Question: How should agents handle calls when customers are sharing their fears and concerns about the Coronavirus pandemic – or other personal issues, for that matter? Answer: Although the current COVID-19 pandemic is different from anything we’ve experienced and worked through to date, fundamental contact handling communication or “soft” skills that have been around for [...]
Managing Contact Centers Through the COVID-19 Pandemic This is DMG’s second column on the COVID-19 pandemic. The first one is available here. DMG is not providing medical or legal advice; all medical questions should be referred to your doctor and legal issues addressed to your lawyers. Here is the link to the US CDC site [...]
2020 Contact Center Investment Priorities DMG’s annual survey of contact center investment priorities for the year has confirmed the anecdotal data we’ve been hearing from companies. 2020 is looking to be an outstanding year for contact center investments. As it’s difficult to get enterprise executives and managers to participate in any kind of a survey, [...]
Question: We are planning to include cloud-based contact center infrastructure vendors in our RFP process for the first time. What are some high-level considerations we should keep in mind as we evaluate these solutions? Answer: For most companies, putting contact center systems and applications in the cloud, whether public or private, is the way to [...]
Question: What contact center organizational structure is being used by enterprises to deliver an exceptional customer experience? Answer: While there is no “one-size-fits-all” alignment, many successful companies now include a customer experience (CX) executive who manages all customer-facing operations either directly or indirectly. To underscore the importance of this position, it typically reports directly to [...]
DR/BC Plans to Mitigate the Impact of Pandemics on Contact Centers As the Coronavirus and the heightened risk of a pandemic fills the news headlines, service organizations must be prepared to keep operating if their region is stricken. Many companies have disaster recovery (DR) and business continuity (BC) plans to address the ability to operate [...]
Question: Our new workforce management (WFM) solution includes gamification capabilities. How should we use this feature? Answer: Gamification can enable employees to earn rewards, recognition, and/or social rank for achieving key performance indicator (KPI)-based goals, helping peers improve performance, successfully completing eLearning activities, adhering to schedules, and much more. Organizations in many industries are leveraging [...]
Vision 2020 We enter the new decade with great momentum in technological innovation. Start-ups and large enterprises are investing billions in artificial intelligence (AI) and automation-based initiatives that are going to change the way we live our lives and conduct business over the next 10 – 20 years. Technologies that have been talked about for [...]
2019 Was a Fantastic Year for Service It’s December, a time when we look at the year in review to see what has changed in the world of service and summarize the major drivers of progress. (Our January 2020 column will discuss the leading drivers of change for 2020, the first year of the new [...]
Question: I’ve used workforce management (WFM) in a contact center, but now I’m managing a back-office team. Can I use WFM here too? Answer: WFM solutions can help back-office (and branch) organizations optimize employee utilization, however these environments require applications that are purpose-built to address their unique needs. First of all, back-office WFM suites need [...]
Question: Is voice biometrics used only for live-agent interactions or does it work with intelligent virtual agents too? Answer: Voice biometrics can provide authentication for interactions that take place with humans as well as with intelligent virtual agents (IVAs). Voice biometrics and IVAs are complementary solutions that deliver enhanced and additional benefits when used in [...]
A Channel is a Channel Headlines shout the power and benefits of the newest “servicing” channels – one day it is social media and the next it is chat. In fact, no single channel is more important than another. What matters is that customers, prospects, partners, and everyone else receives a response in their channel [...]
Making RPA Positive for Employees Robotic process automation (RPA) is a logical approach for companies to take in order to improve productivity and quality. The three primary categories of RPA solutions are: Attended – the ability to “sit side-by-side” with an agent or employee at their desktop application and assist them with their tasks, such [...]
Question: I’ve heard of speech analytics to analyze phone calls; what’s used for the new digital channels? Answer: Interaction analytics (IA), which combines speech and text analytics capabilities, enables enterprises to gain insights from both voice and digital channels. IA solutions convert unstructured recorded and/or live-stream audio and digital customer conversations into transcripts. Once transcribed, [...]
Digital Transformation Initiatives for Contact Centers In contact centers, digital transformation is often thought to mean converting from a multi-channel environment to omni-channel engagement, but it is so much more. While adding digital channels is a step in the right direction and a necessity for contact centers of all sizes, it is just the beginning [...]
