SERVICE AGILITY

Originally published in Contact Center Pipeline, August 2017

OK, let’s set the ground rules.  We are interested in defining contact center technology that is worth following in 2018.  That doesn’t mean we want things that customers expect you to have today (hello, text...

Originally published in Contact Center Pipeline, September 2017.

Skills-based Routing (SBR) is a feature found on any ACD today, and it’s been around for over 30 years.  It is so common, in fact, that it’s become an afterthought when purchasing a contact center phone sy...

Originally published in Contact Center Pipeline, June 2015

Summer in the northern hemisphere is just about here, and that means warm weather, vacations and the opportunity to enjoy the great outdoors.  For those of us running contact centers, it also means that budgetin...

Originally published in Contact Center Pipeline, May 2012

Have you ever picked up the phone to call a business, all the while thinking "I sure hope they are unable to handle my issue during this call and I need to call them back at least once to get this resolved"?  Of...

Originally published in The Contact Center Pipeline, October 2016 

My flight just got cancelled, and I have to make it home tonight to attend my daughter’s holiday dance recital.  Or maybe, after 17 years of paying premiums, I have to file my first claim.  Or, maybe my...

Originally published in Contact Center Pipeline, August 2016  

One of the best things to happen to the contact center in the last 10 to 15 years is the attention placed on customer feedback.  Surveying customers used to be an informal activity done by a small minor...

Originally published in the Contact Center Pipeline, September 2014  

“Well, you know, it is a call center.”  That phrase always seems to be uttered at some point when discussing turnover at a contact center.  It suggests a certain resignation to a situation that i...

Originally published in Contact Center Pipeline, February 2015 

If by chance you are unfamiliar with the phrase Net Promoter Score (NPS), it is a way of scoring customer loyalty based on the customer’s 0-10 rating on the question “how likely is it that you would recomme...

Originally published in Contact Center Pipeline, May 2015 

X% answered in y seconds.  That’s the formula we use for service level calculations in contact centers.  It can (and often should) be used to set objectives for any channel, but is most commonly utilized for inb...

Originally published in Contact Center Pipeline, May 2011 

The next time you are at an industry event, seek out  some people that have worked in both large and small contact centers.  The discussion will likely be dominated by those things that are different about the t...