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Yes, folks its come to this.
My latest post is a shameless promotion for Jacada. No more. No less. Enjoy this 2-minute explainer video to find out more about Jacada solutions!
Or visit Jacada.com for information on all our award-winning solutions and find out how your company can rapidly implement a desktop solution guaranteed to save you 30 seconds on Average Handle Time.
Regardless of the reasons, it’s interesting that it’s often noteworthy when people aren’t rude. Have you ever had an experience with a customer service representative who stood out—or who made you want to give the company repeat business—because the representative was incredibly helpful and courteous? If such encounters happen frequently, they probably don’t stand out in your mind, but chances are, you notice it when you receive really polite service.
The good news is that people do take note when they’re treated exceptionally well when dealing with companies. In fact, these customers often write about their customer satisfaction online. Public endorsements for your company? Not a bad goal.
Along with the right customer service desktop solution, a well-placed "please" and "thank you" can go a long way toward increasing customer satisfaction.
If you happen to be in the UK May 24 and 25, swing by the ECEW 2011 Conference at the Sofitel Hotel in Heathrow and lunch with Jacada's own Tom Clear, CEO, and Russ Pedder, Biz Dev Dir, during our round-table discussions.
Learn:
Check us out - we'd love to see you there.
It’s widely acknowledged that equipping a Customer Service Representative (CSR) with a 360 degree view of the customer is fundamental to customer satisfaction and retention. This can mean the CSR having fast and easy access to a customer profile, contact history, billing, payments, subscription package, tariffs and their complaints.
Armed with a solid understanding of the customer, the CSR is in a much better position to make recommendations and improve the customer's relationship with the organisation. But is that enough?
Call scripting for sales-oriented CSRs is generally not a good idea as it stunts conversational selling and customers can feel they're talking to an automaton rather than a person. However, scripts are more effective when the CSR is processing an order, e.g. setting up a Direct Debit where care is required to meet financial regulatory and corporate guidelines.
No doubt a 360 degree view adds value, but with the pressure to cross-sell and up-sell, CSR’s need commercial awareness more than ever. There’s tremendous value in knowing the net value of the customer to the organisation. Do they spend very little or a lot? What's the sales conversion rate? Sales-oriented CSRs tell us they found it helps to have statistics on their daily performance, team performance and targets on their desktop, and it also makes more competitive with other teams.
It shouldn’t stop there. There’s value in alerting the CSR to nuggets of information such as outstanding or overdue bills, customers that are close to the end of their contract, abnormally high bills, and in one case I saw, a CSR was auto alerted to the fact that the customer could benefit by being on a better contract.
There are ways to effectively bring pertinent pieces of information to the CSRs attention, rather than have them sift through many sources. Check out Jacada JumpStart for more information.
Karnail Jita - Pre-Sales Consultant, Jacada Inc.
Interesting podcast detailing Sprint’s 3-year journey to improving customer experience. Agent metrics, FCR, procedures and training discussed in this Customer Management IQ podcast, “Behind Sprint’s Overhauled Customer Experience Program.”
For more information on Jacada’s products and services that address agent metrics, FCR and training, click here.
This has nothing to do with call centers but I thought I would have fun and post some trivia gathered from around the internet...According to Wikipedia, the fear of Friday the 13th is called Paraskevidekatriaphobia, a concatenation of the Greek words Paraskeví (meaning "Friday"), and dekatreís (meaning "thirteen") attached to phobía (from phóbos meaning "fear").
And now amaze your friends and coworkers with a little bit of trivia:
1. According to Smithsonian Magazine “fear of the #13 costs American a billion dollars per year in absenteeism, train and plane cancellations, and reduced commerce on the 13th of the month.”
2. Fear of Friday the 13th dates back to Nordic Mythology. Many of their thirteenth Gods met with violent deaths, such as Loki, the trickster.
3. Ancient Romans regarded the number 13 as a symbol of death, destruction and misfortune.
4. Lizzy Borden uttered a total of 13 words at her trial.
5. A witches coven consists of 13 members.
6. Tarot Card number 13 is the Death Card, depicting the Grim Reaper (although it is read as transition or change and not literal death).
7. Hotels rarely have a room number 13. Usually it is called 12a or 14. Same with floors of high rise buildings. Many elevators are without a #13 button. Highways sometimes will skip exit 13 altogether also.
8. There are 13 steps leading to the gallows.
9. There are 13 knots in a hangman’s noose.
10. The blade of a guillotine falls 13 feet.
The right way to communicate with customers is constantly evolving as communications options and consumer expectations change.Having a complete 360-degree view of your customer is more important than ever. Knowing your customers’ preferences gives you the tools to develop very targeted and personalized communications. Read more of this article by Mary Cook here.
Click here to read how Jacada helped E.ON with their own 360-degree view of the customer.
That's according to a new American Express Global Customer Service Barometer. Seven in ten Americans (70%) are willing to spend an average of 13% more with companies they believe provide excellent customer service.
According to an article by Brendan Read on TMCnet.com, many companies are not getting the math. The study said that 60% of Americans believe businesses have not increased their customer service focus, up from 55% in 2010. Among this group, 26% think companies are actually paying less attention to service.
Other stats include: Some 59% of Americans would try a new brand or company for a better service experience. Customers who have a fantastic service experience say friendly representatives (65%) who are ultimately able to solve their concerns (66%) are the most influential.
Needless to say, good customer service makes a difference! Jacada can help improve your bottom line by streamlining and unifying the agent's desktop. Automated sign-on and notes, knowledgebase integration, broadcast messaging, quick links, single view of the customer and a unification of multiple applications are just a few of the ways Jacada WorkSpace Unified Desktop can help your company. Contact us for a demo today or click here for more information.
Do customers have the most problems with people or processes in contact centers?
Four out of five of the 770 million complaints were about processes customers experienced. Only 20% of customers complained about the people who helped them.
This research (from Customer Contact News) is a good reminder to regularly review the processes customers experience with your contact center. Ask agents for suggestions on how to eliminate one step or combine several. A streamlined process will boost employee and customer satisfaction. Jacada WorkSpace is an award-winning unified desktop that will streamline processes and optimize efficiency. Contact us today for more details and learn how your contact center can benefit!
Patterns are everywhere. You see them in the weather, nature, mathematics, art and science. And in call centers too (of course). Info will be accumulated and analyzed daily, weekly and monthly and virtually all contact centers capture such data as AHT, FCR and call volumes. These patterns or models for services could be exploited systematically to invest in new or improved services. Many design patterns for customer service experiences are abstract qualitative depictions that create positive outcomes for customers. So, by looking at the info gathered over time, the call center can begin to see customer and call trends.
Instead of thinking about the total call time as “average handle time,” let’s call it Average Interaction Time, or AIT. The formula for AIT can be defined this way:
AIT = Average Process Time + Average Nurture Time + Average Wrap Up Time
Average Process Time is the time it actually takes for the CSR to navigate systems, find data, update information, calculate payments, research a knowledgebase, etc. Average Nurture Time is the time the CSR actually spends understanding what the customer really needs, recommending additional services, building a relationship, being empathetic – whatever is needed to improve satisfaction and retention.
By reducing Average Process Time and, in many cases, automating or eliminating Wrap Up Time, the CSR has more time to Nurture, yielding happier customers and greater opportunity for the contact center to add value in terms of revenueand customer retention. And, by the way, training costs are greatly reduced. The CSRs are happier, so they stay longer and deliver better customer service. Give AIT a look and then look at your CSRs’ desktops to see if Jacada can help. Observe the complexity they’re forced to deal with on every call. By reducing desktop complexity you can give your CSRs the time they need to deliver real value to your business.
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