People who are cheerful and sound chipper on the phone are more successful as contact center agents. That’s a fact that is easy to understand. After all, wouldn’t you be happier as a consumer to interact with someone who sounded happy to speak with you? The problem is most people who work in call centers either field or make hundreds or even thousands of phone calls every day. Often, these calls are very similar in their pattern or scripting. This makes the work tedious ...

The middle of summer can seem slow no matter what industry you’re a part of. After the initial push of the independence Day holiday in the United States, summer slowly smolders for weeks on end until school starts again for children and people begin thinking ahead to the busy days of autumn and winter ahead. But what does that mid-year lull have to do with your work in the customer service industry? If your facility is like most, your call center strategies may noticeably ...

How often do your consumers call your center only to be greeted by long wait times or worse - an automated recording letting them know that you are unavailable during non-business hours? Nothing upsets the modern customer like not being able to handle their business when and where they need to. If you want your business to be the kind that captures and holds consumer attention - and satisfies their needs - you should consider extended contact center hours of operation. What ...

Your call center agents are the lifeblood of your facility. It’s only natural that you depend heavily on them for the work they provide. However, there’s a difference in appreciating their hard work and overworking your agents to the point of burnout. Here, we’ll explain how to find the balance to create an appropriate call center agent workload and how to keep your agents from becoming overwhelmed. You might be surprised at just how much control your management team a...

Most contact center managers understand the benefits of adding remote call center agents to their staff. However, knowing where to draw the line between enough and too many remote team members can be tricky. You still need enough people in on-site seats every day to handle customer service tasks that are too difficult to manage off-site. Here, we’ll help you decide how many of your agents should be remote and just how heavily you should be leaning on outsourcing agents as ...

As a call center team leader or manager, you take pride in your facility and staff. You undoubtedly have a hardworking team that does a great job in serving customers and clients every day. Right now, you can probably think of a few people, in particular, who are worthy of praise for their excellent performance. But what about those at the other end of the spectrum? What about the members of your team who are struggling? What can be done to bring them up to speed - or are th...

Few metrics are as important to the quality of your contact center as your first call resolution rate. This is reflective of how often your agents are resolving consumer complaints or concerns within the first contact with the customer. Unfortunately, many call centers have issues keeping their resolution rate under control. A low first call resolution rate can mean low productivity and profitability. Your customer satisfaction rate will also experience a major slump if your...

When it comes to call center agent scripting, most management-level employees understand that words have a lot of power. What you say to your consumers can make the difference in closing a sale or losing it, or determine whether your caller will be satisfied with the level of service they receive or not. However, sometimes what your agents don’t say is just as important as what they do say. This is something that is often overlooked when it comes to generating scripts, but...

Artificial intelligence may sound like something out of a science fiction movie, but it is actually a commonly-used tool in today’s contact center. However, call center AI is different than what you might expect when you hear the term. Here, we’ll give you an in-depth look at what call center AI entails and what applications you could be using it for. Don’t miss out on the many uses for this technology - read on to learn more! Call Center AI: Your Powerhouse Behind th...

If your facility is like most, you’re always working on solutions for handling call center peak seasons. However, you may not yet be in the frame of mind to prepare for the holiday rush. After all, it’s still August! Something you may not have considered, though, is that the best-prepared contact centers use the entire calendar to prepare for the holiday season. Before the first leaves of autumn reach the ground or the first snows of winter fall, make sure your contact c...