Cloud Contact Centre Solutions
May 18, 2012
CPE: for those that never change and want to go slow
Phil Wainewright from ZDNet questions whether any company can afford to ignore Cloud or SaaS technology and remain loyal to their premise-based equipment. He surmises that any company wanting to grow or change can’t justify spending exorbitant amounts of capital on rigid, slowly implemented and hard-to-update, costly equipment. I think you might be right there, Phil.
May 17, 2012
Be good at business; not at social media
This fantastic article by Jon Gatrell, from Pragmatic Marketing, is highly relevant for those in the contact centre industry thinking about trying their hand at social media. Jon points out that it’s ridiculous for newcomers to try and pinpoint what their social strategy is, right off the bat. Instead, he suggests focusing on what outcome you wish to achieve for your business. For many Contact Centre Managers, or Customer Experience directors alike, the goal would be: to increase customer satisfaction by providing an exceptional level of responsive support. Social media is the enabler in this situation, not the aim. And, as Jon says, it needs to be used in conjunction with other channels, such as your customer help line and support website.
May 16, 2012
Focus on the right thing
Short and sweet from Seth Godin. What are you focusing on in your business? Is it the RIGHT thing? Or, are you trying to solve numerous problems… not paying enough attention to any of them specifically?
May 15, 2012
Take a leaf out of Facebook’s book
Sure, Facebook probably gets a few more hits than your website; however, there is much to learn from the importance Mark Zuckerberg places on user experience. Trying to drive your customers to your website for certain transactions? If people are still relying heavily on your contact centre’s customer service it’s worth looking at what is deterring them from using your website. It could be the simple fact that they are unaware your website has that capability; but more likely, completing that transaction on your site is too complicated or not user-friendly. This is turn is probably driving high call volumes in your contact centre, so it’s worth getting to the cause of the problem.
May 14, 2012
Are IT execs boycotting the cloud?
A lack of confidence in the Cloud may be slowing its deployment, according to an article in Cloud Computing online. At first glance, this news is alarming… are IT execs boycotting the Cloud? Not really, but it appears they’re struggling to move the entire company to a pay-for-what-you-need model. Moving to the Cloud should not be a hasty, throw-all-your-resources-at-it type of venture – it should be a strategically-founded and calculated migration. For example, move your contact centre infrastructure into the Cloud first, then consider which function is the most practical to transfer next.
May 11, 2012
Customer Service Outage Woes
George Gorsline’s recent article in CIO.co.nz stresses the importance of 24/7 customer service actually being available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Outages should be the exception, not the rule; however, the occasional disruption is hard to avoid. How you handle an outage is as important as the outage itself. A great way to demonstrate your proactivity to customers is to contact them before they realise there is a problem. Sending a text message, or calling the customer with an automated IVR message, shows the customer that you care. This way, customers are less inclined to write angry emails or blast the poor agent that happens to answer the next service call. Many customers will appreciate your company’s time and effort. GSN has a proven solution in proactive customer communication: Cloud Outbound. Find out how our customers successfully reduce call volumes in the event of an outage…
May 10, 2012
Do your agents LOVE coming to work?
I’ve spoken about the Happiness Equation on our blog a few times now. For those of you that need a reminder: Happy Employees + Happy Customers = Happy CEO (profit!), or Happy Employees = Happy Customers = Happy CEO (profit!). What tactics do you have in place to ensure your agents enjoy coming to work in your contact centre? Below are 16 initiatives from CallCentreHelper online to get you thinking. One notable suggestion missing from the list is Customer Surveys. Surveying your callers helps agents take responsibility for the service they provide, and gives them an extra injection of motivation. Unsure how to implement an actionable Customer Survey? Take advantage of industry best practise and lessons learned with GSN’s Cloud Survey…
May 9, 2012
2012: Cloudy with a touch of Frugality
Another IT trends article, but this one places Cloud at number one, “He puts cloud technology at the top of the tree as the number one trend, seeing the cloud bandwagon rolling on from last year, and ‘transforming and redefining service availability in its path.’” Hayward notes all the typical Cloud benefits, such as flexibility, web access, on-demand availability as the factors driving adoption. However, IT budgets are being cut back to the bone and only the tightest business cases that affect the entire company are likely to gain buy-in from the CFO.
May 8, 2012
The 3 E’s of Company Culture
Company culture is often perceived as the fluffy elephant in the room, it’s there in an intangible, ‘soft’ form – so is often overlooked. Companies who dismiss culture do so at their own detriment, according to findings from consultants, Gostick and Elton. In conjunction with Towers Watson they studied 25 high performing companies and found a pattern of behaviour (culture) amongst employees: they were engaged, enabled and energised. After drilling deeper into this research, Gostick and Elton identified seven actions that encourage positive employee behaviour: clearly define the corporate mission; create customer focus; develop agility; share everything; treat employees like partners; cheer for each other, and establish accountability. Many companies treat their employees as numbers and share little information top down. In the contact centre industry, especially, your employees need to be accountable, enabled and engaged. If not for the wellbeing of the employee, for the health of customer service. Agents who do not comprehend how they contribute to the bigger picture and always need to ask permission to rectify customer issues are doing horrible things to your bottom line. A little bit of responsibility goes a long way. Remember the 3 E’s.
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