnight, but you can start the turn overnight”. This is done by admitting and accepting there is a problem.

Through each step in the cycle of change, the audience was presented with the actual steps the speakers undertook to guide the people and processes.  Examples of the behaviors displayed, and thoughts expressed in each phase were discussed along with some best practices to correctly manage them.

1. Some particularly noteworthy comments:
2. Inspire and coach during change
3. Change is journey, not a destination
4. Establish your baseline and your vision
5. Get the right people “on board”
6. Effective communication with all stakeholders is a must
7. Celebrate the journey and each milestone

This group of thought leaders gave relevant content that has been tested and utilized throughout their careers. For those going through change, the process became less daunting as a result of this informative session.  Many in the crowd expressed the pleasure in attending and look forward to returning to their respective contact centers with a renewed outlook.

This article originally appeared on ICMI.

Sean is a Contact Center manager with over 15 years of experience. He has a terrific pulse on incorporating innovation into the contact center. He's implemented social, outsourcing partners, new technology, and new products, while maintaining an award-winning contact center.
His contact center is a past winner of the ICMI "Global Call Center of the Year" award for Small to Medium-Sized Centers.
Follow on Twitter @SeanBHawkins

How To Deliver A Top-Shelf Customer Service Experience

By: CJ Silva

The customer is always right.  Anyone who’s been in business or worked at a call center knows that the truth can be very, very different.  The secret of successful customer service rests in the customer never being told that, yet being educated about your company’s goals and visions in the process.  Many customers who need help are frustrated because whatever they bought isn't working to their expectations and it's often difficult to channel that frustration into something productive. With a little work and forethought, you can manage to reduce, or even remove, that frustration.

Get to Know Your Customers
The first step in anything is to know what you're getting yourself into. When it comes to customer service, that means getting to know about your customers. How old do they tend to be? Where do they live? What are the most important facets of their lifestyles? Are they mostly students? Families with children? Do you cater to a particular hobby? All of these things may be important in establishing a comprehensive sense of your customer base.

Involvement in social sites is key. Today, just about everyone is on Twitter, Pinterest, Facebook, or any of the other popular social sites. Your company should be there, too. It's not only a great way to interact with your customers directly, it's a way to get to know them.

In a brick-and-mortar store, one way to make customers feel like you care about them is to address them by name when they arrive. You can do something similar even if your business is wholly online by using the information you've learned to personalize your interactions with your customers. When you care about your customers, and understand their needs, that immediately raises the quality of the customer’s experience.

Customer Participation Brings Them Back for More
Using either social sites, or your own website, ask your customers questions. Set up surveys to ask them how they think you're doing. Not all of them will rate your customer service or have ideas about how to improve, but many of them will, and some of their advice is well worth your time.

Consider a place for customer reviews. It's very likely that most people who go to a website to buy something read any available reviews before they make a final decision. Good reviews can make a sale for you better than any ad copy ever will.

Take the time to read all constructive reviews, even (or maybe especially) the ones that aren't so flattering. If you have the opportunity, see if you can find out what went wrong with the poor reviews by contacting those reviewers personally.  Reward them by offering some incentive and talking with them personally.  In fact, reward your customers for being customers, no matter how they have viewed the experience with you.  That interaction can turn even the most jaded ex-customers into brand evangelists.

Offer a Better Web Experience
It goes without saying that your website should be functional. Strictly functional, however, is not a great customer experience. Your site needs to inspire the senses. People respond to appeals to the senses, so if your site is appealing, it will enhance the customer experience.

Another old saying applies here: "A picture is worth a thousand words".  This is especially true when it comes to the limited space available on a webpage. There's only so much space to display what you want your customer to see, so it's important to make that space count. You may not find pictures of your product particular interesting, but most people like to see what they're getting before they take the plunge and buy it.

If you're going to make your website graphically engaging, perhaps even with multiple images per product or different views of what you're offering, you have to make sure your website is up to the challenge. The last thing you want is for customers to move to another website because it takes several minutes for the pictures to pop up.

Do not forget mobile users. Your content should be viewable on any platform, whether laptop computer, desktop computer, mobile phone, or tablet. There are millions of people who use a phone as their primary access to the internet. Take advantage of that by making your website mobile-friendly. As long as your site is able to load in a few seconds, customers will stay to browse, and when they want to browse your site, that is also a clear sign of a good customer experience.

Staff Matters, Too
A company that is more than one owner is going to need to train staff to better handle customer service. The quality customer experience is directly linked to the person who answers the phone when they call. Taking time out for customer service training is essential, but it doesn't stop there. Offer incentives to representatives who leave the customers feeling better than before they called.

When it comes to top-shelf customer service experience, take some time to think about how you would like to be treated as a customer.  Think about the last purchase that you made and what you’d like your call centers and customer service reps to say if you had to call them.  There is where you can set your own company apart from the rest.

 CJ Silva is VP of Operations at KOVA Corporation.

The Power of Now: Secrets of a Successful Customer Journey

By: Sean Hawkins

How well do you know your customers?  I am certain many of us think we know them very well.  We may form our opinions based on recent interactions, feedback, or surveys.  While each of these offers great insight into understanding our customer, they are only chapters in the larger story.

To fully understand your customer you must take an all encompassing view.  Those mentioned above give snapshots and are based on single interactions.  To truly know your customer, you must look beyond a single exchange.  This is the power of the customer journey.  What is the customer journey?  In its simplest form, it the overall customer experience across all touch points within your organization. Justin Robbins, Senior Analyst at ICMI, gave an insightful presentation today at Contact Center Expo and Conference that unlocked the challenges to successfully map the customer journey.

Recognizing the customer journey starts before the contact center interaction, and continues afterwards is of great importance. The contact center represents only a part of the journey, but it’s a focal point for the journey. Justin explained it best when he said “agents own the moment even though they may not be able to deliver”.  There are moments to excel, enlighten and delight that we must capitalize on!

To the public, the service center is the place for issue resolution.  However, within the organization, processes and policy may not allow for this.  This results in agents being ill equipped to provide the best possible service. Before long, agent morale is low and it is only a matter of time before this influences customer experience. We all agree happy agents equal happy customers, but let’s not lose sight of the inverse.

This is why journey mapping is critical to the contact center. Understanding where the inefficiencies are, and working to resolve them, will empower agents and create an experience customers will enjoy.  As highlighted in the session, mapping the journey is not a quick, easy process.  It takes work, time and patience. However, if there is a sincere commitment to excellence in the service department, understanding and improving the journey is a must.

A few items that were mentioned at great length were to:

• Identify Stakeholders
• Identify Channels & Touchpoints
• Understand the emotional journey
• Create a blueprint

This was a highly attended session with an engaged crowd.  The material presented was excellent and Justin provided clear and concise instructions.  Attendees received a wealth of information and best practices that is certain to ensure their customer journey mapping project is successful.  ICMI and Justin Robbins are to be commended for providing this informative discussion. That Justin was funny, enthusiastic and passionate about the subject matter was icing on the cake!

This article originally appeared on ICMI

Sean is a Contact Center manager with over 15 years of experience. He has a terrific pulse on incorporating innovation into the contact center. He's implemented social, outsourcing partners, new technology, and new products, while maintaining an award-winning contact center.

His contact center is a past winner of the ICMI "Global Call Center of the Year" award for Small to Medium-Sized Centers.

Follow on Twitter @SeanBHawkins

What Every New Contact Center Leader Should Do

By: Sean Hawkins

A new contact center leader has been brought in to “turn things around”, and most of the staff are not thrilled!  How many of you have experienced this scenario?  It's a common one that most of us have experienced.  Sadly, this transition is not always a smooth one. Feelings are hurt, buy-in may be hard to achieve, and new leaders are often alienated and/or misunderstood.  What is one to do?

Sarah Reed provided sound advice for a new contact center leader that is certain to pay huge dividends. During her one hour session at ICMI’s 2015 Contact Center Expo & Conference in Orlando, Sarah offered up the acronym BFO, or Blinding Flashes of the Obvious.  As she explained, “these aren’t new concepts” instead, they are tried and true methods of leadership that make sense because they work.  In fact, she reiterated that because these steps have proven favorable, they should be repeated.  So, what are these BFO’s?

As you can see, these steps aren’t revolutionary. Yet, they are necessary to help new leaders establish themselves, gain buy-in, and triumphantly integrate into the new team. But, success is in the details! Attendees were offered real world examples of how to practice these steps.  With each point, Sarah was drill down and deliver practical applications. This is where it all came together!

For example, don't merely introduce yourself, but do so through explaining your personality, leadership style, passions and purpose.  What does it mean to lead strong? Sarah suggested volunteering for causes that are dear to the team members and/or the company.  All throughout the session, sound advice and years of experience, wisdom, and best practices were poured into the audience. This resulted in an engaged and motivated crowd eager to set in motion the wealth of knowledge and information given.

To give this presentation “two thumbs up” would be a disservice. Awesome would not be an adequate description.  This session was a must not only for new leaders but all leaders.

This article originally appeared on ICMI.

Sean is a Contact Center manager with over 13 years of experience. He has a terrific pulse on incorporating innovation into the contact center. He's implemented social, outsourcing partners, new technology, and new products, while maintaining an award-winning contact center.

His contact center is a past winner of the ICMI "Global Call Center of the Year" award for Small to Medium-Sized Centers.

Follow on Twitter @SeanBHawkins

[Infographic] The State of Social Customer Service

Infographic: The State of Social Customer Service

 

7 Ways to Make Virtual Employees Feel More at Home

By: CJ Silva

If you’ve never had the opportunity to work remotely, that chance is coming.  Companies are rapidly realizing the benefits of teleworking and taking advantage of them.  As a result of this push toward teleworking, more advanced technologies, and general improvements to the bottom line, more people around the world are finding themselves working at home.

While working at home offers many advantages, there are still some disadvantages to having virtual members of the team.  Most of these drawbacks revolve around communications issues.  It is, however, quite possible to develop a virtual team which works quite well both together and with clients.

1.  Establish a Common Language
   Language barriers can make anyone feel that they are not part of the common group for their call center.  Take the time to establish a single language to be used within the call center so that everyone feels like they are part of the team and inside the circle.  Just like call center solutions, the language which works best is the language your clients use.
2.  Work on a Shared Communication Center
   It honestly doesn’t matter whether you’re communicating through Skype or through Google Hangouts, as long as everyone is operating within the same system.  A big reason to have a shared communication center is to also have written records of the communications which you’re having with coworkers. 
3. Have a Few Chat Areas
   Chances are, remote or in person, you’re talking with your coworkers all the time about how you can make your call center run better, issues that may come up with clients, and more.  Everyone within the center is on the journey, and making yourself available within the chat rooms is essential.
4. Have a Chat Area to Blow Off Steam
   Virtual chat areas are necessary for people to feel like they’re a part of the team.  A lot of the ‘feeling part of the team’ can come from soft conversations – conversations that happen around the water cooler and just in passing.  While you cannot easily simulate walking by someone’s office, you can have a virtual break room where people can talk about non-work things.
5. Regular Meetings
   Regular meetings are part and parcel of the work environment, and having them through a virtual communications center is vital to helping remote workers feel at home.  Have those meetings regularly with a certain format.  Offer kudos and talk about what’s going on, but keep these meetings short.
6. Make Sure Roles are Posted
   Have a shared document which outlines who does what within the company, so you can talk with and get assistance from the right person.  There’s nothing like going to the wrong person, and that wrong person doesn’t know who to tell you to report to.  The common document can create rapport.  To take it one step further, you can have an area on the ‘control’ document which outlines non-work things to see if you and your coworkers have common interests.
7. Offer Kudos
   It feels wonderful to be recognized that you’re hard at work and doing something beautiful.  Don’t be afraid of recognizing your other coworkers and making sure that they feel like they’re a part of the loop and part of the team.  With that teamwork, you’ll be able to work easier and better with one another.
   
   By devoting your attention to communication within the office, both virtual and in-person, the team will not only function better, but every member will feel like they are part of your team regardless of where they are.   It is vital that your employees know that they have someone in their corner, someone who’s been there and who understands the fun that the call center can be.

CJ Silva is VP of Operations at KOVA Corporation.

Social Media- A Shift in Customer Service

By: Anna Sabryan

During the last few years, many changes happened in technology that has impacted people and business alike.  Social media has allowed for increased human interaction along with the rapid dissemination of information and conversations.  Included in this, is the way customers choose to communicate with companies.
 
While the majority of contact center communications were being conducted via phone, today people have other preferences.  Social media has changed the face of the customer service.  A new generation chooses social channels as the best communication route.  Smartphones play a major role in this.  It is suggested that mobile devices are responsible for 60 percent of all online traffic.

Research indicates that 62% of customers use social media for customer service, and 47% of social media users said they “actively seek” customer service through social media.  In addition, 55% expect a response that same day!

Customer experience is becoming more important than the product itself.  It goes without saying that businesses want to create a customer base which brings in other customers.  This can only happen if customers are happy not only with your products or services, but the entire experience with the company  as a whole.

I’m not afraid to say that the existence of call centers in its current state is challenged with a litany of indicting questions.  Chief among them, is how to respond to the rapid changes and technology for the good of the customer.  For the most part, users turn to social channels for support, where they are likely to receive faster response times.  As such, social seems to be trending upward as a customer service channel.  According to Social Bakers, "the number of questions asked on brand pages on Facebook has increased by 85 percent over the last year”.

Social media has become the top internet activity for the masses.  In fact, it’s easier to engage via social channels.  A benefit of social customer care is that you don’t need any extra time to free yourself from your current activity to call a contact center.  Many people sit in front of the computer all day long and social provides a quicker option for help.  You  are allowed to continue with your day and receive the response to your inquiry with minimal effort.  In many cases, it is the best way  to communicate with a company.  However, not all brands have turned to social care yet, or they are not quite good at it.

There is also a big down side for the brands using social media if they don't provide timely responses.  People seem to become more negative towards the brand.  Research suggests 74% of customers believe they will get better service if they criticize a brand via social media.

Being present on social channels is a necessity for brands.  However, there is more to it. Businesses should be active and engaging. Of greatest importance, is keeping your reputation in good standing.  This is possible when delivering great customer service along with honesty and transparency.

With that said, let's face the demands and challenges and WOW our customers!  As Biju Paulose said, “Take good care of your customers and they will take care of your business.” 



 
Anna Sabryan is a CS Social Media Expert and Blogger. She is passionate about customer service, digital marketing, social media and cloud. 

Anna was named one of ICMI's Top 50 Contact Center Thought Leaders on Twitter. Follow Anna on Twitter (@AnnaSabryan) or on her blog.