Author Archive

Do not worry if you missed our webinar. There is still time to see it! 'High Maintenance Customers: Strategies for Handling All Customer Types Profitably' is now available for your review in the archives. Watch the Archive Now! http://w.on24.com/r.htm?e=369753&s=1&k=AD69310ABED05BECA23AAD1D798CEA75   Let’s face it, not all customers are created equally. Some are wonderful, but others cost you more time and money than they make you. So, in a competitive world where customers are at a premium, how do you deliver great service to those that make you money and weed out those that don’t? This webinar will show you current customer trends and arm you with the ideas and strategies you need to handle customers of all kinds. It will also provide you with a step-by-step plan to elevate your contact center’s customer experience while weeding out those customers that are more trouble than they are worth.

Let's face it, not all customers are created equally. Some are wonderful, but others cost you more time and money than they make you. So, in a competitive world where customers are at a premium, how do you deliver great service to those that make you money and weed out those that don’t? This webinar will show you current customer trends and arm you with the ideas and strategies you need to handle customers of all kinds. It will also provide you with a step-by-step plan to elevate your contact center’s customer experience while weeding out those customers that are more trouble than they are worth. Don’t miss this opportunity to hear it like it is and gain real world strategies for real world problems. Sign up today! Please click here for more information

This year at ICUC marked the 3^rd Annual Coder Royale!  It seems that each year is getting more and more competitive, as well as more and more creative.  This year’s Coder Royale theme was “Innovation in the Contact Center” and the only requirement was that you used the inCloud API. The ingenuity that we were able to demonstrate to our live audience was so cool and, can I get a drum roll, please?  The winner is… Pete Blackmer from SpiceCSM. Pete’s application leveraged the inCloud API using 7 different methods.  The application is embedded in SpiceCSM, and has several features including click-to-call, a cherry pick function, and various reporting scenarios. I think a highlight for me was the event injection application.  The function allowed voice contacts to be injected into queue based on a pre-determined logic.  Of course, this is great because it allows end-users to manage when and how they

InContact Integration for the NG Platform! SpiceCSM is proud to announce a full telephony integration with the inContact NG platform. This integration provides many new features including:

• Click to Call! Outbound dialing made easy! Through the use of the inContact integration any valid phone number found in the CRM or case histories can be "clicked" on to initiate the outbound dial, no need to manually enter the phone number.
• Call Metric Data! Easy access to vital statistics! Call metric data can be tied directly to a case response, allowing for quick access to key metrics such as queue time, talk time, etc.
• Call Recording Access! Download and listen! - Call recordings can be tied directly to a case response allowing for easy review of agent interaction even with multiple responses and agents.

Look at the graph below. Why are so many people angry? Customer service today is being viewed differently with Social Media, and so many modes of communication it’s hard for people not to get the word out. When someone has a problem with something often times they will call support and are already frustrated. Then to make matters worse they get someone who is having a bad day, no lunch, under paid or under trained. Not a good mix.

With gas prices sky rocketing and the costs of everything else following why not help yourselves and your employees by allowing them the freedom of working from home. I know crazy right? There are many mixed feelings on this. I aim to tell you the good, the bad and the ugly and how it really can be a good situation for everyone. How can I trust my agents? Monitoring and using cloud based programs allow you to view what your employees are doing and how well they are doing. With the proper use of reporting and supervisory roles, anyone can be anywhere. You can easily see how your employee’s metrics look. Things such as wrap time, pre call, hold time and agent states all will give you total visibility. Your quality experts and supervisors can still listen to calls also either archived or live.  When people know these things and are being

“The Pareto principle (also known as the 80-20 rule, the law of the vital few, and the principle of factor sparsity) states that, for many events, roughly 80% of the effects come from 20% of the causes.” So what does this mean for you? Well take your most common & frequent issues (20%) and track and analyze these. Soon enough you will have found 80% of your problems.  “ Microsoft noted that by fixing the top 20% of the most reported bugs, 80% of the errors and crashes would be eliminated” This is a significant number of case and calls not coming into your customer care center ultimately, saving you money. Tracking the common & frequent is not difficult. What you need to do is an analysis of what the brunt of your cases

Many times people shudder to think of the time and investment that is involved with customer care programs. We are in a transitional place from software to the cloud. Does the thought “too easy” come to mind? Many businesses welcome the idea of SaaS but when it comes to adoption and implementation run screaming the other way. It does not have to be painful; sure that is what they all say. But there are many things that separate the genuine “turn-key” applications.

1. Can I use this immediately?
2. How long will the set up take?
3. What type of integration will this require?
4. Can I use several systems together?
5. What is the down time?

Sometimes I think that we put aside our opinions on customer service and just accept bad service due to the product or service that we are receiving being a necessity. Think about it, how many times have you had less than acceptable service at your Doctor's office? Most of the time we feel awful which makes everything else seems bad. Do we really stop to think about what they could be doing better? No we usually don’t. Recently, I had one of those experiences that really make you think of all the rest. I took my two year old to the Doctor’s office. This was not the regular Doctor that she normally sees. Instead due to the severity of the issue, this was one that was close to our home. Wow! That is all I can say.

I recently read an article for Searchcrm.com titled “Self-service success rates plummeting, but why?”  The article showed how the rates have fallen over the past years.  (See graph below) The fact is that it can be more painful then helpful. Self service is meant to help you solve your own issue. My question is if you don’t know what is wrong how do you know what to fix? It is easier than to search through oodles of articles reading them and ending up twice as confused. How many times have you just wanted a simple quick answer in a very short period of time? I know I do… in fact every time I need an answer I want it immediately. I absolutely dread calling support to wait on hold and then speak with someone