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The Problem with Courtesy
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by Rich Gallagher, Point of Contact Group
When I do live training programs, people often come up to me and share that they are perky "people persons." I completely respect that. But more often than not, when we role play challenging customer situations, they usually react the same way everyone else does without training: like deer frozen in the headlights. Until they learn and practice the mechanics. Then everyone, perky and grumpy alike, suddenly starts sounding incredible.
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[Full Article]
Nov-11-2009 |
Resolution Ownership - It Should Matter To You!
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by Peter J. McGarahan, Founder and President, McGarahan & Associates
When the customer contacts the support center, the ideal situation from their perspective is getting their issue fixed on the first contact. If not, the issue is escalated to specialized support groups within the organization, and the customer wants to simply know who will contact them and when. This is the basis of setting expectations and making a service commitment to the customer by confidently knowing that you "own" the issue to resolution. A customer-focused service culture designed with the customer in mind will quickly benefit from the practice of Total Contact Ownership (TCO), where there is no ambiguity of ownership and accountability when it comes to the customer experience and ultimate satisfaction.
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[Full Article]
Nov-09-2009 |
The Impact of Conflict Management Training on Customer Service Delivery
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By Rosanne D'Ausilio, Ph.D.
The Impact of Conflict Management Training on Customer Service Delivery. This was the title of my case study in partial fulfillment of my doctoral degree which I completed in 1996. More on this in a moment. Here it is 13 years later. In a recent survey where training participants were asked what types of courses would greatly increase their effectiveness at work, 53% of respondents chose dealing with conflict or difficult people.
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[Full Article]
Oct-06-2009 |
First Contact Resolution: The Performance Driver!
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By Peter J. McGarahan, Founder and President, McGarahan & Associates
In calculating your cost per call/resolution, it's important to know the resource cost of the other teams (usually depicted in an average hourly wage) as well as the all important Work Effort! With this information in hand, you are well equipped to prove the cost reduction value of your continuous improvement initiatives, justifying investments using financial metrics (ROI, NPV, etc.) and defending empirically against external threats impacting the ecosystem of your support strategy, structure and operations.
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[Full Article]
Aug-12-2009 |
Surveying is Still the Most Effective Method for Measuring Customer Satisfaction
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by Donna Fluss, founder and President of DMG Consulting LLC
The future for contact center surveying/feedback and analytics is clear. New forms of communication and social networking applications are changing the landscape for acquiring customer feedback. Web 2.0 and social software applications, including wikis, blogs, customer review sites, community forums, social networks, content feeds, content rating, Twitter and reputation management, are beginning to find their way into customer feedback programs. Leading organizations are actively utilizing both solicited and unsolicited forms of customer feedback. As a result of increased interest and many new implementations, exciting new feedback opportunities are beginning to take hold.
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[Full Article]
Aug-07-2009 |
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